CK5
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79' GMC C15 - Spruce Caboose

79 GMC 1500
I like hounds tooth. I kinda wish when I redid my bench seat I went with that. Why get rid of the buckets though?

How does the pedal feel? What did you have before?
 
I like hounds tooth. I kinda wish when I redid my bench seat I went with that. Why get rid of the buckets though?

How does the pedal feel? What did you have before?
I believe he wants a truck with seating for 3
 
I like hounds tooth. I kinda wish when I redid my bench seat I went with that. Why get rid of the buckets though?

How does the pedal feel? What did you have before?

I kinda like it too .. maybe more than im willing to admit to myself haha.

The pedal feels good, i had another bracket i made, but i wasnt too happy with how the placement ended up as it was about 2 inches too far off the firewall and it put my leg in a bit of a cramped position since i am a bit over 6'.

The buckets were good and ill miss the console the most but i want seating for 3 now as @imiceman44 said, now that i have my son and this will be a daily driver again as i use it for work.
 
Got the calipers and new lines mounted, moved the brake line mounting tabs down to the backside of the axle. The short side brake line ended up working out the way it was but the drivers side i had to cut and re flare. Ive always wanted one of those vise mounted flaring tools that rotates with all the different dies, but ive gotten by pretty good with this flaring tool that mounts to an existing line. I really like that it can be used to fix a brake line that you havent had to brake at another union yet. I forget who it was made by but kudos to whoever it was. I do have SS brake lines for the rear of a 10 bolt ive never used. I dont know if my little flaring tool would handle stainless but might be worth a shot... after 13 bends with my thumb and index finger, these rear brake lines are starting to look like a little wobbly...

I also had these shock extenders laying around, so im going to give those a try and see if they help the rear end at all. Sadly these nitro drop shocks from belltech are pretty crappy and ive been meaning to get a better set , but the list is still too long and expensive to be spending money on shocks at the moment. I should just save my money 4 link the rear end because..... MAW.:whistle:

I also received the hitch receiver i ordered from CURT ,so i should be able to get that up and installed once this rear end it set. I was hoping to have enough time to take the bed off and finally clean up the underside of it but for now im just trying to get it back on the road in time for my other vehicles insurance to expire in 9 days.


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The best part of having an ugly TIG weld is going over it again with just the torch , and weave it in to make it look nice haha. I haven’t gotten to tig anything for a looooooong time , so I’m stoked to have some time to practice again now that I’m funemployed !! Got the pedal mounted to the firewall. I had to drill out the holes a 1/16 and use bolts instead of the course thread hex cap screw things the factory used.




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Well chit, this list has turned into a bit of a thrash session since im without a vehicle come monday.. Im sure the wife will be fine with me spending mothers day in the shop..:whistle: Has anyone successfully put their 2 yr old to work..? id sure get a lot more done around here..... anyway haha.

I drove the truck 110 km each way to work for a month or two, so now that there is about 3000 miles on the new transmission rebuild, ive read its good to change fluid and filter. Transmission shops probably dont do this but im no pro, so i figured itd be a good idea since id love to see if the frictions are melting away or anything. Dropped the pan and was pleasantly surprised to see only minimal metal and some friction material in the pan, i also forgot i put two extra magnets in there too. Topped it off with some fresh fluid, filter, and a quick tide in black and called it done.


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I bought myself some birthday gifts... with the money i got for the bucket seats and console.

New radiator, New shocks, Some 1" drop coils to replace the 2" ones i have in there now, and some gauges. The terminator has all 90% of the info i would need but im not a huge fan of looking at it as its not really in my peripherals. I was cruising the interwebs when i saw glowshift had a KPH speedo half off and then some, so i figured why not, It was white which wouldnt be my first choice but it does match the 3 gauges i have already for TRANS, OIL, WATER. I ended up getting the speedo, tach, fuel gauge from glowshift and ive had a GM clock kicking around for a long time ,which i was also going to try and put in there also.

I kinda just made a plan without any confirmation of if it would work not, and got to it!

I put the gauges in the cluster housing and used a sharpie to sorta mark out where i had to trim plastic top make the gauges fit. I thought about making a plate steel housing that fastens to the dash, sorta like the vintage USA gauges do. but i figured this was the faster route as im running out of time to get this thing going! The clock was easy, i just had to drill a hole for the 2 prongs to poke through at the back ( unsure if the clock i have even works or not ).



