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'91 K5 Four Wheel Camper

This is the build for my 1991 V1500 Blazer, AKA the K5.3. It started out life being sold to the U.S. Government with a 350 TBI/700r4/241 combo. 4 years with a 5.3/700r4 Combo and now moving to an 8.1L Vortec and NV4500 5-speed.
Overview Gallery Discussion
Kay86K5 said:
My little swagloc tube adapter has worked great and the clutch feels great...at least to my standards. And it was so cheap and easy, it kind of puzzles me why people go other routes that cost so much money :dunno:.

To each their own though
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I'm not bashing the swagloc method. It's what I chose to use. I tried repeatedly to cut through the braided line formed into the slave cylinder that came with my transmission. And after gashing the underlying plastic line 5 or 6 times, I didn't consider that *MY* installation would be reliable. I didn't trust my ability to pull it off.

imgp8490-jpg.262999


Plus, I needed to splice a 6MM plastic line into a 1/4" hard line, and the sizes were not quite close enough for me to want to shove them both into either size of compression fitting. And I didn't have luck finding a good conversion fitting. Adding the cost of a 1/4" fitting plus a 6MM fitting plus the NPT coupling to put them together, I weighed the $70 cost of the GTO slave against the higher chance of leakage. I decided that *I* was not able to put them together reliably, and so the $70 was worth it. I know that professionals put fittings on those hoses all the time, and I don't fault anyone for going that route. But I recognized my limitations and I did not ever want to be changing a failed coupling or a nicked line that burst 6 months later.

I also considered buying the fancy $20 adapter to convert from click-connector to AN fitting, and then I would have needed to buy more adapters to convert AN to bubble flare.

Looking back, I spent lots of money's worth of time weighing and trying different options, and the actual dollars spent are no longer a significant portion of the total project cost. Any of these options can work, and I definitely would have used a compression fitting had I been using a non-braided line. I probably would have kept trying had I been able to get the 1/4" fitting tight. But that was clearly not going to work as I had originally planned it.

@ZooMad75, you have different limitations than I do, and you definitely have better tools. You'll probably be just fine with a compression fitting. Especially if you're starting with a GMT400 line that isn't braided. You could also go to a hose shop and buy exactly the right line with the correct fittings. You have lots of options.
 
ZooMad75 said:
It's not a bad way to go the AA route. But I will admit they have a top notch marketing team that has them set up in many ways when looking into this swap as the only way to go. Any web search for nv4500 swap info yields them in the results. Reading thier info shows that according to them, swapping one of these transmissions into an earlier gm truck requires thier setup. Looking at the late style bell housing they sell they put the early style bearing retainer on to allow the use of a standard clutch fork and throwout bearing. Which would be needed if you didn't go with a hydraulic clutch and stayed mechanical.

I'm pretty cheap too, so paying the premium on the AA engineering wasn't something I was looking forward to do.
Click to expand...

Yeah, they're marketing to people who want to money-whip things. I looked at them briefly before deciding to modify a stock bell housing. Money-whipping isn't my style. ;)

:haha:
 
ZooMad75 said:
It's not a bad way to go the AA route. But I will admit they have a top notch marketing team that has them set up in many ways when looking into this swap as the only way to go. Any web search for nv4500 swap info yields them in the results. Reading thier info shows that according to them, swapping one of these transmissions into an earlier gm truck requires thier setup. Looking at the late style bell housing they sell they put the early style bearing retainer on to allow the use of a standard clutch fork and throwout bearing. Which would be needed if you didn't go with a hydraulic clutch and stayed mechanical.

I'm pretty cheap too, so paying the premium on the AA engineering wasn't something I was looking forward to do.
Click to expand...

campfire said:
Yeah, they're marketing to people who want to money-whip things. I looked at them briefly before deciding to modify a stock bell housing. Money-whipping isn't my style. ;)
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Man you guys sure know how to make a CK5 brother feel/look stupid.:screwy:
For the record I purchased the first bellhousing off of e-bay complete with arm { it is a solid cast piece similar to the ones used by GM in the late 60s early 70s, dust shield boot spring etc.... shipped to my door for $100.00 At the time I planned on using the stock bellcrank and linkage and figured I was good to go. I have since bought a complete 87 Hydro pedal assembly with slave, master and sm465 hydro bell for $100.00. So I now have options. Options are good. I picked up the second bell on C-list complete with aftermarket slave and master, heavy duty arm, shield and boot for $100.00 and some gas money. This bell will be used in my 88 CC that already has a hydro assembly and will make it super easy to mount up the existing slave cylinder.

Knowing what I know now I might end up using a stock 94 bell { I have a few} on my K5 because from what I understand with my lift I should have plenty of driveshaft clearance



campfire said:
That pivot arm looks a lot more flimsy than the factory piece. I'm surprised they don't just use the factory arm.
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The arm on both are very heavy duty cast pieces.

