What end did you use for the end of that - the 'nut' you swaged on there? And you used the bolt cutter looking swager tool they have? I'm just getting to that point in my build now.
CK5
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I used the end that came with the kit, pictured here:
And yes, I used the bolt cutter looking tool. It cost $20 if you want to keep it, but I've given home depot enough money. I think they can afford to let me borrow it this time.
The ends that are already on the cable, in that pic. Are they both already swaged on tight from the factory or are they loose?
Anyone have any source just for the ferrule ends?
Anyone have any source just for the ferrule ends?
Both ends were swaged on tight. I used one end, then cut it to length and swaged on the extra end that came with the kit.
I couldn't find a source for new ends or I would have just bought the right length of cable from home depot.
I couldn't find a source for new ends or I would have just bought the right length of cable from home depot.
I decided that it was high time I rebuilt my rattly-ass doors and OMG what a difference! I can't believe I waited so long to do this. It's like a whole new truck. Seriously, if your doors rattle, DO THIS!
On with the pics.
Old parts laid out with the new. I replaced all of the window felts and seals with stuff from gmcpauls and the door latch and handle from LMC. Everything fit very well and went together easily. Both window cranks were in good shape so I didn't replace those.
One thing that I didn't know going in was that you had to remove the vent window assembly in order to get the door glass out. I bent the passenger side up a bit (I was able to get it back to decent luckily) trying to get it out. On the drivers side I found that it was a whole lot easier if you loosened the bottom of the rear window track.
Pull these 2 bolts and you can push the track and window back a few inches and it makes getting the vent window assembly out much easier. Once that is out, you can slide the window back forward to line it up with the slots in the track to get it out.
Obviously the window rattling around on worn out felts was a big part of the noise. On the passenger side I found the rear felt had broken apart and was sitting in the bottom of the door.
The other big rattle was the door latches. The handle cranks were completely worn out and sloppy on the bushings/bearings or whatever was in them but even worse was the broken return springs.
In the above pics you can see that the return spring is broken in the original which allowed the handle to bounce with ever bump of the truck.
I also had to repair one of the outside door handles. Somehow the compression spring had fallen out
but I was able to find a suitable replacement from CAL ranch.
I cut 3 or 4 coils off of it to get the right tension but otherwise it was pretty painless.
The only other thing I did was remove the door locks that stick up through the top of the doors. I never lock the truck anyway (pointless) and I always worried about sticking my head out the window while wheeling and having one of those damn things stick me right through the ear. No thank you!
After a test drive I was shocked at just how pleasant it was to drive. Without all the rattles it just felt like the whole truck was better. No more feeling like it was falling apart all the time.
On with the pics.
Old parts laid out with the new. I replaced all of the window felts and seals with stuff from gmcpauls and the door latch and handle from LMC. Everything fit very well and went together easily. Both window cranks were in good shape so I didn't replace those.
One thing that I didn't know going in was that you had to remove the vent window assembly in order to get the door glass out. I bent the passenger side up a bit (I was able to get it back to decent luckily) trying to get it out. On the drivers side I found that it was a whole lot easier if you loosened the bottom of the rear window track.
Pull these 2 bolts and you can push the track and window back a few inches and it makes getting the vent window assembly out much easier. Once that is out, you can slide the window back forward to line it up with the slots in the track to get it out.
Obviously the window rattling around on worn out felts was a big part of the noise. On the passenger side I found the rear felt had broken apart and was sitting in the bottom of the door.
The other big rattle was the door latches. The handle cranks were completely worn out and sloppy on the bushings/bearings or whatever was in them but even worse was the broken return springs.
In the above pics you can see that the return spring is broken in the original which allowed the handle to bounce with ever bump of the truck.
I also had to repair one of the outside door handles. Somehow the compression spring had fallen out
but I was able to find a suitable replacement from CAL ranch.
I cut 3 or 4 coils off of it to get the right tension but otherwise it was pretty painless.
The only other thing I did was remove the door locks that stick up through the top of the doors. I never lock the truck anyway (pointless) and I always worried about sticking my head out the window while wheeling and having one of those damn things stick me right through the ear. No thank you!
After a test drive I was shocked at just how pleasant it was to drive. Without all the rattles it just felt like the whole truck was better. No more feeling like it was falling apart all the time.
I know that feeling. I stuffed a towel between the door and jam just to shut it up, felt like I just spent $500 on a worthy upgrade lol
Took the blazer out for a little fun in the desert with the kids and ran into a small issue. Back when I plumbed the cooler lines for the tranny I got talked into just using hose clamps to connect the hard lines to the hoses.
You can see the hose clamps just above the frame right where the frame dips down.
You can also see how everything is shiny because it is coated in transmission fluid. Evidently hose clamps (at least without a bump flair) are not strong enough to hold when going 80mph towing a small trailer.
