Boomer the BOOM truck.
Good day rustlovers! As you remember from the last chapter of The Free Model T, I have a scattered pile of projects that I have teased:
- The summer project is getting a full engine rebuild.
- Everything is getting keyless entry.
- My old Cummins truck is getting a transmission.
- Big Black is getting lots of stuff.
- I start over with another free car!
What fun! Well let’s start with the easy one. When I sold my 98 Ram Cummins to a friend it went with a warning: “The transmission is good now but the bands are at the very end of their adjustment so it will need a rebuild”. Well 30,000 miles later it started to slip badly so we pulled it out! It’s not very blogworthy because we didn’t actually fix it, just dropped it of at M&M transmission in Lemon Grove Ca. who I highly recommend. 2 days later we put it back in.
If you’ve never installed an automatic transmission, there are 2 splined shafts on the transmission that have to line up in the torque converter. The torque converter also has a coupler that slides into the trans to spin the pump which is the tricky part: it can only be installed in 2 positions. I highly recommend seating the torque converter into the trans, rotating it so the notches that drive the pump are vertical, then marking the torque converter accordingly with a sharpie.
Once the torque converter is bolted to the motor, rotate the motor so the torque converter is oriented the same way you had it in the trans and everything should slide together nicely. Always pour a quart or 2 into the torque converter before you install it!!!
Although I can’t wait to talk about the motor for the summer project I think that needs to be it’s own post as does the work on Big Black so let’s dive into the free cars! That’s right carS, plural!
You may remember the dismembered 2002 grand Cherokee that needed a radiator from the end of a post a few months ago:
Well after having to replace the radiator, water pump, a/c system, heater core, battery, alternator, starter, tires, front suspension etc. it started overheating and failed a block test: blown head gasket. Rather than continuing to hemorrhage money, my good friend Mr. Nathan decided to pass it into my hands.
For a car with almost 200,000 miles it’s in good shape but has myriad problems. The check engine light is on, seatbelt light, airbag light, overheats, Trans grinds/groans going into gear, various bulbs out and a ghost is haunting the electrical system! Spoooooky!!!!
Also I got a BOOM truck!
This truck was left behind on a friends property by an out of state construction crew. They sent him the paperwork but when he tried to pass Caifornia’s extremely stringent emissions test he was denied. The truck was lacking some of the most fundamental factory emission equipment. This truck was free but with some strings. It’s worth at least a few hindred at the junkyard so once it’s sold Charlie needs a cut.
This is my very first boom truck but I am more than familiar with 454’s and hot hydraulic hoist hardware so I knew it would be a breeze… until after I fixed it and it actually failed it’s smog check… spectacularly. Comically even.
When I picked it up the truck was hard starting and rough running but I didn’t see anything a little hard work couldn’t fix. I tore apart the dash, installed a check engine light (there was none!) and ran through the pile of codes.
- Bank 1 lean
- Bank 2 lean
- EGR
- All 4 o2 sensors voltage out of range
- Bank 2 downstream O2 sensor heater malfunction
- Evap system malfunction
When there are this many codes I usually clear them all and see what comes back but with 2 codes on one O2 sensor I chanced that it was bad and changed it. Parts darts! After I changed it, I reset the codes and drove the truck performing the drive cycle until all but the o2 heater monitor were clear. Yay, no engine light! I tried a few times to start the truck cold with a big draw on the batteries to run that monitor but had no luck. The alternator is oversized and BOOMER has 2 shiny new interstate batteries, also it has no working a/c and no defroster so that’s probably why the monitor hasn’t run yet.
Because of its vintage I am allowed any one monitor to be incomplete so I went down to AAA smog and the tragic comedy unfolded. I’ve never seen the words “GROSS POLUTER” appear in red instead of pass or fail. In fact I’ve rarely seen “fail”. More work would be required.
With a hydrocarbon level that high I knew I had unmetered air or raw fuel going into the cylinders. Based on the codes I had seen initially it could have been either. As it turned out, it was both. And more!
I started by buying the regular tune up components but when I started pulling the spark plugs they were dripping wet with fuel. The injectors were obviously leaking by badly.
I pulled the upper intake manifold to get at the injectors but it would also be MUCH easier to change the cap, rotor and coil with it off because they’re all stuffed deep in the back of the engine compartment. Taking it all apart I discovered a loose distributor and a bad EGR gasket. Oops. 2 plug wires were also shorting badly onto the left exhaust manifold.
Once the injectors were visible I turned the key on and off 2 or 3 times to build fuel pressure and found 6 of 8 injectors were leaking, 2 were stuck almost totally open.
I got up on the eBay and found a set of cheap Bosch injectors that claimed to be an upgrade. The side difference made me a little nervous but they ended up seating nicely.
I cleaned all the gasket surfaces and reassembled everything with new felpro gaskets with my best helper Miss E.
She’s a climber and there was no keeping her out of my engine compartment.
So, what to do with a now nicely running boom truck… Trim my ugly palm tree!!!
Until next time Rustlovers,
What would YOU do with a boom truck? Tell me in the comments!
