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'90 K5 - The Nevada Blazer [Post 1437: School me on alternators)

I'd rather not rely on my current transmission. I think it's in reasonably good condition, as it only has 30ish thousand miles on it. But, the guy didn't set the TV cable correctly and I had to reset it when I got it. So, I don't know how great the condition is. It certainly runs fine right now, and I guess I wouldn't hesitate to drive it across the country, but I don't know if I want to put another 100+ horsepower through it.
 
colbystephens said:
I'd rather not rely on my current transmission. I think it's in reasonably good condition, as it only has 30ish thousand miles on it. But, the guy didn't set the TV cable correctly and I had to reset it when I got it. So, I don't know how great the condition is. It certainly runs fine right now, and I guess I wouldn't hesitate to drive it across the country, but I don't know if I want to put another 100+ horsepower through it.
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TH700R4? I don't really trust them. I know that some builders can build them up to handle a lot of horsepower and all that, but in stock form, I've never been too impressed. When mine went out last year, I could have just rebuilt it and put it back in, but I decided to go get a TH400 from the junkyard and rebuild it to relplace the 700. I'm glad I did.

I think you would be better off trying to find a 5.3 with the 4L60 or whatever still attached. Like out of a wreck. I just think it will be less trouble for you if you do that. They're pretty common I think.
 
Which is why it hooks straight up to the 5.3L's he's considering.

Also, there's been a lot of improvements done to the 4L60E's as the years have gone by.
 
I was just saying they were both kinda downing the 700, when in reality the 4L60 is basically the same thing. It does have improvements, I can not argue that, but it is NOT going to stand up to what a th400 does, plain and simple.
 
colbystephens said:
:thinking:

I'll have to think on that. I'm probably not ready to purchase anything yet, but from your for sale ad, it looks like a really great deal. I suppose if I bought it I'd still need to supply the DBW pedal and an appropriate transmission. Is the wiring completely untouched?
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It's ridiculously complete. I have the module and DBW pedal as well. I have under hood fuse box. Cut the truck side of the harness so it could easily be modded to run on 4 wires so they say. I haven't had a chance to break one down myself. I have plenty of fuel lines etc as well. This one would have had a 4L65E. I sold that but do have a 4L60E available.
 
454Sub said:
I was just saying they were both kinda downing the 700, when in reality the 4L60 is basically the same thing. It does have improvements, I can not argue that, but it is NOT going to stand up to what a th400 does, plain and simple.
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I guess my line of thinking is more inclined towards the ease of installation in the truck. I could get a 4L60E or 4L65E from BTO or Monster that would handle all the power I would ever put through it, and it would make the swap super easy by comparison to my 700. Or I could buy Poorboy's transmission and have a shop build it up right too....

:D

I'm not ready to make any purchases yet, but I'll keep you in mind, Poorboy, when the time comes.
 
Definitely do a 5.3L or 6.0L in your truck, Colby!

Parts are everywhere, they are super reliable and get great fuel economy compared to the old 350s.

My DD is an 03 4dr Tahoe with a 5.3l and I regularly pull down 18 mpg with it. Being a 4dr it is heavier than your truck is. I love the way it runs and drives, just a mild tune and they go like crazy too.

The best part is how much of a nearly bolt in swap it is as well.
 
I don't know what improvements they've made to make the 4L60E family of transmissions better than the TH700R4, but I would think that just the electronic shift capability would eliminate a lot of the trouble that the 700s had with the TV cable. Seems like having that cable out of adjustment or letting that valve get stuck was that tranny's weak point. I'm not too knowledgable about transmissions (or anything automotive), but I don't think I've ever known a 700's torque converter to lock up like it's supposed to for very long either. I think one reason GM used to lock up tc was to improve gas mileage, but man those things could be annoying to me, even if they were doing halfway like they were supposed to. I'll bet the 4L trannies don't have any problems like that.

Poorboyk5's deal is sounding better and better.
 
Well, I've been doing some pretty cool stuff on the Blazer lately.

I rebuilt the drum brakes last weekend, and yesterday Owenst7 and I started doing the hydro assist install. :woot: It's been a pain in the ass tho... We're hoping to finish the hydro stuff this afternoon. Spent 15 hours on it yesterday. :doah:

We did an overly precise alignment before getting started, to make sure that everything was perfectly straight, and that the ram would stop in both directions before hitting the steering stops. Some previous owner of the D60 axle had messed with that, unbeknownst to me, so we spent some time fighting with it till we realized what was going on. Looks like I'll be gaining some turning radius.

Welded in the ram, plumbed and mounted the cooler. Frame looks good under the steering box (I do have a brace, but it's not an ORD version, and doesn't hav a brace for the front bolt).

We had a hell of a time trying to get the PS pump off the engine, and finally gave up on that and moved on to rebuilding the steering box. We'll get the pump today. The steering box was a mess! full of sludge, and the box has reasonable scoring from all that crap getting pushed around. We found the only "complete" seal kit for the box late last night, and it seems there was only one in town. Only thing it lacked was the bearing for the sector shaft. I'll get that part # and info for y'all later.

Pulled every last part out of the steering box, cleaned it, and reassembled with new seals and all the other stuff. Finally got hung up on DIY4x's endcap at about 1 A.M. and called it a day. It's a SUPER tight fit. We pressed it in, and found the tolerance for the lockring to be incredibly tight and fought with it for quite a while. Ended up getting the lock ring in about half way before we called it. Might put it in the freezer to shrink it down and help it get in there. But, once we're done with that it'll be as though I have a brand new steering box. :woot:

Anyway, I'm stoked, but worn out. Last week was rough, and then ending it with a challenging truck project has been pretty exhausting. I'll do a proper write up about my experience once it's all done, with the obligatory pics. :D
 
At O'Reilly you can get the MasterPro Power Steering Repair Kit for $21.99 - which is a steal, because the similar kit from NAPA with fewer parts in it is nearly $50.

