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1989 K5 - Gradual Learning

First 4x4 - learning basic maintenance / upkeep and maybe some small mods.
Go for it. Don't be scared away because of the driveshaft. Everything people have said here is true but there are ranges of vibration involved here. You may be fine, no vibration. You may have a vibration that is present at 45mph but not at 60mph. You may have a severe vibration at 70mph but nothing at 50mph. Chances are that you can do a shackle flip and then drive home fine. You may need to take 85 south slowly instead of hammering down I-25 but you will still get home.

The diagram shown is a great way to understand angles and vibration, but it has no guarantees. I have a rear shaft with non- parallel angles and no CV, big 1410 joints. Its ok, does 70 down the highway fine. Nobody has a front CV joint driveshaft with the pinion pointing straight at the t-case, its just not possible without a custom axle. I can run down dirt roads at 50mph in 4wd without a weird vibration in the front. Until you build it you just won't know.

Custom driveshafts are roughly $500. I had a damaged 2 piece one in my crew cab rebuilt by Northern Colorado driveline in Greely for about $500. That included a new rear yoke welded on, 3 new u-joints and balance the whole thing. The new Tom Woods front in my K5 has a 1350 CV at the t-case and a 1410 joint at the axle, it was $550 and I had it in 4 days. My rear is 1410/1410, it was about $450 and also 4 days.

The slip yoke eliminator is another concern but what's the option here? Don't do the project? When you start down the path of "build something sweet" there will be day projects and other longer projects that take a couple weeks. Its the difference between taking the whole thing apart for a full build that sits in the garage for 2 years or just building as you go. Keeping it on the road and tackling projects like you have been is the best way I think. Helps prevent losing motivation on the giant project in the garage.
 
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Probably the best scenario would be to split it up into 2 days. I think we could do the shackle flip and gas tank in one day. The second day would be for spring bushings and shims if needed.

I'm pretty sure you could drive home after the shackle flip. Like @HankScorpio mentioned, we're not talking about angles that are going to blow up your driveshaft. You just may not want to drive it for a long time that way or you'll be replacing u-joints frequently. Worst case if the pinion angle is totally off, we could pull the rear shaft and you'd drive home in front wheel drive. We'd just have to cap the transfercase rear output.

Then you can figure out what angle shims you'd need. You should plan to do the shims with the bushings together because both would require pulling the u-bolts. So in that project you'd want to have new u-bolts and center pins along with the bushings and shims.

If you want to work all weekend, we can do it Saturday and Sunday. I've got a room in the house we could put you in on an air mattress. The downside being you wouldn't know for sure if/what you need for angle shims. So you still might have to pull u-bolts again in the future.

Or we can split the project a couple weeks apart or whatever time you'd need to tackle the second day of work.
 
Worst case, if it does vibrate too much. Yank the rear shaft, cover the t case output with a cut up bottle and some duct tape, lock in the hubs and drive home in 4hi.

Mine didn’t vibrate at speed anyway. It got out of shape on deceleration and grumbled as I came to a stop. It sounded like super swampers at low speed. I thought it was the tires making noise. But once it clunked in the process of trying to chuck the rear u-joint off the axle yoke I realized what it was. Pulled the shaft out, slammed the last of my Gatorade and chopped the neck off the bottle and slammed it over the slip yoke. Tossed the shaft in the back and drove it home on the front wheels.

Scott is on the mark when he says you really don’t know how off it’s going to be. Get the flip on and find out. Then you can take some accurate measurements and adjust from there.
 
Does your k5 have any lift now?
Temp you have the option of shiming the t case cross member, to get home.
This could get it close for getting home.
One other thing you need to consider, the u bolts will only be good for 2 or 3 full torque attempts at getting the angle correct.
If your old u bolts are in good shape and fit, maybe use those until the drive shaft angle is sorted and then install the new u bolts for finish assembly.

Your question on sye, you will not be able to keep the old rear shaft. Current the slip is at the t case, if you eliminate the slip there you need slip built into tube.
While having a custom drive made may be necessary, be sure remember some Ford SD front shafts fit well in the rear of a k5 with sye.
 