The hose clamp on the supply side slipped off and I blew 5 quarts of fluid all over everything. Time for a better solution.
Here is a mock up of what I'm doing:
On the cooler side I am using regular hard line that you can get from any auto parts store so I could easily have flared an end and gotten a hose barb attachment for it, but on the transmission side I am using the factory hard line and it is too hard for a standard flairing tool to handle.
I ended up getting new hoses made up with "stand pipe" ends on it so that I could use a compression union on both ends.
New lines in place:
Now she is back on the road again. Not a big deal. The worst part of the whole thing is that now my nice clean underbelly is coated in tranny fluid. grrrr
I know this isn't the sexiest of updates but I figured I'd post up all the little frustrations too. You never know what will be helpful to someone.
You can see the hose clamps just above the frame right where the frame dips down.
You can also see how everything is shiny because it is coated in transmission fluid.
Evidently hose clamps (at least without a bump flair) are not strong enough to hold when going 80mph towing a small trailer. The hose clamp on the supply side slipped off and I blew 5 quarts of fluid all over everything. Time for a better solution.
Here is a mock up of what I'm doing:
On the cooler side I am using regular hard line that you can get from any auto parts store so I could easily have flared an end and gotten a hose barb attachment for it, but on the transmission side I am using the factory hard line and it is too hard for a standard flairing tool to handle.
I ended up getting new hoses made up with "stand pipe" ends on it so that I could use a compression union on both ends.
New lines in place:
Now she is back on the road again. Not a big deal. The worst part of the whole thing is that now my nice clean underbelly is coated in tranny fluid. grrrr
I know this isn't the sexiest of updates but I figured I'd post up all the little frustrations too. You never know what will be helpful to someone.
If you end up wanting/needing to do a new hardline - the copper nickel ones are much easier to flare/bend. And they're corrosion resistant.
bp71k5
3/4 ton status
There shouldn't be much pressure in the cooler lines since they are supposed to be on the return side of the pump. But I had similar issues on the fill hose from the reservoir. It seems to work better with thicker wall hose.
Edit, just saw this was for a trans and not power steering. Never mind!
Edit, just saw this was for a trans and not power steering. Never mind!
Yeah, transmission, not power steering, but really that would mean even less pressure. The guys at the hose making place said that it shouldn't build more than about 100 psi and that hose clamps are rated to 150, but that is assuming there is a bubble flare for the hose clamp to seat against which there wasn't. I'm not sure how they know how much line pressure a 4l60e produces, but from my reading online that seems right. The compression fittings are probably overkill but it wasn't expensive for a little peace of mind.
The guys down at EVCO house of hose have helped me with plumbing all sorts of stuff (oil pressure sensor, fuel lines, brake lines, tranny cooler, power steering, etc..) and they wanted to see the blazer so I drove it down there today. It was pretty cool having all the guys come out and ooh and awww over the blazer.
Gotta admit, that was kinda fun. 
Since summer is almost here I'm putting any big projects on the blazer on hold so that I can enjoy driving it while the weather is nice. But, that doesn't mean I'm leaving it completely alone of course. It's time to take care of some of those little annoyances.
In this case, my flickering turn signal lights in the dash. For quite some time now I would occasionally have one of my signal indicators light up indicating I had a bad bulb or connection. After checking the bulbs multiple times it was obvious that there was a problem with my ground connection. After a few more bumps down the road it would go away so I was happy to ignore it... until now. After replacing my dash lights with LEDs both signal lights flickered constantly. My guess was that the quicker response time of the LEDs let them light quicker than the old bulbs that were in there before so the whole problem was just more annoying.
I was able to isolate the problem to the parking light housing itself so I pulled them to check it out:
After noting that they could really use to be cleaned up and repainted white (which I didn't do
) I notice that the bulb socket itself is just a press fit into the rest of the housing and both sockets were extremely loose. Problem identified. With a multimeter I was able to see that as the truck bounced around the bulb socket would lose connetivity with the housing.
Here you can see that the bulb socket is a little corroded and right where the screw driver is pointing there is a little flange that I assume is suppose to hold the socket tight. My first attempt to fix it was to try to solder the 2 together. That failed miserably. I couldn't get the solder to stick at all. I made some attempts to push some wire between the 2 pieces to provide a connection and hold it tight but that didn't work either.
The real solution is going to have to be to get new housings, or at least ones in better shape from a junkyard, however I did come up with a temporary solution:
I just screwed the 2 pieces together.
Not elegant, but it got the job done. No more flickering lights. 
I'll add park light housings to my list of items to look for next time I'm browsing the parts yard and move onto the next item on the check list.
