89 Crew Cab resurrection.....

[wyattglock]

Originally Posted by joe231

We put a 32 gallon 'burb tank in my crew cab short bed. I was able to reuse the rear crossmember, just moved to back, and we made a front crossmember with a couple pieces of 2" angle iron. I still don't have my filler installed though. I'm planning on hiding it behind the passenger tail-light. Just need some time to work on it....
Posted via Mobile Device

Thats a pretty cool idea on the filler neck. I am kind of thinking of doing it hot rod style and bringing it up through the bed and boxing the neck in with some angle and plate steel for preotection. Haven't totally decided yet.

[wyattglock]

I nixed the idea of a Suburban tank for now. I went and got a selector valve at the end of last week. I think I have got the wiring pretty well figured out, what a freakin mess! As soon as I get a chance in the next couple of days, I am going to install the valve and try and get the dual tank setup working for now. I just have to waiting on the wife to feel well enough to watch the kids after her surgery today. Could take a couple of days or a couple of weeks, that remains to be seen.

[Clyde65]

I hope the surgery goes well for all, yall will be in my prayers for sure.

[wyattglock]

Originally Posted by Clyde65

I hope the surgery goes well for all, yall will be in my prayers for sure.

Thanks Clyde, it is much appreciated. BTW, the surgery went well. We are already back home and my wife is doing pretty well right now. The next few months will tell the tale on how effective this was, but we can keep praying about!

[nbpro]

you are in my prayers

[wyattglock]

Originally Posted by nbpro

you are in my prayers

Thanks for the prayers, every little bit helps. This has been a 7 year struggle to get her wrist fixed, and it may not be over yet. However we are hoping that she will have more normal function than she has had. If that happens and the bones heal correctly, she won't need another surgery.

[babyJay]

How is the progress on your truck, and wife's surgery? If you feel like taking a short drive east on 26 you're welcome to remove and take any fuel related harnesses or dual tank hardware from the 89 Crew 30 parts truck I just bought. I wont be needing any of the fuel related stuff anyway.

[wyattglock]

Originally Posted by babyJay

How is the progress on your truck, and wife's surgery? If you feel like taking a short drive east on 26 you're welcome to remove and take any fuel related harnesses or dual tank hardware from the 89 Crew 30 parts truck I just bought. I wont be needing any of the fuel related stuff anyway.

Sorry for not keeping everyone updated a little better, things have been a little crazy. Thankfully, my wife's surgery went well and she is recovering as well as can be expected. The hard part is that her restrictions state that she can't pick up anything with her left hand. Not even a full coke can, the weight could break her wrist and result in a more major emergency surgery. So with a 3 and a 5 year old, we are trying extremely hard to not have her do anything to risk injury.
As for the truck, I haven't had any time to work on it for the last couple of weeks. I bought a new selector valve, and I have the exhaust parts I need to rerun that. Now I am trying to be patient and get my schedule arranged so that I can get a day or two to work on it.
Thanks to all for the well wishes for my wife! It is greatly appreciated, and the support is always nice to have.

[Gordonr1973]

I hope she'll recover soon, best wishes from up North.

[nbpro]

thats great news dude thanks for keeping us updated i just had carpal tunnel surgery a couple of weeks ago and i can imagine how hard things are for her as far as the truck goes it'll come in time and may God keep you in his thoughts

[wyattglock]

Here is an update for everyone. The good news is, my wife is doing very well after her surgery! This is very good, especially considering what happened tonight. More good news, I got the dual tanks installed and working on the dually. Still need to replace the selector switch in the dash, but I have it working for now. I just need to finish reinstalling the drivers side tank and finalize the wiring, but that will have to wait. I fell and broke my left ankle tonight. So now I am going to be laid up for a few days. Hopefully I will be able to finish my truck up next week so we can go camping one last time this year. We sat in the er tonight for 4 hours, and honestly we just laughed. Things have been so bad lately that is all we can do.
I greatly appreciate all the people that have read and commented on my thread. I know how corny this sounds, but it really does mean a lot to know that people still care enough to lend a kind word.

