Once again time has slipped away...I was able to get the engine put back together...so much easier than taking it apart! Everything went back into place without any hiccups. But Margaret and I were out there this past weekend for a bit. I re-timed the engine, put the plugs back in and we tried her, of course as my luck would have it nothing. Margaret had talked with her dad and brother when her brother was here visiting a couple of weeks ago. Doug came up with the conclusion that the exhaust might be clogged making it so the engine couldn't breathe. I'm working on trying to loosen the bolts that hold the exhaust to the manifold. At first I was a bit skeptical about the idea because the last owner said he had replaced the exhaust...but then realized that he probably didn't check everything above where he welded in the new exhaust. So we'll see...hopefully I'll be able to remove the bolts in the next couple of days. But in the mean time I'm going to move onto working underneath her.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

So on Sunday Margaret agreed to help me with Diane...all we needed to do was replace the gasket in the middle of the engine between the cylinders and rocker arm assembly. Sounded easy. I knew it would be a pain, because the rocker arm assembly, is very heavy, covered in grease, and awkwardly shapped. But we thought we could handle it. So we started and were able to pull the rocker arm up and remove the old gasket without too many issues. We felt good, we were able to get it out in just a couple of minutes. We talked for a couple of minutes on how we could get the new gasket in and thought we had a good plan. First I would lift the rocker arm assembly onto the part where the radiator flows into the engine then I would lift from the rear so Margaret could slide the new gasket into place. In theory it sounded great, but in actuality not so good. We were able to get the new gasket slid into place but when I went to return the rocker arm assembly it pushed the gasket back. We tried this a few times and realized we weren't getting anywhere. We decided to try "plan B", I would basically try to lift the whole rocker arm straight up and hold it while Margaret put the gasket into place, then I would gently put the rocker arm back into place. Only when I was holding the rocker arm up about an inch or so above the engine, it slipped out of my hand and smashed Margaret's hand. She jumped back and I saw the blood...I thought the worst. When we got inside Margaret said she thought she had possibly broken her fingers. We decided to go to the ED, where she was taken back and they took X-rays...luckily nothing was broken! They put a splint on her finger and gave her a prescription for some muscle relaxers/pain medication. When we got home from the ED and picking up her prescription she said we needed to finish up the engine, that it needed to be done. So we went back out and I was able to lift the rocker arm up just long enough for her to get the gasket into place and I set it back down. We might have been off by a 1/16" but it was close enough for me! So now I just need to finish replacing all of the gaskets and then tighten all of the bolts to spec., reinstall everything and hope we were successful.

Oops!

So I had a little accident, I was trying to time the engine by myself which I have done in the past without any problems but low and behold this time I did. I was using a bamboo stick in my first cylinder to help me realize the placement of the piston, when as I was cranking it the stick got stuck and snapped. Oh shit! Needless to say there wasn't any way to get it out... I tried. So long story short... after freaking out for a couple of days I decided to take the engine apart (which has actually been easier than I thought it was going to be). Granted I did make a big mess when I disconnected the hose to the radiator. I'm glad I did take the engine apart though, the bamboo stick broke into a few small pieces, and I found a bunch of gunk piled up inside. Margaret and I ran to Chevs of the 40's to get a new set of gaskets for the engine when I put it back together. Hopefully we'll get a chance tomorrow or Monday to replace all of the gaskets and get the engine put back together. Then maybe even start it up?!

The New Distributor

So after much pain and agony! I was able to get the new distributor to fit. I had to run all over town to find a new nut and bolt set that would fit to replace the one I had to cut in half. The set is used to hold on a clamp with a plate off of it to hold the distributor down. Needless to say though, I think I got it in the right spot and it's all hooked up and ready to be fired!

Well we tried it....no luck. But there is a big spark now...so I just need to go through and retime the engine and try it again.

