Finally managing to get back to the FMT, I have just a few things left to do on the truck before we can try to crank the thing over. The first thing in the last batch of work that I'm focusing on is the carburetor. Besides bolting the piece down to the intake, there's still a matter of getting everything hooked up, and hooked up properly that it'll all work good and hopefully not give me any trouble for a long while. As for the bolts on the carb, I had to trim down some longer bolts I had in stock as the smaller ones I had were just a little too short. I had a 4bbl gasket on hand along with the carb (since I done a number of rebuilds) so I was able to bolt the unit down securely in order to move on to the next phase, which is getting a fuel line established between the carb and the line that had already been set up on the truck's frame rail.
Since the carburetor already had a female compression fitting, I decided to stick with it and produce a fuel line using a male compression fitting versus trying to just install a hose barb on the carb and setting up the metal hose with extra pieces of rubber hose. I found a length of 5/16" tubing and had the right male compression fitting in stock with my tube bending/flaring tool set to make the fuel line. I set the line in place, hooking up the compression fittings together then manipulating the tubing to route its way around the back of the AC compressor and down past the power steering pump towards the main fuel line. I had to bend the main fuel line to have it be almost in line with the end of the new tubing set up. I was able to connect the two metal tubing ends with a short piece of rubber fuel line. With that part of the fuel line done I then moved on to the throttle cable. Since the truck's original throttle cable was extra-long due to the position of the original throttle body with the EFI system, I had to remove this and replace it with another shorter throttle cable. Luckily, I found a short cable that I most likely removed from the 73 Mustang or the Toyota truck that were both turned into chicken coops. The unit was short enough to fit well enough in the position of the carburetor and the truck's firewall. Only thing different I had to do was enlarge the hole where the old cable was located. After placing the new cable in the hole I had to retain the unit against the firewall. To do this I took a conduit bracket and trimmed out the middle to a U shape, allowing me to slip the bracket over the end of the cable where it plugs into the firewall. I was even able to shape the thing where the two bolt holes lined up with the bolt holes on the firewall. After bolting everything together, the throttle cable was in place solidly. The next thing in line was a bracket to hold the throttle cable in line with the carburetor's throttle lever so when the cable end moves in and out, it will move in line with the lever, ensuring smooth operation. Here, another angle brace came to the rescue. I drilled a hole close to the corner bend in the brace then trimmed the excess metal after the hole. This left an L piece that I was able to secure to a stud on the intake just behind the carburetor on the left side. Using a single nut, I had the brace in place. The throttle cable had a mounting piece that allowed me to secure it to the brace with a single nut/bolt. With the cable in place secured, there was still the matter of attaching it to the carb. On the end of the cable was a clip that would normally go around a ball tip on a carb's throttle. Since there is no ball tip, I had to figure out another way to attach the end of the cable. I ended up removing the snap clip on the cable end and drilling a hole through the hard shaft of the cable end. I then took a small bolt/nut and secured it through the carb's lever. I then took another nut and washer and slipped the cable end over the rest of the bolt's thread and secured it in place against the carb's lever. This negated the need for the ball tip or the snap clip on the end of the throttle cable. Lastly, I hooked up a spring to the bottom of the carb lever and the bottom of the angle brace that's bolted to the intake. The last thing I did on this session was make a small addition to the fuel line to ensure proper operation of the fuel system. Since the metal line running up to the carburetor only has a break that is hovering over the exhaust manifold, putting a plastic filter at this point would be highly dangerous. If the exhaust heat melts the filter and gasoline hits that hot point, well it's obvious what could happen. Again, the rubber fuel hose is better suited to withstanding some heat than a thin plastic fuel filter. Because of this I chose to put a plastic fuel filter right after the fuel pump, on the line along the fuel rail. This was pretty easy as all I had to do was disconnect the fuel line from the output side of the fuel pump then slide the section of fuel line forward a few inches. Afterward I installed the filter with a short piece of hose, securing everything with clamps and extra zip ties to ensure the metal line didn't move any more than what would be necessary. A couple of small bends at the front end of the fuel line to make up for the new location of the bend going up to the carburetor were all that's left to finish the whole fuel circuit. With the fuel system pretty much done, there's some electrical stuff I had to tend to. One of them is the plug where the fuel selector switch was located. I still have to figure out what to do about that. After thinking about it, putting a jumper in the circuit may not be the best option. I could put jumpers in place for the pump and the sending unit for the gauge but I'll have to verify the pinout of the plug before doing this, so I don't get any circuits crossed. Of course, I could just put the selector switch back, knowing that I have to keep it on the front tank and as an added security measure, switch the thing to the rear, so if someone did try to steal the truck, they'll have no luck as the pump will never come on unless they know to switch the thing over to the front tank. There is also a matter of figuring out how to bypass the whole idea that the truck's ECU will try to cycle things as if the EFI system were still in place. This includes the fuel pump. and maybe even the starting circuit. We'll have to take our time and get things sorted out to ensure that everything is set up properly and working as intended.
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