My first truck

[Snailed]

Hi everyone. So I have been researching 60-66 trucks on here for a while and I found a '66 SWB with a 350 and T5 a few states away that was pretty cheap and has a solid frame. Supposedly it was from Texas and has had two Vermont owners before me. It needs some rust repair on the rockers and door bottoms but that isn't too much of a drag sinced the floors and cab mounts are good. I'll probably just hack some sheet metal over the holes for now so it will take a sticker and drive it. I'm not looking for any kind of show truck, I just don't want to spend any time on the side of the road with the hood up.

I have a pretty sizable list of things I want to do to make it reliable and nice to drive.

First thing I did was rewire it with an American Autowire classic update harness kit. It took me one hour to strip out all the old wiring and about 18hrs to install the AAW kit along with a couple changes like separate headlight relays and running a 12G power wire to the rear for an intake fuel pump. I still haven't put in the underdash courtesy lights the kit came with, but I'll get to it eventually. Overall an excellent kit that saves a lot of time. I have done lots of EZ Wiring, Ron francis & Painless kits and I know this was a great deal. It does sort of suck that the DS vent handle opens into the fuse panel but I'll make do.

The rest of the list is;

Fabricate under bed fuel tank - don't need 50gal in the bed, it leaks anyway
Small mirrors
New starter - current one smokes!
Nicer steering wheel
Insulation in cab with carpet (it does get cold here in the winter)
New oil pressure line to gauge
Add mechanical speedo sender to trans (hope they overlook this for inspection)
New engine mounts - engine flops like a fish now
Tune up, reseal ramhorns to head, cap, rotor, plugs, wires
EFI for under $800 - Megasquirt II, Walboro 190lph, GM TBI
Front discs with 2.5" drop spindles and probably power brakes with wheels to fit over it all.
Electric power steering - maybe
7" H4 conversion headlights
Technostalgia LED taillights and retrofit their '57 chevy front LED turns
90's OE serpentine setup with AC comp and bigger alt
Vintage Air AC/Heat
Nicer, hidden exhaust, maybe a single turndown under bed.
2" lowering blocks in the rear, front and reat springs with frame notch
Snow tires and LSD for winter!

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I'll try to take more pictures as I go. Wish me luck!

-Adam

[hopped up]

Welcome! Nice truck!! I say lower and swap the steering wheel. And drive it! (oh and I'd change the seat too) but that's just me
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[JWheeler331]

Great looking truck.

[poorboy]

Welcome! Nice looking truck!

[markeb01]

Welcome to the forum! Nice clean truck to start with, and always good to have a plan before getting started. Looking forward to the updates.

[Snailed]

Thanks everyone. I'm loving all the good info here!

The more I work on my truck the more I'm feeling like this will be a good truck to get around in with a little style. I wish I could lower it now, but I really need to get it inspected, on the road and sell my lexus first. So boring, reliability and safety stuff is my focus...mostly

I have made some progress though. The giant, old, leaking tank is out and I made one out of 3003 1/8" aluminum. It holds just over 21 gallons and hangs down 10" from the supports the wood bolts to. I made it with a 4x6" plate in the right rear corner that holds my return line, a hanger with a 190lph pump on it and a 0-30 ohm classic instruments fuel sending unit. For now it's running using the return line as the feed to the carb. The pump sits in a two quart sump so won't suck air.

The filler tube is from some scrap 1.5" sch40 aluminum pipe I bent up and a cap from Allstar. I put two 1/2" vents on the tank and a -6 fitting/cap on the front for a drain. The filler goes completely flat for about a foot before dropping 2" into the top of the tank but it seems to fill well with the big vents and smooth first bend. A real gas pump will be the test I guess. The OE fuel gauge now works too

This first pic is of the 30 breaker and two relays for the headlights.

[Captainfab]

Welcome to the forum

That looks like a fairly nice truck to start with.

Nice work on the fuel tank, filler and pump/sender assembly.

[inthearmynow]

WOW you have a great start nice truck

[Lugnutz65]

Originally Posted by Snailed

Hi everyone. So I have been researching 60-66 trucks on here for a while and I found a '66 SWB with a 350 and T5 . . . . .

-Adam

Adam,
I like the truck! They look good in red.
How do you like the T5 tranny? Do you have the info on what the gearing in the T5 is and also, what rear diff gearing does the truck have? Just curious because I'm doing my build with a T5. Can't wait!!!!

Jay

[TJ's Chevy]

Very nice!

