working on an '82 marathon

[ICON]

Well i'm in the process of fixing up an old '82 that's seen better days. It needs a complete paint job and some cosmetics but it ran pretty good before disassembling it. This will have to climb some hills and i read on here about guys going to a 28 degree clutch over the factory 36 but i cant find any marking on the current clutch to make sure it's not a 28. Looked all over it no markings. Did they not mark them in the early 80's?? The current belt looks ok but figured i'd toss on a new one anyways and it looks like the oem belt from Dayco was HP2011, would getting one a little shorter help on the hills?

I also replaced the king pin bushing this weekend and man were they a tight fit!!! I mean so tight i had to press the spindles on and sand the king pins down and even then the steering is a little tight. I'm sure it'll loosen up over time but has anyone else had crazy tight king pin bushings??

And since i see a lot of muffler issue on here and i thought the rattling in the muffle might be an issue so i cut it open to clean any crap out. Well, didnt go as planned. I cut the bottom off thinking that'd contain most of the carbon buildup and it did contain some balls of carbon but the rattling i heard was what i though it was, a check valve that seals the muffler in case it went in the drink. It was only a small area in the bottom that i got access to so once i welded that up, crappy steel to weld, then i cut open the very top lid. Well, that didnt go anywhere so i welded that up, again a PITA, and finally gave up. Hope it's not too bad in the middle.