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Well, on Saturday the 27th, we got the bulk of our stuff out to the new place. It was damn hot outside, but luckily we had help in doing it all.

Much thanks to G’s Dad and sisters, as well as my good friends Clint and Justin.

We rented the “big ass” truck from Budget–the 24′ one. I don’t know if that bitch drives anything like a Deuce-and-a-Half but if so I’m SOLD on the Deuce. A buddy of mine is trying to steer me away from the mighty Deuce, but given that they’re so damn affordable (and cool…and tough…) I gotta get me one.

We have just about everything in the house, save for actually unpacking and setting everything up. DirecTV still isn’t working, neither is the phone or DSL, but we’re making due with DVDs and rabbit ears. I absolutely MUST fashion a doggie-door for the back door tonight. I attempted it over the last few days and failed miserably. Actually, I was doing good until I realized that the door I was replacing was in fact 31.75″ wide, and not the standard 32″ like the one I’d bought. I attempted to shave 1/4″ off the door and my jig slipped, causing a tapered cut. Now the door is ruined

I’ll be getting yet another door tonight and attempting it again. Hopefully I can find an attachable fence to allow me to make a consistent cut. Otherwise I’m screwed. Luckily the door was cheap as far as doors go ($50) but still. It was basically a big, heavy ass slab of wood and particle board. I had to cut out the mortises for the hinges, cut the holes for the locksets, and cut it to size. Not fun with the small assortment of tools at my disposal.

The dogs love the backyard. The big one (Mino aka “el Miño”) doesn’t dig the summer heat though. He’s 6 years old, and has spent just about his whole life indoors, except to go outside to use the “facilities”, at which time he’s on a run or a leash. He hasn’t built up the required stamina to stay outdoors all day long, and after a few minutes, he’s right back at the door. He’ll come in panting, drink some water, then lay down and rest.

The smaller dog (Bender) can deal with it. el Miño is black with thick fur. Bender, has short, light-colored fur and won’t come back to the door (usually) until you call him.

el Miño’s main purposes for going outside are to use the facilities, and play a little. Bender has decided that his job is to first, run to the end of the fence to yell at the other dogs. Once he’s stirred shit up and got all the dogs in the neighborhood barking, he barks for a while (loudly) and then decides that his work is done, and goes on “patrol” for a while.

If anyone is wondering as to the fate of my K5 Blazer…well, it’s at the Mr. Transmission. Last I heard they were going to start the inspection of the transmission and report back with any findings. Hopefully I’ll hear something today. The good news is, there’s a $400+ inspection fee, which will be waived if it needs to be rebuilt. If the transmission is deemed “good” then I’ll only pay the inspection fee (which is cheaper than the cost of a rebuild).

Then I can get back to trying to make the truck actually run worth a shit, which is what I was trying to accomplish back in December when it caught (or I caused it to catch) fire.

Watch for an update.

~jp

Research, hard work, and general sitting around thinking about the problem has paid off.

Not 30 minutes ago, I finished reassembling the distributor after first disassembling it, and reversing the wires on the pickup coil. Basically, the pickup coil tells the spark plugs when to fire. I was right, the two wires were reversed, and that was causing the engine to backfire through the intake, sound funny, and overall run like ass.

Tomorrow, I’ll call Mr. Transmission. They quoted me the lowest price on rebuilding it. This means I will likely meet my deadline of having it running this week!

:-)

This morning I dedicated pretty much the whole morning to researching my ignition problem on my K5. I won’t be able to check it until later today, (after work) but I believe I have found the solution.

To put it in the simplest terms, here’s how the ignition system works: Basically, when a combustion chamber is filled with gas and air, and is compressed to the max, the spark plugs fires and ignites the mixture, causing power. Now, while engine speed can and does increase, the rate at which fuel and air burns does not.

That means, as the engine goes faster and faster, the ignition system has to fire the plugs earlier and earlier to keep up. This is called “advancing the timing”. As the engine slows down, the timing is slowly pulled back to it’s originating point, aka “retarding the timing”.

