Slartibartfast

I've heard of people rolling bearings into engines from underneath. Not sure I've heard of anyone doing it on a VG, but I don't see why it wouldn't work, provided the crank isn't beat to hell. I'm not sure fighting with it on your back with oil dripping in your eyes would end up being less work than pulling the engine, though.

I would expect a quick-connect that's loose enough to leak from being slightly tilted would be leaking bad enough to cause all kinds of other issues once the truck was driving around, going over bumps, going up hills, whatever. Manifold vacuum at idle is, what, 10 psi? And it would be pulling through tiny little injector orifices. The rail should be between 34 and 43 PSI. I don't think manifold vacuum is doing anything for the fuel system that the pump wouldn't, unless something is badly wrong with the pump--and again I wouldn't expect that to clear up once it was running. That said, air in the pump, or air pushing through the regulator, might explain the noise. The next time it acts up, try cycling the key a few times. (On, wait for the pump to stop, off, on again.) The pump should run for a few seconds each time. It's a return fuel system, so if the lines have somehow drained back into the tank while parked, this should prime them again. If it fires right up after cycling, or if it makes the weird noise while trying to prime, or if the pump doesn't run at all, then you know you're on the right track.

And here I thought it was Ford that only ran downhill. That is a weird one. I have no idea what in the fuel system would change with inclination like that. If the fuel level was really low, maybe the angle could make the fuel run away from the pickup--but if that was the case, it wouldn't keep running after it used up the ether. If you slowly rev the engine in park, can you find a speed where it makes the noise? I don't know the R50 computer, but I wouldn't be surprised if the computer was demanding a higher idle for a moment after a difficult start. If you can replicate the noise by revving it to a certain speed, might be an idler pulley on its way out, a loose heat shield, something like that. If you haven't pulled codes yet, do that first, on the off chance the computer knows something. If that doesn't help, check the fuel pressure. Try and get it to act up while you've got the gauge on it. Also see how fast the needle falls when you shut it off. Maybe a leaky injector is flooding it? Though again I wouldn't expect nose up/nose down to make a difference there, and I wouldn't expect throwing more fuel (ether) at it would bring it around. Intermittent issues like this can be a real pain to track down, because they tend to hide until you put the tools away. Good luck!

'95 manual says 72-80 lb/f for the flywheel bolts. For some reason it's in the "cylinder block" section. EM-36. Good luck with the case! Hopefully no surprises inside.

+1 on this. If you have all three, check timing, especially if you've had the distributor out. It's easy to install it at top dead exhaust instead of top dead compression. I've done that. Might also be worth running codes. The computers in these are not very perceptive, but you should get a code if it hasn't heard from the dizzy in however many seconds of cranking, or if there's no ignition pulse to the coil. Either way, that would give you a road map for what to check next.

Confirmed the size. 12mm 12 point.

Ah, gotcha. PM sent!

The one I borrowed had a U joint in it (I think it was this one, or very similar). The wobble was helpful. But I think I got an axle off the parts car with just a shallow socket and a separate impact-rated U joint.

I'll dig them out later and PM you a picture. How did it end up missing all four?

Yeah, I had to borrow a 12-point impact socket when I did the CVs in mine. I did give it a go with a chrome socket, but naturally it turned to glitter when I hit it with the 1/2" impact.

Well that sucks! Hopefully something simple. Re-check anything electrical that you had apart, hopefully it's just a loose connector somewhere.

Wrecker or part-out would be my go-to as well. If you strike out locally, I have two of them from my '95 parts car. Grey, cloth, hole in the middle. Not mint, but not bad. I don't think they have the big ribs around the outside that the headrests in your picture do, not sure if that's an early/late thing or an XE/SE thing. If you want new, looks like Amayama still has them, but they ain't cheap.

When I helped a friend swap the trans in his S10 Blazer, we just shot a spot of paint on each torsion bar adjuster. We used a different color on either side so we couldn't mix up the parts. Then when we put it back together, we just lined up the paint marks. Worked great.

