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Bob, what is the correct resistance for the choke resistor? I am assuming this is basically a small electric heating strip. Does it have a second wire for ground or just ground through the body.
That I do not know...
Some were wired 12 volt keyed and others were alternator field wired voltage, as far as i remember.
There is aftermarket ones out their, But I dont have any numbers for those as well...
Some were wired 12 volt keyed and others were alternator field wired voltage, as far as i remember.
Mine looks to have been alternator field wired, the reason I say that is that the oil pressure switch on my truck only has a single wire going into the plug, so there are no wires to go to the resistor and when I bought it, it was wired to the alternator (poorly). I am not sure yet if I should leave it disconnected, or look for a new one and replace it. For now, going to leave it.
Today's job.... oil change, since it was running rich I don't want to drive the engine with gas in the oil. Warmed it up for about 10 minutes, no noticeable smell of fuel, drained the oil, burnt my arm on the exhaust and also somehow managed to position the drain pan such that when I pulled the oil cap, the stream of oil went between the handle and onto the floor.
Mine looks to have been alternator field wired, the reason I say that is that the oil pressure switch on my truck only has a single wire going into the plug, so there are no wires to go to the resistor and when I bought it, it was wired to the alternator (poorly). I am not sure yet if I should leave it disconnected, or look for a new one and replace it. For now, going to leave it.
Today's job.... oil change, since it was running rich I don't want to drive the engine with gas in the oil. Warmed it up for about 10 minutes, no noticeable smell of fuel, drained the oil, burnt my arm on the exhaust and also somehow managed to position the drain pan such that when I pulled the oil cap, the stream of oil went between the handle and onto the floor.
AS long as you got it working without the resistor hooked up, thats good..... The heat risor port will heat it up and should bring it all the way open. Just takes a little longer for the heat to transfer. So you should be good for now, until you get ready to revisit it..
Sorry to hear your having one of those "Son-of-a-Bit&^" truck working days... lol
As for your window regulators... Your local parts house should be able to get them? If not maybe Amazon....
I had to take mine out at one point, But I welded and reground the teeth for mine and reinstalled it... It was a little more labor than i wanted to spend, but its been good for about 10 years now..
If I had power windows, yep, plenty of options available, but it seems like manual ones are considerably harder to come by. New ones look to be almost completely unavailable, spent the last few days trying to track some down, I can find manual ones that fit earlier years, but not an 81.
Power windows would be nice, but then it is regulators, door panels, wiring etc. I am happy with the cranks, keeps it simple.
It's a little frustrating, sure I could swap to power windows and get new regulators that way, but that comes with a whole host of other expenses. Weirdly I could find new manual regulators for earlier years, up until about 78 I think it was, but nothing from then on.
I found a junkyard that are shipping me a working drivers regulator, it says it cranks slowly, but I am hoping that I can give it a really good clean and lubricate it before I install it in the door. Really though, almost any regulator I can find at a junkyard is going to be somewhat questionable as to it's condition, simply because of what it is and where. Passenger side, found some options as well, but still not entirely sure how I am going to remove the existing regulator so for now focusing on the drivers side.
Can anyone confirm the size of the radiator drain plug, I want to order one of these but cannot find the drain plug size to make sure I order the correct one.
In window news, replacement drivers regulator arrived, it works, but in one direction seems to skip a tooth, I think because the shaft that the handle attaches to has some play in it causing it to go out of alignment in one direction. Frustrating, but not much I can do when gambling on used manual regulators, the newest of which at this point would be at least 30 years old. Cleaned it up, going to lubricate it and hopefully get it back in the door later today. The glass itself won't go back in until likely middle of next week, have some door weather-strip arriving Monday and it will likely be a slightly simpler install with the glass out of the way.
Discovered my battery was sitting on a couple pieces of wood and some cardboard, the battery tray is still there, but one side is pretty poor shape, other side is solid, but ended up ordering a new tray and tie down.
Other than that, cleaned and re-painted the door panels, before and after below (although they are, obviously, flipped). Not perfect and I need to decide how to restore the arm-rests, but pretty pleased with how they look. The shade is slightly off from the dash, but that's understandable.
Last edited by Abcdefghii; 03-15-2024 at 08:21 AM.
Not 100% on the radiator plug, Simply because it my have been replaced at some point in its lifetime. You may have to pull the plug and measure it. My guess is that it would be a 3/8 NPT ? But like I said, Not 100% sure.
Maybe on the window regulator, you can slightly pinn the shaft tin cover to tighten the shaft slightly?
