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Got the passenger side plastic painted and we are aiming for the driver's side and front and rear bumpers today. Pulled the front off to make it easier to just mask the chrome and paint everything else. I am really liking the Krylon paint with primer product and it leaves a nice finish.

Got the driver's side pulled apart on the front end, but still have to drive the old races out and install the new ones. I can see the real need for a race/seal driver set, so it's off to Harbor Freight once again. I may end up using some differential heating/cooling to make the new races (cold) go into the hubs (hot) a little easier.

I figured out pretty quickly that the squealing belt that showed up Sunday was the alternator. After the window tinting on Wednesday, where the battery was stressed pretty hard by running the windows up and down several times, it was howling pretty bad on restart. I knew I should have had it rebuilt while the truck sat but I never did it. Now I'm going to have to pull and replace it. Rebuilt one should be here by Monday. Between that and the grinding idler pulley replaced last weekend, the engine should be considerably less noisy when it returns to service.

On the '86...LT stopped by on his way to work last night and did some work to get the fuel pump to fire off (the relay was the correct part). I know not of his electrical wizardry, only that it worked, insomuch as we discovered that there's a fuel fountain going on under there somewhere. Nine hours later and it still smells like gas outside... I'll find it and see what needs to be done...

John B.

Fountain of fuel was my/Clay's bad, we were both working on that. You needed to get some of that fuel al over the place anyway, it's good for the winter grass.

I didn't look at the '86 at all yesterday. Still smells like gas, though, ha ha.

Got myself a neato bearing race driver. That thing is the best. I put my new races in the freezer, cleaned up the driver's side hub after tapping out the old races and the new ones go in real nice and seat all the way. Pack the heck out of the new bearings and follow that weirdo procedure from the manual to set them up...119 lbs with the 'special tool,' which I have (Chevy socket with four of six ears ground off), back off to zero, retorque to 18, loosen to line up holes. The other side should go much quicker, except I have to replace a ball joint and a control arm bushing...

Got the front bumper trim all painted yesterday, plus the driver's side Aisin. That leaves the driver's side plastic and the rear bumper and the passenger side Aisin. Man, that makes a huge difference. I'll be all ready to cruise the mall in this thing when I'm done...

John B.

I have a couple of concerns on the '86. One, the fuel pump wasn't working when I keyed the ignition to "on" to check for my fuel leaks today. It ran when LT was here, though. I wonder what's up with that.

Second, I ordered an air filter for the engine, but it doesn't fit. The filter is perfectly round, but the filter housing is oval shaped. Every picture of the filter, from every manufacturer I have looked at shows that the filter is round. It does not appear that the can has been altered in any way, and I'm pretty sure I didn't order a filter for the wrong year since the 2.4 only used the style of filter like this in a couple of years. It also doesn't fit because it's a little too long, even though I'm really pushing against the spring clips on the inside of the bottom of the can. I may have to junkyard another filter housing. Weird.

John B.

Got the rest of the plastic painted yesterday. HoseB did all the spraying on it since he seems to do a really good job at it, at least he's way better than I am at it. Looks fantastic, especially compared to how faded it had become since 3 1/2 years ago when it was first done.

I still have the front suspension taken apart, but I'm on the passenger side now. I'm going to take a closer look at the lower swingarm front bushing tomorrow, as I have my doubts it needs to be replaced like Joel at the alignment shop seemed to think.

Got the races in the hub already. I really suggest putting those things in the freezer before installing them, as it really makes them go in so much easier than when the old ones come out, so that slight difference in size while cold makes a difference. The Aisin cleaned up a lot easier on this side, too, and the paint is on it and the bolts.

Got my latest box of parts from RockAuto on Saturday, which was a surprise, because I didn't think FedEx did residential deliveries on Saturdays, like UPS doesn't. So, I have my ball joint to put in tomorrow. Got the old one separated already and this time I used the hammer technique of rapping the knuckle, and sure enough, it popped it loose without having to use the pickle fork. Pretty cool.

My lower ball joints are ungreasable, at least the driver's side is. The zerk is just off center from the hole that lets you get the gun fitting on there and I can't unscrew the stupid zerk to get extended zerks installed, which I have. I may have to loosen the bolts and try to move it slightly, as it's not doing them any favors to be ungreased. Using a grease needle isn't the best answer, either.

I'm going to try to replace the alternator through the passenger side tomorrow. The thing squeals the heck out of the belt at start up when under heavy electrical load, and the belt is tight, so I know it's near its end. I've had troubled with it for years of unsteady output, too, where sometimes I see 12 volts on the gauge, sometime more like 14. It always gets lower when the truck is hot. I'll have to switch the pulley over to the new one because my reman unit didn't come with one. Sounds like they aren't pressed on (thanks for the text, Toasty), so for once I shouldn't have to buy yet another tool at Harbor Freight tomorrow.

John B.

If you haven't done an alternator on a 3.5 yet there is a super easy way, takes maybe 10-15 minutes. Just remove your air cleaner box and snake the alternator out that way, you shouldn't have to remove the power steering pressure line.
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Hadn't thought of that. Thanks. Plus, I already have everything off on the passenger side, so I'll get room to get the belt from there.

John B.

Got that little job done. The old alternator rattled when I shook it, which isn't good, from what I know. I spun it up with the air ratchet after removing the pulley and it sounded like it had rocks for bearings. Needless to say, the truck is much less noisy now.

Went back in to the driver's side to replace the brake pads, which I didn't have when the side was apart on Friday. I decided to attempt to get the zerk for the lower ball joint to line up with its little access hole (I couldn't get a grease gun to latch onto the zerk) and it turned into a regular ordeal. Then decided to try to enlarge the hole with various Dremel attachments, and that consumed a lot of time and also consumed the threads for the original zerk and made it impossible to even put a replacement on it. SO...I'll be replacing the thing today. Good thing I don't have to spend the $18.99 (ha ha) because AutoZone will be giving me the new one under warranty...

One of these days I'll be able to get an alignment and we'll call this done.

John B.

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