Brakes are for suckers

I spent most of Sunday afternoon trying to get the truck closer to passing the state inspection. The current list is very short:

Parking brake
Windshield wipers
Insurance and license plates

The parking brake and wipers should be functional for the truck to pass. Neither work right now. And I'm waiting until I get everything close enough before I start the insurance and get the plates. I could probably find some one to pass the truck right now, but I'll hold off for a while longer.

Anyways, the truck is running great now. After not finding any better spark plugs than the ones I already have installed, I cleaned them again and got the timing reset. I tried to tweak the carb a little bit. It is idling smoother than ever and it sounds good, too. The truck smells better when it is running and it does not need the choke closed off to get started now. I think it has been running really rich. Now the carb is finally right on.

I tried to get the parking brake to engage, but I think the cables must be too stretched out. I tightened the cables compeletely and no dice. I tightened the rear shoes and it helped a little. So I tightened the shoes a lot. Now they are too tight and the parking brake isn't catching at all.

When I get a chance I'll take the rear wheels off again (for the fourth time this week) and loosen the rear shoes a little bit. Maybe I'll get lucky with the emergency brake, too.