Thanks to everyone.

[nbpro]

good news indeed

[wyattglock]

Well, this is kind of embarrasing, BUT! We went camping this weekend against all odds due to my broken ankle and my wife's recovering wrist. But our friends that we camp with have helped us a great deal in pulling this off. They had to setup our camper, help me hitch it up to the truck, and move all the heavy stuff.
The embarrasing part is, since my truck isn't done yet, I had to borrow my best friends Toyota Tundra Crewmax so we could have a reliable enough truck to drive almost 3 hours from home with a 6500 lb camper and 2 screaming kids.
At least now I have the money to get all the parts to finish my truck for now. So hopefully it is more roadworthy in a couple of weeks when I am ok to work on it again.

I'll keep everyone updated, but thanks for the thoughts and prayers.

[wyattglock]

First off, I would like to wish all of my fellow Marines out there a happy birthday! Semper Fi!
Second, I have a couple of updates. On the broken ankle, I am doing a lot better. I am able to walk without crutches but still in a walking cast. The swelling is to a very manageable point now. So I am just trying to pace myself and start working through the sprain portion of the recovery.
Finally my truck. I changed the ignition module in the distributor on Tuesday. Made a huge difference! It still backfires at high rpm under a load, but not as often or severe. I am going to change the coil next, and then go through the rockers the long hard way. TDC to 180 out on each cylinder in the firing order. If that doesn't fix it, then I am going to have to look into changing some of the sensors on the tbi. One step at a time and I'll get it eventually.

[wyattglock]

Update on the ankle. The doc says that possibly in 2 weeks I can go back to work. We will see, as I am not in a hurry to get back to standing on concrete all day long again. I haven't done anything to the truck for a few days because of crazy schedules. I still cant figure out how I have time to work! I have figured out some things that I need to do to the truck.
1) Drop both tanks and swap the fuel pump from my new assembly with the old one. I have one good sending unit and one good pump.
2) Replace the selector switch in the dash, part is on order.
3) Swap pushrods out for new ones, and run down rockers again. If this doesn't take care of the backfiring under load, might have to move forward with the cam and lifter swap in the spring.
4) Replace a/c compressor bearing so heater system will work properly

[wyattglock]

Well, I got #1 and #2 done today. I also dropped the running boards off my truck. I really didn't like the look of them, but now that means that I am going to have to get serious with the body work in the spring. I haven't yet decided if I am going to try and sell the running boards, or just scrap them.
I am getting the new fuel pump assembly tomorrow and will see if I can get it back up and running also. I do have to say that I am getting exceedingly efficient at dropping those freakin tanks! It took less than 1 hour to get them both out. Practice makes perfect, but I don't want to be perfect at this!
I'll post some pictures of the truck without the running boards as soon as I get them taken.

[wyattglock]

Got the running boards taken off, dropped both tanks, and got the new fuel pump installed. I had to drop the passengers side tank because the pump died, but the sending unit was good. Dropped the drivers side tank because the pump was good the sending unit was bad. Got my new fuel pump assembly today and installed it in the driver's side tank. Installed the new dash selector switch since the old one was shorting the system out. Reinstalled the tanks and tied up the wiring. Best of all, it finally works!!! Now I can go more than 160 miles before stopping at a gas station. That will help when I am pulling my camper or other trailer.

[wyattglock]

Lesson learned! I went cheap and bought some wheel cylinders at my loacl Carquest about 4 months ago. That reached right around and bit me! They have both gone out already, causing another brake rebuild on both sides again. I changed the passenger side out last night and put a Raybestos unit in. I have Raybestos in both sides now, and through the years I have always had good luck with this brand. Hopefully I am done taking the hubs and drums apart to keep fixinf stuff.
On a positive note, I love the power bleeder that I bought from Jegs. It is a Motive Products kit for early American cars/trucks. It took less than 10 minutes to bleed the brakes by myself, and that gave me a full pedal!