It's time to take care of some of those little annoyances. In this case, my flickering turn signal lights in the dash. For quite some time now I would occasionally have one of my signal indicators light up indicating I had a bad bulb or connection. After checking the bulbs multiple times it was obvious that there was a problem with my ground connection. After a few more bumps down the road it would go away so I was happy to ignore it... until now. After replacing my dash lights with LEDs both signal lights flickered constantly. My guess was that the quicker response time of the LEDs let them light quicker than the old bulbs that were in there before so the whole problem was just more annoying.
I was able to isolate the problem to the parking light housing itself so I pulled them to check it out:
After noting that they could really use to be cleaned up and repainted white (which I didn't do
) I notice that the bulb socket itself is just a press fit into the rest of the housing and both sockets were extremely loose. Problem identified. With a multimeter I was able to see that as the truck bounced around the bulb socket would lose connetivity with the housing.
Here you can see that the bulb socket is a little corroded and right where the screw driver is pointing there is a little flange that I assume is suppose to hold the socket tight. My first attempt to fix it was to try to solder the 2 together. That failed miserably. I couldn't get the solder to stick at all. I made some attempts to push some wire between the 2 pieces to provide a connection and hold it tight but that didn't work either.
The real solution is going to have to be to get new housings, or at least ones in better shape from a junkyard, however I did come up with a temporary solution:
I just screwed the 2 pieces together.
Not elegant, but it got the job done. No more flickering lights. I'll add park light housings to my list of items to look for next time I'm browsing the parts yard and move onto the next item on the check list.
On my taillight buckets I ended up using a 'chrome' paint from krylon. Came out kind of a shinier version of cast aluminum. Not quite mirror, but definitely bright in there. Coverage is pretty good.
ekajkrats
1/2 ton status
Same issue here, thanks for the details, Ashman!
no problem man. I'm glad it was useful to someone.
I got myself a new toy to play with:
I picked up the portaband a couple of months ago and just decided that the swag table for it would make it a ton more useful. I picked up their v3 table and it looks like a pretty nice piece.
A word of caution on buying one though. Initially I went to amazon and they had it listed for $169, but luckily I read a review that helped me out a lot. First off, you can save $40 by buying direct from swag. They have it listed on their site for $129. Also, they offer the foot switch for $20 but it's just a standard foot pedal switch you can pick up from harbor freight. If you have easy access to one (I do) you can pick it up for $13, saving another $7.
I was impressed by how quickly they got it to me, but was disappointed in a couple of things. First off, the instructions were printed off on a printer that was obviously low on ink and they were damn near unreadable. Luckily it's simple enough to put together that it wasn't really a problem but still not a good impression to make with a new customer. Also, they said that all hardware was included but none was. A quick trip to Home Depot and ~$6 and I had everything I needed, but still annoying.
All in all though, I am looking forward to using it. My exhaust work would have turned out much better if I would have had this so I'm looking forward to the next project I can use it on.
As some of you may know from this thread, I've decided to build a swing out tire carrier. I really need a place to mount a spare (I haven't been carrying one for awhile) and I want to make it somewhat modular so that I can mount a tray to it for some extra storage capacity, maybe some fuel cans, and also a bike rack. The bike rack and tray will be removable since I won't need them all the time.
I'm still trying to decide on the final design, but since everything starts with the main horizontal tube anyway, I decide to start putting it together and see where it takes me.
I went with the 4x innovations hinge. I liked the double shear design and they claim a 1000 lb capacity. Should be plenty.
Here is everything that came in the kit.
Since I am a self taught welder and this is my first time welding anything that has serious weight on it, and would be big problem if it failed, I decided some practice was in order. I only have a 110v welder so 1/4 plate is right at the max of it's ability. I tried cranking up the voltage just to see if I could get it to work, and predictably, it failed the BFH test rather dramatically.
I was only using 0.023 wire and the welder sheet recommended 0.035 flux core for bigger stuff, so I went out and got some. It's my first time with flux core, so the welds weren't pretty, but they did pass the BFH test.
I mangled the piece of scrap I had pretty good with a 10lb sledge and the welds held. I'll certainly be asking for more advice before final welding, but I figure I can make some good solid tacks for now, so on to the mock up.
R.I.P. CK5 sticker:
I'm going to have to relocate my license plate (and ck5 sticker ), but otherwise I think this will work out pretty well. The main tube is 2x3 .120 and will be 5' long. I "think" I'm going to try to locate the spare to the passenger side to help with the leverage, but I'll have to see how it looks. Ideas are welcome.
Hopefully I'll have more progress to report this weekend.
I'm still trying to decide on the final design, but since everything starts with the main horizontal tube anyway, I decide to start putting it together and see where it takes me.
I went with the 4x innovations hinge. I liked the double shear design and they claim a 1000 lb capacity. Should be plenty.
Here is everything that came in the kit.
