Great tip!!! I have jack capable of that.
CK5
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'88 K5 - Running Down A Dream
- Thread starter jimmyleetn
- Start date
Ground up restoration of my '88 K5. The plan is to go through every inch of the truck and fix or replace pretty much everything that needs it. This will also be a full vert conversion and I plan to make the vehicle look more like a 73-75 than 88.
Nothing about the way this came out felt right, but the whole set is out of the truck and relatively safely supported for now. I really wanted my neighbor to help, but he had stuff to do and I knew if I didn't do it today it'd be another week before I had the time. My first time pulling a motor. Thanks for the tip with jack. That definitely helped until I got it to a certain point. The whole entire deal stressed me out pretty good, my nerves are pretty much shot now. I probably needed adult supervision. My dad was telling me on the phone tonight that I should have went ahead and got the torque converter loose. Oh well. I can support it up enough that I can get them out of there. Here's a little photo dump. I'd say the motor mounts were shot, at least the passenger side.
Kudos for pulling all that out in one shot by your lonesome! Be careful working by yourself, as long as someone can hear you if your screaming in pain, you’re probably good to give it a shot. We all do it, git-r-done
I'm very glad it's done. Was really expecting my neighbor to jump at the opportunity to help. I think I called him on the one day he had somewhere to be. About halfway through I went and got my phone and put it back in my pocket so if I got pinched and I could at least try to get to it with my other hand. Also, my wife is pregnant to the point that I'm on standby. I was really glad the baby didn't come in the middle of that LOL!!!Kudos for pulling all that out in one shot by your lonesome! Be careful working by yourself, as long as someone can hear you if your screaming in pain, you’re probably good to give it a shot. We all do it, git-r-done
I had an hour and a half today to separate the motor from the transmission as well as get the motor on the rotating stand. I had already removed the torque converter bolts and loosened all of the bell housing bolts. Should have been a piece of cake. Turns out the rotating engine stand I got for 60 bucks on Facebook marketplace had actually been used before. Somebody made their own arms, did a pretty good job I might add, but they don't fit any small block GM V8. Got to give the guy a credit, he even painted them to match the engine stand. I had to go over to my neighbors and measure his arms on his engine stand on his small block to tell the difference. I also didn't think about there being fluid behind the TV cable when I pulled it. It made a giant mess. So the motor is supported for the moment but definitely not on a rotating engine stand like I expected.
Those will work fine.
You just need to use different spots on the engine.
I use the 2 bolts on each side, the lower 2 on each side.
I've tried every configuration possible. Just for my own psyche I went out and tried the holes you suggested. They're just too short. The more I inspect those arms I can tell they're homemade. We measured the ones on my buddy's harbor freight stands and the arms from bolt to bolt were about 4.5in. These are about 3.5in.
Ten dollars later, this is more better. Still gotta weld the spacers on, but the mock up looks great. My dad and I got the tranny and tcase on furniture dollies. How did anyone live before furniture dollies?
About to be done with this part. All I got to do is tidy up the shop and get the drivetrain tucked away in a corner. I did a continuous stitch wedding as kind of a trial technique on this. I think it looks good not sure how great the penetration is but it'll hold. Those little pipes were hard to welf the continuous bead around without a proper welding table.
Added to the parts pile today. Couldn't resist a $50 NP208 on FB marketplace. It spins free and shifts. Haven't counted the splines yet.
Well after a little bit of a hiatus (my wife had the baby ) I'm back at it and school is out. I worked sparingly since my last post. Tried painting my bumper brackets. I don't love my Eastwood extreme chassis black like I thought I would. The 2k ceramic looks better. Anyways, getting close to blowing this thing all the way apart.
So everything has been removed before I take the body off the frame. Pretty sure that steering column has been in a wreck, or he's just cold. Also, those body bolts were SKETCHY. Looks like I'm due a new master cylinder too. Fun times.
Well tomorrow should be the day that I take the frame out from under the body. I didn't really think it was necessary but I figured it was better for peace of mind so I braced the body today with someone one inch angle. A few people that have done it said they didn't brace theirs and put it on a rotisserie and didn't have any problems ning it back up on the frame, but I figured there was no need to risk it after all the work I've done. I also have lined up a rotisserie that I'll get to borrow. Hoping to go get it Friday or Monday. Things are moving.
Well it thunderstormed and my help had to leave to take his wife to a doctor appointment, but we're over halfway there. We got this far by jacking the front up and stacking wood on the front cab perches. Then we'd use two jacks simultaneously in the rear to jack the bed up and stack wood on the rear most body perches. Once I could get the 4x4x8 under the front we made a saw horse-like structure out of wood for the front and rested it on the lose 2x2 tubes I put in there for strength. Tomorrow we'll do the rear of the truck and take the wheels off. We'll lower the back axles onto two furniture dollies and that should give the clearance we need to shoot that frame out of there. If had it to do over again, I'd taken the wheels off first so it'd be lower. Probably redo a lot of that once we put it back together. Considering I've never done this, I'm happy with the progress and no one got injured.
And boom. This was kind of a pinnacle moment in the build. Not really much left to take apart, at least for me. Things will kind of start going back together after this. My dad pulled up as me and my neighbor were dragging it out. Today was fun. We head to the restoration shop to borrow the rotisserie tomorrow.
Making the moves. Rotisserie is in my possession now. Going to try to get the frame on it Monday.
Got the axles out. Rotisserie tomorrow and a good pressure washing. Called the mobile sandblaster today but no answer so I left a message. Hoping he's reliable, I don't like trusting other people, there... I said it.
I got a good gut punch this morning. Talked to the blaster, he now charges a $1,500 travel fee. He said he had so many small jobs he had to do that to break it up. Puts me back at square one on finding a mobile blaster to come to the house. He did offer to come load up the frame on the way to work and take it in to the shop on his way to work and then take it back on his way home. He drives by my house on his way to work. It's a really nice offer but I'm not sure how I feel about it. The shops only 11 miles from my house is the crazy thing. Spent my afternoon getting it on the rotisserie. It took the whole afternoon just to get it on there and square. I never got to rotate it.
For that kind of money buy the sandblaster, and the media and do it yourself. I have a couple of hundred in my setup and I need maybe another hundred for more supplies
Yeah I was really floored when he told me that price. I thought about doing it myself, but my biggest hurdle is the air compressor, I just can't justify getting one large enough to run a sandblaster. From what I researched I needed one in the thousand to $2,000 range unless I'm missing something.
