72 K5 - Project 'fixing POs ghetto fab' MAYBE IN WAY OVER MY HEAD? [PICS]

[loren]

Crisis averted. Bolted zero rates up. Took a bit of trial and error, but ended up using the 1.5" offset on the zero rate block and the center hole on the spring perch, which put me right at the wheelbase I was at before the shackle flip and lift springs.

 

[loren]

Silly girlfriend, after just replacing brakes on her car all by herself. Marriage material? You bet

 

[loren]

Got the new spring perches aligned and welded them up with my little lincoln 135. cranked the power all the way up and the wire speed all the way down. did a double pass, so they look pretty ugly, but these welds are SOLID. Good penetration.

 

[loren]

Installed u-bolts and spring plates, torqued them down, and DONE!!!!

Oh, and of course a couple coats of flat black on everything for badass effect.

Looks a million times better (and safer) than before.

 

[loren]

Oh, and look at this stupid hitch. Can't see it in this pic, but the metal bracket that holds the receiver was ripping apart from previous tows. The whole thing was welded in to the frame at several points and I had to remove it to lower the gas tank.

Goodbye hitch!! Looks much cleaner without it.

 

[loren]

Well, after the blazer was sitting for 3 weeks I was ready to drive it again! Went to fire it up, struggled, eventually started but ran like total crap. Died whenever I let off the gas. I was worried I screwed up something when I lowered the gas tank, but a quick check and everything looked good. Hmmm.. spark plugs maybe?

Yep. Turns out they were fouled. Badly. Replaced those (along with an oil change), and she fired right up and ran smoother than ever!!

 

[loren]

Passenger side before and after:

 

[loren]

drivers side before and after:

 

[loren]

more before and after:

 

[loren]

Before: hardcore cali lean - back was sitting ~ 1.5" lower than the front

After: sits nearly level (maybe 0.5" lower in rear, if that)

Before: left rear sat 1" lower than right rear (saggy leaf spring) - very noticeable, very stupid looking

After: left rear and right rear almost perfectly level (left tire has less air - filling it up should level out the left and right)

Before: dangerous leaf spring angles due to poor spring perch location

After: new perches and perfectly vertical leaf springs

Before: absolutely no flex in the rear

After: plenty of flex for me

Before: extremely rough ride, rode like a brick

After: still kinda rough, but much better than before. waiting for springs to break in before final verdict

 

[Greg72]

Looks great...... It's a good feeling getting the old crappy stuff replaced with shiny new stuff, eh?

I am a bit concerned by the look of the spring pin you re-used. The one photo you showed, it looked like the threads were kind of buggered up and it might have been tweaked/bent from the previous install. You probably want to get a fresh pin in there at some point so you don't have to worry about it shearing later.

Once the springs break-in completely, you can set your final desired ride height and rake by building a slightly longer rear shackle. A 1" longer shackle will give you an extra 1/2" of lift and could level things ut perfectly for you.

-G

 

[loren]

Once the springs break-in completely, you can set your final desired ride height and rake by building a slightly longer rear shackle. A 1" longer shackle will give you an extra 1/2" of lift and could level things ut perfectly for you.

-G

Yep! Not a bad idea.

Sidenote, I'm slightly worried about my current shackle angles - they're pretty much vertical. Gonna wait for the springs to settle before making any changes, but I'm hoping I don't have to move the rear brackets. Sure wish I had 56" springs... those would be fantastic

 

[loren]

Accidentally left my headlights on last week, drained the battery, then had some fun alternator issues. Long story short, I think my old alternator is actually still good, so I charged up the battery and put the alt back in. We'll see what happens.

But of course it can't just be one thing! Went to start the truck and fuel sprayed everywhere in the engine compartment.

Didn't take long to discover the problem. When I was reinstalling the alternator, I must have knocked the fuel filter around, causing a fitting to crack. It was probably on it's last leg, cuz there's no way that thing is that fragile. Anyway it wasn't totally cracked in two, but I was frustrated so I helped it along

Luckily I had a spare fitting lying around, so I installed that one and all was good.

 

[1BEATK5]

I like this build, or hack repair thread.....whatever you want to call it.

 

[loren]

Took her for a spin today, and she ran strong! Busted out the multimeter when I got home and tested 14.5v at the alternator at 1500rpm, 13v with the truck off. Good enough for me!

 

[loren]

I'M BACK!

I haven't been driving the K5 lately because I've had some electrical issues with the brake lights / turn signals / tail lights. Haven't felt motivated to mess around with it, so it's basically been sitting for a few months while I've been driving my other truck.

I miss driving the K5, so I decided to dig into the electrical gremlins last week and see what was going on.

Well wouldn't you know it, one thing led to another and NOW....
- REAR WIRING IS 100% RIPPED OUT
- REAR LIGHT HOUSINGS ARE OUT
- STEERING WHEEL IS PULLED
- GAUGE CUSTER IS OUT AND DISASSEMBLED

... and while I was sitting in the drivers seat all sad, I couldn't help but notice the rusty floor and rockers, so...
- REMOVED THE DOORS
- CUT THE ROCKER PANELS OFF
- ASSESSED THE DAMAGE
- ORDERED ALL NEW METAL FOR FLOORS / PILLARS / ROCKER AREA

Yeah, wasn't planning on doing any of that.. Was just planning on inspecting some light bulbs and wiring, but you know... one thing leads to another!

Details to follow.

How the K5 is sitting right now (and a low tire, poor baby!):

 

[loren]

Rear electrical issues

So like I said, this little teardown started with some electrical issues. Turn signals stopped working a while ago, figured it was just a flasher relay. A tail light went out before I stopped driving it, and thought that was a bulb or possibly some funky wiring (have had issues with the rear wiring before).

Trying to diagnose the problem, observed the following at the rear:
- tail lights came on when headlights were on (as expected)
- turn signals weren't working at all
- no hazards either
- brake light worked on right, but not on the left.

First tried all the obvious things: fuses, flasher relays, and bulbs. To my surprise, no change, BUT occasionally the single working brake light would switch between the left and right side, but it was always just one side working at a time.

Next thought was that there was either a short or broken wire somewhere, so I started testing wires and sockets with a multimeter. Everything seemed to check out, nothing out of the ordinary.

Next: PO had hacked in some shoddy trailer harness wiring thought that might have been goofing things up and also wanted to get a closer look at the wires in the body, so I ripped out the rear wiring harness. The lighting assemblies were already out, so it wasn't much more work to get the wiring out to have a closer look. With the harness out, I decided to remove the remnants of the trailer harness for good measure - not towing anything anyway, already ditched the hitch.

Upon inspection and more multimeter checking, almost everything was alright, although the RH marker socket was missing (added to list of new parts), and the license plate wire was separated. Neither of those things were causing my problems, but worth fixing anyway.

Here's the LH marker socket that's missing from the RH (circled):

and the sad, lonely wire:

 

[loren]

WOOOHOO I HAVE 100% WORKING LIGHTS ON THE TRUCK!!! Turn signals, dash lights, tail lights, brake lights, headlights, hi beams, markers.

There were a number of issues, so I ended up pretty much replacing or cleaning up everything (it was all bad / deteriorating anyway) - wires, fuses, flashers, turn signal switch, grounds and bulbs. Even after all that, I still had no turn signals and no flashing indicators on the dash. With the help of this post I was able to trace the problem to the brown wire on the back of the ignition switch. With the slightest nudge, the turn signals started working again, finally.

 

[ekajkrats]

Good job! From personal experience it's extremely gratifying when able to fix things like those. Now to keep up that momentum on the rust repair!

 

[magik235]

Excellent. Lights are good.