What have you done to your square lately??

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78C10BigTen

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Tbh I really don't get into Halloween but I enjoy seeing those that do. That's cool, Ted good job. Bet the kids loved it.
I do because growing up my dad always had the wildest graveyard in our front yard, complete with real casket! He decked out wild for xmas also, always had people stopping to take pics. One year santa was rippin a wheelie on a dirt bike across the front yard, one year he was fishin in a boat lol...
 

82sbshortbed

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I had a ton of fun as a kid at Halloween fir sure. This is a pic of my neighbor's yard. They do it up fir all the holidays. Do a good job too. Plus a square too.

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idahovette

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Our Spider made from exhaust pipe and a BBC oil pan. i need a black extension cord!!
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Redfish

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I have been advancing the ignition timing on my TBI 350. The manual says to unplug the magic wire and set the timing at 0 degrees. I did that when I installed the new distributor and have never been satisfied with the power from this motor. I keep replacing old components with some improvement each time but I never have felt she was giving me everything she had. The exhaust never sounded right either.

I moved it up to 4 degrees and got an instant improvement in the midrange and the exhaust was sounding closer to what I expect a TBI 350 to be. Today I advanced it another 4 degrees, I am at 8 degrees BTDC with the magic wire unplugged.

How will I know if it is too far advanced? I am thinking I will hear pinging, valve rattle and experience difficulty starting it when hot. What do you experts think?
 

bucket

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I have been advancing the ignition timing on my TBI 350. The manual says to unplug the magic wire and set the timing at 0 degrees. I did that when I installed the new distributor and have never been satisfied with the power from this motor. I keep replacing old components with some improvement each time but I never have felt she was giving me everything she had. The exhaust never sounded right either.

I moved it up to 4 degrees and got an instant improvement in the midrange and the exhaust was sounding closer to what I expect a TBI 350 to be. Today I advanced it another 4 degrees, I am at 8 degrees BTDC with the magic wire unplugged.

How will I know if it is too far advanced? I am thinking I will hear pinging, valve rattle and experience difficulty starting it when hot. What do you experts think?

8* is very safe. In my experience, you will hear spark knock under load before the starter ever has trouble. As much as 12* is possible without knock, but it varies with truck weight and engine health.
 

TotalyHucked

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After I got the oil pan off and the gasket surfaces cleaned up on Saturday, I started on my helper bag install. This is a kit for a '99-07 NBS truck. Tackled the pass side first since I knew it would be a tight fit with it's forward facing shock. I'd ordered some spring plate shock mounts to relocated that shock to the rear of the axle but they wouldn't work with my U-bolts. So I decided to see if I could get the bag away from the shock enough just by modifying the top bracket. First 2 pics show everything as it came out of the box. The squarebody springs are roughly 1/2" further out from the frame than an NBS plus dealing with the shock, so I elongated the hole in the upper mount right at 1/2". That ended up being near perfect.

Also had to cut one ear off each side so it wasn't sticking down toward the axle in the notch and on the pass side, had to beat the other ear into the recess in the frame for the shock

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TotalyHucked

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Also had to open up the top holes a touch so the bolts from my notch would fit through.

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Much better. Still tight to the shock but I think it'll work. Time to fill it with air.

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I still need to adjust the bottom of the bag further out a touch so that it's in line with itself and that will also gain me another ~1/8-1/4" from the shock. Then I can tighten that lower bolt so it stays. So that's perfect.

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Driver's side

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59840Surfer

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350 Stroker to 383 with a 400 crank, Crane Cam, Q-Jet, single 3.5" exhaust..
A couple of days ago --- I added some 2 1/2" spacers to the rear differential and they went in OK.

That was done to get the truck more level since I ---- well, read on ....

The way it was ---

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Current pixs to come ---- maybe in a day or so, it's cold out and we expect snow.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The front steering or whatever got to a point where I couldn't hold the truck between the lines very good and the steering box was leaking, so with the steering pinballing and leaking, I replaced it.

Funny that the reman box didn't make a difference to the steering problem, and I next thought that the front springs had settled down (I put snowplow assist-springs on them about 22 years ago) ..... and my guess was wrong as they were not the problem at all.

Those helper springs brought the front end up about 2 inches and although it drove nicely, it always looked overloaded with a trailer on it - even though it starts low that way and really didn't get lower with the trailer on it or not. That was over 18 years ago.

Found it!
What's the chance that two boxes had a loose high center adjustment? --- DOH! I couldda laughed if it didn't cost as much and take as many weeks to fix - finally!
I messed up my own diagnosis!

Now with the rear spacers I feel the u-joints buzzing at roadspeed and a certain "flip-flop" at start up. They are tapered to help point the pinion toward the transfer case --- but maybe not enough huh?

Is there a CV conversion ever done on the rear driveshaft?
Should I just add some tapers to point the pinion even higher?
Can "normal" u-joints survive this sortta changed running angle?\


How come a retired mechanic with 56+ years in the trenches can miss a diagnosis like that? I wouldn't have missed it that badly with a customer --- but for ME? Nope!
 
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CRM

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Installed a new alternator. Volts dropped from 18.3 to 14.4. Also started installing new wheel well trim.

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