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'89 R3500 Crew Cab 2wd to 4wd conversion & beyond
- Thread starter mrk5
- Start date
Started out with 2wd TBI350 with SM465 to current 4wd with 454, 700r4, NP241
You were waiting for qdoba to open, quit giving me crap
cmon u didnt cut all the rust out..you still have metal!!!!
j/k... looks good
reread..doh u sid some..lol
A comment just came over the CB, "I thought we were going over".
He didn't.
He didn't.
Cut looks good. Flip those springs around and stretch it. Try out a little more wheelbase. Probably have to register it in two counties though.
After Saturday's trail run, I can guarantee I don't want to ADD wheelbase. 
My sliders reached their design limit on the trail. Came down on a rock so hard I had a brief headache:
I had to notch the door bottom so I could close it past the step.
The rocker/door sill is pushed up enough to make the door very tight closing.
I did the weld-in, unbraced sliders on the K5 and never had issues. However I've noticed the crew cab hits the sliders more and because of the weight it hits them pretty hard. I'm sure it's on the sliders more than the K5 because of the longer wheelbase.
I also made the crew cab sliders with 3" square and the K5 had only 2" tall sliders. What makes the sliders challenging is the saddle tanks, they block half of backside of the slider.
So my current plan is to cut these sliders out, and replace with with 2"x3". I'll also suck the round tube in a little tighter. Won't be able to get to this until after we're done with getting the new house built, so I may try to bend them back down if I can find enough leverage.
Before this incident, I had also decided I'm going to build a fabricated bed. Along with that go to a K5 tank and ditch the saddle tanks. The saddle tanks have gotten to be such a pain and the bed on this truck is really beaten up, it wasn't even in that great of condition when I bought the truck. But again this will have to wait until after the new house.
The truck still runs and handles the trails just fine. It makes me very happy to run a trail like we did and drive the truck 3.5hrs there and back without a hiccup.
My sliders reached their design limit on the trail. Came down on a rock so hard I had a brief headache:I had to notch the door bottom so I could close it past the step.
The rocker/door sill is pushed up enough to make the door very tight closing.
I did the weld-in, unbraced sliders on the K5 and never had issues. However I've noticed the crew cab hits the sliders more and because of the weight it hits them pretty hard. I'm sure it's on the sliders more than the K5 because of the longer wheelbase.
I also made the crew cab sliders with 3" square and the K5 had only 2" tall sliders. What makes the sliders challenging is the saddle tanks, they block half of backside of the slider.
So my current plan is to cut these sliders out, and replace with with 2"x3". I'll also suck the round tube in a little tighter. Won't be able to get to this until after we're done with getting the new house built, so I may try to bend them back down if I can find enough leverage.
Before this incident, I had also decided I'm going to build a fabricated bed. Along with that go to a K5 tank and ditch the saddle tanks. The saddle tanks have gotten to be such a pain and the bed on this truck is really beaten up, it wasn't even in that great of condition when I bought the truck. But again this will have to wait until after the new house.
The truck still runs and handles the trails just fine. It makes me very happy to run a trail like we did and drive the truck 3.5hrs there and back without a hiccup.
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That's the thing I hate most about my blazer at the moment, no hard top. Mechanically I could easily drive it 3-4 hours without issue. The problem is the wind noise. With the top completely off it's not bad in the front seats, but there is no protection from the wind for the back seats and it's miserable after a little while. With the soft top on, you are protected from the wind, but the noise is deafening after awhile.
Always liked having the had top on the K5 for those unexpected rain storms that seem to pop up in the mountains.
What trail did you hit?
Chinaman Gulch of course!
https://ck5.com/forums/threads/one-last-run-in-the-rockies.337078/page-5#post-3988989
https://ck5.com/forums/threads/one-last-run-in-the-rockies.337078/page-5#post-3988989
Ah man, I miss that trail. Last time I ran it was with you when you cooked me a burger at the top during our lunch break....April 2016 IIRC
It's probably my favorite trail. Red Cone a close second.
I cooked up Johnsonville Grillers this year. My favorite trail food on the grill.
My brother and I are thinking of doing another trip to grand junction during spring break next year and running Billings Canyon and 21 Rd again. You should plan on coming over for it.