Bought the New Distributor

Picked up the "new" rebuilt distributor yesterday from Dan's Classic, in Portland. The distributor came in a box sealed inside of some thick plastic and it came with a new cap and rotor as well. Maybe it's a sign things are going to work!! This morning I removed the old distributor and now I'm working on removing the vacuum advance clip. Once I get it removed I should be able to transfer it over to the new distributor and then put the new distributor in and maybe I'll get lucky and won't need to re-time the engine. If so it shouldn't be too hard this time around since I have the hand crank for the engine now.

Not the Carb

So I got the carburetor rebuilt without too many hiccups. Rob came up on Friday afternoon to help me with Diane again, and we tried to get her to start, with of course, no luck. Let me just say I'm getting very frustrated! We tried messing with the timing of the distributor again and even tried flipping the wires 180 degrees. Nothing... then we tried testing the spark again...come to find out the spark has diminished to just about nothing again after the distributor. So I'm going to have to buy a new distributor and hope it'll fix all of my problems. Once I purchase it I'll have to retime the engine and then keep my fingers crossed as I step on the starter.

Carburetor Progress

I decided to rebuild the carburetor. Something I've never done or even thought of doing before, but have a feeling it might be the answer to all of my issues with Diane starting. Here's a couple of before pictures. I'm hoping that my suspicions are correct.

So I have completely dismantled the carburetor and begun to clean it all up. What a pain! Luckily it's a fairly simple thus far. There is a ton of carbon build up inside. Most of it is cleaning up fairly well though. I'm hoping to have it rebuilt and reinstalled either tomorrow or on Monday so I can try to fire her, Diane, up.

Well I got the carb. rebuilt today. Not too many hiccups. Replaced most everything inside and resealed all of the new gaskets and put anti seize on the bolts. I get it reattached tomorrow and try to start Diane again. Unfortunately it started to rain tonight and got chilly outside too fast for me to get it done tonight.

Some progress

It's been a few weeks since I've posted again. Between the hot weather and just being busy I haven't worked on Diane too much lately. But since I have had her for just over 6 months now I thought I should do a progress report. In the last 6 months I really have done a lot, even though she doesn't look like I have. First I guess I was able to remove the wheels without breaking or slicing off any of the nuts, and have put her up on blocks in the garage. I have replaced basically everything electrical in the engine bay, from the battery, cables, plugs, points, starter, and coil. I have gotten most of the major dents out of her, and have removed most of the trim, except for the couple of stubborn pieces. I've emptied the gas tank twice trying to remove any built up debris. Both side windows have also been removed, along with the steering wheel to help me gain access to the underside of the dash.

I know there are still a couple of things I'm missing from the list but, so far that really looks like I've done a fair amount. I realize that I have a much, much longer road ahead but at least I have a decent start. Thankfully I have a wife that is very accepting of how long it's going to take to rebuild Diane.

My current projects are working on rebuilding the carburetor, and removing the remaining trim ( the front grill, front window trim, and passenger side door handle). Then I'm not sure of exactly what I'll do next. If rebuilding the carb gets it so I can start Diane, then I'll probably purchase a newly converted generator, and then maybe start on converting the breaks so I can drive her onto a trailer to take her to get washed. If rebuilding the carb doesn't work then I'm thinking I might need to break down and by a new one and go from there. Although I'm sure it's fairly obvious I have a lot of work ahead of me. I'm going to try to get back into writing everything as it's happening unlike I've done here for the past couple of months.

I haven't worked on Diane too much during the past month, execpt for the occasional 10-15 minute interval here or there, where I continue to work on removing the trim. We've just had some many other things pop up...such as building a new deck in the back yard, a couple of painting projects, and helping our neighbor out with his truck, or the fact that it's been in the upper 90's to low 100's for the past 2 weeks, etc., etc.. But without fail I want to have the rest of the trim off by the end of the weekend. I really only have a few pieces left...the emblems, the grill, windshield trim, and the passenger door handle assembly. I think it should be managable, as long as it's not too hot.

Still haven't gotten the grill or the front window trim all the way off yet...hopefully it'll come though. I have been able to get most of the major dents out of the front fenders with the tools I had to buy! It sure is nice to be able to see some progress. I'm going to continue working on the trim this weekend to see if I can make any more progress.