The problem I’m having is, when the engine revs faster, the timing retards rather than advances! This is apparently stumping even some seasoned vets in the auto-industry. It’s a terrible problem, and the engine is running like complete crap and even backfires through the carburetor! (not good!!)

So, I went to my favorite thinking place (smoking area) at work and thought about the problem. I realized that while reconnecting and replacing all that was destroyed in my engine fire, I may have reversed two wires. I researched that, and it turns out, the symptoms associated SPECIFICALLY with having those 2 wires reversed would be exactly the problems I’m having!

Rock on…

So now I can’t wait for the work day to be over with so I can get under the hood and swap out those two wires. Hopefully everything will work out well. If the truck runs good tonight, then I’ll try to have it towed to the transmission shop tomorrow.

Wish me luck…

Ok… well, the K5 runs…sort of.

It starts hard, and idles rough. If I hit the gas, it backfires a huge puff of smoke up through the carb.

I have a small, as-yet-unidentified wiring harness. I looked it up in my factory wiring manual (the same ones the folks used on the assembly line) and it only adds to the confusion. The closest thing to my engine in the book is a California-emissions V6, yet mine is a Tennessee V8!?!?

I’m thinking since the K5 was once a KPD (Knoxville Police Dept.) truck, that maybe Chevy sells all gov’t vehicles with California-approved emissions control equipment.

Either way, between the weird wiring harness, and the crazy-ass backfiring, I’m a little annoyed.

Yes, I am aware that this is my 2nd update in less than an hour. Deal with it. It’s been a while since I updated the Absolute Pickens online Newsletter, so I have much to annouce.

Houses:
I am moving a week from today. Yes… I got me a house in Grayson, GA. Actually, I’m moving BACK to a house in Grayson. My ex-roommate Tony got remarried, and in the process acquired 2 stepkids. To say the least, they are running out of room. Congrats to Tony on the nuptials, and the purchase of a new home in Woodstock, GA. He offered the house in Grayson to me for a good price, and with friendly payment terms. I could not turn it down.

On top of that, I know the area is low on crime–I did live there after all… The backyard is huge, and will give the dogs plenty of room to run around, and it’s already fenced in. Much work has been done on the house too… I’ll post pics once we’re moved in.

“And that’s all I have to say about that”…

Now for the guns… After my truck was broken into months ago, I decided to go ahead and arm myself. I had originally wanted a Uberti .45. Uberti makes some damn fine replicas of the old 1873 Colts (nicknamed “The Peacemaker”) that won the Wild West. As someone once said, “God made all Men, Samuel Colt made them equal.”

Well, as much as I love the look of those Ubertis, I realized something. Since they are replicas, they also replicate the one undesirable quality of that old Colt–the firing pin. The Colts could only safely be carefully loaded with 5, not 6, rounds, and the hammer had to be down on the empty chamber. The problem being that the gun could accidentally go off if dropped because the firing pin would rest directly on the back of the bullet. This issue with the Colts is so well known in fact, that competitive shooting organizations like the SASS (Single Action Shooting Society) require guns to be carried with only 5 rounds during events. This is true even for the modern guns, like the Rugers, although probably only for tradition’s sake in those cases.

Well, after reading some, I arrived at the conclusion that Ruger’s variation on the “Peacemaker” theme would be a much better purchase. Not only that, but cheaper. Ruger’s Blackhawk is a modernized version of the old Single Action revolver, but with a firing pin mounted to the frame–not the hammer–and which utilizes a transfer bar to keep the firing pin off a round while not being fired. This means carrying with all 6 chambers loaded is safe against accidental discharges.

