Working on the weekends, my son and I have been slowly bringing his beater 73 C10 up to snuff. So far, we have repaired the instrument cluster, senders and wiring, upgraded the ammeter to a voltmeter, gotten the wiring cleaned up, rebuilt the brake system, replaced the tailgate handle, installed new cab bushings and completely rebuilt the entire suspension and steering. We replaced the alternator and the power steering pump and hoses. We replaced the headlight switch, battery and battery ground cable. A previous owner put the headlight adjuster plastic nuts in from the rear. The nuts would pop out when we put them back in to the bulkhead and tried to adjust them, so the headlights were always pointing at random. We also painted the burnt orange and white replacement passenger fender flat black to match the rest of the truck.
We brought it down to the alignment shop to get it aligned, and when they were done, they were unable to turn the truck off. The ignition cylinder had stuck so that it was either in On or Start only. So today, we pulled off the steering wheel and replaced the lock cylinder. Turned out to be very easy.
We also put in new plugs and wires, requiring two trips to the parts store. We bought 73 spark plug wires and then learned that the Mr Goodwrench crate motor has the HEI ignition of the 83+ trucks, with the corresponding plug wires.
We had hoped to re-time the engine, too, but it got too late, having had to replace the lock cylinder. We do know that the previous owner has the timing set at 10 degrees retarded, we are not making a lot of power and the fuel economy is pretty bad.
After we get that done, we're planning on getting it onto a local dyno (with a wideband) to check the AFR, unless you guys can suggest an easier way of checking to see if the AFR is correct.
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