(New to me) 1977 Waggy

[Triumph215]

Hi all and nice to meet everyone.
This is my second post. My first post, about 30 minutes ago timed out so the nice long post I wrote to everyone went poof into nothingness.
I finally found a Waggy to buy after faithfully searching for a year or so. A nice Pewter Silver one with red interior, a 401 and no rust. I

[Triumph215]

boy this is touchy

Third try, I'll get the hang of it yet.

Hi all and nice to meet everyone.
This is my second post. My first post, about 30 minutes ago timed out so the nice long post I wrote to everyone went poof into nothingness.
I finally found a Waggy to buy after faithfully searching for a year or so. A nice Pewter Silver one with red interior, a 401 and no rust. I

[Triumph215]

Ok, I guess I need some help

I've written my post in Word as advised but only the fist few lines show up even though it appears to all be there in the text box before clicking send. What am i doing wrong?

[MysticRob]

I've written my post in Word as advised but only the fist few lines show up even though it appears to all be there in the text box before clicking send. What am i doing wrong?

Word doesn't matter. It's a site bug having to do with certain punctuation marks. Just go back in your browser and copy/paste edit the post you wrote out (I use chrome because it saves the post) in the affected post that got cut off.

[Triumph215]

Thanks MysticRob

I finally found a Waggy to buy after faithfully searching for a year or so. A nice Pewter Silver one with red interior, a 401 and no rust. I am pretty happy to have it. The paint is in poor shape and I hope it can be saved. The engine and tranny seem sound and she made it 200+ miles home but after spending lots of time under the hood over the past three weeks I am surprised it made it home. I am going with - It made it here against significant odds so it must be the right truck for me.

I have a few questions I have not been able to find answers to after much searching.
I have pulsating lights/voltage. It fluctuates between 13.5 and 15 volts much quicker than anything I have seen before. The pulsing is very regular and after much reading sounds to me like the dash voltage regulator. I pulled the dash, cleaned up the PCB, checked all my connections, found a badly corroded dashboard ground, replaced the worn out alternator and voltage regulator. I did not pull the dash voltage regulator, since the gauges are working I figured it must be too or they would have burned up correct? The problem has improved somewhat as to where sometimes it is fine but then it comes back. It is mostly fine upon start up and after 30 seconds or so it starts pulsing. My ignition control module has melted all over the place so I tried to replace it but after two new ones from NAPA without success I am back to the original one. Could the control module be contributing to the pulsing? Electrical is my weakest car repair skill and I am out of ideas. I will add that all but one of the fuses in the fuse panel was wrong (along with every spare in the glove box) so there could be something melted somewhere that I haven

[Triumph215]

not found yet.
-Replaced the bad radiator and am still having trouble getting the bypass hose to seal on the water neck, I might end up replacing the water neck, the clamp is as tight as I dare to torque it.
-Replaced valve cover gaskets. I only put new ones on so it could see what the grunge level was on my valve train but am glad I did since there were no gaskets under there, sigh. The good news is this will likely solve my oil leak problem. It was not great under there so I have some short mileage oil changes in my future and will add some ATF with the motor oil temporarily.
-What is the arrangement of the carb base gaskets? It looks to me like its paper gasket/funky plastic spacer thing/thick phenolic gasket/carb. This sure is a weird set up but oh well, help me make it work.
-Am considering changing to the 1978 distributor to get rid of the Prestolite but for the moment it works. The initial timing is correct but I have not checked the vacuum or mechanical advance yet.
-It goes into gear pretty hard, u-joints all seem tight. The transmission was serviced at a shop a few months ago before I bought it. I called them and they said the pressure is too high, I haven

[jeeprs]

I'm no help with all the mechanical questions as I'm just a shadetree mechanic but glad your on board. You came to the right place for answers though. Lot's of great advice and knowledge on the FSJ's here. It's where I come to for answers for all my questions for my 79 and my son's 77. Good luck and looking forward to see some pics and progress of the Wagoneer.

[Wagoneer Taylor]

Excited to see this as well!
I also have a 1977 Wagoneer in Pewter and with the factree 401, (well soon to be 401 again).

As for the tranny shifting hard, I would start with the "pressure" although I believe its actually vacuum. There is a adjustment under the rig at the transmission, on the passenger side. Cant remember exactly where, but my tranny did the same thing, because the engine had so many vacuum leak the PO turned it way up to shift properly. But when I fixed the vacuum leaks it shift way too hard.

Unfortunately, electrical is my weak spot. But what I can say is just keep at it eventually you'll find something. Pick up a DMM (digital multi-meter) that will help tremendously or if you want to go even cheaper get one of those test light probes.

Welcome!

[rang-a-stang]

Welcome!!! You said you drove it 200 miles home? Where did you pick it up?

There were NO gaskets under your valve covers?! HAHAHA!!! Another idea to scrub the inside of the engine is to buy Gunk's Motor Flush. It's like $4 and does a pretty good job. Then, just add that 1/2 quart of ATF to each oil change you mentioned.

The water necks are still available at most McParts stores for cheap. My water pump was SUPER bad when I bought mine, too. So if your neck is bad, be ready to do the water pump, too.

I believe your order of gaskets is correct.

You started another thread with your pulsating lights, right?

Mine shifts into reverse pretty hard, too. I read somewhere that it is common for the output shaft to wear and cause that hard clunk when shifting into drive or reverse. If your idle is too high, it will slam into gear too.

[Triumph215]

Nice and thanks. I bought it in Auburn. I have fixed almost every leak and have a power steering pump to rebuild and and oil pump housing gasket to replace. Once I get the electrical pulsing figured out I'll be ready to drive around and see your rigs.

[Heep-J4000]

Best chance for fixing the pulsating lights is the bypass it with relais.
So the light switch is not constantly under power.

[letank]

not found yet.
A - trouble getting the bypass hose to seal on the water neck, I might end up replacing the water neck, the clamp is as tight as I dare to torque it.

B - Am considering changing to the 1978 distributor to get rid of the Prestolite but for the moment it works. The initial timing is correct but I have not checked the vacuum or mechanical advance yet.

C -It goes into gear pretty hard, u-joints all seem tight. The transmission was serviced at a shop a few months ago before I bought it. I called them and they said the pressure is too high, I haven

Welcome to the asylum

A- you can try to smooth the water neck metal casting with various grade of sand paper, even a metal file, it all depend on the state of the fitting. Otherwise a small dab of permatex #2 will take care of these pesky leaks.

B- as always you need to swap your original distributor gear to the new distributor because of the unknown origin of the new distributor, the new distributor may have some funky advance settings as well. Not familiar with the inner construction of the prestolite, but parts could be swapped... or easier get the pertronix module, a lot easier than doing surgery on distributors

C- our TH400 are 18 spline output shaft... so after 10 to 15 years some banging is expected... imagine after over 30 years... a way around it is to lower your idle speed... to specs... 750 ...

How do you deal with smog check in your county... Monterey might still be only for transfer of ownership?