My J-4500

[Crankyolman]

Today the gas gauge was showing 1/4 and lately hasn't been getting below that and I had gone 130 miles on this tank and I had wasted some gas cleaning out lines and stuff plus the leak so I figured I better have my wife meet me for gas. I was actually surprised when I couldn't get more than 11.5 gallons in it and that was filling it until it was literally overflowing.


Obviously my gas thief hasn't been around in the past 2 weeks because in spite of all that stuff I still got 11.3mpg We will have to see how long it takes him to figure out I am driving again. Anybody want to hazard a guess?

[Crankyolman]

Well, I made it a whole week and nobody tried to kill me, or wreck the truck and the truck didn't attempt to self destruct. I even filled up the tank and there was no gas leakage so I think we may now be in the clear

[Crankyolman]

A couple days after getting the fuel line and fittings I needed to fix the truck from my local speed shop I noticed they were closed on a day they should be open. I also noticed a sign that said "Thank you for 38 years" or something like that.



Yesterday I pulled up to it to see what it said and it said that they have closed for good and a NAPA will be coming soon.



That really sucks because I was planning on them rebuilding the V6 for my wife's Mercedes...although I have reluctantly agreed to sell that


I did some searching and found an auction website that is selling some of their tooling which would be awesome to have but I'm sad that they went out of business.

[Crankyolman]

Well 3 weeks have now gone by with no issues on the truck. I haven't done much to it other than drive it but this morning when I left for work I picked up the mudflaps to see what I can do to them.


In case you don't remember or didn't notice in the early pages of this thread, when I got my truck it had some vintage Keep on Truckin' mudflaps in the front. Which were put on the truck very early in it's life and I thought were just cool.





Of course when I painted it I had to remove them but always intended to see if I could somehow straighten out the curl and reinstall them.


Today I decided to see what I could do about cleaning them up and uncurling them so I took them to work. Time has not been their friend, they had become pretty grungy looking and I had to cut the colts that still held them to what was left of the fender brace they had originally been bolted to. but after getting the old rusty metal off of them they looked like this.



So then I took some hot water, dish soap and a Scotch Brite pad and set to work cleaning them up.


I'm actually quite impressed by how well they cleaned up and the hot water softened the rubber up enough that after cleaning I set a weighted pan on top to flatten them out. They now look like this



Which is much flatter and I think pretty awesome looking with just enough patina. The blue and white rubber are actually the same color throughout so I could actually restore these to look brand new simply by removing a little bit of material but I kind of like them showing their age.



My plan now is to cut some strips of stainless steel, bend and clamp them onto the lower edge to keep them from curling in the future and reinstalling them on in the back and maybe getting some plain or possibly some other iconic 70's mud flaps for the front.

[Brynjminjones]

Those look fantastic!

[SOLSAKS]

classic 70's catch-phrase,.....

the metal braces are a good idea,.....VINTAGE.

dave in NC

[Crankyolman]

Not a lot going on in my little world, just enjoying driving the truck.



I took a washer and dryer to my son and his girlfriend, which is about 15 miles each way and had no issues.


I will say I absolutely hate this frame mounted fuel pump because it makes what sounds to me like a squeaking sound and I hate that so I am now trying to think of a way to slip a new in tank pump into my budget and install it without my wife finding out as well as somehow modifying the tank with a 2nd fuel pickup so in the event of an in tank pump failure I can easily switch back to the frame mounted pump should the need arise again.


In the mean time, I had to go back to work and really don't have any projects for the slow times, which are really becoming few and far between but I did have one minor truck related project this week. I went back to work on the mud flaps.


I tend to accumulate bits of scrap metal at work because you never know when you may need it. I needed some stainless steel to add to the bottom of the mud flaps to help keep them straight over the next 48 years and it turns out I had just the thing in my work locker. So I cut some pieces of stainless slightly longer than the mudflapsare wide.




Bent them a little past 90 degrees on the brake



Used the brake to make that into a U shape



Placed that onto the bottom of the mudflap and used the brake as a press to clamp it onto the bottom of the mudflap






Then took it to the sander to round off the corners and it was done



Now I only have two minor problems to sort out


1- The mudflaps are slightly too wide to fit the back fenders without rubbing the springs


and 2- I have nothing to mount them to so I will have to figure that out but I'm determined to get them back on the truck hopefully some day soon.


I've also been toying with the idea of painting the cheesy 1970's wood grain stripe back on.



I've been playing with paint shop to get an idea of what it would look like




Of course I would have to go with a mahogany rather than the original teak but I have to say I really like the stripe and the only thing that has kept me from painting it on there is fear of not liking it once it's done and having to paint that section white all over again but now I'm seriously thinking I may need to start teaching myself how to paint wood grain using automotive paint.


I also sent Mrs. Cranky a copy of the pic and she agrees it just looks like it belongs there but says she would prefer to buy the stripe. I know BJ's sells the stripe in colors but don't know if it could be ordered in wood grain or not but personally I think for durability sake I prefer that it be painted even though I know it's work I don't really have time to do.

