I agree - it SHOULD be the VR, but it isn't. I'm on my 3rd new one. Ground is good. Alternator ground is good. Thought I had a short at the ammeter so I removed it and went strait to the batt. Green wire from VR goes to the far CCW field lug, other wire from the VR goes to the other field lug and gets 12v with ignition on.

Alt is new and definitly puts out the juice.

I'd bet me $1 it isn't the battery too! But that's the only thing left. If that isn't it, I'm going to cast around for a 1 wire alternator.

We'll know more Wednesday.

This swap has really hit home the idea that all the hard stuff is easy and all the easy stuff is hard. Mounting the motor was easy, making the clutch work was relatively easy. Making the upper radiator hose was hard. Getting the dash lights to work was hard.

Kip

_________________
1965 Valiant wagon Turbo slant (work in progress)
2000 Chevy 155" cargo van - The Abductor
1970 Newport convertible
1996 Buick Roadmaster Wagon
1966 CruiseAire motor home
1990 Toyota 1 ton box truck TURBO slant (scraped)

This might be stupid but why not use the alternator and electrical system off one of your other slants? if this works then you could swap parts backwards and forwards to see what the problem could be...

just a thought.

Brussel,
Excellent idea, but most of the extra parts are already on the engine. In the current incarnation, the starter is from a 65, the block is a 73, the distributor is newish, the trans is 83, etc. I've taken this parts robbing thing much deeper; the oil pan is 83, but the oil pan bolts are 65, the headpipe is 65, but the exhaust is Toyota. Etc. I have a "thing" about just using what's on hand.

I do have a spare 65 alternator, but I'll be damned if I'm ever going back to a mechanical regulator. I never want to see another ballast resistor again, and that's why the ignition is HEI.

_________________
1965 Valiant wagon Turbo slant (work in progress)
2000 Chevy 155" cargo van - The Abductor
1970 Newport convertible
1996 Buick Roadmaster Wagon
1966 CruiseAire motor home
1990 Toyota 1 ton box truck TURBO slant (scraped)

Hi kipamore, use a 3-wire alternator instead, if you have some time in between truckbuilding and family, take a look at why here.

Olaf.

_________________
Aspenized

Started the project on 6/26, and here it is 11/10 and it's finally friggin' done! I declare victory. I plant my flag.

The wife gave me 6 full hours to work on it today. That was nice - usually I get about 15 minutes before she interupts me with some task. Timing is dialed in, but I have not hooked up the vac advance. I figure I'll get some mileage figures without it, and tackle it separately. I tried the canister purge port on the carb - no good. I think it's going to take some dialing at the distributor to get the advance right. Right now, at idle I'm at 4BTDC and it maxes at 29BTDC at around 2200rpm.

Truck has good power and great driveability now. Idles at 600 no problem. Starts instantly. If there are any vacume leaks, the can of starting fluid can't find them. Hand choke works well and is set correctly. As slants go, this one is very docile and tame. I attribute that to the motor mounts. Power brakes might be a bit overboosted - I'm prepared to ignore that.

A big block of the time was spent on the gauges. All are now working along with the lighting for them. That includes the speedo - the fix for that was shielded signal wire (made from guitar cables). I got stymied on the temp gauge because the mechanical sender thingy doesn't fit into the port by the thermostat. Solution? I'm dead sick of buying things for this truck, so I duct taped the sender between the heater hoses. Close enough for right now.

Overcharging situation may or may not be solved. Right now, it shows 14.5v at rev, and drops a little at idle. That's a LOT better than the 17.5v I was showing before. I did install a new batt, so maybe that was it. Dunno, and I've decided I don't care anymore.

I did measure 300ohms of resistance at various body grounds. The alternator housing shows 0ohms, so maybe my electrical gremlins are being causes by flakey body grounds. Odd because I have 4 of them. Could be that my meter isn't very accurate. Could be 300ohms is normal, but it seems a little high. Dunno.

Exhaust is done. I haven't punched out the cat yet, but it's noise and rattle free and that's a good start.

The shifter still needs bent, but no matter how I cram my bench up against the wall I still can't put enough force on it without just moving the whole table. I need a fat guy to sit on the bench or something. Right now, when you go into reverse the shifter (and your knuckles) bash into the key, and when you shift into 2nd the shifter (and your already bleeding knuckles) bang into the wheel. Also, to apply the parking brake you have to shift into 4th and pull the brake. I can live with that.

