So I spent last weekend out at my friend's house and shop. When we moved my truck, it would just flat fall on its face and die. I knew it was electrical, and I had a damned good idea what it was.
This little jewel is the ignition switch, and it has contacts sandwiched between the metal and plastic layers. Eventually those layers separate; those contacts quit working; and random stall outs happen. It's mounted way down on the steering column up under the dash. I'm too old and fat to be flipping over upside down and working under a dash, so this happened.
Part of the process also involved replacing my original exhaust manifolds because one of them was cracked...badly. I'm too broke to buy good headers, so I decided to use the ones that came from the salvage yard with the engine. That presented me with a problem in that those manifolds have a lot more emissions provisions on them that the ones from 1984. No big deal. Three 3/4" pipe plugs fixed that right up.
Now some people ask me why I am willing to drive just over three hours to go do work on an old piece of shit truck that I could just as well do at home. Well, first and foremost, my friend who's shop I am working in and I have known each other since high school. I truly enjoy spending the time out there with him and his beautiful wife. They live in the country, and it is extremely relaxing to go out there for a few days.
Second, he has an amazing accumulation of tools and equipment. For example, we ended up having to do some minor alterations to those manifolds due to warping. (Minor as in using his drill press and a 3/4" bit to drill out 7 of the 8 bolt holes to get all of the bolts started. Yes, they still sealed up with no leaks.) Remember earlier I mentioned being old and fat? Well, the two post lift is also very nice for that particular situation.
Lastly, I also got to spend some time helping out on these:
It's a rough job, but somebody has to do it. Oh, and in case I haven't shared it before, this one belongs to my friend who's shop I was in.
-Wayne