Ok... Dave came by Saturday night and put some heavier duty straps on the yoke. It'll hold... for now... I have a custom built slip yoke eliminator coming from AZ this week, and my local driveshaft man is gonna build me a double cardon driveshaft, utilizing a Ford 1350 yoke to connect the double cardon to the new flange. It'll buy us MORE time, until we can plasma off the rear shock towers, & rotate & shim the rear axle like it needs to be.

Played with the RC yesterday, as Monday's are my day off. ATTEMPTED to mate an old WJ 318 dual K&N filter intake to it... and Advance Auto ain't GOT enough Spectre elbows to make it fit JUST yet! Trust me... I bought several...

After giving up on that for the day, I grabbed a fistful of $20's, and decided to fill up! Added 12oz. of Lucas Oil fuel treatment, since it was in the shop for 11mos.! My barely functioning tank float refuses to read anything above a half-a-tank; to be safe, I figured it was getting 5mpg. The needle had drifted down to 1/4 tank, and it had 116 miles on the trip odometer since the previous fillup, so I thought it a good time to fill up, treat what gas was left, clean the injectors, and see if another fillup would bust the float loose.

$72.50 later @ $3.79/gal., I calculate that it's actually getting a smidgeon over 6mpg - almost all city driving - so my guesswork on that was just about spot on!

After THAT, I went over to see a friend of mine from church. John had a stroke when he was 47 (my age now) and is paralyzed on his left side. He fights the good fight, and gets about pretty well now some 20+ years later. Back in the day though, he was the crew chief for his best friend, who drove the NASCAR dirt circuit in western PA in the 1960's (Heidelberg, Pittsburgh Speedway, Lernerville, et.al.). John went on to become a mechanical engineer; Dave (the driver) went on to become a bigwig in Chrysler/MOPAR's parts division in the northeast. The three of us have gotten together a couple of times over the years, to go catch some Friday night races at Lernerville (late model modifieds - dirt track racing), whenever Dave is passing through between his summer home in ME, and winter home in FL. They're both OLD-SCHOOL MOPAR guys.

At any rate, I stopped in to see John today, and with some modicum of effort, we got him INTO the RC, went out for a spin, and terrorized his neighbors! As the truck has no stereo currently, we put the windows down, and just listened to the roar and crack of the glasspacks! After that bit of fun, we managed to get him BACK out of the RC, without killing he, I, or the truck!

Nothing special today really. Would like to have washed the truck, but they called for rain, so I fought that urge. Just had a good time playing with it, like I've been WANTING to do for almost 8 years now; even got to take a good friend out to enjoy it too (he's really the only gearhead at our church, and the RC belonged to our church secretary's late husband, so he's been following with keen interest how the progress is coming). After waiting almost 8 years just to GET it to this point, being able to enjoy the little things, is finally some great fun for ME!