Jay Dee

I DO TOO HENRY, wish the kid had the money to have the engine freshened up, but I did get it to pass emissions. He gets notes on the ride frequently of people wanting to buy it, same with the old Ramcharger.. He's a big guy, running about 400 pounds and can't fit into many vehicles, and since he bought it over 15 years ago, I have had to replace a huge list of things to keep it on the road. The state keeps tightening up emission standards with the expressed intent to send older vehicles to the junk yards, making it difficult to pass. In trying to purchase the correct carb for this albatross , I have had people answer want ads on Craigslist being pretty nasty saying to get that piece of crap off the road. He only drove it to the doctor and the store until he elected to have me drive him instead. Not everyone feels the same about driving older vehicles, but it is getting to the point that new cars are not easy to fix yourself, any longer, like the older late models. Who can afford a new car when they are so expensive? It's the undeclared tax called inflation by government mismanagement and the fed, that made a 3000.00 new car in the 60's now 40,000. An item that cost 5.00 in the 60's now is 75.00 or more. It's pure craziness at what we have let our politicians do to OUR country.

oilcanhenry

Some things have gotten better. My brother bought a brand-new Dodge Ramcharger back in 1977. You should have seen the spot-welds on that pickup. They were all over the place. I don't know if it was humans or robotics that did the spot-welding, but it was absolutely not done right. Being on warranty, he had it done locally by a human, but then they had to paint the entire pickup. Go figure!

MOPAR went WAY down in my book then, not that I would buy one. I've noticed that no one has complained about the spot-welds on Chevy's, just the paint, mostly white or blue, on some Chevy's. After 23 years, my Forest Green paint still looks great on my Chevy K-1500. Yeah, I agree. No matter what party, our politicians are corrupt as all get-out. They no longer represent The People anymore.

Jay Dee

Ok, I put on the timing set, and the compression stroke was evident to begin as the timing dots were 12:00 on the crank, and 6;00 on the cam gear to check if my bassakward way was **** or not....as I rotated the chain the compression could be felt, and when the dot on the cam gear reached 12:00, ....the crank gear dot was now at 12:00 also. I believe this is when it fires, as advancing the chain a little more the compression stopped....& the rotor points at # 1 on the cap, and looking at the rockers they are both where the valves are closed because rockers are not pushing down on either which I know tells me they are both closed. They can be rattled on some with your hand....seems too loose.
Does anyone feel I am wrong , as the dots lined up dead nuts when crank dimple was at 12: and cam dimple was at 6:00. I took the old crank timing gear (stock) after pulling it and used a high speed wide flat grinding stone to take just a little stock from its ID so it slipped on and off easily and used that to press the new gear on using a 1.75 dia piece of galvanized plumbing pipe I purchased at the hdwe store ( threaded on both ends) , think it was 3.75 long, but will have to check that length if anyone's interested ,as I can't recall exactly. I used the dampner puller only to press the crank gear and using the correct adapter for the chevy crankshaft thread pitch.
I used some lithium grease on the crank, I had never seize, but didn't use it.
i think I'm right , as at 12:00 w/dot on the cam timing gear the pin from the cam is at 9:00 and the crank dimple is at 12:00. I Misplaced my timing cover bolts last week, but painted the cover with 5000° Engine paint and heated it with a butane torch lightly to bake it on as it was cold outside.
Wierd thing was the rockers were off the valve spots on a few , never saw that before, but it does have a valve tick when cold. Would anyone say the valves rockers might be too loose? Any advice , like give em a 1/4 to 1/2 turn more ? I had 3 or 4 rockerrs that I needed to rotate a little to the left,as they were off the va
ve buttons one almost 1/2 " to the R.
If all checks out here on the forum, I will button it up asap,
hate to have to take the R valve cover off if rockers need tightening up a little, as that cover is a bear to R&R.
i keep forgetting to measure the dampner Dia to order the right timing tape for the outside to use to check total advance, but I think once I get advice on IF I am right on where the timing set is at I think its all downhill from here.
The Ramchgr kept cutting out in traffic and I think I figured out what the electrical problem was.
hope I hear from henry at least on if he thinks I'm good on my chain where it is now. I have some other issues yet to take care of on this siburban, but at least now the new chain is tighter than a bulls *** in fly time.

Jay Dee

Nobody?

Jay Dee

Alrighty then,glad I joined the Chevy forum, I figure I must be right on my timing set positioning, or someone would have chimed in. My thanks to those who participated in this thread, Henry especially, and others. Found the cover bolts today , and expect to begin the closing up process asap. I will give a final when I fire it up to see if it runs again, but expect to have to retime it , if so. Haven't sent for the tape for the balancer, but I guess I will do that later. Rmchrgr problem fix worked, no more shut downs, but think that one can use a kit in the holley 2 Brl carb. I did not soak the chain in oil, but might heat it just a little lightly with a torch and spay it with tri flow liquid teflon oil (as it's getting colder here now and there's some snow on the mountains) , then dab engine oil on top of that. I use tri flo when shooting with black powder, helps keep the bores from build up, and years ago used slick 50 in engines,but now technology has advanced so might use zemax instead first as it coats the metal, then tri flo and oil or even blue goo.( Any comments always appreciated positive or otherwise. )

oilcanhenry

Sorry I haven't been online due to other factors in my work, Jay Dee. Glad to see that you seem to have got things lined up good. Yeah, I like that idea of giving a little heat to the timing chain to work the Tri-Flow in, with motor oil behind it. As for the rockers I usually go for 3/4 turns, just depending. I used to use Slick 50 myself, in the past, but they removed the Teflon, so Zemax might well be the way to go
I do some shooting too, not like I used to do, but to be honest, have never fired/owned a black-power firearm. Might be pretty darn cool!

