Big John: 1972 C30 2WD dually w/ 11' dump bed

paradisePWoffrd said:
Luckily Rams horns arent that expensive these days
Click to expand...
True! I'm probably going to replace both, but I remember grandpa saying something about the passenger side manifold being hard to find one to clear the starter...looks like the typical log style manifold to me. I might end up going with some block hugger headers & re-doing the exhaust header pipes?
 
Out of fear of stuck/broken bolts, I picked up JB weld's extreme heat and exhaust wrap and tried a band-aid repair. I pre & post heated the cast iron and tacked the manifold in place, let it cool overnight & applied the extreme heat over as much as I could. The next day I did the exhaust wrap and let the engine idle for 30 minutes and then shut it off for 1 hour. Cranked it up again and it was back to normal! Gave it a quick test drive to the end of the road & back (~1 mile) and pulled into the driveway thinking I just got away with a $20 fix...checked for leaks, gave a celebration rev and it all fell apart again :)rolleyes:). Manifold bolts are being sprayed with PB blaster everyday until I get the nerve to put a socket on them...:shaking:

EDIT - also found one of the duals had a sidewall blow out...dammit Bobby!:dumbass:
 
Last edited:
While I had my dad spraying the manifold bolts every other day for 2 weeks I started reading tips & tricks for removing them and found a couple new ones I hadn't heard of before:
1) Get the engine up to temp and hold an ice cube on each bolt/stud until it melts and then spray them again (same concept as ice water in a spray bottle).
2) After the engine cools tighten the bolts just a bit and then work them back and forth until you get a full turn loose. Then snug them up until you get them all broken loose and back them all off 2-3 turns at a time. Theory with this one is if the manifold is warped you won't bind any of the bolts up & hopefully none will break.
I did the ice cube trick twice and then easily broke them all lose the next day with #2 above. The square ports measured between 1.34-1.42" and the circle port headers I found were 1.38" ID which I figured would be a restriction in the corners? So I opted for oval port headers and some header extension tubes from speedway motors (9300101 & 91013385). The headers got delivered over the weekend, but the extension tubes had an operational delay (now delivery is pending) even though they shipped from the same place at the same time and I saw FedEx drive by twice...WTF? I test fit the headers and they clear, but are close to the oil pan and starter so I'm going to wrap them and if/when I replace the starter again I'll probably have to get a mini-starter. If the tubes ever get delivered, I'll wrap them too where they pass beside the oil pan...I'm sure I'll have to modify them anyway to fit up to the existing 1.5 year old exhaust because I'm not re-doing the entire thing!

Also, got 2 new tires and put them on the front since steering & braking might come in handy. Date codes for the 4 that are on the rear now are all '09-'11, but they're doubled up so that averages to ~5 years old right? I see 4 more tires in the near future...

Grandpa actually asked me about it this weekend and I thought he was reliving his shade tree mechanic days, but found out he wants to borrow it to clean out his hangar/shop. I laughed out loud when he said he thinks he can get everything cleaned out of a 4k+ sq. ft. building in 1 trip! :shaking: I see 15-20 since we've already made 2 trips and you can't even tell a difference! Hell one of those trips was just old tires...there were 60 of them and my brother just found another pile!
 
The block hugger headers clear the engine mounts, but the exit is directly above the crossmember with a 1.75" gap...perfect for fitting a 2.5" exhaust tube! :shaking:
I've thought about notching the crossmember; but there are brake lines in the way that I don't want to redo right now, I don't feel like picking up a suspension drop crossmember ($:eek:$) & I can't think of a way to modify the headers to get more clearance due to the taper of the collectors. On the plus side it sounds decent (but loud) at idle; however, anything over 1k rpms is deafening loud! I really do want to get this finished up so my brother can borrow it while building his house, so I may have to find some mid-length, long-tube or custom-built headers to swap in. :shaking:
 
Well no inspiration came over the hours I spent looking at it and test fitting...I even tried jump starting the ideas with beer & whiskey!
Dropped off the broken manifold with @MarsFab & he welded it up, but being cast iron it broke right beside the weld after it cooled off. After looking on the interwebz I ordered new manifolds (driver is from a '72 C30, passenger is from a '88 C30) and they were dropped off the next day. New hardware & gaskets on the manifolds and I had to swap the studs on the passenger's collector flange for shorter ones and we're back in business! Its much quieter now, so I'm thinking its been leaking from bad gaskets or a cracked manifold for a while now.
 
