45acp’s DIVORCED build!

Happy birthday Jon!

 

Jah mahn happy birfday

 

NEWB

 

Been working on the wiring. Removed everything associated with the emissions and also repairing damaged/corroded connections. Tried starting it tonight but no luck. Not sure if I've primed it improperly, a bad ground somewhere, or if there's some fuckery going on with the ignition.

DSC00303 by Jonathan Krajnak, on Flickr

 

Looks logical to me...

 

This is my nightmare.

 

Got it running this morning. I didn't really have any time to troubleshoot last night, but realized as I was heading to work that I forgot some grounding wires/cables that aren't attached to the main harness. Gotta dial everything in now.

 

Had to jump the battery when I got the truck started. After I timed the distributor, I disconnected the jumper cables. But when I did that, the RPMs dropped and it began to idle rough. Hook the cables back up and it's fine.

Battery or alternator issue?

The battery is the yellow top from the Tacoma and is just over 5 years old. I moved it to the Honda once I hacked up the Taco, and then moved it to the '81 but it hasn't been used for the last 2 months. Alternator is original.

 

Bad alternator.

 

Thanks. I'll see if I can swap in the Tacoma's before I go buying a new one.

 

Because of the age, might just need new brushes. You have any local generator/alternator rebuild shops local? Brushes are pretty cheap/easy. Also, check the bearings; the rear is pretty easy to press out an replace. Generally speaking, if your stator, rotor assembly, voltage regulator, etc... are all good, that's all the replace when you buy a "re-manufactured" alternator.

You could probably rebuild it yourself.

 

Any links on how to do this ?

 

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+to+rebuild+an+alternator

 

Thanks. Youtube is your friend.

 

Looks easy enough. However, I looked specifically for the older Toyota alternators and couldn't really find anything. I looked at the diagram and it looked like there wasn't anything more to it than to unbolt the housing and remove the parts. I completely destroyed it. I tried removing the stator before the rotor, thus tearing it from soldered mounts on the rectifier.

Other than the damage I did... it didn't look like much, if anything was wrong with it. I could tell it has been rebuilt because there were 'China' marked bearings in it. Luckily, Amazon had free next-day shipping. So the new one is already installed.

I let it run for a few minutes and then removed the jumper cables and the same thing happened. Quickly put the jumper cables back on before the engine could stall. I checked to make sure the voltage regulator connection was secure and the RPMs suddenly went up. So it looks to be a loose wire at the connection. The regulator appears to be an OE replacement. I'll mess with it, but at least the engine is basically done. I got a crankcase breather, but it doesn't fit with the offset OE intake setup. Probably going to cut up the stock intake housing and run that until I install a Weber

 

Curious did you look into the GM alternator bracket that low range offers?

 

I didn't. Though if I needed one and seeing that they're at ~$50, I'd just make one.

In other good news (ha)... my reasoning for painting the block silver has already done it's job.
I noticed some oil pooling after the first start up. Clean it, and noticed it after running it again today. Other than the main cylinder head bolts there's one smaller bolt at the very front, underneath the drive gear for the distributor. Looks like the timing chain cover is cracked right at the shelf where it bolts to the cylinder head. I likely wouldn't have noticed it had I painted it black. FML. Is this something I can JB weld? I really, really, really don't want to have to take it apart again. I can't TIG it. Wayyy too much contamination of the metal.

 

Oh that fuckin sucks. Couldn't hurt to try JB weld Whats the worst that happens, you leak oil?

 

Yeah, worst is have a little oil leak. I'll give it a shot here soon and see what happens. In the mean time, I finally took it for a test drive today to finish adjusting the carb and make sure everything was working. Feels like a completely different truck!



The OEM seat is in temporarily until I finish the bench. I need to wiring for accessories, paint the wheels, and modify the stock intake.

I rerouted the front valve cover opening to a tee so both front and back can use one crank case breather, rather than getting that oily mist sent down the intake. Hopefully that'll keep things cleaner in the long run.

 

So back to the Tacoma now right