"Papa Smurf" - 1966 GMC 1500 Custom

[LordNatedawg]

Slowly fixing problems as they arise on my truck. Today was replacing the stretched pinion yoke. The old yoke was allowing the driveshaft u-joint to bounce and it was causing a major vibration while driving. After the replacement the truck drives noticeably smoother. Although there are other vibrations present that I will need to track down. My u-joints are all tight. The carrier bearing visually looks okay, but I may take my drive line to a shop to have that replaced.

The other items I need to fix are my brakes. My front brakes are hot spotted from past brake fires. And my rear brakes are not adjusting evenly. The right drum is either over adjusting, or the left drum isn't adjusting. I loosened the right side and tightened up the left to make them even. I will recheck them after a while to see if the problem reappears.

Lastly, I had to bypass the fuel gauge in my cluster. It is stuck reading 1/4 no matter how much fuel is present. I wired in an aftermarket fuel gauge for now, but I would really like to get the factory gauge functional again. It is capable of sweeping from full to empty, but when sending any signal it will only read 1/4. The aftermarket gauge is working, which tells me that the sending unit is not the issue.

[Prowbar]

Nice work. The fuel gauge should be easy to test, make sure you have the right fuel sender with the correct resistance. I'm pretty sure mine has a range from 0-30 Ohms. Later gauges go to 90 Ohms I believe. The aftermarket gauge might be for a 90 Ohms sender.

[FetchMeAPepsi]

My factory gauge had a similar issue. The ground wire (brown?) was shorting and had to be rigged to connect properly. If you wiggle the plug to the back of the instrument cluster, does it start working?

[James]

Originally Posted by FetchMeAPepsi

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My factory gauge had a similar issue. The ground wire (brown?) was shorting and had to be rigged to connect properly. If you wiggle the plug to the back of the instrument cluster, does it start working?

The connector pins is where mine problem was. I had bad solder connections between the pins and the flexible (plastic) printed circuit board. On mine, I cleaned off the old solder and apply fresh solder. No more problems. This type of work required experiences working with flexible printed circuit board, otherwise it will melt the board and become junk. This board use lead/tin solder and not the newer stuff. The lead/tin melt at a lower temperature and the new stuff will melt the board when you get it hot enough to melt the solder.

[LordNatedawg]

Originally Posted by Prowbar

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Nice work. The fuel gauge should be easy to test, make sure you have the right fuel sender with the correct resistance. I'm pretty sure mine has a range from 0-30 Ohms. Later gauges go to 90 Ohms I believe. The aftermarket gauge might be for a 90 Ohms sender.

That was my first thought. But the aftermarket gauge is 0-30. I bench tested the sending unit and both gauges to verify where the issue was.

Originally Posted by FetchMeAPepsi

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My factory gauge had a similar issue. The ground wire (brown?) was shorting and had to be rigged to connect properly. If you wiggle the plug to the back of the instrument cluster, does it start working?

Unfortunately that in not the issue this time around. No difference if I wiggle the plug at the cluster, wiggle the wire at the sending unit, nor relocating the sending unit ground. The issue is 100% with the gauge itself.

Originally Posted by James

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The connector pins is where mine problem was. I had bad solder connections between the pins and the flexible (plastic) printed circuit board. On mine, I cleaned off the old solder and apply fresh solder. No more problems. This type of work required experiences working with flexible printed circuit board, otherwise it will melt the board and become junk. This board use lead/tin solder and not the newer stuff. The lead/tin melt at a lower temperature and the new stuff will melt the board when you get it hot enough to melt the solder.

That would be the best case scenario if it's just a connection issue in the printed circuit. It certainly doesn't seem like a mechanical issue just because it does make a full and smooth sweep when turning the key on and off. I'll have to pop the cluster out one of these days and take a look.

Thank you all for your input. I do appreciate it.

[LordNatedawg]

It has been a busy weekend. I'm just trying to tie up loose ends and get my truck to a safe, daily driver status (as much as possible for a 60s truck).

First, it was time to address my motor mount perches. They were wrong and didn't line up properly on the crossmember. The previous owner drilled holes in the frame to make them fit, then welded them to the old crossmember. I got them swapped with correct perches (part #T82244), and I also changed the oil soaked rubber mounts (part #T82282). All the OE holes lined up once I set the motor down. For the first time in 6 years my motor is now bolted to the frame AND the crossmember. What a difference that made. My truck barely vibrates on the highway now. It honestly drives smoother than my 2012 GMC, and I don't consider my 2012 to be a rough ride.

The next thing I solved was my headlights. I tried to use LEDs as an "upgrade" when I did my rewire, but they were awful. Horrible beam scatter, didn't illuminate anything outside of the cutoff, and likely blinded oncoming traffic. To solve this I bought a quad-headlight relay kit from Painless Wiring and converted everything back to halogens. Now my headlights use standard 9003 headlight bulbs instead of being sealed beam. I haven't aimed them, but it is a night and day difference in clarity and visibility. I can actually drive at night and see where I'm going!

The last thing I installed was more of a comfort item. I wanted a tachometer. I felt that my truck didn't have as much power as it should have, so I wanted to see what my RPMs looked like. Turns out I was definitely lacking power due to driver error. Initially I was shifting too quickly, which led to running out of gears before I was at cruising speed. The motor sounded like it was going faster than it actually was and I was shifting before I hit 2,500 RPM. Extending my shift points out to 3,000-3,500 RPM allowed me to get my truck up to a freeway speeds without issue. Now I can comfortably cruise at 70mph.

Please ignore how my tach is mounted. I realize it is...less than ideal. I'm using an existing hole in the dash for now. I'll move it to my steering column after I get a hose clamp of the correct size.

All of this prep work means I can now safely drive my truck more than just for grocery runs. Just in time, too. My 2012 sprung a coolant leak, so I am in need of a spare vehicle until I can get that fixed. 6 years to turn a beater into a daily. And I am nowhere near finished

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I ordered a front sway bar kit. Should be a simple install, but I'll let you all know how it goes. Lastly, I need to fixed my warped brakes. My proportioning valve was never my issue when I had brake drag. I had preload on the master cylinder. Once that was fixed I stopped experiencing brake drag. But the previous events of drag and lockup obviously heated up my rotors, and now they're warped and hot spotted. At the very least that is a simple fix.

[LordNatedawg]

Just a quick update. I decided to aim my headlights before running errands tonight. They work great. Super bright. They still feel slightly biased towards the left, but I ran out of adjustment and can't bring them in any more. I think I can live with it.

Later in the night my speedometer stopped working. The odometer obviously did as well. It was never accurate to begin with, and the needle was never steady. Hopefully the issue is something simple like a broken cable. I will get to diagnosing it later. I have other means of monitoring my speed.