[rang-a-stang]

When I mounted my frame mounted pump, I left the rubber body protector on it, put foam around that, then stuck that into a electrical conduit bracket from Dome Hepot. I bolted that bracket to my frame with rubber washers on either side of the frame and my pump has been dead silent. The only thing I hear is the swoosh of fuel going through the fuel lines if I turn it on but not start the engine.
Here it is on the table:

[Crankyolman]

I don't think the noise is because of how the pump is mounted and don't think it's actually a squeak as much as just a noise the pump makes. It's not all that loud but it annoys me. I may crawl under the truck some time while it's running and see if I can pin point the issue but I don't think there is much I can do about it. The in tank pump I had was actually very quiet and that's what I want, I want to hear nothing but the sweet sound of the exhaust pipe.

[Crankyolman]

It's been a while since I have posted anything which is a good thing because it meant the truck had no problems. Well, of course that couldn't go on forever



Saturday on my way to work I started smelling gas. When I got to work I looked under the hood and found the 90 degree fitting for the return line leaking. That wasn't really a big deal except I had to order it and I wasn't able to change it til Yesterday. So it was an easy fast fairly cheap fix...well not really.



Yesterday I brought it home and when I got home did another check under the hood. I didn't see anything, the fitting was dry but I could smell gas. I ran my hand along the expensive stainless steel braided flex line I used for return line and it came up wet. This is the same line I had used as feed line that failed under pressure, apparently it also failed with little to no pressure as well. So now I need to buy more expensive line to replace it but now I don't know what brands can be trusted.



So today I'm going fuel line shopping and hopefully will have the truck back up and running when the rain stops this coming weekend.


While under the truck working on the fuel line I also noticed some drips near the front and started to investigate. I'm not positive it wasn't condensation dripping or if there is a leak. what it looked like was water and it had no smell but it felt like antifreeze. Whatever it was seemed to be following the lip of the oil pan along the drivers side but I couldn't see how it got there. Nothing above the lip of the oil pan was wet or showed any signs of leaking but it warrants further investigation as time allows.

[chubbinius]

Glad that it had been running well for you (and probably getting lots of smiles and compliments too!).

Bummer that the fitting and lines seemed to have failed. Silver lining though was at least it was just fuel you smelled and not something burning!

Best of luck on the fuel line shopping, and please let us know what you pick up for replacement lines.

[Crankyolman]

Originally Posted by chubbinius

Glad that it had been running well for you (and probably getting lots of smiles and compliments too!).

Bummer that the fitting and lines seemed to have failed. Silver lining though was at least it was just fuel you smelled and not something burning!

Best of luck on the fuel line shopping, and please let us know what you pick up for replacement lines.

Thank you,



Yes it does get a lot of smiles and compliments.


I think I'm going to buy some Russell Proflex line, I figure if Edelbrock puts their name on it it should be quality...hopefully

[Crankyolman]

Well, I'm back up and running


I replaced the the failed line with Russel (Edelbrock) Proflex line. One thing worth noting is the Proflex was easier to assemble because before you cut the line you have to tape it to keep it from unraveling but you have to remove the tape when you put the fittings on. When removing the tape the old line unraveled so quickly I didn't have time to put the fitting on so had to leave the tape on until the fitting was started then try to carefully remove it and slide them together. It was not very easy. With the proflex the wrap would take a second or two to begin to unravel so if you are ready and have the fitting in your hand when you unwrap the tape you have just enough time to start the fitting before it unravels. The fittings also slid onto the hose much easier.


I seriously considered switching to teflon hose and making it E-85 comparable but since I already bought new fittings for the braided line and would have had to buy new fittings for teflon I decided against it. Some day I would like to be able to run my truck on alcohol but I've done the math and it would take about 5,000 pounds of apples to make enough alcohol for one tank of gas and there are no E-85 stations anywhere near me so it really isn't practical.

[rang-a-stang]

Originally Posted by Crankyolman

...I've done the math and it would take about 5,000 pounds of apples to make enough alcohol for one tank of gas and there are no E-85 stations anywhere near me so it really isn't practical.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAH!!!!! Funny because you are not joking! LOLOL!!!

[Crankyolman]

Originally Posted by rang-a-stang

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAH!!!!! Funny because you are not joking! LOLOL!!!

I actually wasn't joking I would like to some day run my truck on alcohol but it really isn't practical, although I think I could get the amount of apples needed as low as 3,500 LBS to a tank but that is a lot of apples just to drive around for a week or two and I have a lot better things to do with that many apples. Not to mention all the time and effort that goes into picking that many apples.

A really good tree will produce 300 - 800 LBS of apples a year. It takes me around an hour to pick 250 - 300 LBS off of each tree. On my best year I picked and processed something like 1,600 - 1,700 LBS of apples, which was right at 100 gallons of juice, not that I couldn't do more if I could get the free time. My apple chopper can potentially handle 3,000 LBS per hour but my press can only handle about 150 - 250 lbs per hour so it would be a very long weekend just for a tank of gas. Then there is the wait while it all ferments and the additional time and equipment it would take to make into fuel alcohol...but all of that said in the event the pock-e-clips come and it's the only source of fuel I would be ready

[Crankyolman]

Well the trucks been running good and I'm now on vacation and since because of the virus I can't go anywhere I'm sitting around eating big meals, getting fat...er and working on the house. I did find time to to do what my truck was intended to do...haul apples. I managed to get about 300 lbs which I now need to process them all.

[SOLSAKS]

nice photo.

love the tailgate,...
...love the apples.

ready for the restriction on shipping apples to be over,......

glad the truck and the cranky driver are doing good.


dave in NC