As for the Arm rest, I had found some for my truck, but was very unhappy about the price of them with shipping and all. Just didn't seem worth it to buy. So what I wound up doing is going to a local Upholstery shop and having them made. I just took them a sample "The old one" and asked them to make it out of wood and cover it with a little padding if they could.... And man did they turn out great. And the cost was cheap enough, that i had to buy the shop lunch and still came out waaaaaay ahead... Just a suggestion...
Maybe on the window regulator, you can slightly pinn the shaft tin cover to tighten the shaft slightly?
For now I just installed it as is, it only seems to act up in one direction, so for now I'll just live with it. But at the same time, while looking for a decent shape passenger one, keep a half eye out for a better condition drivers one at the same time. At least now with it bolted in place instead of riveted, it should be slightly easier to remove. I say slightly easier to remove, because it is still a complete headache to get it installed and bolted in with not a lot of room to reach your hand in there to hold a bolt while threading the nut on.
Originally Posted by RacerHog
As for the Arm rest, I had found some for my truck, but was very unhappy about the price of them with shipping and all. Just didn't seem worth it to buy. So what I wound up doing is going to a local Upholstery shop and having them made. I just took them a sample "The old one" and asked them to make it out of wood and cover it with a little padding if they could.... And man did they turn out great. And the cost was cheap enough, that i had to buy the shop lunch and still came out waaaaaay ahead... Just a suggestion...
Not a bad idea at all, some of these kind of parts are crazy expensive for what they are... a good example, we have a 67 Mustang, head rests are something like $400 for a pair. Nothing fancy to them, just some foam wrapped in vinyl and 2 metal poles. Not worth the cost.
I do need to take some a-pillars to an upholstery place, when I do that it may be worth taking in the arm rests at the same time to see what they can do.
Anode should be here later this week, but I realized a slight problem yesterday while going over the process of installing it... so, I was thinking if I am draining the radiator to install the anode, that I may as well do a coolant flush at the same time. But, here is where I got stopped in my tracks, when filling it I will need to turn the heat on high. Not a problem I hear you say, well, OK, normally you would be right. But, my heater controls do not move towards the hot side, they move about 1/4 of the way over from cold and then stop. So, before I get the anode installed, I need to figure out the heater controls. It sure would be nice if it is an easy fix, the truck has AC, I can just tell, it will not be a simple fix.
In the meantime I got the drivers side window working, installed new beltline and glass run rubber as well (that was a headache).
Ordered a new battery tray, noticed something odd the other day looking at the battery... it was sitting on 2 blocks of wood. I guess that was cheaper, certainly easier, than a $20 replacement battery tray.
The best way to drain the coolant is by draining the radiator (obviously) and then pulling the block plugs out on both sides. The plugs located between or just over the frost plugs. A large amount of coolant is kept in the block. As far as the heater goes. If it's making heat, the coolant is flowing through the core. I would just fill it, while filling squeeze the lower radiator hose to force the air out of the system. After filled, while running and even with a small amount of coolant going through the heater core, you're good!! Note: If you use straight coolant that needs to be mixed with water, don't use tap water use distilled. The minerals in tap water are the cancer cells you want to keep out.
Battery tray and tie down installed, the battery in the truck is about 2" shorter than what I figure should be in there, but feels securely on the tray.
I did discover something though, my multimeter was right there so decided to measure the battery voltage with the engine running and was a little shocked to see it reading about 18.5v. I turned the headlights on and it dropped to 14.8v, moved about 15 briefly but then seemed to jump about around 14.5 - 14.8 or so.
Clearly 18.5v is no good, I may drive to an auto parts store to have them check the alternator, assuming that checks out, is it possible a faulty voltage regulator could be causing the problem? I need to get on and bypass my amp gauge, might do that this weekend, it may already be bypassed as I can never tell if the needle is moving while the engines running or if my eyes are playing tricks on me.
Battery tray and tie down installed, the battery in the truck is about 2" shorter than what I figure should be in there, but feels securely on the tray.
I did discover something though, my multimeter was right there so decided to measure the battery voltage with the engine running and was a little shocked to see it reading about 18.5v. I turned the headlights on and it dropped to 14.8v, moved about 15 briefly but then seemed to jump about around 14.5 - 14.8 or so.
Clearly 18.5v is no good, I may drive to an auto parts store to have them check the alternator, assuming that checks out, is it possible a faulty voltage regulator could be causing the problem? I need to get on and bypass my amp gauge, might do that this weekend, it may already be bypassed as I can never tell if the needle is moving while the engines running or if my eyes are playing tricks on me.
The alternator isnt the problem. The regulator regulates the output.
