Moved a pile of Studes over the weekend to another warehouse, clearing out the shop area to make more room for the ones under construction. I hadn't had the Transtar on the freeway since I R&Rd the trans. It drove nicely until about 3 miles down the road when it lost power, acted fuel starved. Pulled over to the side, popped the hood - fuel filter bowl looked full, so I undid it and dumped it into the carb. Fired it up, ran for a few seconds and died. Filter bowl was now half full, so I traced the fuel line back to where it ran under the shift linkage - and was pinched there. Under the truck, pull the rubber line and re-route, fire it up and back down the road. All was good until I stopped at Sears later in the day. Put my purchases in the bed, turned the key and listened to the starter spin without engaging. No tools with me, but hey, I'm at Sears and I need a basic tool set for the house anyway. Back under the truck, pop the cover off the Bendix and press up, feel it engage. Cut a piece of speaker wire, tie one end to the starter solenoid up top, press up on the bendix, touch the wire to the brake light switch handily located next to the starter, truck fires up and I'm down the road again. All this is the result of misogyny - mating that goddam 700R4 to the
259. I wish I didn't love the way it drives so much - 70 MPH at 2200 RPM is hard to beat, and it gets off the line very nicely. The joys of old trucks....- posted
17 years ago