That's an odd one. The wiring for the ignition switch runs through the column, so something might be loose in there. Be careful taking the clamshell apart, they're quite brittle. Once that's off, I'd follow the wiring from the ignition switch and make sure it's in good shape and the connector is firmly installed. The switch itself (not the whole cylinder, just the switch) is cheap and easy to replace if it turns out to be flaky. I cleared up an intermittent no-start on mine by removing the alarm system. It plugs in between the switch and the rest of the harness, so you can just unplug the switch from the alarm, unplug the alarm from the rest of the harness, and plug the ignition into the rest of the harness without the alarm in between. (I took a bunch more stuff apart to get the rest of the alarm harness out, but that shouldn't be strictly necessary.) Cleared up my gremlin, might get yours too. Takes out the alarm, obviously, in the unlikely event that yours still works/you have the keyfob for it. Sounds like the fuel level sender in the tank might be acting up too.

Just like that. Wire the halos to the 87a. Wire the headlights to 87. Buy a set of alligator test leads and a couple of indicator lights and wire it up yourself. Seeing it work might help make sense of it.

Sounds reasonable. Good luck with your rebuild, and let us know how it goes!

With power to 30, and no power to the coil (headlights off), yes, 87a has power. I would not however call it constant power, because when the coil is powered, 87a will lose power.

87 and 87a both get power from 30 (which is wired to battery +), but through separate contacts inside the relay, which allows them to be switched opposite of each other. Switched power to the coil (from the headlight switch) turns off 87a, as it turns on 87. Removing switched power from the coil turns off 87, but turns on 87a. Here's another way to look at it. Imagine a standard household light switch. Switch up, light on. Switch down, light off. Now imagine two light switches, side by side. But one of them is upside down. If you flip both switches up, you've turned one on, and the other off. Flip them both down, and you've turned one off, and the other on. The right-side-up switch controls 87. The upside-down switch controls 87a. Both switches get power from 30. And both are controlled by the coil, which can only move them both together.

I've done the engine-crane-through-the-door method on a Toyota. Worked great, but had me worried with how close to the windshield the boom ended up. I think I had a load leveller in between the crane and the trans, which was great for lining it up, but meant the boom sat higher than I would've liked. Might get more room to lift with the boom up against the trans. The firewall in mine had the same fluff panel, with the same layer of crumbling black plasticky crap. I assume the black crap was once rubber of some variety. Mine came apart like peanut brittle. The fluff behind it was saturated with lung dart stink, so it was all bin-bound anyway. I put a little sound deadening in its place, probably should've done more. Might do that the next time I have the dash out. I don't remember a foil bit. Where was that? Good luck with the exhaust! I was pleasantly shocked when the exhaust fasteners on my parts car just came loose like they were supposed to. Hopefully yours are similarly cooperative.

New cap and rotor can't hurt! And yeah, always nicer to work on stuff that doesn't look like it just came out of a hole in the ground. Oily/black plugs aren't a good sign. Black could be injector issues. Oily... hopefully it's just wet with fuel (leaky injector or plug not firing), but if it's actually oil, that could be rings or valve stem seals. Does it smoke?

No, it would not.

Could be a wiring fault. Could be the bulb, I've heard of bulbs failing to where the filament sorta swings around and makes contact now and then. Worth noting that the illumination in these does not use a standard ground. The circuit gets positive from the headlight switch and ground from the dimmer (pulse width modulated, I assume). Should be pink/blue and pink/black wires. I would check for power across those at the plug (marker lights on, dimmer turned up) to rule out a harness issue.

Power to 30, headlight to 87, halo to 87a, 85 to ground, 86 to signal. If there's no signal, 30 and 87a connect, halo is on, headlight is not. If there is signal, 30 and 87 connect, headlight is on, halo is not. It only powers one pin at a time. If 87a does not disconnect from 30 when the coil is powered, then your relay is defective.

If the clock takes the same bulb as the idiot lights, that may be a tricky one. I struck out when I brought one of those to a parts place to match. That was a long time ago, now I'm thinking about it--not sure if their selection of tungsten bulbs will have gotten better or worse since. Been a while since I had the auto hvac head out of mine. IIRC there's some kind of cover on top, with the bulbs under it? They're run off the same illumination circuit as the rest of the dash lights, and the LEDs I've put in my dash switches dim just fine, so LEDs should work just fine in the HVAC head. Might take some screwing around to get the illumination even, assuming it's got the same light pipe setup as the manual head. Might need some kind of diffuser. I would be a little surprised if the bulbs are a common size that you can find drop-in LEDs for.

Wearing one pad and not the other sounds like slide pins to me too. Clean/lube those if you haven't already. Down to metal would certainly explain the screeching.