[wyattglock]

Changed the thermostat in the truck today at work while I was on my lunch break. That was 10 minutes of time well spent. It had a thermostat that was stuck open, and the gasket was rotted out so bad it couldn't seal if it wanted to. Now the truck actually runs a lot better since it isnt running extremely rich all the time.

[wyattglock]

So tonight I am driving home from work, and noticed that there was a pretty good exhaust leak on the passenger side of the truck. I havent had a chance to run my new exhaust yet, so it is still the stock manifolds and y-pipe. I got home and found the passenger manifold extremely loose, so I re-torqued the bolts. Then I found the y-pipe on the passenger side manifold was loose, so I re-torqued that also.
While I was working I got curious, so I got the can of carb and choke cleaner out and sprayed around the intake and tbi unit. At the base of the tbi unit the rpm dropped off about when I sprayed, and when I sprayed around the intake on the drivers side and the front corner on the passenger side the rpm dropped off. So I am going to have to change those gaskets out. Which means I will have to decide if I want to go ahead and swap the cam while I am at it. The fun continues!

[wyattglock]

Ok, so this has been just about the crappiest week I have ever had. Long story, but since we are now down to one vehicle, I have to move ahead with the repairs to my truck. I ordered a complete Fel-Pro gasket set, bungs for the O2 sensor, a starter heat shield wrap, and a remote solenoid. I got stranded on the way to clean out our former van yesterday with a starter that to me seems like the solenoid was heat soaked. Ran great for 45 minutes, then dead shorted the battery when trying to restart after getting gas. Thankfully a wrecker happened to pull in next to me and he gave me a jump for $10 and got me going. I am really hoping this solenoid and some new wiring will take care of that problem. I also ordered my x-pipe exhaust kit from Jegs. Hopefully this and the headers will take care of the rest of the exhaust leaks and help with fixing the misfire/timing issue.

[wyattglock]

Ok, its been a while for an update. I am starting my project of pulling the engine and trans and replacing all gaskets, cam, lifters, and the exhaust. I got my x-pipe kit, a remote solenoid, and headers. So I am going to order the cam kit, I think I am going to go with the Edelbrock 2162 kit. For what I want it looks like it will work pretty good.
What broke the camel's back on all this is kind of a story, but what in my life isnt. I filled up on Friday morning, drove a total of 12 miles that day, used 1/4 tank. Drove 32 miles on Saturday, empty. The truck has so many gaskets that are dried and falling out that it is running full rich to make up for it. Gas was literally dumping out the exhaust. So it is back to my friends 1987 Jimmy, which is worthy of an honorable mention. I will take some pictures for posterity as I go, I am going to try and clean things up a little as I go. It is always easier with the engine out of the truck anyway.

[wyattglock]

It took a while, but I found some pictures of my friends K-5 Jimmy. It is an 87 with the 350 TBI and a 700r4. He has a set of axles he wants to get under it this summer, I think the front is a Dana 44 and the back is a 14 bolt. But for now it has the stock axles. It is a little rougher now than when these pictures were taken, but it still runs like a champ! The website is www.drownent.com/4x4. His is the two-tone blue Jimmy with the factory top on it. He was at a local off-road park in west central Indiana when some other K-5's pulled in, so they all drove around together that day.

[wyattglock]

Started the tear down last Monday. Got a few pics of the truck trying to look like it fits in my garage, thats not working out to well for it! After a couple of hours working in the rapidly cooling garage, went from high 20's to single digits in a little less than an hour, I got the wiring harness disconnected. I also got the front of the motor taken apart, the hood off, the starter dropped, radiator flushed, and the truck pushed back out on to the driveway. Should have some time this weekend to finish pulling the motor and trans. Then I will be into the heart of the matter. I'll keep you all updated as I go.

[87 chevy silverado]

i bet u loved all those wires i know i did on my 87 haha