My second M715 build. What was I thinking?

I made a run for a Craigslist deal today after work. I got 3 starters for less than the cost of one remanufactured starter. One was a new old stock Delco (or was it Remy) starter, one was rebuilt /used good working condition and one was direct drive in unknown condition. I gave $120 for all three. The local NAPA here wanted ~$170 for a re manufactured one.

I put the reman/used starter on for now and took the dog to the river/park for a swim. The starter worked fine but when I got to the park I had almost no brakes again. I haven't gone through them yet and had only adjusted them them last time because I was trying to figure out if I wanted to re-line my shoes or do the Chevy conversion. I guess I'm doing the Chevy conversion this weekend because I can't continue driving it this way and I'm not going to wait for the existing shoes to be re-lined at this point.

The truck ran great though. It seems to like the warm weather much better than the cold.

Those gauges that I bought Saturday on Ebay just shipped today! That's a bit disappointing. They are scheduled to be here next Wednesday from Ny, Ny. For what they cost I'm not really expecting much but am hoping they will work at least for a while.

I didn't get much time today but I did start on my front brakes.

I'm afraid I may need to do some reading on brakes because this seemed too easy.

I read a thread that Blitz wrote here:
http://www.m715zone.com/vb/showthread.php?t=25336

He used #451 shoes so I stopped and picked those up on my way home from work yesterday. I went to Autozone and paid ~$29 per set. Blitz also recommended H122 springs but Autozone here doesn't stock them and would have to order them. I went without wondering if i would be able to re-use my originals. I was not.

I did not end up cutting the shoes to fit on the keystone looking piece. The shoes seem to fit the stud pretty well with that removed.

http://i1294.photobucket.com/albums/...psmz2pudid.jpg

I only got one front brake done today because I was short on time but it seems to work fine the way it is. The only modification I did to the shoe was to remove the notch on the bottom of each shoe that Blitz shows in his write up. I ended up using some springs I had in the stash of parts that was leftover from something. I forgot to write down the part number but they seems to fit perfectly as well. I'll try to remember to post the part number tomorrow.

I did use the Ford wheel cylinders because I had already purchased them before I saw the thread Kaiserman made showing a perfect fitting cylinder.

http://www.m715zone.com/vb/showthread.php?t=28832

Quote:

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Raybestos numbers for the cylinders are:

Left-WC9344
Right-WC9345

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Once I get the other front brake completed and take if for a test I'll report back on how it works.

Not sure why I couldn't get the correct link to Kaisermans thread.

http://www.m715zone.com/vb/showthread.php?t=28832

Looks like I won't be finishing the brakes this weekend. I can't find the return springs in stock locally. Everyone I tried would have to order them. I did get the NAPA part number of the two springs I had in my spare parts stash. The part number is 81233. As it turns out that number is a match to the Raybestos H122 springs. The NAPA package however does say "MADE IN USA".

I will adjust my stock brakes again and try it out I guess.

Wow, even Amazon is in short supply of those springs. I guess when they are back in stock I will buy enough to do two trucks.

I did adjust the brakes and took it for a test drive. It feels like I can stop on a dime now but I may have the rears adjusted a bit tight. When I was backing up I could hear a slight squeal but I'm going to let it go as is because I'm replacing everything as soon as I can get enough springs to complete the job.

But on my test drive I discovered a new problem. A fuel return line on an injector by the turbo is too close to the manifold and melted off. Now the unused fuel is just pumped directly onto the hot exhaust manifold.

I think I will try to turn the injector a bit to see if I can gain a bit more room for the return line. It must have been touching the manifold as it was. I'm certainly wondering why I didn't notice that when it was installed.

I hate it when that happens. Don't use a plastic zip tie, but bailing wire around the return line and an injector line should hold it clear.

Today I spent way longer than I anticipated turning the injector. I have the original 6.2 injectors in the engine so I had to remove all the exhaust manifold bolts on that side to gain enough room to fit a socket on the injector to turn it. At least the fuel return lines on all the injectors are now not touching the manifold anywhere.

I then moved on to installing the new gauges. They fit in the holes just fine. They look authentic enough for my liking. I only have a small complaint so far. I haven't actually tried them yet though. My first complaint is the manual oil pressure gauge is not a standard line size. I will need to figure out what I still need to make that work.

I also need to re-wire to make the amp meter work. I had converted to a volt meter already and don't remember what I cut in the dash when I did that. That won't be difficult though as long as I didn't remove the wire numbers from any wires.

Another update about the gauges. The speedometer doesn't fit my cable. I'm pretty sure my cable is stock. I was able to modify the speedometer to allow my cable to attach. Basically there is a collar before the threads that is too big for the cable to fit over so the threaded connection won't reach. I took a small grinder and reduced the diameter of that collar so the cable would fit over it.

When I went for a test drive after it was connected I find the speed is off around 20 MPH. Doing 5 MPH I was almost 30 on my GPS but by 30 on the speedometer my GPS said 49-50.

Now I wonder if there is another gear I could find for the transfer case to correct this problem.

Most likely I will just buy a NOS original but would like to know if there is a way to make this one work.

The temperature gauge is mechanical and seems to be accurate according to my laser thermometer.

I connected the fuel gauge and it immediately went to full even though my tank is getting close to empty. To be fair I am using the NAPA universal sender still so I wasn't expecting it to work. One thing I did notice was the needle never bounced while I was driving down the road like the NAPA gauge does.

If it does bounce when I get the correct sender I will add a capacitor to smooth it out.

And as already stated the oil gauge will need something to make it work with my oil line. I'm thinking it may just need a flare to compression adapter.

The back lights on the gauges are not connected yet but the speedometer does not have a green tint to the ring like the other gauges.

Another gauge update.

The oil pressure gauge just needed a 1/8" female to 1/8" compression adapter. It seems to work fine too. It may not be all that accurate though. My other gauge was also mechanical and it seemed to show a bit higher readings using the same copper line this one is using.

I took the truck to work today and stopped to put some fuel in it on my way just to be safe. The fuel gauge was reading 1/4 tank after I put about 15 gallons in the tank. It seems maybe the fuel gauge is reading backwards? If it is that seems like it may be easy to fix by flipping the arm around on the sender. I'll know better after I burn some of the fuel and see if the gauge goes up as I do.

tube senders work better then the arm ones