Your steering tightness can also be a factor of the previous mechanic not shimming the preload correctly. He might have set it too loose. Easy fix.

 

Would a long crank time indicate the need for a new fuel pump?

When it's warm it's starts right away but if it's cold I usually have 5-6 seconds of cranking before it fires. The colder the OAT the longer the start.

The other issue I had was complete loss of power on the highway at about 70mph. The engine died but would restart, an obvious sign a fuel starvation. The problem is I don't know if the fuel tank was empty and that was the problem.

The fuel gauge showed 1/4 left but I think it's gummed up because it takes ages for it to register a fill up. The P.O has year old gas in the tank as well which doesn't help.

I think this might be a case of having to drive it until I get a failure.

 

I'd change the fuel filter first. Then check fuel pressure at the rail. The pump can be had for like 20 bucks. Check the vacume line at the regulator.

 

Did you ever resolve the instrument light and rear light issues ? Mine just started exhibiting the same problems, cleaned up the stalk real good but did diddly, the instrument lights stay on even with the stalk completely removed and the only way to get the rear lights to light up now is with the rear fog lamp switch, then they all fire up. Deep into WTF mode...

 

I haven't messed with the stalk and I will give it a shot but it seems more complex than that. The rheostat for gauge brightness doesn't work either it's always full brightness.

Do you get a small rpm fluctuation when turning on lights, defroster, etc?

Right now I have bigger fish to fry than lighting, I want to make sure she's a reliable daily driver before I get deep into electrical. I'm doing the exhaust manifold gasket, fuel filter, and distributor o-ring tomorrow.

If the fuel filter doesn't fix the cold start hesitation I will move on to the fuel pump. As soon as it gets above freezing I'm going to drain and reseal the T-case with some heavier weight oil.

 

The exhaust leak is fixed, check engine light went out.

Distributor o-ring was leaking like a sieve so I got that squared away as well. My blower motor for the heater/AC threw a bearing the day after I got the truck. Picked up one of those on Ebay for $40.00, should have it today.

The exhaust guy/mechanic says he hears some faint lower end noise which is making me nervous. I didn't plan on doing rods/bearings so early in ownership.

Quick question, I get a noticeable whine that changes with speed is that going to be the T-case low on oil or the transmission?

Have any of you done a 3.9 rebuild on here?

Thanks for the help!

 

These are noisy dirty old technology motors that like thicker oil. What are you running for crankcase oil ? If you haven't gotten around to changing it yet, put in some Rotella 15W40 diesel oil and see if things quiet down. My money would be on the t-case for the whine. My t-case was noticeably loud on the highway, replacing the oil with 85-140 gear oil did the trick. Do the same to the front and rear diffs at the same time, everything is highly accessible and only takes a few minutes to do, and will give you a good baseline to start from.

 

I'm going to do the T-Case and diff's this weekend as it's supposed to be in the 60's. I'm thinking you're right and its as simple as running heavier oil.

I did the blower motor assembly yesterday and HOLY COW is that thing hard to get in and out. The replacement was a piece of cake (4 bolts) but wiggling that SOB out took me a good couple hours. Finally I grabbed the sawzall and took it out in pieces.

The good news is the motor I got on Ebay sounds smooth as butter.