I don't remember if I've mentioned it much, but I've had some cooling problems with this truck since we bought it. I did do a little write-up on swapping out the radiator and install a Volvo fan. Even after that I was still getting overheating on long pulls up steeper grades. Driving over I70 to Blazer Bash and back we had to pull over a couple of times.
After talking with Wade I decided maybe it was an issue with my fans shroud blocking too much radiator for airflow on the highway. I decided to go to the extreme and just run the electric fan with no shroud.
It works great on the highway. The engine temp goes up but not over 220° on a 95° day pulling a long steep grade on the interstate. Plus we had about 500lbs of camping gear in the back.
Only did a little bit of trail running so I would like to do a little more testing there, but what I did do the fan was able to keep up with. I think the best scenario might be a dual fan setup so that shroud is more open with the highway airflow being able to pass through both fan openings. But then you have 2 fans to pull air on the trail at slow speeds.
Some pictures from the trip:
Loaded up for camping.
These are from Illinois Gulch:
Now I have a new problem to fix. Seems as though my steering box has given up the ghost. There is some resistance when you first start to turn the steering wheel, then all of a sudden it will move freely. By that point you've started trying to turn the steering wheel more to overcome the resistance and you have to quickly correct. Makes for some fun driving. Definitely requires 2 hands on the wheel and concentration.
Still have good pressure to the hydroboost and the brakes work fine. No new noises out of the pump. Checked out all of the external stuff while someone turned the steering wheel back and forth; don't see any binding.
Based on some threads I searched out here on CK5, it sounds like a steering box issue. This is the original steering box from my 84 CUCV K5 so it has seen a lot of service.
