1962 Chevy C10 Truck - Feb 2008

Unable to discover how I'm supposed to do all the other alignments, I contented my self with just doing the toe-in . I figured that keeping the original spacers would ensure that the caster and camber would be right enough. The manual reckons you should have between 1/16" and an 3/16" toe in. Plenty of grease meant that the track rods rotated very easily. I'd heard about putting a straight edge alond each tire above the bulge at the bottom and then measuring front and back. Not having done this before I figured you'd measure in front, then behind the wheels and then easily figure out what the rear measurement sohuld be, adjust and it's done. But some how it wasn't so simple - you'd take an 1/8" off the back, but the front wouldn't increase by an 1/8". Still eventually I ended up with a toe in of an 1/8" so the job's done even if I have no idea how I got there.

Big progress here - the truck's now under cover, which means I can feel guilty when not working on it when it's raining.

Next up was the core plug - obviously it's the one that's difficult to get to, so it was off with the inlet and exhaust manifolds. Not a major job since they're only held to the block by six bolts. Two more on the exhaust down-pipe and it was all off. Bit of bashing and the plug was out.

Here's a closer view of the hole where the plug came out. Note the orange horizontal lines between the vertical ribs on the side of the block. More on those in a bit...

Where to get a 235 core plug? Down to the parts store and after a surprisingly short search, it turns out that Escort corssflows have the same sized plugs.

With everything bolted back together I eagerly fired it up and.....found that the block was cracked. There will come a point when this kind of stuff stops happening?

On a positive note, the alternator turned out to be OK. I'd figured something was amiss when it was chucking out 17 volts. I was thinking that something was wrong with it until a friend suggested wiring up the charge light. Wired it up and the voltage dropped to 14v. And the charge light works no too.

Next up is fixing the block (bet that'll be easy) and the handbrake. Then fitting new cab mounts and we'll be off to the MOT station.