Hey guys, Arrow here...There's a new truck in the family, and her name is Bonnie. I'll get some pics up soon!

 

What website should I use to post pic? Here some from the hard drive as attachments!

 

Her first photo shoot!

 

Nice truck.


I use photobucket, it's pretty simple and free.

 

Now that I got some media content up, a little back story...found Bonnie for sale for $1400 firm with the campershell; She had been parked out for a stretch and had also obviously been repaired from a front end collision. The owner had cleaned out the tank and replaced the fuel pump. All in all, a good looking, acceptably running truck, 2/3 of the way to 200k miles.

The crank pulley is bent; The core has been welded back together; The fenders are repainted; The grill/bumper/valence have been replaced; bumpers and valence painted black (looks good!); Runs okay...needs just about everything gone through in the engine bay. Bad shocks...you guys get it...

So try and talk the guy down but not happenin', but he seamed to know what he was doing and seamed to be willing to continue fixing the truck before he sold it but that he was firm on the price. It had some wiring issues (the tail/running lights were blowing fuses and there wires nuts and random wires all over the truck...well...not to bad.) and general driveability issues, that he said he was working on.

So, I like truck and take a week or so to collect the funds. When I get back it is mostly unchanged save the, wire-tuck-on-some-shiet-that-was-hanging-under-cab-with-exposed-wire-using-wire-nuts-that-I-pointed-out-the-last-time...shiet and replacing the fuses...get the tuck and proceed to drive the piss out of it, replace lots of oil/fuel filter/fuel lines/more fuel filters and some ignition equipment. She drives fine other then needing a fuel filter every few days; Then, one day on the highway, the timing tripped out at 73mph in 5th gear...back fires then dead, pull over, crank and gas takes about 1.5min to start again....timings all wrong now, limp home.

Having run her up Mt. Lemmon (to an elevation of about 8,700ft) and rallied out Reddington Pass, for camping trips, Bonnie thought she was pretty reliable...but now (after the highway incident) shes having lots more problems surface.

Got her back to daily drivable but now she leaks oil (kinda a lot), black smoke, bad mpg, backfires, can't dial in the timing, can't get carb adjusted right (noticed that one of the the adjustment screws is blocked w/ a plug), and misfires.

I'm going to put up a list of things that have been done and a better explination of details along with pics and videos of the issues we're having. This was more or less a venting post...but yeah, Bonnie isn't happy.

 

Cool story. Good luck. I was waiting to see Bonnie. I use tinypic.com you don't even need an account just upload pics and get the link.

 

Oh, Cool! Thanks guys for the suggestions! @Mikerocosms what is the lifespan with tinypic.com? If I upload with the attachment (as I have) it won't disapear in old threads (right?), but with a site like the above two mentioned, they will not last forever? I always see in old threads that the pics have died...

I hoped that dropbox would work cuz I got dat already...I'll look in to those and do some investigation on the topic.

 

Not sure on the lifespan. Although many of the threads that I've read here with missing pics are from photobucket. Either way I keep all my pics in a folder so if I need to reupload them I can.

 

Most def...thread maintenance, word. Thanks for the help! Where in NM are you? I was born in Clovis.

 

errr...

 

City of Crosses. I assume your in Tucson. My sister lives there. I try and visit at least once or twice a year. I like that city.

 

Yep Tucson, should hit me up if you're in town.

 

So the hydraulic fluid in this truck is prolly 10 years old and I've been flushing them repeatedly, and I'm not sure if I've introduced lots of air into the system, or if I exposed an air leak; But the pedal goes all the way to the floor now before it stops (pump a few times its firm...its got to be air), but only if the truck is running...with the motor off it feels firm...could this be a problem with the booster?

 

Also, sometimes, if i let off the gas and go straight for the brakes (when the vacuum is still low) it feels firm...

 

Sounds to me you have air in the line. If it's been sitting for that long it may be the master not the booster. How did you flush the lines? How I would flush is open all 5 bleeding valves and take the 2 line off the master and blow it out with air checking that all bleeders have air coming out. And then drain the little tank the hook it all back up and bleed starting at the back driver the back right the. Front right the. Front left then the one over back axel.

I had to replace my master for the same thing and I picked up a new one for 50$ out the door.

 

List of things done to get bonnie back on the road (parked out for a few years):

(Previous Owner)
Clean out gas tank
New fuel pump
"Adjust a tight/stuck valve" I believe is what he said (I hear a surprisingly low amount of valve chatter, considering how loud R-series valvetrains are)

So at first I:
Changed fluids (motor, tranny, dif)
Oil filter
Spark plugs
Wires
Cap
Rotor
PCV valve
Air filter
Fuel filter
Fuel lines

Then I just drove it (hard) a bunch, all over the place. It would need a new fuel filter often and I had to blow out the fuel lines a few times. Then on the freeway, at 73ish mph, it seemed to fuel starve and not have any power...timing tripped out, backfired super loud and died.

I can't get it timed or the carb adjusted right, and it puffs (black mostly w/ some white) smoke and sounds all cammed out (mostly before at normal operating temp) like its just way to rich and/or timed wrong, shift backfires and on deccel...the crank pulley is bent (from an old front-end collision, I believe) so I'll start with replacing the crank pulley.

What else should I look in to?

 

Thanks Niceandeasy! It took me awhile to figure out the bleeding order (the longest line first: BL,BR,FR,FL) ...On top of the axle is the splitter, and I also also heard that the LSPV should be bled...but must they be disconnected and individually bled?

 

If it were the master, how could I tell? I've bench bled and replaced masters before, but I could see the leak running down the booster (and the brakes didn't work at all).

Also I noticed that the back right drum is covered in gunk while the rest look clean, I thought maybe the wheel cylinder was leaking...but it seems okay and the brakes pump up and don't seem to lose fluid...so idk.

 

Probably an axle seal on the end of the housing. Quick way to find out if it's gear oil or brake fluid is to hit it with a hose. If it foams it's brake fluid, if not it's gear oil.


It sounds like your brake pedal issue is just low vacuum.

 

oh word, thanks White Trash!

It is having a vacuum issues...I bought a vacuum tester recently and have been meaning to find a really good vacuum diagram. I noticed that the vacuum to the distributor (closer to the grill) had low vacuum and others had higher reading... Also if you pull the vacuum line from the booster it will rev up and not die...I thought that it should die if it had that large of a vacuum leak...I think it's runnin' quite rich...

I wanna take it to the DIY car wash and pressure wash the engine bay and underpinnings. Haven't done this to the extent that I want to with this truck...any tips on sensitive things I should avoid would be helpful!