[Snailed]

Jay, I like the transmission so far. I have only gone about ten mile on it before I parked it but it shifts great. I was told the rear is a 4.10:1. I'm suspecting that the whoever did the swap didn't use a centering ring between the gearbox and bellhousing (pretty sure it needs that). Also I need to put a sleeve and seal in the tail shaft housing and figure out the speedo gear.

Megasquirt comes in the mail today!

[Lugnutz65]

Originally Posted by Snailed

Jay, I like the transmission so far. I have only gone about ten mile on it before I parked it but it shifts great. I was told the rear is a 4.10:1. I'm suspecting that the whoever did the swap didn't use a centering ring between the gearbox and bellhousing (pretty sure it needs that). Also I need to put a sleeve and seal in the tail shaft housing and figure out the speedo gear.

Megasquirt comes in the mail today!

If you have the adapter plate between the T5 case and the bell, then you have a T5 from an S10, or maybe a V6 F body T5 with a tailhousing from an S10. Either way, you should have the ability to connect a speedo. If it has the mechanical drive for a speedo cable, then you can run your factory speedo in the cluster. I'm still looking for a reasonably priced S10 tailhousing with the mechanical drive for my T5.
If you have the 4.10 rear, man that truck should have a lot of punch off the line. What kind of RPMs do you have at highway speed? (or maybe you haven't driven it enough yet?)

[Snailed]

Originally Posted by Lugnutz65

If you have the adapter plate between the T5 case and the bell, then you have a T5 from an S10, or maybe a V6 F body T5 with a tailhousing from an S10. Either way, you should have the ability to connect a speedo. If it has the mechanical drive for a speedo cable, then you can run your factory speedo in the cluster. I'm still looking for a reasonably priced S10 tailhousing with the mechanical drive for my T5.
If you have the 4.10 rear, man that truck should have a lot of punch off the line. What kind of RPMs do you have at highway speed? (or maybe you haven't driven it enough yet?)

Haven't had it on the highway yet, but yeah, it has an open diff so it has limited traction even with the low powered early 70's 350. I'm pretty sure it would be turning too fast at 70mph the way it is. The tires are pretty short 225/70 15s too. I was cruising around town in 5th, maybe 30-35 and it was about 1200 rpm I think.

There is no adapter. I was thinking it was the stock three speed bellhousing with a camaro t5 and an s10 tail housing. Doesn't that need a ring made to center the box in the bellhousing? I'm hoping the speedo drive gear is in there (in the right spot) but I haven't popped the electronic sender out to see yet. I need to do more research on the transmission stuff...

I got the fuel pump relay wired in today after work. Also picked up a $50 GM tbi throttle body and cleaned it up. I'm making a thick aluminum adapter to bolt to the stock IM. Also made my an injector harness (the damn plugs are $12-15 each!) that just goes to a three pin weatherpac so I can unbolt and unplug the tbi stuff if needed.

[rideblue00]

Nice pics with measurements there, subscribed!
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[Ta2Don]

and welcome aboard!!! Great start...
Looking forward to updates

[Lugnutz65]

Maybe you could do me a favor? I have a 1966 e-Brake setup that I pulled from my 1966 parts truck. It has a cable guide that looks like a pig tail. There is one on each frame rail. If you still have an original e-Brake setup on yours, maybe you could help me figure out which hole it should go in on each frame rail? Maybe? No rush. Thanks

[kieth]

Originally Posted by Lugnutz65

Maybe you could do me a favor? I have a 1966 e-Brake setup that I pulled from my 1966 parts truck. It has a cable guide that looks like a pig tail. There is one on each frame rail. If you still have an original e-Brake setup on yours, maybe you could help me figure out which hole it should go in on each frame rail? Maybe? No rush. Thanks

Here is a shot of my 66 gmc e brake cable.....hope this helps, mine is a swb fleetside. Kieth

http://kieth.smugmug.com/Trucks/66-G...7896&k=dP4bB7X



here is another view of the cable.
http://kieth.smugmug.com/Trucks/66-G...7236&k=v4Rpz77

[Lugnutz65]

Originally Posted by Captainfab

The closest I have is a '69 long bed frame, which has basically the same e-brake asembly.

Sorry, I didn't realize the fuel line was right in the way.
[IMG][/IMG]

Originally Posted by kieth

Here is a shot of my 66 gmc e brake cable.....hope this helps, mine is a swb fleetside. Kieth

http://kieth.smugmug.com/Trucks/66-G...7896&k=dP4bB7X



here is another view of the cable.
http://kieth.smugmug.com/Trucks/66-G...7236&k=v4Rpz77

Thanks guys. Those pics sure help a lot!

[61_FL_Apache]

Nice truck and welcome to the forum!

