Yeah I’m still thrashing on the sonofabitch.

I’m making some progress too

For example,

One of these two sensors is a proven liar.

The other one is shady as fuck too.

So I replaced ’em both.

The temperature gauge in that thing has never really worked right but after my little excursion across the river the other day in 85 degree weather and the temp gauge barley moved, it was time for that sensor to go.

Cured that problem right away. A quick trip up to the store earlier confirmed that the temp gauge is working like it should now. I found that oil pressure sensor up in front of the oil filter, right behind the lower radiator hose. I bought both of them yesterday. After getting the nasty thing out with barely enough room for the special socket I bought just for those Ford sensors twenty five years ago, I immediately discovered the one they sold me was way too big around to get back in the hole. Yet another return trip to the parts house. This is a perfect example of why having at least two rigs is a must for me.

I jumped in the Caballero and ran up there.

A few minutes after I got back it was in.

I also figured out why it seemed so gutless and was having trouble getting started. I suspected it but decided to try pulling the distributor just enough to back it up one tooth. I marked that bastard in two places clear back when I had to pull it to change the ignition module when it stranded me a few months ago. I marked it again in two places when I pulled it to do those intake bolts. Both times I made damn sure I put it back in the same place. This last time though I noticed I had to crank the distributor way over to get it to run half decent. Moving it one tooth centered it again and now it runs better than ever. I should have checked that a long time ago apparently. Even more *STBD that I am still running into.

After that I had to unplug the idle control solenoid and crank the set screw way in to set the hard idle.

While I was messing with that, I remembered the damn throttle cable was messed up. A big chunk of the plastic tube that it slides in and out of had broken off and some little pieces of it were stuck inside the return spring. I called to check price and availability and the Wifely Unit caught the conversation . She jumped my shit and told me I didn’t have any money.

Payday is tomorrow.

She didn’t remember that I had this other account and got bent out of shape about it.

I keep just enough money in it for exactly this kind of thing, for when she tries to tell me I don’t have any money.

So yeah, I had enough for it in this other account so I went and grabbed that too.

Winter is coming and that is the entire reason I bought this thing in the first place.

Five years of scaring myself silly driving back and forth to work up and down the hills around here in the ice and snow in that fucking Caballero was enough.

So after this round of thrashing on it again, I know the oil pressure is still a bit of an issue but I am comfortable enough that it will be OK for what I need and I am going to quit worrying about it.

I need to put some rear brake shoes on it in a bad way and that is going to be the next big project, probably mid September when I have a little money again after the bills get paid.

Somewhere out in the garage I have a new rear brake anti lock sensor too.

Then the muffler. There basically isn’t one on it right now, it looks more like a big round cheese grater than a muffler. Not that I much give a shit how loud it is, I just don’t want to run over it and have the tail pipe get wrapped around the axle housing when it decides to come completely apart.

Been there, done that.

But for now, all of the dash gauges work, except the volt meter which I suspect the previous Bubba fried, fucking around installing every cheap electrical gizmo known to man on the fucker and after I removed all that shit plus the extra wiring I fixed the charging system and wired up a separate volt meter and mounted it up on the dash next to the door. I even wired it to the lights.

The heater works good, the lights work, the 4 Wheel Drive works and it has good rubber on it. The battery is new, the alternator is new, the belts and hoses are new and I put a new thermostat in it not too long ago.

The back brakes get done and I should be ready for Old Man Winter.

I am really, really, hoping that the light at the end of the tunnel I am seeing isn’t one of these this time.

*Shit That Bubba Did.

Stupid fuckin’ Commie.

Sent to me in an Email by a sweetheart of a little 85 year old lady.

I ain’t kidding, it was like someone turned all the really stupid ones loose today.

After running into a shit load of ’em I stopped to pick up something to drink on the way home and the checkout girl asked me how I was doing today.

I told her I was going home to get away from all the stupid people.

She thought that was pretty funny.

I was dead serious.

She is the reason that I am not either dead or in prison. It’s kinda hard to blog from either position.

There aren’t too many wimmin’s out there with the constitution or the patience to put up with my ornery old ass so that oughtta tell ya something

I done good.

One from slamming on the damn brakes and another set in the skivvies.

It’s like the idiot in the car didn’t even notice the damn load on the trailer was almost on top of him.