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I used a set of pliers to remove the conducting prongs that go from the circuit board into the housing. Then i used a straight shank carbide bit in a right angle die grinder to remove/melt the plastic away in the areas i needed. In retrospect i should have made the backs way more accessible since the gauges have adjustment points on the back for Ohms, cylinders, and fine tuning the speedo... but ill just have to pull it out to make those adjustments now. I also need to find out what wire is 12v switched for the high beam light, as thats gone now too.


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Then I used the same bit to enlarge the black steel cover holes to fit the 2" gauges. Basically only the area where it bevels in had to be taken out. The speedo and tach were 3 3/4 inch so they fit in the cover perfectly.


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Gauges are in the truck and being wired up now to 12v constant, 12v switched, 12v headlamp switch ect...

The radiatior fit pretty good for a " direct fit ". The one thing i had to do was straighten out the lip on the top cover piece to accommodate for the width of the radiator increasing. Its very nice not having the top coolant hose go across the engine bay, and seems to really help having a highest point for air to escape with no sagging hose crossing over. Waiting on another mounting kit to arrive for the fan.



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Figured I’d throw some more picture fuel on the fire that is this thread.

Got the brakes all mounted up and bled.. and bled.. aaaaaand bled. Turns out i have a small weep on one of the bleeder bolts on the new calipers. Im going to stove another bleeder in there and hopefully that fixes the problem. pedal works but its definitely a little soft and the master keeps blowing fluid past the seal, causing it to be wet on the reservoir of the master.

Has anyone else had minor driveline vibrations for so long, you dont even know if they are fixed or not after a long time? I'm making minor changes and its like a person with tinnitus... unsure if the ringing is real or not. After that i got the new shocks mounted and shock extenders which are meant to be bolted in, but i was thinking i would weld them up once I get the driveline all tickity boo.

I got the radiator and fan mounted, and the radiator cooler plumbed up. After a couple test drives it seems like the transmission runs hotter with the cooler in the radiator, which makes sense because it would almost heat up the transmission fluid at first as it matches the coolant temp. The engine seems to run at around 190-195 steady, so the trans running at 200-220 seems about right if the radiator is a steady 190 ish. I dont remember the thermostat i put in but OE is 195 i think. I thought about just running a lower temp thermostat but i finally dont have coolant leaking onto the floor so i think ill just keep it that way for now. Given that the transmission used to run around 180-190 with the external cooler, i decided to reinstall the cooler since 180 seems to be the "ideal" temperature for it to be at. I dont think 200-220 is too bad for it but i am getting close to pulling my camper around so the cooler i can have it running will probably help once i get to hauling that thing around. Its a 24 ft dual axle 4000LB camper, nothing crazy but still something...
I still have these OE GM radiator fans sitting around and i will probably try and find a way to mount them eventually , as it will involve removing plastic and fabricating some mounting tabs.

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Since ill be using the truck for work now and i need storage for tools and materials, i decided to put the camper back on. I removed the rusted out square tubing someone had made the rack out of. Ill be making a new rack eventually to carry ladders, or a canoe.. or whatever the tin can canopy can hold.

The gauges are installed and in, I ended up using a GPS to run the speedo because i had ordered it with the speedo but i do plan on using the terminator output for simplicity. The terminator x max has a single PWM ( - ) output which is what is supposed to be used for the speedo ouput. However this is only a ground signal and does not work for a PPM speedos thhat want a PWM ( + ) signal. So to convert the signal from ( - ) to ( + ) , a polarity inverter is a simple fix. Using a MOSFET P channel and resistor it can be re-arranged. Basically the ground signal thats sent out is interrupted / matched with a 12 v (+) source thats added to the pulsing intermittently through the resistor. I ended up using the GPS to verify the speedo worked and will install it to the terminator for ease of function once i get the things i need to install it that way. I need to extend the wiper slot to accommodate the intermittent wiper switch , but for now i installed the black bezel i have just to make sure it all fits up nice and mounts properly.

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Also mounted the under the hood light,... i forgot how much wire they have in this thing. Can easily use it to to change a rear tire.

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Got the hitch all plumbed up, drilled out and mounted.


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Im also curious if anyone can tell me what this was for, that was mounted in the truck


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Transmission cooler should be radiator then external cooler, then return back to transmission. This way the bulk of the heat exchange is in the radiator either heating or cooling depending on conditions, then external to cool it down more to keep temps in check when hot or under heavy use.
 
