M715 project underway 305 chevy with 200-4R auto

[m715monster]

I think the Leak at your lower hose is the weep hole in the water pump, this could also be your overheating problem. It was funny reading your belt conundrum, I wish I could have saved you time if I read it a month ago, sorry. Getting brackets right is one of the hardest things to do IMHO. Good read though way to kill a night shift

[jeeper]

I think the Leak at your lower hose is the weep hole in the water pump, this could also be your overheating problem.

The leak actually went away when I replaced the lower hose. And no more overheating because the fluid never gets low.

I ended up stretching a hose that "almost fit" over the pump.

[m715monster]

Well good, I guess that's arm chair wrenching for you. You got a nice rig hope mine looks that good someday!

[jeeper]

Thanks. I've got quite a bit of work left to do but it is getting there.

I added this lock to my truck so I'd have some place to secure things. It will only keep the honest person honest but at least it will make someone work a little to get into it.

I still need to change the hardware on the bottom of the cover to safety hardware so a special wrench will be needed to unbolt the cover.

[jeeper]

I've had a vibration in my truck since I first got it drive-able last summer. I thought it was because of the tires. And part of it was that.

At the end of last year I got some good used tires from George aka Flingarrows. My vibration was still there but not nearly as bad. AT 25 mph there was little to no vibration. At 40 it was extreme but by 45 it was bearable.

Tonight we went for a drive with the windshield down and could barely hear the engine but could hear a rattling between 38 and 40. We slowed down to 30 and couldn't hear it anymore.

When we got home I decided to check the front drive shaft for play. The u-joints were good but there was a very slight movement of the shaft.

I pulled the shaft and discovered the slip joint was off by one notch. The u-joints were not 180 degrees apart from each other. I disassembled the joint and turned it a notch so both yokes would sit flat on the driveway. The truck rides smooth now and is a lot quieter.

I probably need a new shaft now but will drive it for a while to see if I can live with it.

[Flingarrows]

Good find Paul. Hopefully the vibrations will be gone


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[jeeper]

Well I've put on a few miles since the drive shaft fix. The truck seems to drive much better. It is a lot quieter in the cab now and my mirrors are not vibrating to the point of making everything behind me blurry.

I can drive 45 effortlessly now. That is my self imposed top speed for my drive line.

I picked up a load of gravel after work on Friday. It was a yard+ of road gravel. The operator at the gravel company told me it was about 2800 pounds/yard and I was probably 3000-3200 pounds.

The truck handled it fine. The back end squatted a little. The steering felt a little light but it didn't feel unsafe.

[jeeper]

I have finished installing my weldernator. It works well. I haven't taken any pictures of my first weld with it but plan to make a little video of the unit in action. Of course this diagram does not show where this ties in to the stock wiring but you get the general idea of how this part of the circuit works. It also does not reflect the external bridge rectifier. I didn't include that in the drawing to keep it easier to follow.



Sorry for the poor image quality. I am not good at editing photo's and I don't have a scanner anymore.

With the switch in the up position the voltage regulator and battery connection are bypassed and battery voltage is sent directly to the field winding. The engine rpm then determines how much voltage is coming from the alternator.

With the switch in the down position the alternator gets it control from the regulator and the battery is connected to the alternator output.

I can and may put an electrical outlet on the output as well to power a drill or grinder when the switch is in the up position. The open circuit voltage of the alternator output gets over 100 volts quite easily when the engine is revved up.

This set up does not include any noise filtering or capacitor. I am building a filter for the power I am tapping off to power a C.B. radio.

[jeeper]

My sister invited my family to her house for a cook out on the 4th. I decided it was a good day to drive the Jeep.

On the way there my son and I smelled something abnormal. My son noticed my voltage gauge fluctuating slightly. I turned my welder/charger switch to the center off position and watched the voltage drop to a constant battery voltage of about 13 volts. I left the switch off for the balance of the trip and the smell went away.

On the way home I tried turning the switch back to charge. It didn't seem to do anything so I turned it back off and left it off.