Jay Dee

Thanks for popping in OCH, yeah black powder shooting is challenging since you have one shot, and no scopes etc. I had a problem with one cam gear bolt, I think I didn't tighten them in increments and one started to stretch @ 18 lbs, so I backed it out and it needs replaced. So I couldn't finish, luckily it did not snap.. I will try NAPA for another. When I did the heating of the timing chain and zMaxed it, I found when I got the torch near the front pan opening at the bottom, it surprised me to pop by igniting for a second , gas that must have been in the oil. It wasn't a bad thing, but surprised me, but also enlightened me to realise, that the carb or the pump must be leaking some gas into the oil pan.. SO, I WILL address those issues too, but to top it all off, the rmchgr stopped again unexpectedly yesterday when I had to take two folks to their doctors offices( both had to cancel), I found the starter switch plug ins had 2 places where the plastic started to melt slightly , so it might not be getting good contact,as I already replaced the switch, I will buy some new fusible links etc, but that's another issue not for here. (Darned thing refused to fire, but turns over). I will keep on that as I had to use my tripple A to get it towed back to its spot. ( always something huh) I get it home, then after 5 hours of being broken down on the street , I try to start it just to satisfy my curiosity, and it does. So that's perplexing, or is it haunted?. I was able to reuse the valve cover gasket on the suburban, as it was replaced not long ago with a rubber type, but have not checked the lash, but it did always have a lifter tick at cold start up, but may only go, 1/4 turn , if at all, but the right cover is a beeyatch to take off due to all this crapola around it. Got everything ready to seal it up, but might replace the gas pump because I have an extra, then will take the quadrojet off and check the bottom plugs. So I will keep you posted. Still unsure how the rocker ends were able to come off the stems in those couple valves ( 1 and 5, I believe), but I got them back on, but hate to remove the nuts as then I need to replace them . This ride needs a rebuild eventually, but I think if it starts, it will likely be ok for just around town. Found 10 of the timing cover bolts, can't find the other 2, so I'll have to buy 2 more or find substitutes. I originally put them in one spot, and 2 just disappeared. I call stuff like that the ultimate magic trick,mostly happens with tools at times . More later as I progress .

oilcanhenry

Stuff happens, that's all I know. Nothing on this planet is perfect, but we keep on making strides, like black powder firearms to smokeless firearms. My grandpa's old
Sears-Roebuck double barreled shotgun is so old it has external hammers, for instance. No safety, so you carry it with the breech opened or empty, to be safe.

As for engine compartments, we all want air-conditioning, but all that extra stuff means working around it, or moving it aside.

Jay Dee

Henry, here's the latest skinny on the job. Got everything back together today till it got dark, but the dizzy cap , need to change oil, add new water and antifreeze, found all the bolts, but have one nut I have to put back somewhere....its a bigun, need to solder a wire and hook up the dizzy wires, but then temps dropped , and it started snowing , so then it's thanksgiving. I cooked ahead of time , as I may have eluded to w/a non conventional spaghetti W/ 5 lbs of meatballs ,sausage and thick meat sauce from scratch , then vacuum sealed it for t-giving last week. As I said, Noticed some of the rockers were off the stems , so decided to tightened them a bit on the left side. Still have to put the cover back on. Then I'll try to fire it up and see if I got it right. Seems like I did. I did the zmax heating thing on the chain, then decided to use the teflon spray, but I forgot it , and decided in a pinch to use some lithium grease on the chain and sprocket as a fill in instead. The other stuff I need to do, can wait , as the ramcharger just shut down again , and had to use tripple A to get it back home after 5 hours broken down on a side street, with nothing I tried got it working this time. So, I got it back home and just for S-ts n - grinns decided to try it again to see if it would fire up, , and it started up. Oh well, more testing ahead and might even tear the carb open as it's been 20 years since I last rebuilt that holly 2 brl.
on the shotgun, those old ones use black powder shells if they break open, and load and those with nipples and caps, load at the muzzle with blk pwdr if they don't. I consider them wall hangers anymore. I prefer to shoot single shot rifles not shotguns as much. But I got one of em, that breaks open has hammers and a tit firing pin ,but , they're ok, if you know how to load em right. Have a Happy thanksgiving everyone, and keep your fingers crossed. More later.....watch out for the crazies when driving ...IF you must.

oilcanhenry

Yeah, times have changed, not always, nor most times, for the good of The People. I despise politicians on both sides of the isle and hate voting, but too many good people died to give me that right, so I never miss a vote. I will never give up my firearms, either, even if somehow the Second Amendment were repealed. If that happened, you can bet they would repeal many other Rights of Americans and I won't go down without a fight, nor will millions of other Americans. I'm getting too off-topic for a vehicle forum, so I'll stop here.