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1985 Chevy M1009 (CK5 build thread part 2)

Overview Gallery Discussion
Got the correct spare tire wingnut, bolt and washer in today from New Boyz Square Body Rescue. I paid a premium, but it seems like these parts are becoming unobtanium. I wanted my spare mounted properly before I hit the road. I fogged the wingnut with some green before it went on.
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I have spent a ton of money at ORD over the years, but one thing I have not purchased from them is their very first ever product, the Swaybar Correction/Disconnect System, well until now that is. I always thought that the story of @Stephen selling the first set on Golden Spike in Moab was legendary.
On my K10, the OE swaybar hit the dumpster in 2001 or so, but now I run ORD's crossover swaybar to go with their custom springs on it, and it works well.
I installed the system on the M1009 at lunch today, one thing I noticed is the pin on the passenger side is a little close to my bumpstop, but it should be OK.
Initial seat of the pants impression around the block is a better ride already.
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I had been wanting to fix my volt gauge for a while, and I found a NOS gauge on eBay and picked it up. The eBay listing said "NOS volt gauge for CUCV M1008 M1009". Upon inspection when it arrived, @Cucv_M1008 clued me in that the gauge was actually for a Humvee. The plug on the back was the same between the two, but there is no resistor on the Humvee gauge, and it reads the true 24V. The CUCV gauge drops it down to 12V. I decided to try it anyway, and just flipped over the mounting bracket the Humvee gauge came with to get it installed. The new gauge works, and seems to read accurately.
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:haha:my 6.2 has been doing that lately. Thought it was a loose belt but it's tight. Pulleys are way shiny. Definitely need to be sandblasted for some grit to grab the belt. My volt meter has been reading a little low too. I think my alternator is on it's way out.
 
August update!
Attended C10's on the Capital with @fastazz81 and my parents, who flew up from Arizona to hang out for the week. It was fun having the only 6.2 and the only CUCV on the entire premises, with over 100 trucks attending. Only a few folks really knew what the truck was.
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Then I got after a couple more things on the truck. I ordered up some Gorilla hub covers for the rear wheels, having nothing in the center just bugged me. Now they look more finished:
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I also replaced the plug for the 4wd indicator on the transfer case, the original plug was just hanging there and pretty smashed up.
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Then I finally got around to installing the @Hogback Fabrication steering box frame brace. The front piece went on with no problem, I just made the holes in the bumper bolt bracket a bit bigger so I could reuse it. As you can see, I sprayed everything with a liberal amount of blaster, and had no problem taking anything apart.
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The bigger brace went on like it should of, but I ended up goofing and marking and drilling the crossmember without the brace fully tightened up. This led to my hole being about a 1/4 inch too low. So in the heat of the moment I redrilled the hole higher but made basically one big hole in the crossmember. I was kind of unhappy with myself, so I just bolted it together with a few extra washers and thought on it for a week. My solution was since I had needed to use a thick washer anyway to space between the crossmember and the brace, was to tack the thick washer from the backside, then take the bolt out, and weld up the hole from the front, using the thick washer as a backstop of sorts. I then ground the welds down and opened the hole back up with the proper size drill bit. Followed up with a little paint and you would never know the difference. In the next photo you can see the hole around the big bolt and washer if you look close. :dunno:
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Something I find interesting it the big bolt and sleeve don't line up with the crossmember at 90 degrees. It is probably tilted up at 80 degrees or so. Not sure why. Also, the trans cooler lines do hit the brace, I used some rubber tubing as a sleeve to protect it.
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And, since I had the paint out, I used four cans of black ceramic engine paint and sprayed the frame and all the wheel wells, as there was basically nothing but a bare frame at this point. Probably way to fancy for this truck!
 
I did the exact same thing with my ORD brace on the big one. I just took a small piece of 1/8” plate, drilled a hole in the center, bolted the brace and everything up with it, and then welded it to the crossmember.
 