Bellhousings$210.00
Hydro pedal assembly $100.00
Options and plenty of parts on hand. Priceless :cool1:
 
Capt Ron said:
Man you guys sure know how to make a CK5 brother feel/look stupid.:screwy:
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Not my intent. @Larry and I had this conversation in reverse a few years back. He didn't understand why I wouldn't throw down a few hundred extra dollars to buy the AA part. To him it meant peace of mind and it fit his definition of correctness. To me, it meant overpaying for a piece that didn't seem any better than the factory piece (and I'd rather use proven factory parts when possible). I don't think either one of us is worse off for our differing choices. There are lots of ways to hook stuff together. Pick one that works. I paid more for my factory bell housing than I did for my NV4500 with bell housing and BW transfer case. I would have gladly bought a $100 AA bell housing had I found that. But I didn't, so I worked with what I found.

If you want to feel stupid, try overpaying for a bell housing and then crushing it by dropping your truck right on top of it. Yeah, I really did do that. :doah: :angry1: :doah:

Live and learn, each truck build has been better than the previous one. If I do another one, it'll be better yet. :thumb:
 
Capt Ron said:
Man you guys sure know how to make a CK5 brother feel/look stupid.:screwy:
For the record I purchased the first bellhousing off of e-bay complete with arm { it is a solid cast piece similar to the ones used by GM in the late 60s early 70s, dust shield boot spring etc.... shipped to my door for $100.00 At the time I planned on using the stock bellcrank and linkage and figured I was good to go. I have since bought a complete 87 Hydro pedal assembly with slave, master and sm465 hydro bell for $100.00. So I now have options. Options are good. I picked up the second bell on C-list complete with aftermarket slave and master, heavy duty arm, shield and boot for $100.00 and some gas money. This bell will be used in my 88 CC that already has a hydro assembly and will make it super easy to mount up the existing slave cylinder.

Knowing what I know now I might end up using a stock 94 bell { I have a few} on my K5 because from what I understand with my lift I should have plenty of driveshaft clearance




The arm on both are very heavy duty cast pieces.

Bellhousings$210.00
Hydro pedal assembly $100.00
Options and plenty of parts on hand. Priceless :cool1:
Click to expand...
Dude, don't feel stupid. The AA stuff does work and you didn't pay full price so it's a win. As they say there's more than one way to skin this cat.
 
4:56's with a 4l80 = 3.192
4:88 = 3.41
5:13 = 3.59 all in o.d.
 
Getting back into doing something. Went over to Bill's place to get some stuff done on the bumper project. He wanted to weld the spindle today.
Spindle

Spindle

So since we had a fairly heavy chunk to weld to the box we cheated a little and broke out the torch to get things up to temp.
Warming up

Warming up

Moar heat

Moar heat


He added another section of 1/4" plate to weld to the bottom of the spindle inside the tube and to the tube itself. We think the welds came out pretty good with the added heat.

Welded

Welded

Done 2

Done 2

Cooled

Cooled


We let the whole thing cool naturally. I think it came out pretty good. It should be nice and strong.
 
ZooMad75 said:
Getting back into doing something. Went over to Bill's place to get some stuff done on the bumper project. He wanted to weld the spindle today.
Spindle

Spindle

So since we had a fairly heavy chunk to weld to the box we cheated a little and broke out the torch to get things up to temp.
Warming up

Warming up

Moar heat

Moar heat


He added another section of 1/4" plate to weld to the bottom of the spindle inside the tube and to the tube itself. We think the welds came out pretty good with the added heat.

Welded

Welded

Done 2

Done 2

Cooled

Cooled


We let the whole thing cool naturally. I think it came out pretty good. It should be nice and strong.
Click to expand...

Looks like good work to me, I am anxious to see the finished product!
 
I got a few. Actually took more video but got to go through it all. On to the pics....

The group just off the highway.
Group

Group


80 series Land Cruiser, locked on both ends and rolling on 37's. Pretty effective today.
Land cruiser 80

Land cruiser 80


My buddy Bill's Taco and his sister's LJ Rubicon.
Yota and lj

Yota and lj


Pretty good mix of rides.
More group

More group


Made it to the Cabin.
At the cabin

At the cabin


Found the deep stuff.
In the deep

In the deep

Mo deep

Mo deep


Heading back.
Snowy

Snowy


Some of the view on the way out.
View

View

More view

More view

Sunset

Sunset

 
sreidmx said:
It was cool to chat while you were driving, I didn’t even know you could do that lol!
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That's the first time I went "live" on IG. I figured the shitty cell coverage would have killed it but we were almost to Gardner when I lost it.

It was pretty cool to do but I didn't figure many would tune in being early in the morning after new years. As it was, I had my old boss at GM tune in, my Mom came on and a few CK5'ers like you. I'll do it again the next time I go out for a trail ride.
 
ZooMad75 said:
That's the first time I went "live" on IG. I figured the shitty cell coverage would have killed it but we were almost to Gardner when I lost it.

It was pretty cool to do but I didn't figure many would tune in being early in the morning after new years. As it was, I had my old boss at GM tune in, my Mom came on and a few CK5'ers like you. I'll do it again the next time I go out for a trail ride.
Click to expand...
I missed it :dunno:
 
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