Well I never wired up an ignition resistor bypass and lately its been difficult to start unless you jumper the ballast resistor. So I added the bypass from the starter and it fired right up and then immediately died after turning the key back to 'on'. Turns out the 'S' terminal on the starter grounds internally when not cranking, so I plan on adding a relay to make everything work.

While greasing & painting my ag roller to get ready for putting in food plots this year, I went ahead and primed/painted the top of the bed too keep it from rusting any worse. I'm planning on adding some sand or rubber chips to the last coat when I paint the rest of the bed.

To bookmark it for my future self for rubber chips & if/when I decide to keep the cab from getting any worse:
Amazon product ASIN B004OI2AOI
poppyspatina.com

Matte Wipe-On Clear Kit

Prevents further deterioration. Enriches colors and provides a UV protection One coat is sufficient for a long lasting effect Dries to a hard finish Maintain Clear Coat with our Detail Line Up Kit Includes 1 Can of Clear +1 Can of Catalyst +1 Can of Wax & Grease Remover + 1 Bag of Recycled Knit...
poppyspatina.com poppyspatina.com
 
Last edited:
The ballast resistor bypass relay works great...it consistently fires up in less than a second if its hot or cold!
Drove it around over the weekend & it started running hot...figured out the alternator shifted and the belt was just slipping on the water pump pulley so that was an easy fix!

Now I've just got to figure out why it stutters for 10-15 seconds every once in a while. Everything on the ignition side is new and I would think wouldn't cause a stutter, but would just kill the engine. Everything on the fuel side has been gone through at this point:
tank has been cleaned & sealed/lined before installation
carb was thoroughly cleaned
soft lines are new
hard lines cleaned & blown out
fuel appears clean and is <2 weeks old
in-line fuel filter seems to stay full
 
Well I was driving it around the other day and after a turn it just died, had the loudest backfire I've ever heard and then came back to life. Another time it did a stutter for several seconds, then drove fine for a few minutes and then the idle dropped to 600RPM. Long story short, I think the stutter is fuel/carb related...guess I'll be looking for another one since I can't justify ~$1,600 for EFI/HEI! :shaking:
 
Minor updates:
My brother broke one of the brake lights on the headboard with the tractor bucket and replaced it.
I've started adding B12 every other tank and that has really helped keeping the carb consistent.
I replaced the battery with another freebie and it fires right up again (knock on wood). Planning to add a small solar panel to trickle charge it while sitting.

I made a hydraulic safety lock and removed the reservoir to coat the inside/paint the outside, the pump to get it sealed and I'm going to get a new line made.
C30 kickstand.jpeg C30 pump & reservoir.jpeg
Yes those are bungees and hose clamps securing it temporarily; I'm waiting on hinges & flanges...no buses full of nuns in this neck of the woods!
Planning on sanding, priming & painting under the bed this weekend if the weather cooperates.

Washed it and wiped on VGG's shine juice...hopefully it looks as good in 3 months as it did after 3 hours!
shine juice1.jpeg shine juice2.jpeg shine juice3.jpeg
 
First time water has bead up on this thing in probably 30+ years! And on rusty metal too!
Resized_20230705_180324.jpeg Resized_20230705_180335.jpeg
 
After 12 weeks I finally lowered the bed back down on this thing! The guy I dropped the pump off with didn't do anything after 7 weeks so I picked it up and took it apart. The pump can be serviced by the original company in Kings Mountain, but without a commercial account I was SOL for a rebuild or parts. So I found a manual online and ordered new seals, O-rings and an adjustable restrictor valve (thanks to @braxton357 for confirming how to plumb that in!). I sealed the tank with POR15 since the Red Kote I had left over from sealing the fuel tank had cured in the can & primed/painted the outside. Got a new hose made, added a street 45* to keep the hose from kinking, put in breathers on the tank & ram and put in a clear hose from the tank to the pump as a cheap sight glass. Put it all back together with some padding between the tank & frame, filled it up with hydraulic oil and cycled it a few times yesterday and again today...happy to report no leaks as of yet and I don't feel like the frame will buckle when the bed lowers! Key word there is 'lowers' & not 'drops'!

Safety PSA - if you're ever determined enough to cut a hole in the headboard while the bed is raised so the rearview mirror is actually useful...chock the step ladder! The first time it slipped 3" and I didn't do anything...10 minutes later it slipped 2' and I'm just glad I had my elbow over the frame to catch myself!
Resized_Resized_20230723_100231.jpeg Resized_Resized_20230723_100240.jpeg

When welding in new expanded metal & braces to the freshly cut hole you get as close to the welder as possible.
Resized_Resized_20230723_110323.jpeg

The to do list is down to single digits:
Finish painting headboard & under bed
New sideboards & tailboard
DIY expanded metal grill
Fix heater
Install glovebox
Install 4.11 gears & locker
Fix/Replace proportioning valve for dummy light
Install temp switch for dummy light
 
Painted under the bed and headboard...only missed one spot!