More gauges!
I picked up a set of Auto Meter - Auto Gage mechanical oil and temp gauges, so I could truly monitor the vitals and not rely solely on the idiot lights. The kit came with a nylon tube for the oil pressure, but I upgraded to an Auto Meter copper line kit for peace of mind.
I mounted the 2 gauge console under the dash using the existing ashtray screws, and wired the lights up to the dash lights using a fuse tap.
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For the temp sender, I found an unused port in the water pump, sealed off with a pipe plug. Popped that out and installed the brass bushing included with the kit, and of course used too much pipe dope.
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I ran the sender line along the passenger side of the engine, zip tied to the electrical harness, and then through an existing grommet.
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For the oil pressure, I disassembled the military oil sample tap, and used one of the existing fittings to hook up the copper line.
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Then I ran the copper line through another existing grommet in the firewall, and used all of the 6 foot length that was in the kit.
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Also happy to report that upon startup, the oil pressure was about 58 psi, and once warmed up and idling in gear it sat at 20. Cruising around town, the temp stayed around 180.
Its nice to have real gauges, and idiot lights too!
And, here's a cool shot from over the summer:
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Parts-N-Pieces:
Fall is here, so the hardtop went back on:
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Found a replacement CDR Valve on eBay, and got that swapped on:
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The lug nuts on the truck were rusty, and a few had mangled threads, so I picked up a zinc coated set from Dorman.
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The box comes with 25, here is a shot of the part number if anybody needs it:
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I had a set of ORD rear shock braces on the shelf for a few months, and took advantage of the nice weather today to get them installed. I can tell you that these were a bit tougher to get in place than on my K10. On the passenger side, you have to look out for the three fuel lines, and drill between them on the rearmost hole. On the drivers side, the fuel tank gives you absolutely no room to get to the rear bolt. I ended up getting it in without dropping the tank, but it was a struggle. Using the slot in the frame below the hole I drilled, I finessed the bolt in from the back of the frame and was able to get a rachet back there, somehow.
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The passenger side caliper was sticking, and pulling the truck to the right a bit while driving. Previously, I had taken it apart and greased the sliders, but to no avail. So I slapped a fresh one on today. While apart, I noticed the rotor was a bit warped, probably due to the heat generated from the sticking caliper, but that is going to be for another day. And, my local O'Reilly had silicone brake fluid on the shelf, so that was a bonus.
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Finally, I didn't like how bright the incandescent bulbs in new gauges were, so I used the green bulb covers the kit came with to mellow them out. And I picked up another green cover so the volt gauge could match too:
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--Time for some 'Tons--
Facebook Marketplace score:
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SRW Dana 60 with 4.56's (open), and a standard width 14-bolt with 4.10's (open). And yes, these were on the same truck, lol.
There were definitely some shenanigans going on with the donor truck.
See my post here with a fun poll:

Would you run this?

I picked up a set of one-tons recently, and the rig they were on was, well, interesting. It was a '91 Burb, set up to be a mad-max style camper, but definitely assembled by a tweeker. I had some good bits, like a Cummins, etc., but the entire execution was poor. Anyway...look at the attached...
ck5.com ck5.com
Check out these rear lift spring perch /shock mounts:
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And even the front axle wasn't safe from the tweeker engineering, they used some chunks of all-thread instead of studs on the spring mounts, and there was only a few threads of engagement! Lucky, the threads in the housing aren't buggered up.
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It doesn't stop there, as they welded shims to the spring pads. I hit the one on the diff housing with a hammer and it popped right off:
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This Sway-Away return to center thing in place of the steering damper was funny, too:
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All that being said these axles are in great shape. The plan is to clean them up, cut off the other shim on the 60, cut off the rear perches and shock mounts, and get some paint on them. I have some new perches / shock mounts from Ruff Stuff on the way to get welded up, and some ORD U-Bolts and spring plates to get these bolted in place. Later, I will deal with the gearing of the 14-Bolt, and swap in some Yukon thick 4.56's, and a Grizzly locker.
The axles also came with a set of braided brake line, which is a bonus:
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And I had time to get a USB port installed where the cigarette lighter is supposed to live, to make charging stuff easier. I had to open the hole up a bit , and file down the left side of the USB port for the ashtray to still slid in. And it lights up in green!
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Oh yeah, bigger tires on the way too!!
 
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