Builds Ryan’s 40 AKA "Bandit"

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My 40 had cheap aftermarket tail lights so I’m replacing them with new OEM lights. My current wiring consist of a red and black wire and the light has a green and green.white wire. Any tips on wiring these correctly and what terminals do I need for these wires?

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I put oil back in the engine last night. I know this engine takes 8.5 quarts, but the dipstick showed full after adding 5 quarts. I plan on trying to start it up this weekend, so I imagine I'll need to add some more oil after running the engine.

I also got some new exhaust studs and a new gasket but one of my studs won't come out. I soaked it in Kroil over night so I'll see if it'll budge later today. If not, I can reuse it, but it's pretty rusty. I'll clean it up as best as I can if I have to. Oh, and I got new vacuum hoses, too. However, I'm missing a vacuum port on my VSV, but I have some good leads on replacements.

I also crimped some female bullet connectors to my tail light wires and hooked up one of my new OEM tail lights. Brake lights work but turn signals don't. When I turn on the turn signal, the light stays on. I've read about this being an issue, so I'll check my grounds this weekend also. I also don't have my headlights connected yet, so I think that might cause this issue also.

I can't wait to hear this thing run again! I'm getting so close to the finish line with my big winter projects and hopefully, I'll it'll be on the road again soon!
 
Some major frustrations are keeping me from getting the 40 started up. I’m leaking coolant and I can’t identify where from. I’ve double checked all my hoses and made sure they’re tight. The floor was dry this morning, but after trying to crank over the engine, I’m finding more drips. I had the radiator tested over the winter, so I’m, really hoping that’s not the issue.

I have also been dealing with some major frustration regarding my battery and battery cables. I’m going to be replacing both the battery and cables asap.

Finally, I’m thinking I need a new fuel pump. I have a hose connected to my fuel filter that’s temporarily sitting in a jerry can. I’ve tried over and over to crank the engine, but the fuel filter is empty, so no fuel is being suctioned from the jerry can into the fuel system. Carb is dry also.
 
Some major frustrations are keeping me from getting the 40 started up. I’m leaking coolant and I can’t identify where from. I’ve double checked all my hoses and made sure they’re tight. The floor was dry this morning, but after trying to crank over the engine, I’m finding more drips. I had the radiator tested over the winter, so I’m, really hoping that’s not the issue.

I have also been dealing with some major frustration regarding my battery and battery cables. I’m going to be replacing both the battery and cables asap.

Finally, I’m thinking I need a new fuel pump. I have a hose connected to my fuel filter that’s temporarily sitting in a jerry can. I’ve tried over and over to crank the engine, but the fuel filter is empty, so no fuel is being suctioned from the jerry can into the fuel system. Carb is dry also.
I like to pressurize the cooling system to find pesky leaks. This one looks like it has the right adapter https://amzn.to/3JsYtyB

The fuel pump should have filled the bowl pretty quickly if it was pulling from the Jerry can.
 
My new fuel pump got lost in the mail for a couple days but finally showed up on my porch today. I got it bolted up and did my first test fire.

The exciting part is it fires right up!

Unfortunately, there are a few concerns.
1. LOTS of white smoke comes out of the tail pipe. It spit a bunch of black fluid all over my wife’s car, but fortunately, it wiped right off. My dad held a rag by it to keep whatever was spitting out of the tail pipe and it smells like gas.
2. There’s fluid bubbling out by my exhaust manifold
3. Fluid is leaking out of this area of the carb

I just rebuilt the carb and put on a new fuel pump. Other ghan that, the only thing I touched on the engine was the oil pan gasket.

What do I need to do first here?




 
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Well, I started my Dobinsons leaf install today. I didn’t get very far because my ubolt plates are demolished. The forward facing lip on the front plates are so bent so bad that I couldn’t unthread the nuts, so I had to cut the ubolts. When I realized bending them back enough to thread on new ubolts was far beyond my doing, I threw in the towel. I guess some new ubolt flip kits from 4plus are in my future. Just going with fronts for now to save some $.
 
I've posted about my carb issues regarding leaking fuel and white smoke coming out of the tail pipe. After some feedback, I decided to start it and let it run a little longer to observe and video everything, but this time I couldn't get it started. There's fuel in the carb (a little more than half way up the sight glass), but no luck. It started right up last weekend, so I'm not sure what's going on.

Also, while I was under the truck installing my new leafs, I noticed there has been some oil leaking out of the side of the oil pan. I'll tighten up the bolts around this area a little bit at a time to see if I can get it to stop.

My main objective is to of course get it started but also to see if there's any oil leaking from the rear main seal and the plug that I installed. If that's all good, then I can at least reinstall the transmission and send it somewhere to have it worked on if I can't get my issues sorted out on my own. This is a last resort since I'm trying to do all the work myself.
 