As luck would have it, my friend Chuck Matthews was selling a nice Ruger Blackhawk, seen here. The price was right, so I picked it up on Valentines Day (2.14.2006). Since that time, I’ve become quite familiar with the gun, and put quite a few rounds through it. I like it, but decided I wanted something more traditional. Which leads us to…

My Ruger Vaquero… The Vaquero is built on the same super-sturdy frame as the Blackhawk, and utilizes the same safety features, except it has fixed sights, and in general is made to look like the old Colts. In other words, it’s literally the best of both worlds: Modern function, with old-world form.

See Ruger’s page on the Vaquero here.

After shopping for a few months online, and looking at all the variations of the Vaquero, I decided the “dream gun” would be a Vaquero, with a 4.75″ barrel, blued finish on the cylinder, barrel, and grip frame, and a case-hardened finish on the main frame. I fell in love with the less-common “Birdshead” grip frame. While it’s smaller than the standard grip frame (as seen on my Blackhawk) I still like it. That’s weird, considering the standard grips are somehow too small for my large hands.

In addition, I knew I wanted it in .357 Magnum. That’s due to the fact that it damn near impossible to find the .45 “Colt” (aka, Long Colt) ammo used by the Blackhawk. That, and the .45 Colt ammo you do find is for target practice, or competitive cowboy-action shooting. Not the best stuff for self-defense. It’s hard to find a “hot” .45 Colt load with a good hollow-point bullet. Not so with .357 Magnums!

To make it an even sweeter deal, I can shoot a cheaper .38 Special round in the gun. Actually, .38 Specials are around half the price of the .357s.

So there you have it. Visit the links to check out Ruger’s site, as well as my own pages on my Blackhawk and my Vaquero.

~jp

Wow… I must say, I never thought the sound of an engine starting would cause me so much happiness. Today, finally, after many months and several failed attempts, The Beast awoke.

The nearly catastrophic fire back on December 28th, 2005, destroyed most of the wiring harness under the hood of my truck. Thanks to Shades (Matt Levene) for the replacement wiring harness. I’d installed most of it months ago, but got stuck when I broke the bolt off in my tranny that holds the kickdown cable in place. Because I’m moving a week from today, it was imperative that I got the truck running this weekend. I have to have the tranny rebuilt, and hope to have it towed to the shop this coming Monday, the 22nd.

After replacing about everything in the distributor, it wouldn’t spark worth a damn. Connecting a screwdriver to a plug wire and holding it against ground gave very little spark. I received a used distributor in the mail that including some useful parts. I only ended up using the ignition module though. I installed it using a Chevy-approved modification to simplify things. It should result in an overall better-running truck.

Turns out, my attempts to get it running this past week were utterly futile, as I’d unfortunately left out a crucial part. There is a tiny wire that runs from the ignition coil (in the distributor) to a connector. Without getting technical, I’ll say that without it, the truck won’t run, and in the process, the ignition module will get fried. Well, I think it’s pretty safe to say that I fried 3 ignition modules.

So the wire was properly installed. I didn’t have that little wire, no idea where the original one went either. It came with my new ignition coil, which probably wasn’t needed The shitty part is, that new coil ($70) was unreturnable once the package was opened. Oh well, now I have a “performance” ignition coil, LOL.

So anyway, I crawled into the driver’s seat, as I had so many times in the last 2 weeks, and tried to start it up. Much to my surprised, it took a deep breath and shot out a huge plume of smoke from the tailpipe. It didn’t want to run, but I feathered the gas pedal until it was able to maintain an idle. I got out and adjusted the timing a bit to get it running a little better.

So I’ve cut it off, and I’m waiting on the engine, as well as the outside temperature to cool off some before I head out to clean up and secure the wiring under the hood.

Monday, (provided I get it running well enough) it’ll be towed to the tranny shop. They’ll drill out and re-tap the hole for the tranny kickdown cable, and while they have it open, change the speedo gear for the 3.73 gears I had installed when the rear end was rebuilt.

It’s been a long road, but I can finally see the end in sight.

Thanks to everyone for all the help in getting it up and running again.

~jp