Things have been moving along on the mechanical side with our big, lovable truck Goliath. The 1966 C50 has reached the end stages of work on the mechanical side and we’ll soon turn our guns on the major body related issues we have. Recently we got our brakes back up to snuff and cured what we hope is the final engine issue we’ll face.
The brakes were giving us a hassle ever since we exploded the muffler on the truck early in the summer. Damage from the muffler explosion compromised the ability of the Hydrovac system to hold vacuum and then we broke off just about every line attached to it when yanking it off the truck. We rebuilt the unit with parts that BangShift member Threedoor shipped to us from an old two-ton truck he stripped. Even after that, the truck didn’t stop like it should. Repeated bleeding of the brakes got us a little pedal feel back but not total stopping power like we wanted. After enlisting the help of our dad-in-law to operate the pedal while we bathed in brake fluid, we really had the pedal feeling good, so good that it exploded the front brake line the first time we really put some pedal pressure to it.
Thankfully, replacing that line was not a huge job and we were back in the clandestine cruising business the next day.
Our engine issue was frustrating because we couldn’t trace it down. The truck would chug badly at low RPM and then smooth out when cruising. We checked the timing, valve adjustments, fuel pump, carb, and had a priest throw holy water on the thing.
Turns out is was two cracked spark plug insulators. Swapping them immediately brought the truck to a level of sweetness we hadn’t experienced yet. Rolling on the new tires felt great and we were beyond stoked at how well the truck ran and drove. It was a milestone moment for the project!
Now for the behind the scenes part!
We’ve had a thread going in the Tech section of the BangShift forums since we found out the motor was wounded last winter. It documents lots of our ups and downs over the course of the last 12 months as we’ve been working on the truck and chipping away at the project. You can hit the link below and see lots of stuff that was “too small” to make the blog and you’ll also see just how much help our BangShift brothers have been in the process of saving this big fellow from the scrap heap.