The heater fan and the washer squirters still need hooked up, but the wiring is installed. Squirters are a MUST these days because in Ohio they've started using brine instead of rock salt, and that crap sticks to your window, smears opaque, and is generally a pain. I spent all last winter hanging a bottle of windex out the window and that crap gets old.

The 3" body lift has made the truck somewhat "tippy" feeling, but that could also be the motor being higher in the chassis than the Toyota V6. It's a little unnerving, but I suspect I'll get used to it. Judging by the front end height, the slant weighs less than the V6 and trans, though I'm not sure why that should be.

Cooling system is flawless. I have a switch on the fan (so I can work on the truck without draining the battery) and I accidentally left it off today while driving across town. Truck didn't seem to notice that it had no fan, adn the valve cover was still just warm to the touch. The Ford Explorer radiator is hot on the input side, but cool on the output side, which tells me it's got more than enough capacity for the engine. Ought to - it's 3" thick.

Unless something blows up on my trip Friday, I'm going to close out this thread and post my EGR questions and timing questions in new posts. I think 8 pages is more than enough of this nonsense. I'm very glad it's done, and I'm sure I'll get hit by some teenager in a Honda soon and it will be all for naught.

Kip-On-Truckin'

_________________
1965 Valiant wagon Turbo slant (work in progress)
2000 Chevy 155" cargo van - The Abductor
1970 Newport convertible
1996 Buick Roadmaster Wagon
1966 CruiseAire motor home
1990 Toyota 1 ton box truck TURBO slant (scraped)

dude
I have been following this story as long as you have been posting it,,
Great Stuff,, run it for a while then refine what you need to,, that's what we all do,, be sure to come back and tell us what you did next..
Your tale is a whole lot better than the $40K Chip Foolsomes restorations that appear on the other forums.
I dig what you did.

Just got back from an 800 mile drive. Minor breakdowns, but you saw that one coming. More importantly, I have 6 tanks of fuel economy data. After all, that was the whole POINT of this thing, wasn't it?

Breakdown breakdown:
1. Speedo failed exactly 5 miles into the trip. It's just wiring.

2. 50 miles in...what's that smell? Turns out the dipstick wasn't pushed in all the way and it blew a bunch of oil right at the fan. Apparently, I've designed an externally lubricated engine. Not sure why/how oil can get all the up 2 feet of dipstick tube. PCV and breather are working fine and if you take the cap off the valve cover no oil/smoke escapes. This truck oil pan has the dipstick in a "not like the 60's ones" location, and it's possible that location is right in the path of the oily crank. Don't care - pushing the dipstick back in solved that problem.

3. What's that noise? Turns out I forgot to tighten one of the two exhaust bolts that hold the headpipe to the flange. Nut worked it's way loose, blowing out the gasket. I fixed it without burning myself too badly.

4. What's that new smell? Turns out I stepped in dog poop in the T/A parking lot. Dammit!

5. What's that dripping and that other new smell? This one could be serious. Hard to tell without crawling under it, but it looks like the oil pump is leaking externally. Glad I caught it, because it leaked 3 quarts over the 800 miles. Saturday I get blessed with a couple hours to work on it.

6. Turns out I ran all day with a totally flat inside tire. This happens to me alot because the non-flat tire holds the flat one up and makes it appear round. I once drove around on a flat tire for 3 months before noticing.

Otherwise, ran like a top. Runs at 180 degrees no matter what. And now...the moment I'VE been working toward for 4 months! What's the freakin' mileage?

BEHOLD
Since the odo wasn't working, I used highway milemarkers and filled up 6 times, mostly around 6 gallons each. Here are the numbers:

1. 14.1
2. 16.79
3. 17.92
4. 15.38
5. 17.09
6. 18.25

Wow! That is far better than I thought it would be. Remember, the vac advance is not connected, and the EGR is not connected. There's cheap 10W40 in the crankcase. There's cheap 90weight gear lube in the trans and not a fancy synthetic. There's a dirty air filter that's now oil soaked. So far as I know, we're still using summer blended gas. Those aren't hypermiling numbers either - the truck naturally wants to go at about 63mph, 2100 rpm and there's some fairly hilly areas in Kentucky that I pulled without slowing. And that's on 5 tires (I filled it before tank 6).

I am thrilled at those numbers. Tossing the 14.1 as anomolous, that's an average of 17.08, which is 1mpg or 6.7% above my initial goal. Excellent. Fantastic. Almost make all the hassle worth it.

Can there be any doubt that consistent 20s will be easy to achieve? Can there be any doubt that peak numbers in the mid20s are possible? In a 1 ton dually with no aero mods and 1500# of junk in the trunk. Them's diesel numbers at gasoline prices. Everyone said I should just chunk up and buy a Dodge Sprinter - that would have been $40,000 wasted.