So it's been awhile since I last posted... Diane is still about the same. I've been working on the timing still to see if she'll start, but of course I haven't had any luck yet. Since the engine is not cooperating with me I've been working on the trim, which for the most part has come off pretty easily except around the front window, and one of the bolts on the front grill. Another piece that's been giving me trouble is the passenger door handle and lock... my books make it look simple but after sitting for 59 years things are definitely a little bit more difficult.

I've come to the conclusion that I may just need to forget about getting her to start until I get everything else done. Which means I could go ahead and pull the engine and start on some of the body work. Since I don't have my fuel lines hooked up I decided to drain the gas tank again, only this time when I opened up the line nothing came out, so I had to dismantle it from the bottom of the tank in order to get it to flow.

New Coil

I went to Chevs of the 40's and purchased the new coil and installed it the other day.I was Finally able to get the spark I've been looking for! It's easily jumping 1/4" and its not intermittent like before. Margaret and I tried to start her, but nothing. I tried messing around with the choke thinking it might need to be adjusted but it didn't help. I'm thinking there might still be something wrong with the timing or my gaping. Next chance I get to work on her I'm going to continue adjusting her timing to see if it's still off a bit. Hopefully once I adjust it a bit she'll catch and all of my worries will be gone. If that doesn't work I'm at a loss... I've would have replaced everything within the ignition system. It that's the case then I'll pull the engine and let a professional look at it and try to fix her, so I can move onto other projects that need to be completed.

On a positive note though...I finally was able to cut the tacky turn signals off of the front fenders. After breaking one hacksaw, buying another, and lots of sweat...they both came off. She looks so much smoother already! Next to come off is her grill. Then I need to work on taking out the rest of her windows and continue to clean her up a bit so I can take her somewhere to get her power washed.

Compression

Rob came over yesterday afternoon to help me out. We tested the compression since Lydon, the original owners son, told us he thought the heads were going to need to be worked. Thankfully though, the compression was between 120 to 126 through all 6 cylinders. The normal is between 110 to 130psi. Since I'm within range I know that I'm not going to need to rebuild the engine to get her to start. But with the good comes the bad...we tried starting her again yesterday and nothing. Rob and I checked for spark again and it's there but not very strong... I asked Rob if he thought it might be the coil, since even checking the spark at the coil it isn't very strong. He said possibly, but he definitely thinks something is wrong within the ignition system. I guess my next step is to replace the coil, cross my fingers and hope she starts!

We pulled the valve cover off and looked at the timing again. While hand cranking the engine to check the valves for their timing we also looked at the flywheel to see if we could find the mark that would help to verify we were in the right spot. But with all of the rust on the wheel we couldn't make it out, so I'm going to have to figure out a way to clean the rust off so I can hopefully find the mark on the wheel to line it up with the pointer on the housing.

No More Trim

She's starting to look naked! I'm working on removing all of the trim and windows. So far so good, not too many hickups! As soon as I have the trim removed I'm going to work on removing the windows, and then maybe start on some body work. I've also been on the lookout for some cheap tires for my spare rims I picked up. I'm hoping to then start on the brakes so I can roll her out of the garage without having to worry about her rolling into the neighbors house across the street.

I figure once I can roll her out of the garage I can take her to the car wash to use the pressure wash to clean her up a bit. Once she's clean then I can look into getting her media/sand blasted to see how bad the rust really is.

There is a Heart Beat!!

After adjusting the timing for the past week or so, I think I've got it just about right. The black lines just below the distributor show how far I had to adjust the timing before I could get any reaction from the engine. Margaret and I have been trying it, and last night when we tried to turn over Diane and she backfired. Not necessarily from the exhaust but there was a big bang and a plume that came back from the carburetor. Needless to say it made me jump back a little bit since my hand was over the carb. When I jumped poor Margaret jumped too from inside the truck. Once we both had realized what happened, we tried to use gas instead of the starter fluid I had been using. We poured some gas into the funnel/hose that I had set up, which is hooked up to the fuel intake into the carb. We tried it again and nothing. I tried adjusting it again thinking that maybe it had moved with the backfire...but of course I was unsuccessful. I talked to Rob about the carb backfiring and he thinks there might not be any compression in the engine. He said it that was the case then I would most likely either need to get a new engine or have this one rebuilt.

