Jack Gets Cranky, And So Do I...

Work the past week and half has been very challenging. Ordinarily, I love coming home, grabbing some food, heading out to the garage, and getting into something other than being a professional geek that I am all day long. It was cold, it was rainy, and I’ve got a case of the grumps going on because winter is coming. My body seems to want to go into hibernation mode were I’m always tired, hungry, and I feel a lot older than I really am. I needed some good quality truck time, and I was certainly looking forward to it tonight. After all, the hard work was over, right???

I swung by Lowe’s once again (no, not for the girl at the garden center again. ;-)) to pick up some copper tubing to use as fuel line- which thankfully is sold with 3/8ths OD diameter, some fittings, and a few other miscellaneous items. I got home, brewed some coffee, and headed out to the garage with a full thermal carafe of contentment.

In what can only be described as the most unproductive 2 hours ever spent by myself on a vehicle, I proceeded to cuss at pulling along the frame channel the new copper fuel tubing, cuss at scraping my knuckles on everything sharp in sight, cuss on banging my head on exhaust clamps over and over again, cuss on getting crud in my eyes, and cuss on the fact Ford uses 5/16th’s on one fitting, 3/8th’s on another. All cussing aside, the fuel line was finally run, secured, and plumbed into the carburetor.

I figured I’d run a single wire to the fuel sender and get the gauge working next. Oh, wait- where is that plug? The wire was in the cab on the old truck, but now it’s not- it’s in the 2 wheel drive '77's wiring harness near the rear of the frame…. As it just so happens, the gas tank wiring I needed was part of the tail-light wiring as well on the donor frame. Well, whatever, I needed a new rear harness on Jack anyway, as ever since I've owned it, I have never had a passenger side brake light or turn signal work. I've traced the wires, I've looked at bulbs, nothing. A new harness sounds like just the ticket.

For the next hour out in the rain, I stood bent over cussing at the old frame fishing out the rear wiring harness I needed to make my gauge work. Finally, I got it removed and didn’t break so much as a single plastic clip.

Back under Jack, I basically had to do what I did the first time with the fuel line. They run through the same clips you know… Once again I cussed, scraped, dug crud out of my eyes, knocked my head, and got the main harness run.

Now that that was done, I thought, #(%#*@!, I’m home free. I plug the harness into the tail-lights, plug the fuel sender into the rear fuel sender hookup, plug the plugs under to the hood into the main harness, and flipped the key.

Here’s where it all falls apart for “The Truck Guy”

Gas gauge didn’t move a hair.

Oh wait- that kind of makes sense... there’s no fuel in it! Up to the gas station I went with my 5 gallon can. Filled that up, threw it into the tank, and hit the key once again… Nothing…
I went back and put an Ohm meter onto the sender unit and grounded it—perfect 43 solid Ohms. That means a little under ½ a tank. Okay, sender works.

Test wire to cab and ground inner fender. Yup, that works, wire says 43 ohms. This makes no sense.

It’s 10:30pm… I’m cold, I’m cranky, and this has been a hell night. I’m going to get one stupid thing done right..

I figure, what the hell, I’ll start the truck and see if it moves. I go to turn the truck over.. Nothing. Awe crap, the battery is dead. You idiot.

So I put the battery charger on the battery. Maybe I left the driver’s door open too long… Charger shows the battery as full?!

I put a wire onto the solenoid to the positive terminal to engage the starter. I hear a click. The click is not coming from the solenoid, but the voltage regulator!!! That’s a new one to me!

I cuss some more. Too bad I don’t drink, because it would have been a perfect time for a beer I suppose. Or, in all actuality, by this point, 11:00pm, I’d be toasted I suppose with everything so far. Okay, maybe it’s a bad battery. The temperature has dropped, I haven’t run the truck in a few weeks, and the owners did say it would drain a battery after sitting for a few weeks. So, what the heck, I change out the battery. Try it again… “Click”.

I plop down in the chair and just start thinking “A voltage regulator that clicks? No way. Not possible.” I go back out into the rain to the old front end of the truck and remove the starter solenoid from Jack’s old body. Back into the garage, bolt that on, change all the wires, and give it a try again.

Rer RRRR!!!! The whole truck lunges forward and knocks me off of my chair! Oops- it’s in gear. Idiot! But it’s working!

So I get into the truck and flip the key to start it in anticipation. “Click”.

I cuss some more… Okay.. A lot more…

I sit in the truck and stare.. And then I see the fuel transfer switch in the cab is set to “AUX” and not “MAIN” tank. In disbelief, I flip the fuel tank selector switch to main. Nothing…

Back outside the truck I plop into the chair staring at the truck some more.. Then it finally hits me.. I never put the ground strap back onto the motor to the body. Holy crap am I stupid. The body isn’t grounded to the frame!!!

I run into the basement, grab a super heavy duty nice copper ground strap, bolt it onto the engine and the firewall and hop in the truck and try to crank it over. Rrrrrr Rrrr!!!! Okay, He’s crankin!!!!

What’s the fuel gauge read you ask?!?! NOTHING. I flip back to Aux. NOTHING. I just cannot live without a fuel gauge. I did it for 3 years in the Camo truck, and I’m sick of it. I’m not doing this whole truck to have something like that not work! 12:30am now and back under the truck I go.

Everything checks out. I just don’t get it. Okay, time to tear the dash apart. I yank the gauges and start tracing out the fuel sender wires to the transfer switch. Yup, they’re fine. Trace it up to the gauge. Yup, it’s fine. Trace it back to where the plug goes into the main harness… Oh crap. It’s unplugged… You idiot…. Plug it in… hit the key…. NOTHING.

Flip the fuel switch to MAIN. The gauge starts to raise!!! YES YES YES!!!

I’m on a roll now! I turn on the headlights, Poof! Bright headlights! Both rear driving lights!

I hit the brakes and look at the reflection off the door of the garage…

You guessed it- No rear passenger side brake light… Bulbs are fine, grounds are fine, wiring harness is fine, different everything… You know what? 2:00am… Jack wins… Screw it- I’m going to bed.

P.S. Subtle Post Title, Eh? :-)