The bad news,,, the van didnt start

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The bad news,,, the van didnt start,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,  the good, it didnt start parked in the shop at a time I really didnt need to go anywhere.   Its been a little process of fix up like any other used truck a guy moves in to but the bones are super in a big way and I been thru most of it and even better it was done before me.  I was parking inside last fall and spot a coolant leak early and took me a bit to really relaize the thermostat was giving me a problem which was a dumb moment when I call the engineer over to say,,, wtf which I should do sometimes at the beginning.    I am already well tired, reason I sat here in the first place, called the secretary for emotional support and she gonna come back to work and trouble shoot it some and give me a kick start if I need it.  I had been in the shop and been able to survive retiring a couple trucks for a while and then it occurs to me, I am playing musical trucks and what a pain and finally fell in to this despite some other adventures and its been nice having so much in one spot relatively ready to go like fire truck.  My last truck was the one I drove was a mini van which was nice except for being work out rusty junk, it looked terrible but man it was comfy and drove so nice.  It was bad for business, people knew me didnt care but you couldnt hand out business cards from it.www.urkafarms.com
Reply:I shall price fuel pump while here while drinking 2 cups of coffee.   Got used to it again and been test driving it on some chores and glad to find a problem. Bet its on the shelf at my local store about 25$ more than the net which isnt bad.  After a while the truck is like a security blanky, and its just scrap every minute it doesnt run.Last edited by Sberry; 10 Hours Ago at 05:13 PM.www.urkafarms.com
Reply:I did a head gasket job on one of the Oldsmobile 350 diesels back in the day at the insistence of the owner, he was adamant about it and got pissed and didn't want to pay the bill, we finally got him to understand that he had demanded the job be done , and I got to change the thermostat which fixed it, hopefully he learned to listen to his mechanic.NRA LIFE MEMBERUNITWELD 175 AMP 3 IN1 DCMIDSTATES 300 AMP AC MACHINELET'S GO BRANDON!"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Reply:It was a duh moment after some extra work in which we double checked and even replaced a couple good pieces.  I dont usually do that but got caught up in it and a minute of u tube and we did the job in a freak set of weather conditions we just didnt grasp the concept. It was so cold out with a test drive and not enough insulation in the van even but the ga never move during a test where we pulled it out and let idle in the cold.  Grabed the heat reader ansd sure as snot, rad warm, engine cold, duh.www.urkafarms.com
Reply:So much for our failures, they aint all winners in diy land.  We push it in to the service bay, when I bought it the guy said it had a floor patch for this job and I know its not all rusted, so we put the round thingy with the needle and the numbers onm it a minute ago and I said,,, sheet, its gonna start and it did but we read thru the thing with the pitchurs in it and says we sposed to be 60-66 and we are a rock solid 50.   We had a couple minor incidents with it before we fix the intake, cleaned it and all the top end stuff up and it just runs so good that it was working despite being low on fuel pressure and,,,, it was a job where I knew I was forgetting something and couldnt figure out what it was and it was fuel pressure.   It worked and never had another problem till now and I simoly forgot to do a routine test,www.urkafarms.com
Reply:Its a 5.7 in a 99 and seems there were a generation sort of notorious for fuel pumps.  In fact had one fail in a customer car not too long ago was about 6 months old and a bud said he had similar replace and fail in same type generation etc.  The fact I could get at it top side in side makes it semi serviceable during travel.   I happened to stumble on a new set of plugs someone gave me a while back and glad I didnt buy them.  I pulled 3 or 4 or more when I had the covers off and they were a thing of beauty and let them in.www.urkafarms.com
Reply:So,,, not going with the idea cause it now runs even 10# at a minimum too low that its ok and we gonna wait and see what happens,,,, NOT!.   The upside of all this is,,, even if I paid myself well I gonna have 5 or 6 large in a truck I cany get workwise for 30.  Only downside is if I had to choose and should asj here for suspension experts but 250 would habe been sprung nicer for my ruff roads.  I will get a pic or 2 in a bit.www.urkafarms.com
Reply:I be back.

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Reply:Try again.  Pic 3 post above shows stuff between the seats, this is about the best setup I ever have.  A mini van was ok but this has so much mo9re room in the cab and I have 2 seat belts in the rear seat.  Anyway, I carry that stuff all the time, there is a Maxstar buried in there and I do have torch too although I rarely use it with the advent of modern battery tools.  I bought winter tires for the rear and managed to put 20 miles on them so off they went and the old ones back on during nice weather.

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Last edited by Sberry; 7 Hours Ago at 08:05 PM.www.urkafarms.com
Reply:I know its sideways in post 8 but can see bottom back, heavy duty hitch and 4, 6 and 7 way sockets, brake ready. Put a couple interior lights on separate switches, that was a super help.  I have other pickups if I really need it but this is weather tight and roomy to toss equipment on sometimes dailey per project and had the secretary pick up a full pallet, 4K of bags conc mix set in the back and still handled fair.  I pulled 3 different bigger trailers with it, one a 31 travel trailer and another bigger equipment one and done like it was made for it.  There is some stuff hard top see, dirt augers, place for pinch and pry bars, some chains and rigging stuff along the floor stashed in there.  I thought I was going to a welding job and that tub is full of shorts. I have a table vise horse setup I can toss on if needed.  I went to a job the other day, they figured for me to take the thing home and weld it but I didnt even do that, drilled a hole and put a bolt in.Last edited by Sberry; 7 Hours Ago at 08:22 PM.www.urkafarms.com
Reply:So I am working on the bathtub curve I see posted in another thread thinking that the more stuff I fix the less there is to go wrong.www.urkafarms.com
Reply:Not a bad looking van.