Once again being frustrated I have moved on to other things while I try to calm down from realizing I may need to have the engine rebuilt. I was finally able to remove the driver side window and frame, as well as the door handle, latch plate, and trim around the window. Even with the trim removed I think my two girls are ready for a drive!

Almost Ready to Start

I haven't worked on Diane in a few days because I feel like I've been at a loss for what to do with the coil and engine not starting. Thankfully Rob came over on Sunday and was able to help me trouble shoot my problems. First off he explained that I should run a wire straight from the battery to the coil and bypass attaching it to the starter like it had originally been. He was saying that the starter was pulling a lot of the amperage from the battery and not letting it go to the coil. Then after looking inside the distributor cap he saw that I had incorrectly gaped my points....making it so they wouldn't close the circuit when I was trying to start the engine.

I disconnected the wire I had running from the starter to the coil and replaced it with a wire from the coil to a positive connection to the battery. I set it up so the end that connects to the battery is easily detachable. I did this by crimping a loop butt to the end, then sliding that onto a screw with a nut and lock washer. I tightened the nut and was able to slide it into the positive battery port. This way when I pull it out the coil won't be draining the battery and then when it's in the coil will have power.

Next we tackled the gap of the points. When I had originally gaped them I hadn't accounted for the peaks and flat spots so when I had gaped them at .022", it was at one of the flat spots which should be a closed circuit and then when the peak was reached the gap was much further. Rob and I fixed it after a few minutes and then tried the to start her. She wanted to but the timing was off. Rob suggested that I work on adjusting the distributor to fine tune the timing.

Since I like to be able to see some progress as I go, I have been working on removing some body parts that will eventually need to be removed anyways. I started by removing the driver side door handle as well as the window, and latch plate. After a lot of work, having to drill out several screws, and lots of WD-40 everything came out. I had to break the plate the glass would normally sit in so I could remove the window frame. Then I removed the chrome trim from around the outside of the window. I have also removed the trim around the headlights and the headlights from their locations in the fenders. Needless to say Diane is starting to look rather plain!

Once again I am stumped... I adjusted the points and have tried to get a spark but still don't have any. My only other thought is that the coil is bad. I did have it tested at Autozone, but I'm not sure the results they came up with were right. They tested it, then looked at a book to see if it was within range, but I'm not convinced, first because I think their results were for the original 6 volt coil, and I have a newer 12 volt coil. Since the coil is the only thing I haven't yet replaced that is needed to start the engine, I'm going to replace it. My hope is that once I have it replaced the engine will start right up.

On a side note, since we still don't have Diane titled in our names because of difficulties with the Oregon DMV, we have been on the lookout for the next of kin to the original owner. This past weekend we found him. Lydon, Paul's son lives down near Milwaukie and has agreed to help us out with some of the paperwork we need. He told Margaret a lot of information about the truck, including the fact the engine really wasn't doing all that well when they last used her. He said that he knew they should have done some work to the engine to help preserve it a bit before parking her for good.

Distributor Drama

I went and purchased new points today to replace the set up inside the distributor. The points were basically the last thing I could replace. I pulled off the cap and rotor, then removed the old points. I installed the new ones, and put in another new condenser, reinstalled the rotor and then cap. I went and tried to start her and still nothing, but when I went and looked at the engine in frustration, I saw smoke coming up from the resistor that I had installed a few days ago. After asking some questions on Stovebolt, I found out that I must have installed the points incorrectly. Apparently I had installed them so they created a closed circuit and weren't opening and closing like they should.