PPS 7859, AKA MasterPro PS Repair Kit 7859:
REPAIR KIT LINK.

One big difference is that this kit has the top cap seal in it, which I needed. It's hard to find a seal kit with the top cap included.

There's a couple catches, tho. Throughout the square body trucks, everything stays the same with the steering box with the exception of the diameter of the end cap seals on the rag joint side. This kit did not have the correct size for me for those 2 items (a seal and a dust cover), and mine were shot. Fortunately, Owenst7 had most of a NAPA kit sitting in his shop, so we used the seals out of that one.

4x4High also has an AC Delco part number for a whole rebuild kit that includes the bearing. I've misplaced the number, but I'll find it and add it to the thread for reference. Frankly, it's very unlikely that you'd need the bearing, because it doesn't really wear out. Mine looked great, despite 203,000 miles and the box being full of crud.

If you plan to do a rebuild on your Saginaw steering box, make sure to READ READ READ the how-to threads first. I know there's a really good write up on Pirate that we've been using as a guide. Dealing with the 1,000 little parts in there makes it a bit hard to keep everything straight.
 
I got a GM parts book a few weeks back on Ebay.
Maybe this will help y'all with finding parts or rebuilding
Scan 4.jpg

Scan 4.jpg
 
kgblazerfive said:
Why not just get another box, not sure how much they are but dont think they are all that bad.
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I bought a rebuilt box about three years ago and it had more slop in it than the one I was replacing. I think I got it from O'Reilly. It was about $125 I think.
 
Teck, thanks for the info.

kgblazer5, I'd heard that rebuilt boxes often aren't that great. I also wanted to know how the thing works. Since Owenst7 has built several of these boxes, it seemed much better to me to just buy a seal rebuild kit and do it ourselves because we know it'll be done right with good parts.

Didn't quite finish yesterday. I started off getting the PS pump off the engine. What a pain, mostly because you have to pull the fan shroud and then pull the pulley off of the pump before the thing can be removed. What a dumb design. But, I got it all cleaned up in the parts washer, and drilled the orifice out to 5/16". That's the only pump mod I'm going to do. I don't think I'll need more pressure, and just wanted more flow at idle.

While I did that, Owenst7 fought with the DIY4x cap some more. After quite some time, we started comparing the DIY4x cap to my stock cap, and found that my stock cap has a chamfered edge on the inner most location, as seen in the attached image. Kert graciously called me on a Sunday, and we talked about knocking the edge down with a grinder since it's not a sealing surface. It only needed a tiny bit shaved, so we went for it. I don't think we'll have a problem, and Kert said that if it didn't work, he would send me a new cap. :bow:

We got everything installed, and went to put the 90* fitting in the top cap and found that
it couldn't be installed because it was hitting the sector shaft adjuster. :doah: :doah: :doah: Well, we mic'd the location of the sector shaft, and backed up the adjuster so we could get the fitting in and then reset the adjuster. Fairly reasonable solution, but it's getting awfully tight in there these days with all the new hoses and the driver's side battery.

So, all that's left to do is bleed the system of air. I have my fingers crossed there, because I won't have a secondary reservoir until Wednesday, when it arrives in the mail. (Thanks, Russell!) Hopefully the stock pump will have enough capacity space to allow for turning without puking and then sucking air in... Might put a piece of rad hose on there as a farmer-fix for a couple days.

As we were installing parts we've been filling them with fluid, so I'm hoping that bleeding won't be a pain. I filled as much of the system as possible last night with a tiny funnel, and then filled the pump nearly full too. So, I'm hoping air may have self bled a bit too.

IMG_20130623_140523_542.jpg
 
I filled my steering system with fluid as I installed it as well and didn't have to add any fluid to the system after startup and working the steering / brakes some. Works great!

And you're welcome with the PSC can, hopefully it works out for ya!
 
Russell said:
And you're welcome with the PSC can, hopefully it works out for ya!
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As a temporary fix until I receive yours in the mail, I put Owenst7's reservoir on my truck because his truck is down for a month or so while he builds a cage. His didn't mount in a very great place, so I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do with the PSC version.
 
I finished the hydro system. :woot: So stoked. Many many thanks to Owenst7 for help/knowledge/etc.

A complete write up on the hydro assist set up here: http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=308273

This evening I FINALLY installed the bump stops on the front. I bought them when I put the lift on this truck a year and a half ago and swore I wouldn't wheel it till I was done with installing the bump stops. :haha: Well, they're on now. We'll see how much extra traction I get on the Rubicon this year because of them. Whatever the case, my shocks are safer now.

Russell, I got your reservoir in the mail today. :bow: Thanks! That thing is rad. I'll have to see what I can do with it. I like that it has the filter in it - I'll have to see what I can do about routing the hoses to be able to use that. As it stands now, I don't don't have any flow through the extra reservoir. I also like how much extra capacity it could hold. Right now, my extra reservoir is sort of small, and thus I don't have a ton of fluid in it (though combined with the hose that goes down to the pump it's pretty significant.) Anyway, all that to say: I'm going to play around with it and see what I can come up with. :D
 
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