The whole Circus ? Maybe not the clowns, and lions .:D Yeah more eyes and experience to at least figure out the plan into future mod and updates.
 
Been out of town this past week, but the ORD parts are now ordered!
  • Shackle Flip Kit
  • U-Bolts
  • Rear Spring and Shackle Bushings
  • Center Pins
@imiceman44 I'll shoot you a message if I end up needing shims, I appreciate you mentioning that you have a bunch of them.

Thanks guys for all of your guidance, I really appreciate it (as always).
 
A couple of updates this morning!
  • Good Updates
    • ORD parts arrive tomorrow!
  • Bad Updates
    • Blazer shut off on me on I-25 last Friday... the motor was cold still, luckily I was cruising at a slow speed (Denver traffic). Suddenly lost power steering and I realized the motor had shut off. Read the codes and #43 came up (Electronic Spark Control). I don't know whether that is necessarily related to the truck shutting off but figured I'd mention it. I fired it back up and I hit the throttle heavily... it died again. Tried a third time and sorta feathered the throttle... it stayed running and I was able to get home without issue.
I am gonna look into the code 43 stuff. I have seen this code before but thought I had resolved it in the past. Will keep you guys updated.
 
Shackle flip party scheduled for mid-November!! Many many eternal thanks to @mrk5 for the help.

I spent time in the garage two nights ago looking over some things between the consistent code 32 (EGR) and the intermittent code 43 (electronic spark control).
  • EGR
    • Working from the TBI unit toward the EGR valve...
      • Vacuum hose from TBI unit to EGR solenoid is not plugged and has no cracks.
      • EGR solenoid is fairly new (December 2018). Electrical connector is firmly held in place.
      • Vacuum hose from EGR solenoid to EGR valve is not plugged and has no cracks.
      • EGR valve moves freely and holds vacuum.
    • Next step...
      • Going to hook up a vacuum gauge between the solenoid and the valve using a t-fitting. Gonna go for a drive and make sure things are working.
  • Electronic Spark Control
    • Starting with the ESC module...
      • Electrical connector at the ESC module is firmly in place.
      • Traced the ESC wires from the ESC module as best I could... they ran behind the engine to the bulkhead connector on the firewall on the driver's side. I know that they eventually hit the ECM behind the glove box. I couldn't locate them between those two points.
      • ECM had no loose connections or anything like that, it was firmly in place.
    • Looking next at the knock sensor...
      • Knock sensor was firmly in place.
      • Knock sensor wire was connected fine, the connector audibly snapped on.
      • Knock sensor wire was in good shape, routed up past the starter and climbs through "the tube" up behind the engine.
    • Next steps...
      • Going to try and identify the wires going into the ECM so that I can make sure there is nothing damaged.
I honestly do not know if these codes had any influence on the K5 dying on me earlier. It starts up and runs fine... I am going to drive it today to go play disc golf and see what happens.
 
@Blue85 I am hoping to ask for your help on something because I found an old thread where you helped someone out back in 2008:
https://ck5.com/forums/threads/picture-of-ground-contacts-in-engine-bay-please.224427/post-2163069

Background:
  • I'm experiencing an intermittent code 43 (electronic spark control).
  • I was reviewing the wiring diagrams for TBI here and I saw that one of the ESC wires goes to "engine ground":
1730227438379.png

  • I tried tracing that wire for the ESC connector to ground, but I could not see where it terminated.
  • I Google searched "engine grounds CK5" and found the thread above.
Basically my thought process is that since the code is intermittent, maybe I should check out my ground connections. Your post above perfectly describes the setup on my K5.

I found the braided ground connector that goes from engine to firewall, and the firewall connection on my K5 looks like crap. Can I ask if you know what symptoms I could experience if the ground connection there is dirty or poor?

Here is a pic of it:

PXL_20241029_183906769.jpg
 
Oh man, it's been decades since I had an ESC system. I do remember one wire was a ring terminal. I want to say it gets connected at the same screw as the didlstributor/ICM ground. But an 89 has a whole different style of both of those things from what my 85 had.
 