I’m trying to post this from my phone so please have some patience

You need to go read this whole thing but most importantly you need to read the last part

Then you need to go find the nearest Commie Fucking Democrat at hand and stick it in their face until they beg for mercy and swear on their Mothers eyes that they will shut their fucking mouths about Russian Collusion forever.

Misfud and Halper Cop to Being Agents Tasked With Targeting Trump People: Who Gave the Order?

I am dead serious, if you ever find yourself down on the Southern Oregon Coast in the Summer time, you need to go do this.

My dad’s parents took me and my little brother on one of these trips when I was bout ten or eleven years old and I still remember it to this day.

This outfit has three different levels of screaming fun for you to choose from.

We went on the Historic Mail Route run that is 64 miles long and that is the short one. It takes you way the hell up the Rogue river to a very nice little place you can hang out at until it is time to make the run back.  I’m not kidding you when I say that these things haul ass and they skim over water that is mere inches deep. You can see the rocks go flying by underneath.

If you have kids or Grand kids, they will be like me and remember it fifty years later.

Guaranteed.

It’s pretty cool I gotta admit but between the truck, the matching bike and that gizmo,we are talking some serious pocket change these days.

My fingers are crossed.

Ever since the day I bought this miserable nightmare of a rig, as soon as the engine got good and warmed up to operating temperature. the oil pressure would fall off a cliff when it idled in gear at stops. Sometimes it would drop to zero and the Red Engine light on the dash would come on.

I have heard the rocker arms rattling before because the oil pressure fell off when I gunned it and it shifted gears.

After this latest round of wrenching on the bastard and finding all the gunk built up inside the engine, I filled it with whatever remnants of oil jugs I had laying around and a couple of quarts of ATF. I also left the old oil filter on it because I know I had knocked some serious chunks of crap down into the pan when I was scraping all of the built up gunk out of the valley between the heads where the lifters are.

Then after I finally got it started I just let it sit and idle for a while during which time I went around it checking for leaks. It ran for some time before I shut it off.

Later on I went out and drained the oil pan, left the plug out for a half an hour and changed the filter. I figured I would give it time to drain out real good and give any chunks a chance to work their way to the drain. What came out was in a word, nasty.

Then I put the drain plug in and filled it with 20/50 Wt oil plus a bottle of STP oil treatment because that stuff is the shit. I have been using it since the late 70’s in every rig I have ever owned.

Since then I have only driven it for round trips to the store and a trip to my Buddy’s house yesterday. A couple of miles round trip each time but enough that I can feel heat coming from the floor with the heater on. Even if it has been close to seventy five degrees around here.

I have been watching that oil pressure gauge like a hawk too.

I have been waiting for the pressure to drop off at idle after it gets warmed up but I never did see it. I figured maybe I just hadn’t run it hard enough yet.

Well I just got back from a lengthier trip up close to by where I work. I had some business to take care of. It’s pretty damn warm outside and this was in light to light traffic, about seven miles one way. Plenty of opportunity for the thing to get up to operating temp.

One time, when I was almost there, I had to stop at a light and I saw the oil pressure gauge start to fluctuate but it never did drop below the “N” in Normal on the gauge.

The same thing on the way home when I had to stop and the idle dropped down to about 700 RPM. Usually that’s when it would have dropped clear to zero and the Red Engine Light would have come on. One again it fluttered for a second but never dropped below that “N”.

Other than that, the oil pressure read up where it is supposed to, even at idle, without any fluctuation all the way there and all the way back..

I also noticed the thing seems to run smoother and the idle quality is definitely much better and smoother. As a matter of fact, it has never run this good since I bought it.

Cleaning all the carbon build up off of the fuel injectors and inside the intake manifold couldn’t have hurt.

I’m thinking the screen on the oil pump pick up tube was probably clogged up with all the gunk that was all over inside the rest of the engine and that ATF must have acted like a solvent and cleaned it out.

All the more impetus for me to drive it a bit more and change the oil again.

I won’t know for absolute certain until I take it for a nice long drive on the freeway on a hot day but so far I am certainly encouraged that just maybe that major issue might have been taken care of.

Because I was really starting to run out of this stuff,

Sorry Notwende, not quite yet it appears.