I'm the new owner of Frankie's monster aka Marvin.
Long story short, I've been wanting an old beater...Haven't had one since high school. When Frankie described this carb conversion I was really interested in this truck. I was very impressed with his knowledge and the way he pulled it off. The truck is really fun to drive. Bare bones as far as options. No power steering, windows cup holders, tachometer, not even a little tab for the rear view mirror. In spite of all that, I do enjoy driving this truck. It's way more fun than my 07 civic.
Like Frankie mentioned i did have the transmission rebuilt. I intended on doing it myself but after disassembling the case from the main assembly, I quickly realized I was in over my head
I did the clutch, flywheel and throwout bearing at the same time. I intended on doing the pilot bearing and the rear main seal. Turned out to be a PITA and neither one were bad so i left them in there. Changed the diff fluid with a quarter quart of lucas and the rest 75w90 straight valvoline.
At the same time Frank mentioned the rear brakes were acting up. One wheel cylinder wasn't retracting properly. Frank peeled back one of the boots and rusty brake fluid came out. I replaced the wheel cylinders, resurfaced the rear drums (against my better judgement), and flushed the old brake fluid. So if i did a coolant flush and oil change, I will have changed all the fluids.
Note: The guy at the transmission shop did advise me to either use 75w90 or straight 50w motor oil. I took his advice and filled up the tranny, through the shifter, with half a quart of lucas and 2 quarts of 50w (Valvoline Conventional Racing Oil. This did over fill it some but it's been working well. I'll see how it works when it's cold and adjust fire from there
The truck does have little quirks. ie: sometimes when it's hot it will kinder sputter when you turn it off, aka "dieseling". Tuning issue with the carb, NBD.
I have read similar issues like when i brake hard the truck pulls to the left. Again, NBD but i will be looking into replacing some bushings in the future.
The speedometer needle is broken so it's a little tough to see how fast I'm going. Easy fix. Plug in my gps and it tells me how fast I'm going, too easy
There is a flat spot when taking off while the engine is cold. I work around it now easily with the clutch.
Possible Future Mods:
Exhaust. If it rusts out (which could be any time)
Urethane Bushings
Rear sway bar kit.
Rear helper spring/shocks
Shocks front and rear (KYB Monotube)
Not likely but Frank mentioned a propane conversion
Rear locking axle (going to be hard to find)
Aftermarket Tachometer
Front bucket seats
Stereo/interior etc, etc, etc
A/C? possible but ghetto as hell, lol