Not much happening with the 40 over the past few weeks. I began installing my new Dobinson's leafs and quickly realized my u-bolt brackets were toast. I quickly ordered a u-bolt flip kit for the front and after a few attempts, I finally got all the pieces for the kit.

I'm the pool operator for our neighborhood pool, so getting that ready for opening weekend has been eating up a lot of my time. I also found some sprinkler leaks in my back yard that require me to re-route 2 main lines for 2 zones around a cement patio. They were punctured by the contractor that did my patio. I had a huge blue spruce tree covering up where the leak was and until I removed that tree, I could never find the leak. This has been a fun one, let me tell ya!

I'm hoping the 3 day weekend will give me enough time to finish the suspension project. Once that's done, I'm diving back into the carburetor. The last time I looked, I couldn't see the fuel level in the sight glass, but it looked like fuel was in there so I suspect that it is indeed overfilling. Time to take a look at the float and see what I did wrong...
 
It's been a good minute since I've worked on the 40 or been on Mud. Quite a bit happening lately that's been keeping me from working on the rig, most notably my hip replacement surgery. The past couple of months were really difficult for me. Lucklly the surgery was a success. Now I just need to regain some strength and flexibility to be able to crawl under the truck and finish the suspension.

On a more positive note, I got a nice and unexpected promotion at work. I'm planning on celebrating my new promotion with some work on the 40. I really just want to get this thing back on the road, but I want to do it in a way that makes sense long term. If you've read my recent posts, I am having trouble with white smoke coming out of the tailpipe once I got the engine running again. This most likely points to a head gasket, but I'm still holding out hope that's not the case since I didn't have this issue before rebuilding the carb or redoing the oil pan gasket and rear main seal. If I can't get the carb figured out, then I'm probably going to figure out the best shop to take it to and have them wrap it up, as much as it pains me to do so.

I also wouldn't mind finding a good 2F and 4 speed with all the associated parts. Would that make more sense than rebuilding my engine?
 
Glad the surgery went well, and congrats on the promotion!

The white smoke could be from way too much raw fuel passing through the motor. Did you tune the carb with the drop lean method & vacuum gauge yet?
I haven’t. Honestly, I have no clue how to even do that. I do believe the carb is over fueling because the fuel is at the top of the sight glass the last time I looked. It’s odd, because I set the float exactly to FSM spec.
 
Observations, the 5 qt oil thing and the apparent head leak might mean oil in water and/or vise versa, check both. The fuel leak at carb cross shaft indicates too much fuel as do the black soot, replace spark plugs, & check ign system ( coil, resistor, dist, cap, wires ), the oil out of pan could just be a gasket but might check pcv system as well. Is the needle stuck open in the bowl of carb ? it may have debris in it. The water leak could be from a freeze plug, head, water pump, where does it drip from ?
 
It’s been a long time coming, but I finally got back to work on the 40. I figured I’d finish the install of the rear leaf springs. Not the easiest job to start with after a hip replacement, but I was sick of looking at the leafs on my garage floor. It’s always nice to clear up some floor space in your garage anyway, right?

Oh, and note to self - just start by removing both wheels and take the shocks off the bottom perch - it will make your life much easier! 😆

The one issue I’m still dealing with however, is I can’t get these eyelet bolts to line up. I tried while having the spring uncompressed and with the full weight of the vehicle on it but no dice. I can only get one to line up on the drivers side. Any tips?

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The carb is next. I’m hoping I can figure out the over fueling issue so I can get it running and maybe get some seat time before snowfall.
 
It’s been a long time coming, but I finally got back to work on the 40. I figured I’d finish the install of the rear leaf springs. Not the easiest job to start with after a hip replacement, but I was sick of looking at the leafs on my garage floor. It’s always nice to clear up some floor space in your garage anyway, right?

Oh, and note to self - just start by removing both wheels and take the shocks off the bottom perch - it will make your life much easier! 😆

The one issue I’m still dealing with however, is I can’t get these eyelet bolts to line up. I tried while having the spring uncompressed and with the full weight of the vehicle on it but no dice. I can only get one to line up on the drivers side. Any tips?

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The carb is next. I’m hoping I can figure out the over fueling issue so I can get it running and maybe get some seat time before snowfall.


It's a tight fit but I lined one hole up, put bolt in loose then the other will thread in after aligning it - It's millimeters clearance. I literally had to tap the spring pin to rotate it so the second hole would line up. Otherwise, open holes up with a drill bit.
 
Hard to believe how fast time goes by. I’ve been super busy at work, but finally found some time to pull my carb and take a second look. I adjusted my float because I did find that it was slightly off. After mounting it back up to the truck, I invited my dad over to observe the second “first start” after last winter’s projects. It was a huge success. We ran it multiple times and no more leaking from the carb or huge clouds of white smoke!

 

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