Like everything else with this heap, to do it right, you've got to be patient. All work ever done with this truck has been under a tarp. (The wife's been making noise about having somewhere sheltered to park her car at least once in the last year or so).
Getting down to the short-rows has the weather, as of noon today, set a new record for the Raleigh/Durham airport for the most consecutive days below freezing (I know, there's places with records of 32* below zero by the days). The forecast for the beach place a week from today is in the 60s daytime, 40s at night. That's NC weather for ya.
Finishing those short-rows today saw a high of 28* with windchills of 8* or there abouts. (I know, that's child's play elsewhere).
Do you know how long it takes to squeeze four quart bottles of 85W/140 lube oil through those stupid little nozzles when the oil is 20*? Son of a bitch! The last two bottles went into the microwave (Warning, the stuff expands a surprising amount doing that. Remove a little from the bottle beforehand. You're welcome).
I didn't get a "Cold Start" video. It was 20*, standing outside the truck (never touched the pedal), reached in the window and anfter the wait light went out, turned the key. It turned over maybe three times and I stopped. Turned the key again and the engine rolled over perhaps three more times and hit. The first 10 or so seconds, it was rough, but it then eventually smoothed out. There was a substantial cloud of greyish/white smoke for the first while. And all that sthi . . . .. . . .
Let it idle while my Son pulled the wheel lugnuts up to torque.
** The new block/leakspring perches on the new axle are about an inch taller than the stock/OEM perches. ---> GOT'CHA!!!!! <--- I don't care for the added rear body lift. We've decided the best fix will be to remove the OEM 8" (?) blocks and cut an inch or so from the bottom and put it back together.
Drove it into town and put ten gallons of fuel in the tank and drove it the long way back. - Absolutely unremarkable.
That's a good thing.
The feeling is starting to come back to my pointing finger.
Gotta tywrap a few loose things, and adjust the parking brake. I hope to drive it to the coast this coming weekend. I figure I'll tighten everything again there.
Damn-it! I'm On-Call the week after.