175-180 really is the ideal trans temp….220 is pushing it for heat.

All the radiator cooler really does is add head IMO…I’ve always just run the external coolers on my autos. I figure if coolant temp is 190-200 and I want the trans at 180 I’m not doing it any favors running it through the rad, plus it eliminates the chance for the cooler to rupture and take out the trans.
 
Transmission cooler should be radiator then external cooler, then return back to transmission. This way the bulk of the heat exchange is in the radiator either heating or cooling depending on conditions, then external to cool it down more to keep temps in check when hot or under heavy use.


175-180 really is the ideal trans temp….220 is pushing it for heat.

All the radiator cooler really does is add head IMO…I’ve always just run the external coolers on my autos. I figure if coolant temp is 190-200 and I want the trans at 180 I’m not doing it any favors running it through the rad, plus it eliminates the chance for the cooler to rupture and take out the trans.

I totally get both schools of thought, i think with my climate conditions so far im better off not heating it up first. If it got well below zero, or even zero here.... i could see how adding heat to the transmission fluid at first could make sense.

Took the truck out camping this weekend with the family. Was pretty fun to have the bench seat back in and using my kids car seat in the middle, makes it easy to steal his cup holder for my coffee.
 
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Soooo, just curious ... how many wrenches is too many to have lost out of some hell hole of the truck, when you first take it for a spin after a 2 week thrash?
 
i definitely heard and saw a 14mm wrench bouncing into the sunset behind me through the rearview. it.... JUST keeps happening :whistle:
 
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Haven’t been doing too much but driving and tuning the transmission and idle parameters… a classic “ the more ya learn, the more ya realize you don’t know jack chit about what you’re doing “ situation….


I do know IAT temps aren’t supposed to be 110F while driving around.. It’s gotten high as 140* in bad traffic . I’d say moving to this inline filter set up I’ve dropped my IAT’s by about 30-40F across the board, and more at stand still situations. Now at light driving it’s about 20* above ambient temperature which appears to be pretty ideal.

I managed to cobble together a slew of OE intake parts , a chunk of my aftermarket one along with the new filter , to make the intake tube work. Been wanting to do this for awhile so I’m glad it’s done and mocked up. Gotta drill a few more holes for the intake on the core support.



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Those inline filters are nice and I'd love to use one to clean up the engine bay, but they don't flow quite enough at WOT. Watch your MAP sensor, if it shows the map increasing as you get close to redline then it's a restriction, if not cary on, and forget I made this comment.
 
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Those inline filters are nice and I'd love to use one to clean up the engine bay, but they don't flow quite enough at WOT. Watch your MAP sensor, if it shows the map increasing as you get close to redline then it's a restriction, if not cary on, and forget I made this comment.

That is a good point and I have read an opinion or two which states they dont flow enough, but i have yet to find any flow bench numbers, or something similar from spectre themselves. They offer a 4 inch housing and a 5 inch housing and i went with the 5 inch wide by 10 inches long. This truck doesnt see WOT often and id wonder if the loss of power at WOT is worth the increase in power along the rest of the curve from intake air not being 120-150*F +/- and having more oxygen density to cram in the cylinders. I should make some pull at WOT and check MAP readings in a data log like you stated.

Id love a dyno.. would make all these answers much more attainable.
 
I’m sure there are some people in here that could shed some light on what these markings on the bottom of my gas can mean or when and where they would have been used? I had another matching one from 74’ but I gave it to my friend who has the scout since it matched his production date and I figured he should have it.

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Also some cool ads I came across when I was flicking through my popular science magazines from 1969….



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And a receipt preserved in my 1974 gm c/k series shop manual…

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And Wyatt is a fan of the truck for sure. Took him to see some live music and he’s all of a sudden a blues brother…

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I’m sure there are some people in here that could shed some light on what these markings on the bottom of my gas can mean or when and where they would have been used? I had another matching one from 74’ but I gave it to my friend who has the scout since it matched his production date and I figured he should have it.

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Also some cool ads I came across when I was flicking through my popular science magazines from 1969….



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And a receipt preserved in my 1974 gm c/k series shop manual…

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And Wyatt is a fan of the truck for sure. Took him to see some live music and he’s all of a sudden a blues brother…

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Pretty sure the date may 20th 1951 is the numbers.
Icc-5L that is the size of the can which surprised me, it's 5 liters so I am assuming it's small.
That roughly 5qts us
 
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