A couple of guys on stovebolt explained how to fix it. They told me that I should adjust the spacing of the points, that they should be set at 18 thousandths of an inch. Once I had adjusted the spacing I should check for spark, they told me a nice easy way of doing this while keeping the cap off of the distributor, and without having to climb into the truck to try to start it. First by removing a spark plug and it's wire, then attaching the other end of the wire to the coil, where the coil is normally connected to the cap of the distributor. Then using a screw driver to open and close the points, I should eventually see a spark at the end of the spark plug. If I don't then my wiring is incorrect somewhere.

Up On Blocks

So after doing some research at the car "cemetary" across the street I came to the conclusion that I had the wrong rotor on the distributor. I happened to grab one while I was there and tried it on Diane when I got home, it fit like a glove. The gap I had previously seen with my old rotor was no longer there, and I noticed that the new rotor actually touched the top of the cap. With the correct, or so I'm assuming, rotor in I tried to start it up again. Still no luck, but I wasn't able to check and see if there was a spark or not so I don't know if I'm getting a closed circuit now or not. I'm thinking that I'm going to purchase a new rotor of the same size I happened to find at the cemetary. If that doesn't work then I might try replacing the condenser.

Since I couldn't test the spark last night, I decided to move on to a project I could complete. I decided to put her up on blocks since the poor old tires weren't holding air too well. When we picked up Diane, she had been parked out in the field without anyone messing with her too much so her tires were able to hold air without any problem. Before I put her on blocks though I had to remove the old tires and wheels. After soaking them multiple times with Liquid Wrench and WD-40, I was able to penetrate the rust. With a little persuasion from an impact wrench the bolts started coming loose. Once the bolts were loose I lifted the front end up onto jack stands and removed the tires. Needless to say I feel much better now about leaning on her, before I felt like she was going to try to roll away every time I leaned on her.

Adjusting the Timing

I have finally gotten the time to remove the old ground cable and install the new one. What a difference! The new one looks great. I'm hoping that once I have the timing figured out, the new ground cable will give me a better circuit to run from.

With the new ground cable on I have turned back to the timing. I think I've figured the timing out. I pulled the valve cover off, and removed the plugs, then figured out a way to advance the engine with a hand crank. After rotating it around a few times, I figured out the sequence of the valves and pistons. From the information I received from Stovebolt.com, I adjusted the timing so that both of the valves on the first piston were up, while the piston was also up. I reconnected everything, tried it and of course no luck. I took everything apart again and pulled out the distributor as well to see if the timing was off by a rotation. I advanced the engine to verify the timing was correct and rotated the distributor 1 time. I reinstalled everything again and tried to start it one more time. No luck, it was still sounding like it wasn't getting any gas. I poured a little into the carburetor bowl to see if that would help. Still no luck. Since I was getting a little frustrated with taking everything apart and putting it back together, I decided to test for spark again, the spark is still good at the coil, I am able to jump about a 1/4", but still nothing at the plugs. I removed the coil and took it in to get tested, everything came back within normal range.

Since everything came back normal, I'm beginning to think that maybe its the distributor or the rotor that is not correct. The gap from the rotor to the points is close to 3/8", quite far when I am only able to get 1/4" jump from the coil. I'm also beginning to wonder if it might be the condenser after asking on Stovebolt again. My next step is to talk to Chev's of the 40's to get their opinion about the gap and condenser.

Engine Schematics

While searching online for schematics for engine wiring, I found a forum on Stovebolt.com, a website dedicated to older Chevy engine's like mine. I asked some questions and was told the firing order for the plugs, 153624, and they, a couple of people that answered my questions on the forum, explained the timing for the starter as well. I have checked the plug wires and they are correct, or at least I am assuming they are. On the engine block they are done correctly, but I don't know where to start on the cap. After trying several locations, I decide it may not matter, and that I could try other things while I continue the search for the starting position on the cap.

In the mean time I disconnected the wire that goes from the starter to the ignition switch, then back down to the coil. I replaced it with a wire from the starter to the coil, to see if the wire coming back from the ignition was bad, since it looked fairly frayed. The engine still won't turn over. I've checked the coil for spark, and now that I've replaced the wire from the starter...it is much stronger, but I still don't see anything at the plugs. Since the sleeve that the coil sits in is missing one of the bolts, I am wondering if it isn't making a ground or if it even needs too.