Since I am a self taught welder and this is my first time welding anything that has serious weight on it, and would be big problem if it failed, I decided some practice was in order. I only have a 110v welder so 1/4 plate is right at the max of it's ability. I tried cranking up the voltage just to see if I could get it to work, and predictably, it failed the BFH test rather dramatically.
I was only using 0.023 wire and the welder sheet recommended 0.035 flux core for bigger stuff, so I went out and got some. It's my first time with flux core, so the welds weren't pretty, but they did pass the BFH test.
I mangled the piece of scrap I had pretty good with a 10lb sledge and the welds held. I'll certainly be asking for more advice before final welding, but I figure I can make some good solid tacks for now, so on to the mock up.
R.I.P. CK5 sticker:
I'm going to have to relocate my license plate (and ck5 sticker
), but otherwise I think this will work out pretty well. The main tube is 2x3 .120 and will be 5' long. I "think" I'm going to try to locate the spare to the passenger side to help with the leverage, but I'll have to see how it looks. Ideas are welcome.Hopefully I'll have more progress to report this weekend.
As some of you may know from this thread, I've decided to build a swing out tire carrier. I really need a place to mount a spare (I haven't been carrying one for awhile) and I want to make it somewhat modular so that I can mount a tray to it for some extra storage capacity, maybe some fuel cans, and also a bike rack. The bike rack and tray will be removable since I won't need them all the time.
I'm still trying to decide on the final design, but since everything starts with the main horizontal tube anyway, I decide to start putting it together and see where it takes me.
I went with the 4x innovations hinge. I liked the double shear design and they claim a 1000 lb capacity. Should be plenty.
Here is everything that came in the kit.
Since I am a self taught welder and this is my first time welding anything that has serious weight on it, and would be big problem if it failed, I decided some practice was in order. I only have a 110v welder so 1/4 plate is right at the max of it's ability. I tried cranking up the voltage just to see if I could get it to work, and predictably, it failed the BFH test rather dramatically.
I mangled the piece of scrap I had pretty good with a 10lb sledge and the welds held. I'll certainly be asking for more advice before final welding, but I figure I can make some good solid tacks for now, so on to the mock up.
R.I.P. CK5 sticker:
I'm going to have to relocate my license plate (and ck5 sticker
Hopefully I'll have more progress to report this weekend.
ADVICE:
- Pull the bumper off the truck and lay it flat on the workbench (or ground) for welding. Vertical welds are hard enough for experienced guys and even then, they tend to look ugly. Give yourself the best chance at a solid end-result by welding flat instead.
- Clean the metal. Don't try to weld through that black paint!!!
- Turn the welder up HOT!!! Play around with scrap and see how high you can go (amps and wire speed) before you get undercuts in the weld, or it just blows-through. I think a lot of novice welders are afraid to turn the machine up very much and end up with cold welds that look "OK" but don't really penetrate much into the base metal.
-G
Thanks Greg. Pulling the bumper does make sense. I'll do that for final welding.
Luckily I am smart enough to know not to try to weld to paint. I ground it down to bare metal after removing my ck5 sticker.
I do have a lot of scrap around so I'll do more practice. I really don't want to find out the hard way that my welds were cold.
Luckily I am smart enough to know not to try to weld to paint.
I ground it down to bare metal after removing my ck5 sticker.I do have a lot of scrap around so I'll do more practice. I really don't want to find out the hard way that my welds were cold.
Thanks Greg. Pulling the bumper does make sense. I'll do that for final welding.
Luckily I am smart enough to know not to try to weld to paint.
I do have a lot of scrap around so I'll do more practice. I really don't want to find out the hard way that my welds were cold.
Clean metal will help you see the HAZ better too.... you want to see a pretty wide one for something structural like that.
Also, not sure what sort of clearance you get between the round sleeve and that weld-on bracket, but you "might" be able to drill a couple of through holes and sneak some GR-8 bolts through the bracket and bumper as an extra safety margin. With the bumper uncapped like it is now, it's easy to get a wrench in there to hold the nut. (I'm sure that's why you left it that way)
-G
Fist off, nice level. You can't beat a nice Stabila. 
I'm excited to see where this leads. I should be starting mine this weekend or next. At least mounting in the hinge so i can finalize the bumper mounting.
I'm excited to see where this leads. I should be starting mine this weekend or next. At least mounting in the hinge so i can finalize the bumper mounting.
Good idea. I'll do that. If I can't get bolts in, I'm sure I could at least get some plug welds in there. The bumper actually has a bolt on cap that I removed so that I could use the clamps to hold the hinge in place.Also, not sure what sort of clearance you get between the round sleeve and that weld-on bracket, but you "might" be able to drill a couple of through holes and sneak some GR-8 bolts through the bracket and bumper as an extra safety margin. With the bumper uncapped like it is now, it's easy to get a wrench in there to hold the nut. (I'm sure that's why you left it that way)
-G