I rule!
Kip-On-Truckin'

_________________
1965 Valiant wagon Turbo slant (work in progress)
2000 Chevy 155" cargo van - The Abductor
1970 Newport convertible
1996 Buick Roadmaster Wagon
1966 CruiseAire motor home
1990 Toyota 1 ton box truck TURBO slant (scraped)

Sweet thread, and the results absolutely rock! This is the true spirit of hotrodding.

As an aside, if you experience voltage problems again, try a VR from a different parts house. Standard had a batch that weren't internally grounded. I had 3 bad out of the box, one failed in a few hundred miles. (NAPA are re-badged Standard pieces.) For what it's worth...

_________________

kip

some heat on shifter will make for easy bending

indian


if in area stop by and will heat/bend for you

Give yourself a big pat on the back brother!
Awesome hot rod project!

_________________
"Ja, Ich fahre ein altes auto."
'78 Volare 225
'67 Charger 318

You definitely need top show up to a Slant 6 race with this jewel! It would definitely be a crowd pleaser.

Rick

_________________
2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

Truck is holding up well - 2 more tanks = 16.2 (45 minute traffic jam) and 17.1mpg. Not too shabby.

My 2000 mile trip is coming up next week - I hope to have the vac advance and possibly the EGR working for that one.

Charging system is okay now. Someone owes me $1, because a new battery did the trick. I will forfeit the $1 because I don't think the problem was the battery. I think the problem was high resistance in one of the field lugs, causing the VR to see low voltage and tell the alternator to make juice. The battery was already bad from this abuse, so replacing it allowed everything to return to normal. According the voltmeter, anything over 1000rpm shows 14.1V and at idle with accessories on it shows around 12. With the key off it shows 12. Been fine for over 1000 miles so I declare it fixed.

Speaking of fixed, I fixed the heater blower by bypassing everything and running it direct off a toggle switch in the dash. Big difference - it will now blow dry my hair. You only get 1 speed, but I only want 1 speed.

Also fixed the wiper squirters by adding another toggle switch.

Kip-On-Truckin'

_________________
1965 Valiant wagon Turbo slant (work in progress)
2000 Chevy 155" cargo van - The Abductor
1970 Newport convertible
1996 Buick Roadmaster Wagon
1966 CruiseAire motor home
1990 Toyota 1 ton box truck TURBO slant (scraped)

Sweet project and the results are looking good. Congrats.

Lou

_________________
Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Speaking of fixed, I fixed the heater blower by bypassing everything and running it direct off a toggle switch in the dash. Big difference - it will now blow dry my hair. You only get 1 speed, but I only want 1 speed.

I had a Yota with blower motor issues, turned out to be a resistor that just plugged in under the dash way over on the passenger side. 3 resistors actually- low, med. low (the one that fried), and med. high. It was only about $10 from the dealer if I recall. Or maybe u-pull-it has a few available.Or measure with a meter, and radio shack.

LOVE the thread !!! The slanted nation is proud of you and your tenacity !
Keep up the good work.

Since the truck spent most of it's life as rental stock, many interior bits have had a hard life. Blower switch, wiper squirter, dome light, seat track, seatbelt retractors, floor mats, and dash trim were all pretty much shot when I got it. Luckily, the the blend door and the air director thingy (defrost, feet, face lever) are all okay, and that's all I need. Air conditioning switch was broken when I got it, and the a/c lasted about a month before it crapped out too.

To me, the fun stuff is reworking the interior. Like...I want the intermittant wiper control on a footswitch, and I wouldn't mind having the high beams on a footswitch AND the stalk. I want a regular dome light, AND I want a red interior light as well.

Even more important....I found a thing called a 4 in 1 breakfast maker. It's got a coffee pot, a toaster oven, a hot plate, and....a rotating hot dog/sausage link cooker all-in-one. I want THAT in the passenger seat footwell!

I want the washer fluid to be heated

I want a lockable storage cabinet

I want hardwood floors

I want heated cup holders

So all that stuff is the fun crap I expect to chip away at over the winter. I also want the heater blower infinitly adjustable - low/med/high is for cavemen.

Kip-on-truckin'

_________________
1965 Valiant wagon Turbo slant (work in progress)
2000 Chevy 155" cargo van - The Abductor
1970 Newport convertible
1996 Buick Roadmaster Wagon
1966 CruiseAire motor home
1990 Toyota 1 ton box truck TURBO slant (scraped)