Since I'm at a loss for ideas for now, I've decided that I want to move onto other things that I can accomplish without too much difficulty. I'm reinstalling the ignition switch under the dash. Working on removing the wheels, so I can get them cleaned up or install new ones. I'm also replacing the ground cable from the engine to the frame. Last on my list before I ask Rob for more advice is to reinstall the coil and sleeve with the new bolts I have picked up to see if that helps.

Checking the Spark

Rob came over yesterday to help me trouble shoot the non starting engine on Diane. While looking things over he saw that the 12 volt to 6 volt reducer wasn't needed to start the engine, and said it might even be the reason it wasn't turning over. While looking at the coil he noticed it said it needed a 12 volt resistor. I also asked him about the fuel pump because it sounded like it wasn't getting any fuel up to it. He suggested that it might just need a new gasket, so it would make a tight seal. He said not to worry too much about that right now, that we could just bypass the whole thing and run gas right into the carburetor with a pipe and gravity. Rob also thought it would be a good idea to get a battery charger and replace some of the old rotten wires.

We headed to the store to buy the resistor, wire, battery charger, and some hose clamps. When we got back to the house we removed the reducer and replaced it with the resistor. We rewired the line from the coil to the resistor, and checked all of the plug connections. We reconnected the battery and tested the line from the coil for spark. There was some, not a lot and not very strong, but there was a spark. Rob had to leave to head back down to Salem, and wanted to beat the traffic.

Before Margaret left for work, she helped me and we tried to start Diane again, with no luck. I talked to Rob, and he said it could still be any number of things like, the timing, the wires not in the right place, the coil, since there was such a small spark. Today I am going to look for schematics on the wiring of the cap and plugs, as well as trying to figure out the timing of "Diane".

Starter Drama

I dragged Margaret to the Auto Swap Meet in Portland this weekend. It was neat but really just a chance for a bunch of people to get together drink beer and sell their parts and misc. other junk. But there were some really cool looking old cars and trucks that I was able to look at to get some good ideas for mine. I did meet up with the owner of Chevs of the 40's, Bill, who gave me a bunch of insight on how to move forward with my truck. I talked to him about my truck not starting and wanting to keep it as original as possible but still converting to 12 volt. He told me I could keep the 6 volt starter and have to replace it every few years and run an alternator unless I could find someone capable of wiring a starter and generator to 12 volt.


When we left the Swap Meet, I removed the old starter, at left, went to Chevs of the 40's and purchased a rebuilt starter. Then went home and installed it. Reconnected the battery cables and tried to start the truck. A small little grrr, then nothing. I tested the connections with my voltmeter. Everything said it was fine, but when I had Margaret try starting the truck every connection would drop from 12.4 volts to .3 volts. So I knew something was wrong. After some swearing and what not I decided to go to buy new battery cables. I also thought it would be a good idea to take the battery too since I haven't been able to charge it in the truck with all of the cranking I've been doing. Of course when I get the battery tested and it only has 81 cold cranking amps, when it should be closer to 500 +. Needless to say I was glad I took it, they charged it up for me and I took it and new cables home. I was able to reinstall the positive battery cable without too much trouble, but the negative cable was next to impossible to take off the frame. The bolt holding the wire on the frame was more or less welded tight with rust. After lots of WD-40 and Liquid Wrench, the use of Vise Grips and a socket on the other side I was able to twist it apart, in half that is. I connected the new negative battery cable to the frame and then to the battery. I started the truck and the new starter spun with such force, but yet still not able to turn the engine over. It still wasn't getting any gas. I decided to call it a night so I could cool down and rethink my next step.


While rethinking my next step, I wanted to come up with a name for the truck, since "the truck" just doesn't cut it. So Margaret and I came up with a name for her. Since most of the boats that Rob, Margaret's father, owns have been named after women in the family, I've decided to name my truck Diane. My mom's middle name.