Just be looking at that picture I can tell someone has removed that ground before. It looks like the ring eye was flipped over when reinstalled. Possibly there is that black sealer between the ring eye and the firewall
 
This thread definitely has some updates, here we go!

First off, some run-of-the-mill updates:
  • I had the Blazer in the garage recently for oil change, fluid checks, nut-and-bolt check, etc.
  • I used my RockAuto discount code and took the "parts cannon" approach on the EGR/stumble issue. I picked up and installed a new coolant temp sensor and a new MAP sensor.
  • The Blazer and I went for a long highway cruise and it drove really well but unfortunately my parts cannon didn't solve the issue from what I can tell.
  • The next step that I really want to take is making use of TunerPro RT to see if I can figure out the issue. I have the ALDL cable and all of that... just haven't gotten everything set up yet.
Next, a more fun update that really humbles me:
  • FOUR friends (three of which are CK5 members) gathered last Saturday to help me install the ORD shackle flip! THANK YOU a million times over to @mrk5, @Raggedy_Ann, and @doubletrouble for the help.
  • By the time I backed the K5 into the shop and got out of the driver's seat, Jason and Nate had it up on jack stands and the wheels were coming off. It was intimidating how fast they moved (I go very slowly all of the time).
  • We worked from 9:30AM until about 4:30PM. We took a break for lunch in there but other than that it was non-stop GO GO GO with everyone working on stuff at the same time.
  • I am an idiot and I bought the wrong u-bolts. I got the really long u-bolts from ORD, which was tremendously stupid... we're getting rid of the blocks so of course those would not be needed. It even says on the installation article to get stock u-bolts. :doah:
  • We had to improvise so that I could get home. With some modification, we put the old lift blocks on top of the springs and used my old u-bolts to tighten everything down. There was not much vibration when driving home, but I kept it under 65mph out of caution. It felt like it was starting to vibrate above that speed anyhow, so I think that I need to get some shims.
  • The next steps are buying the correct u-bolts, getting shims, and greasing all of the new bolts. Also we did not swap the bushings inside of my old shackles. I had new bushings for the job but the guys convinced me to pick up the ORD heavy-duty shackles instead.
Pics from the session are below (there are a lot of them). Thank you thank you thank you!!!!!

PXL_20241116_165703425.jpgPXL_20241116_170011445.NIGHT.jpgPXL_20241116_222421145.jpgPXL_20241116_223711170.jpgIMG_20241118_072920.jpgIMG_20241118_072925.jpgIMG_20241118_072930.jpgIMG_20241118_072936.jpgIMG_20241118_073049.jpgPXL_20241116_172922285.PORTRAIT.ORIGINAL.jpgPXL_20241116_172929162.PORTRAIT.jpg
 
We figured it was the best way to get him home. We just had to hog out the hole in the blocks that would normally fit the head of the center pins; they needed to be bigger in order to fit the nut on the top of the springs. After that, they torqued down to spec. I just warned him no burnouts or rally racing. Swapping out u-bolts is something he can do at home without special tools.

@shima you're welcome to come back up if you want help swapping out the shackles. The biggest thing you need to do them is the tall jack stands to put under the frame. They're good to have, but not cheap either.

It was fun to work on your K5 and having a bunch of truck guys all working together doing it is even better!
 
We figured it was the best way to get him home. We just had to hog out the hole in the blocks that would normally fit the head of the center pins; they needed to be bigger in order to fit the nut on the top of the springs. After that, they torqued down to spec. I just warned him no burnouts or rally racing. Swapping out u-bolts is something he can do at home without special tools.

@shima you're welcome to come back up if you want help swapping out the shackles. The biggest thing you need to do them is the tall jack stands to put under the frame. They're good to have, but not cheap either.

It was fun to work on your K5 and having a bunch of truck guys all working together doing it is even better!
I miss those days when the norcal big Dawgs used to do wrenching parties when someone had a big job to do.
Now I am lucky when my friend Gary is in town and he keeps me company and we get a lot done but most of the time it's just me
 
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