What goes up, must come down...dad borrowed it last week to haul off some scrap metal and it died on him after a half mile. It stuttered at a stop and he eased on the throttle and it promptly died. Tried his luck for a while before calling my uncle for a tow and we have not been able to get it to fire since. The condenser & coil tested good, but I replaced them just in case. I figured if they didn't fix the issue, I would at least have some spares in the toolbox. I'm not sure how to test the points, but I replaced them too for the same reason and I'm still not getting an arc across the points.
Where it stands:
Fuel pump is working & fuel is clean
Bumping the negative terminal on the coil gets a spark on a test plug
The condenser holds a charge and discharges as expected
Gap has been set on the points, but I'm not getting any spark there
I'm tempted to either pull my hair out or finally pull the trigger on an EFI carb, but with my luck that will just cause more issues
My dad thinks he's cursed since it dies on him every time so he's hesitant to ever borrow it again

Any help or tips on what else to troubleshoot would be appreciated!
 
Still can't figure out what's going on with this thing and I don't need a 3+ ton paperweight so I think I'm going to throw a cheap HEI distributor at it to see what that does....fingers crossed!
 
Lurch830 said:
Still can't figure out what's going on with this thing and I don't need a 3+ ton paperweight so I think I'm going to throw a cheap HEI distributor at it to see what that does....fingers crossed!
Click to expand...
That's what I'd do. My old Catalina was having a similar problem so I swapped on an HEI distributor and rolled on with it. Worked perfectly.
 
Blaze said:
That's what I'd do. My old Catalina was having a similar problem so I swapped on an HEI distributor and rolled on with it. Worked perfectly.
Click to expand...
I'm giving myself until this weekend as my deadline for final troubleshooting/head scratching before I order parts.
I talked to a points ignition guru and he had no idea what to do next, but his first guess was condenser (first thing changed) or ballast resistor (2nd thing bypassed). After I told him that he just threw up his hands...didn't give me lots of hope!
 
Lurch830 said:
I'm giving myself until this weekend as my deadline for final troubleshooting/head scratching before I order parts.
I talked to a points ignition guru and he had no idea what to do next, but his first guess was condenser (first thing changed) or ballast resistor (2nd thing bypassed). After I told him that he just threw up his hands...didn't give me lots of hope!
Click to expand...
I hate screwing with points stuff so I pretty much immediately change to HEI when there is an issue. :lol:
 
Well I still don't understand why the points set-up wasn't working, but I installed the HEI dizzy & plug wires and got spark immediately! It still didn't fire, but that was because someone :)shaking:) wired the plugs 180* out. Got that fixed and quickly got the timing to ~14* BTDC and shut it down again. Down side is the old air cleaner will not fit with the new dizzy and I think the oil has a lot of fuel in it from cranking it without spark for the last 2 months while troubleshooting. Going to change the oil, verify the timing, wire in the tach and then get a new air cleaner for it.

On the bright side, I've got a bad points style distributor, ballast resistor & bypass relay and 2 sets of points, condensers & coils to misplace in case I ever work on another sbc!
 
Oil changed and set the initial timing at 15*BTDC and it sounds better & cranks faster than ever now!
Dad's supposed to take the load of scrap metal that he loaded up 2+ months ago off this week, I told him if it breaks down on him again he's either outlawed from going there or just not allowed to borrow the C30 ever again!

The only air cleaner I could find for the 2bbl reminds me of the whopper jr hands commercial. I've either got to paint the cover so it doesn't stand out as bad or buy/fab an offset one. The only plus side is you can get to the choke & throttle linkages a lot easier!
Resized_20231210_161142.jpeg hqdefault.jpg
 
This rig has made several more trips hauling off metal & tires and I need to start bringing in some logs next year to get more use out of the water stove. Went to an estate sale over the weekend and was interested in a few grain drills and packers for food plots, but they all went for more than I was willing to go. Did win the bid on a hay crimper, so I called on the C30 to earn its keep as a farm truck again. If I can't get the crimper working it will either be yard art or loaded back on the C30 and hauled off for scrap.
Resized_20241026_142621.jpeg Resized_20241026_142629.jpeg
 
Back
Top