[awbrown]

Hi Snailed , I bought 4 63-65 trucks in Berwick Maine like 20 years ago and still have the 63,it was my daily driver til I moved to Michigan in 97 ......... You have a great truck there nice work ! ..

[Snailed]

Thanks guys, I think it will make a nice daily driver. I bet 20 years ago they weren't rusted out like all the Maine trucks are now I found plenty of them around here but all required new floors and rockers.

Bought an OE serpentine setup off a '98 C1500 for it. It includes all the bolts, crank pulley, alt, ps, ac and waterpump. Hopefully I can weld something on it if the bottom hole on the passenger side doesn't line up. I know I can drill the top inner one in the head. If not I'll clean it up and sell it and get a setup from the V6.

[Snailed]

I got the MegasquirtII all installed and running! I tested the fuel system for leaks, loaded a base tune and it fired up first try. It starts and drives sooo much better than a carb. The wiring was very easy, fun actually, and once I learned a little bit about configuring the ecu to work with the sensors it was just like tuning any fuel managment system. One step closer!

[wayno]

I grew up in Maine so to find a beauty in the northeast that isn't all rusted out..... nice work - watching this build for sure.

[Snailed]

Originally Posted by wayno

I grew up in Maine so to find a beauty in the northeast that isn't all rusted out..... nice work - watching this build for sure.

Thanks. It took A LOT of craigslist searching every couple days to find this one.

So here are some shots of the adapter I rigged up. The bottom is a potmetal Mr Gasket 4bbl adapter that came on the truck and the top is some 3/4" thick aluminum from some kind of huge antenna someone scrapped and a co worker donated a chunk to my project. I made the part that fits the TB and then just hogged out the flared shape with a big endmill in a Bridgeport. I matched it to the adapter plate and then smoothed it all together with a carbide burr. I welded them together the best I could (the pot metal is super dirty and inconsistent) and did a little bit more grinding to get rid of any big bumps. Then I cut about .025" off each side in the mill to make sure it was perfectly flat and it was ready to bolt up.


I made a some injector plugs from terminal pins and loomed it up in some techflex wire stuff I had left over from making some home audio stuff. Adding this short harness make it easier to remove the TB and provides a good place to split the injector B+ wire.


I welded some steel -6 AN male ends to the factory fuel line fittings and added a -4 port on the side of the feed to check fuel pressure from. These ended up working out really nice for about $15


This is what I came up with for the fuel plumbing. The feed is 3/8" Copper nickle tube that we had at work. The return is 3/8" aluminum my friend gave me. I had some Earls Prolite hose left over from my last project car so I bought some black Earls hose ends and some matching 3/8" tube to AN adapters. The filter is a Fragola 10 micron with O-ring to AN adapters in the ends. The zip-ties holding everything to the old feed line are from NAPA Oh and Lugnutz, you can see hoe the ebrake rod attaches to the frame. It's on a small pad the lets the rod pull squarely on the hole. Is yours this type?


And here is the whole deal mounted up with some RTV and four cap screws. I ordered some black braided loom yesterday to cover the whole EFI harness in.


I registered it today and took it out for a drive. The fuel neck will not handle full throttle on the gas pump. I'm sort of bummed about it but I don't foresee changing it anytime soon. Yes, I spilled a pretty good amount of gas into my bed and onto the ground at the gas station. oops.

I'm having a problem with an intermittent misfire on the left side. I think it's cyl 1 and 2 judging by how the timing light is very erratic on these two and no others. I idled the engine way too rich for a little while trying to figure out some settings and cleaned the plugs after (they had a very thick layer of soot on them...but I'm thinking I didn't do a very good job getting around the porcelain. It has no misfire at full throttle, middle to high rpms. I might try some new plugs tomorrow or at least switch sides and see if the problem follows. The cap, rotor and wires have less than two hours time on them and the wires have been checked by using a set of known good ones.

[Lugnutz65]

Originally Posted by Snailed

. . . . . Oh and Lugnutz, you can see how the ebrake rod attaches to the frame. It's on a small pad that lets the rod pull squarely on the hole. Is yours this type?

Here is a pic of my 66 cable mock up. The flat crossmember is from the old 65 eBrake setup. It might work well for my tranny crossmember, but I can't use it for both. It is still in the stock position. The 66 trucks don't have that crossmember because they use a newer designed eBrake system which I show in the same photo.

I need to find out where the red pigtail cable guide goes. The end hooks into a hole on the frame. It's not really red. That's just my drawing. LOL! There is one on each frame rail and it merely serves as a cable guide. I'm pretty sure I could just pick any hole that lines up, but I thought I might as well ask.
Thanks for the help and nice work (way over my head) on the "mega - whatever you call it". LOL!