I don't have any recommendations on brands. The only added caution is this...........Diode alternators have what looks like round u-joint caps on the back of the alternator housing. These alternators use the older style contact point regulators. The rectifier alternators that have metal bands that are bent in and out take the newer style flat electronic type regulator. If applications are incorrect, it can cause an overcharging issue. I'm assuming your regulator has the plug that goes in the center which uses the rectifier alternator.
Great, thanks for confirming. Looks like I can get that AC Delco unit here tomorrow.... just in time for a deluge of rain coming this weekend. No windows down driving for me just yet!!
I agree, 9 time out of 10 the problem is the voltage regulator.... The orange wire should read the same as the battery voltage with the truck running....
after this, if you are still having a problem the problem is on the other side of the ignition switch.... I'm still lost with it... lol
Hahahahahahaha.... Yep I have been bent over that barrel a few times, for sure !!!!!
I got mine fixed today, It was just another one of those cheap China POS units from O'Reilly Auto Parts... Only lasted 13 months... I dont know how this junk even makes it into the country let along the market!!!!! its just such a downer....
I think when I did my A/C Delco unit, It didnt make it out of the driveway and it was over charging...
Hope you have better luck than I have had...
Dang, I had hoped the AC Delco would be better quality, with it being a GM product and not an unknown brand. Should be here later today, hopefully it'll fix the over charging and I can then move back onto the other things I want to get done.
Just my experience, could be bad luck but............Bosch has never worked for me. I bought starters, spark plugs anything with the name Bosch and I had bad experiences. Even 2 of my under sink hot water heaters only lasted about a year each. Never again will I buy anything that says Bosch.
Dang, I had hoped the AC Delco would be better quality, with it being a GM product and not an unknown brand. Should be here later today, hopefully it'll fix the over charging and I can then move back onto the other things I want to get done.
Just my experience, could be bad luck but............Bosch has never worked for me. I bought starters, spark plugs anything with the name Bosch and I had bad experiences. Even 2 of my under sink hot water heaters only lasted about a year each. Never again will I buy anything that says Bosch.
Im sure Robert Bosch is rolling over in his grave !!!!! They made good stuff back in the day.... I had good luck with them in a lot of OEM Foreign car applications like Audi, Porsha, Volvo, VW, But I think most of those were made in Germany back then.
But your rite, I have never had it work well in my Yanky Iron... lol
It's funny, you mention Bosch and most people assume it is great, I used to have a 2006 Audi, zero issues with anything on there, but I believe my in-laws have a Bosch dishwasher that has had an error code since day 1.
Managed to wrestle the passenger side window regulator out today, used the same trick as the drivers side, which was grind off the crank handle, grind off rivets, push the entire assembly into the door and then the window can drop down to the bottom of the door. From there, the glass can slide off the regulator and the regulator comes out. Very rusty. I half suspect it was not working because the wheels do not turn at all, I could not test cranking it with the crank handle shaft ground off, a shame to have essentially destroyed it, but I had been spraying everything I could get for a long time and getting no movement.
This truck can be so frustrating, so new regulator arrived, swapped it out, connected the battery and heard a click from inside the cab which I have not heard before. But, now the truck does not start, it will crank fine, but does not start. So infuriating.
Edit: Put the old one back on, same thing with that one. Crank, no start and click from a relay under the dash. Weird. I half suspect the carb is flooded now as I can smell gas.
Edit 2: woop woop... It was flooded, removed air cleaner, propped choke open and fired up. Reads a nice 14.7v with the engine running.
Last edited by Abcdefghii; 03-22-2024 at 04:39 PM.
It's funny, you mention Bosch and most people assume it is great, I used to have a 2006 Audi, zero issues with anything on there, but I believe my in-laws have a Bosch dishwasher that has had an error code since day 1.
Managed to wrestle the passenger side window regulator out today, used the same trick as the drivers side, which was grind off the crank handle, grind off rivets, push the entire assembly into the door and then the window can drop down to the bottom of the door. From there, the glass can slide off the regulator and the regulator comes out. Very rusty. I half suspect it was not working because the wheels do not turn at all, I could not test cranking it with the crank handle shaft ground off, a shame to have essentially destroyed it, but I had been spraying everything I could get for a long time and getting no movement.
This truck can be so frustrating, so new regulator arrived, swapped it out, connected the battery and heard a click from inside the cab which I have not heard before. But, now the truck does not start, it will crank fine, but does not start. So infuriating.
Edit: Put the old one back on, same thing with that one. Crank, no start and click from a relay under the dash. Weird. I half suspect the carb is flooded now as I can smell gas.
Edit 2: woop woop... It was flooded, removed air cleaner, propped choke open and fired up. Reads a nice 14.7v with the engine running.
03-12-2024, 09:48 AM
Got to keep chancing the gremlins until there gone.... Cheers
