Well, I've been workin on the pickup, but not the way I wanted to. There are a lot of bugs to work out on a vehicle that has sat a while. First thing I did was run her out of fuel, not on purpose, but by going up a steep grade with an 1/8th of a tank of diesel. She sucked air. I used to run heavy equipment, so I know that running out of diesel is bad, and you usually have to crack most of the injector lines and crank it til you see diesel... but it's a pickup, surely Chevy made their pickups easier to restart. Two weeks later Cuz and I got it started. You read it right! Two weeks! I'm sure I lost a few years of life in those two weeks...I really wanted to burn it, but it's all I have to get me to work. There was a lot of perspiration, anger, bad words, new parts and chevy design team hating going on in those two weeks, but I'd rather not talk about it any more, except to ask, where did Chevy recruit there designers from? McDonalds?
The next problem was the starter and solenoid (probably due to crankin the starter til it smoked, over and over fer two weeks) But they didn't just die, they worked fine...most of the time. But about every other day at first, the truck wouldn't start, no power anywhere, no headlights, no gauges, no radio, no horn, no power. Sounds like a short right? How can the starter be bad and affect the headlights and horn, no blown fuses, nothin wrong, just no power. I'd stand there and stare hatefully at the truck fer about 10 minutes, then get in and start it, like nothin was wrong. I checked everything and couldn't find the problem. One day a couple of weeks ago, my son started the truck while I was outside, and I saw sparks under the truck. I had him start it again with me under it, and found the problem. The plastic around the positive stud on the solenoid was melted, making the stud loose. I don't know how it started at all. I replaced the solenoid twice, the first one from Auto Zone was bad, the second one was fine, but the starter would turn about half speed. I took it back out of the truck again, and tried running it on the tailgate with jumper cables. The solenoid kicked hard, but the starter ran very slow. Boy did those jumper cables get hot! That old starter must have been pullin some big amps just to get turning. I bought a new starter and fixed the problem.
The Family's View of Me Over the Last 2 MonthsThe transmission had less than a thousand miles on the rebuild when I bought the truck, so I didn't worry about the hesitation and slipping between 3rd and 4th gears. I would have worried if I didn't have all of the other problems happening one after the other. So when I had an emergency fix lull, I tore into the transmission to put in a TransGo shift kit, but there was already a TransGo shift kit installed. That was a little disheartening. I decided to keep going just for the experience, and found two things that were done wrong. I found an extra spring that wasn't supposed to be where it was, and a washer/spacer was missing. I didn't think those two problems were going to make that much of a difference, but the transmission shifts great now. I did some online research on transmission rebuilding go to
PATC and
Transgo for good reading. I also bought a Haynes chevy automatic trans rebuild book. I think I could rebuild a 700r4 if I wanted to. I really enjoyed putting in the shift kit.
This truck has 16 gallon saddle tanks, and one of em is leaking. Not a problem, I want one tank in the rear like a suburban anyway. I think that will help offset the weight of the engine better than the saddle tanks. I have the 32 gallon tank from the parts suburban, but want the filler neck centered so I can fill it through the floor of the bed. I may try to weld it up myself. Son and I took the bad tank out today, and I plumbed the other saddle tank direct, skipping the tank switching valve thingy. On a side note, how does the oily rusty dirt cake stuff that's always stuck to the underside of old cars and trucks know where yer eyes are? not only that, but how does it know that yer eyes are the most painful target to hit? I swear I could keep my mouth wide open the whole time I'm under a vehicle, and nary a nodule will I taste, but my eyes will be swollen shut from the oil and diesel soaked road grit hitting it's target over and over. I could never mechanic for a living, I don't know why there aren't more blind mechanics going postal...
We changed the oil today also. I'm debating whether I want to try synthetic oil or not. It costs enough more per quart, that I can't quite make myself try it yet. It's one of those things that you can't really tell a difference in performance, so it doesn't seem that important. I did put synthetic ATF in the tranny though.
I've been driving the truck fer about 2 months now, and the one thing that absolutely has to go, is the stock bench seat. At the end of a drive, I have to hobble out of the truck and slowly straighten up before I can start walking. The seat has me bent over the steering wheel, egging me on to drive faster like I'm a kid racing a bicycle in a rockwall painting with his hair flying, and tongue hanging out the side... which is a funny thought if you've ever driven anything with a 6.2 diesel in it, the kid on the bicycle could beat me in a fair race. So, I bought some BMW bucket seats off of Craigslist. I believe they are about 2000 vintage 740i, but am not sure. They are both full power everything. There are 4 or 5 motors in each seat. Son and I took out the bench seat and trial fit the buckets so I could measure for adaptor brackets. I'll get those made soon.
That's about it this round, I can't believe time is going by so fast.
p.s.- from what I've read about the new Corvettes, Chevy must have fired all the 80's reject designers and engineers. I've always been a classic chevy fan, but never liked corvettes until recently. Something big musta happened at Chevy, cause there's some brain cells bein used now brother.
Labels: The Truck