Since we picked out the trucks name I could move on to thinking about my next step. I'm thinking I'm going to test for a spark, then see about running fuel straight to the carb, to see if that might let me start the truck and once it has started then the fuel pump will start working.

The "New" Truck

Since I am starting this blog a couple of weeks after getting my dream truck I guess I should get everyone caught up on what's been going on thus far. I came home from a meeting at work on my birthday to open the garage and see a 1950 5 window Chevy pickup that I had dragged Margaret to see a few weeks earlier. I had seen an ad on Craigslist for the truck, it was just sitting out in a huge yard, covered in surface rust. The ad said it it was running and that the guy had purchased it from the original owner. It also said that it came with the original title and over $2000 worth of parts. I dragged Margaret down to Happy Valley, southeast of Portland a couple of days after seeing the ad. When we were there I told Margaret it was the truck I had always wanted. After drooling over it for almost an hour we left and I had all but talked myself out of it on the way home. Saying it would be too expensive to restore and that we just don't have the space to store it or the resources to restore it. When we got home I tossed everything into the recycle bin. Although the truck has been my dream since I was at least 4 or 5 years old I just couldn't bring myself to begging Margaret for it. Luckily I have a wife that loves me because I didn't need to beg. Apparently Margaret grabbed all of the paperwork I had tossed and called up Dave, the owner of the truck, and told him she was going to purchase the truck for me for my birthday, and had asked him to be patient with her while she set everything up. So during the next few weeks she had been secretly going down to his place to pick up parts and store them in our neighbors garage and set up getting the truck up here to our house. Needless to say I was totally surprised when I showed up and saw my dream sitting in the garage. When I got out of the car after driving up about the only thing I could do was scratch my head, in total disbelief...Margaret had pulled it over on me and given me the truck of my dreams!

Later that afternoon, we went and bought a 6 volt battery and tried it out, with no luck. It didn't even sound like it was getting any juice to the starter. After some head scratching and swearing, I noticed that the coil was a 12 volt. So I exchanged the 6 volt for a 12 volt. I dropped the new battery in and we tried turning the key again. It now had the juice to get the starter going but it just wouldn't turn over.

It just didn't sound like it was getting any gas. I picked up some starter fluid to see if I could get it started that way. No luck. Then after some more brain storming with Margaret and my neighbor, Kevin, we came to the conclusion that I needed to be able to turn the ignition to allow current to flow through everything. Since I didn't have a key I had to disconnect everything attached to the ignition and bolt it all together to close the circuit. Still the engine wouldn't turn over.

While all of this has been going on, when I get too frustrated with the engine and starter, I've been working on other small projects that need to be worked on, such as getting both the cowl vent and left side vent to open again. Since the driver side window was shattered I've removed the glass and am working on removing the rust welded bolts that are holding the frame to the window shelf. I've cleaned out the glove box compartment, found some 1940's pennies, and some plastic pieces that I need to clean up to figure out what they are exactly. I've been working on removing the aftermarket turn signals from the front fenders, without much luck since they have been rust welded on as well.
I pulled the starter out to replace the starter switch, but found that the screws were stripped and stuck. Luckily with a little work and some Vise grips, I was able to loosen the screws and remove them. Once I had the old switch out I could easily see why the starter only worked intermittently...there was so much corrosion and wear on the copper plates that there was barely any contact when the switch was depressed. Now that I had removed the old switch I had to find new screws that would fit in the existing holes, so I could install the new switch.

After reinstalling the starter I tried to start the truck again. Once again, it sounded like it wanted to start but wasn't getting any gas, then the starter sounded like it was dying...until after a few tries, it did die. I removed it again, and have taken it to several auto parts shops, like Baxter, Autozone, and Parts for Less, to see about getting it tested to see if it really is dead. Since it is from such an old truck, there isn't really a good way to test it, but two of them say it is dead and it's time for a new one.

That about sums up what's been going on with my new truck for the past couple of weeks. Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to figure out what's going on with the starter so I can actually start it and see what else might need to be done.