Four years ago, I knew just enough about engines and brakes and car stuff to do basic maintenance without getting myself into trouble. I was comfortable with the basics of a tune-up; I could swap spark plugs and wires and change oil and brake pads and do basic bodywork—mainly skimming Bondo over dents. I’d had enough experience in the repo lot, with my own cars, and with home renovations to know the ins and outs of most the tools and materials. But as the years went by, the guys willing to work on old iron started retiring, and it got harder and harder to source a reliable mechanic.
When I bought Darth Haul I knew I was going to have to take a lot of the work on myself, and that was the point. I’d already taken the welding class so I knew I was in good shape to try more serious bodywork, but the engine stuff—the deeper stuff beyond cleaning out a carburetor—that was the scary part. Over the course of the last two and a half years, between working on Darth, Bob’s Chrysler, and several of my friends’ trucks, I’ve learned a ton about how engines work, how to diagnose more complicated issues, and most importantly, how to not let the fear of breaking something stop me from trying.
A couple of weeks ago, I took the plunge and installed a fuel injection system on Darth. We’re not talking about something as serious as tearing the top of the engine off and getting down to the camshaft, but it was a lot more involved than swapping the plugs. My experience pulling off grotty old carburetors and cleaning them came in handy for bolting down a shiny new unit. Ordeals with clogged, leaking and absent fuel lines was vital for routing a fuel system not designed the way the EFI manufacturer was expecting. After getting everything installed, I was stymied by a weird electrical glitch—but I fixed that by installing a relay, something I’d recently learned how to do when I put an auxiliary fuse panel in. Then I couldn’t get it to start—and used my previous experience working through Bob’s ignition system to diagnose a burnt out condenser in the distributor, a result of me welding on the truck without disconnecting the battery.
Yesterday I swapped a new condenser into the distributor, switched the cameras on, and turned the key: the truck fired right up. She ran like dogshit, because the timing settings are way off, but she started. I’d been having a kind of shitty week up until that point, and that victory, plus a couple of wins at work was enough to turn my mood around.
It feels really good to work towards something and see the light at the end of the tunnel; if I can get the timing sorted out tomorrow and get the truck running smoothly, then I can try to break the clutch free from the flywheel and see if she’ll move.