Also, you should come out here to Idaho and I can show you a few trails up here. I'll even let you stay at my place to keep costs down on the trip...just sayin
Also, you should come out here to Idaho and I can show you a few trails up here. I'll even let you stay at my place to keep costs down on the trip...just sayin
Would definitely need to improve the slider design for 21 Rd. We used to get out there more often when my sister lived in Junction.
Next year will be the rescheduled Rubicon run so any Idaho trip would have to be after that. Nicole and I have some past ties to ID. I lived in Idaho Falls for 6 months while I was in the Navy doing some training at the DOE site west of town. My wife went to school at the University of Idaho. If I visit, you have to take me someplace to see bigfoot. I don't care if you have to dress up in a costume yourself, just better be convincing.
Next year will be the rescheduled Rubicon run so any Idaho trip would have to be after that. Nicole and I have some past ties to ID. I lived in Idaho Falls for 6 months while I was in the Navy doing some training at the DOE site west of town. My wife went to school at the University of Idaho. If I visit, you have to take me someplace to see bigfoot. I don't care if you have to dress up in a costume yourself, just better be convincing.
On the way to a trail run Sunday, the truck died on me about 15 minutes down the road. About a block into the drive, it stumbled but cleared right up. Just before it died altogether, the engine started sputtering out and then there was a loud pop from the exhaust more sputtering and it died. No restart.
Narrowed it down to no spark from the coil with the handy tester.
I found a troubleshooting flow chart for the Holley system.
So I was looking at this step here along with the note:
The coil driver is needed for controlling timing. It looks like this:
Here's where I have it located:
Luckily I did myself a favor and put a weather pack plug on the white wire so I could plug a test wire into it and test as outlined in the note above. I plugged my tester into the coil wire and used the yellow wire to ground the white wire to the battery negative.
Turned the ignition to run, and didn't get a spark. Started to worry my spark tester was no good, but it worked when I connected it on the 73.
So it looks like I'll be replacing the coil driver. I'm going to get an MSD CD box. Holley doesn't even include the coil driver with the Sniper anymore. You can buy them, but I'd rather have something a more robust and beneficial.
Narrowed it down to no spark from the coil with the handy tester.
I found a troubleshooting flow chart for the Holley system.
So I was looking at this step here along with the note:
The coil driver is needed for controlling timing. It looks like this:
Here's where I have it located:
Luckily I did myself a favor and put a weather pack plug on the white wire so I could plug a test wire into it and test as outlined in the note above. I plugged my tester into the coil wire and used the yellow wire to ground the white wire to the battery negative.
Turned the ignition to run, and didn't get a spark. Started to worry my spark tester was no good, but it worked when I connected it on the 73.
So it looks like I'll be replacing the coil driver. I'm going to get an MSD CD box. Holley doesn't even include the coil driver with the Sniper anymore. You can buy them, but I'd rather have something a more robust and beneficial.
I forgot to mention that before testing the coil driver I tested the coil. Ohms on the primary were 0.5 and secondary was 4K. And it was getting power.
I was worried about that coil driver before, now I'm really worried... I don't know why they didn't just use a standard chevy/ford/something off the parts shelf driver.
One thing to consider is it does say to use a canister style coil with that driver. I have a solid state coil. When I did the install I asked about it on the Holley forums and that Danny guy had a list of coils and the Blaster SS was on it. But that was when the Sniper was still new and I wonder.
Hell, they don't even make the dual sync distributor I'm running anymore. Now they sell a setup with a hall effect distributor, CD box, and coil all with plug and play harness for the same price the dual sync alone cost me.
Hell, they don't even make the dual sync distributor I'm running anymore. Now they sell a setup with a hall effect distributor, CD box, and coil all with plug and play harness for the same price the dual sync alone cost me.
I've got the Dual Sync too, I wasn't aware they dropped that...
New thing now is a "Hyperspark" distributor. It doesn't have the cam sensor, just a crank sensor. Also has a really handy cap thing to make phasing the distributor super easy. https://www.holley.com/products/fuel_systems/fuel_injection/sniper_efi/hyperspark_ignition/