When I got home I tested the output of the alternator. I was getting about 30 volts at idle with the switch in the charge position. Looks like my voltage regulator failed closed so I was sending a full 12 volts to the field winding.

I also tested the disconnect relay. I am using an external starter relay for my battery disconnect. It has also failed but it failed in the open position so I am not getting voltage through it.

So now I am wondering if the relay failed because the voltage regulator failed or if the starter relay coil isn't capable of handling continuous duty?

Either way, I ended up putting my standard alternator back in until I sort out why my regulator failed. I do remember reading a long time ago that the external regulator is sensitive to being switched off under load.

On the 5th my son and I went to Silver Lake sand dunes. I was eager to see how the old jeep did in the sand. When we got in to the parking area and got the vehicles unloaded I started prepping my Jeep and my son got his quad ready.

We started for the ORV entrance to the dune area and ended up getting turned away at the check point. My son was missing a spark arrestor and I don't have a roll bar which is now mandatory.

We were both disappointed. I guess there have been some changes that I didn't keep up with at Silver Lake.

I wasn't going to give up that easy though. We walked over to David Allen Racing which is by the entrance to the park and bought a spark arrestor for my son's quad. We also bought a bracket to mount a dune flag on my GMC which is my tow vehicle.

I aired down the tires on my GMC to about ten pounds and figured out I get get almost everywhere in two wheel drive on the dunes if I stayed away from the big hills. In four wheel drive I could make the biggest hill with ease. My son drove his quad until he got a blister on his throttle hand.

After a fun day we headed back to the parking area and loaded up. I decided I would test the on board air I am building on my Jeep. I am not finished with it yet but thought I'd see if it worked manually. I turned it on and started pumping my tires on my truck.

I started on the first tire and before the tire was full my high pressure safety valve popped off some extra pressure. I kept going anyway. I should have stopped there but I didn't.

I pumped up two tires on my GMC and two tires on my Jeep because they were all within reach of the hose. Before I was completely done with the fourth tire my compressor seized. I ran it out of oil. I knew I should have stopped sooner but was kind of curious how durable the compressor will be.

So now I am without an on board welder or air all in the coarse of two days.

I anticipate the welder to be an easy fix. The compressor may be more of a struggle. I really want to figure out how to fit my Tecumseh compressor under the hood. I am also thinking maybe PTO powered compressor?

[jeeper]

I will soon be replacing my current 6.2 with another used 6.2. I hope this one will last a little longer. I knew shortly after I installed the current engine that it was on it's last leg. It had a tick from the start and would drop from 40 psi cold oil pressure to about 5 when the engine got warm.

I spent last evening getting the Jasper remanufactured 6.2 engine on a stand and getting it started. It had a solid 40 psi oil pressure at idle and would jump to around 70 when I revved it up. The previous owner didn't know how many miles the engine had but did say the odometer in the panel van it came out of had 158k on it. I am assuming that means this engine likely has fewer than 158k. The engine has some rust on it but isn't an oily mess like the one I'm pulling out.

This leaves me a little torn. Should I pull the covers and clean and paint them for asthetics and risk creating a leak or do I install it as is and let it look old and rusty?

Also I am thinking about leaving the current v-belt system the Jasper engine came with rather than swapping the serpentine belt system onto it. The v-belt system may make it easier to install the techumseh AC compressor I have for use as an air compressor.

And finally I am starting to think about automating the glow plugs. I have several of the glow plug relays now and am thinking it may be nice to not have to think about how long I manually fire the glow plugs in colder weather. I need to find a wiring diagram for the GM glow plug relay to get it working. Anyone here have any suggestions?

And if there are any diesel experts out there reading this when I start the engine on the stand I get a tremendous amount of smoke. This by itself doesn't bother me so much. The previous owner said this engine sat for about a year in his garage. I'm thinking I may need to get it up to operating temperature a few times to get it to clear up. But what does bother me a little more is this engine doesn't seem to run smooth like the worn out engine I am replacing. If I have a bad injector how will I determine which cylinder it's in? I'm getting lots of smoke from both sides.