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Finally got one!

D

DanJz

Registered Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2010
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Location
Olivebridge, NY
Hey everybody!

I already introduced myself in the introductions thread. At that point, I was still looking for a K5. Well.......I got one!!!

I won it off ebay. It's a 1987 Chevy K5 Blazer, 350 TBI, 4 speed with a granny gear, great interior and everything. The only things wrong with it are a) The bottom of the tailgate is a tad rusty, and I guess rust is starting up minimally in all those typical Blazer spots, and b) the tailgate latch assembly is jammed or broken, and the tailgate can't open right now.

I'd post pics, but I'm not allowed yet, and I'd post it in the 73-91 truck/Suburban forums, but I'm not allowed yet haha

But anyway, I figure some people here could help me in the mean time. How would I go about finding a replacement tailgate latch assembly, or fixing this one? I haven't been able to find any online. Is there any way to get the latch out so that I can work on it and fix it?

I'm pretty sure this is in the wrong section, so I'm sorry, but I'm not sure where else I'm allowed to post, and I just wanted to share my excitement over getting a K5 but also ask for some assistance in trying to fix the little issue with the tailgate latch.

Thanks!! I'll post pics as soon as I'm able to haha

Dan
 
On the tailgate try lifting the handle from the inside and smacking it with your palm. Its how I have to open mine :)
 
haha I'll have to give that a try. Thanks!!

haha actually on my 92 Firebird Formula, when I pull the hood latch to open the hood, it pops up, but not all the way. There's a certain spot on the hood, the "g spot" as I like to call it, where if you smack it there the latch lets go all the way. If you hit it anywhere else, it just shuts the hood all the way again haha
 
check with LMC and places like that. this is a good place to post so no worries. congrats on the purchase!
 
Thanks! Yeah I checked LMC, opened up their online catalog, and clicked a random page and it turned out to be the page with the tailgate stuff haha. So I'm having a free catalog sent to my house so that way after getting the gate open, I can mess with the latch and see if it needs replacing or not. I'm hoping that it's a really easy fix
 
Congrats for you man! Pics when ya can. Welcome to the board. :waytogo:
 
Thanks man!! Yeah I'll post some pics as soon as possible. I'm picking it up on my spring break from college in a couple weeks, probably March 18th, but hopefully I'll be able to post the ad before then, since it has some pics in it. I'm really excited!

I think this is the last post I need before I'm allowed to post URLs, so I'll post the ad in my next post so people can tell me what they think haha
 
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1987...ars_Trucks?hash=item1e5a8976ae#ht_4707wt_1167

There she is!! She's not perfect (does not have posi :(, needs tailgate latch fixed, horn doesn't work, very minor rust,) but she's still pretty sweet!

I don't really plan on doing any major off roading, nor do I plan on doing lots of burnouts haha, so the posi isn't all that important to me, although it would have been cool. The horn and the tailgate are things that will be worked on as soon as it comes home. I might even swap out the steering wheel for the 89-91 steering wheel while fixing the horn. I'll work on cleaning up the rust before it gets too bad too.
 
Damn, that looks clean! Nice find. The very little rust is an awesome thing. What are your plans for it, hard core wheeler or DD light trail wheelin?
 
Yeah I love the fact that it's got very little rust, makes my life easier haha.

My plans are basically for it to be a DD with maybe some occasional light off-road use, mostly for camping and stuff with my friends. Maybe down the road a ways I could turn it into an off road beast, but it's in such great shape now that I would feel bad altering it haha

Do you guys have any suggestions as to maybe some cheap mods that'll just make it a better truck in general? Like a throttle body spacer or something like that? I figured that the horn was probably just a loose or corroded contact or something, an easy fix, and my friend and I will hopefully get the broken tailgate latch sorted out pretty quickly.
 
I'm going to run a TB Poweraid spacer on mine. Just give it a good tune up and see how it runs. Fuel injection cleaner in the tant, and all the basics. Plugs, plug wires, replace any cracked or dry rotted hoses & belts. Rad flush, new oil in diffs, trans, T case, and of course motor. Just all the basics. Make sure all the electrical is in good working order. Get some kind of theft device on it. There one of if not the most easy trucks to steal. There is a thread on anti theft devices somewhere. Try a search see if ya find it. Battery disco switch is a start. It might nickle and dime ya right off for a bit, maybe not but just be ready for it if you have to keep fixing small things till there all cleared up.
 
Yeah I'll probably base line it and do all the typical tune up stuff. I figure a throttle body space is a good, cheap mod that gives a tiny boost in power and efficiency, so it can't hurt. An anti-theft system is probably a good idea. The last thing that I want is for this thing to get stolen!!

Yeah I'm not worried about little things. I already know there are little things wrong with it (missing the K5 badge on the right fender, not worrying about it for a while, paint is faded in spots) but I'm not too worried about little things since it's a daily driver basically. Eventually when I can demote it to weekend cruiser status then I'll start really fixing all the little tiny things. Until then, it's the simple but important things first, like the stuck tailgate latch and the horn
 
Congrats! I have a former NY truck too. Has rust in all the right places, its now retired from rust here in CA! I got a used latch for mine, the pieces and latch were worn out, handle bent, wrecking yard and five bucks. I climbed in the back and took off the panel and pulled the rods, so to speak, to get it to open.
 
Yeah I guess the story with this truck is that it was driven much (ad says it has under 50k even though it was recorded as over 100k, good for the year regardless) and was stored for a while, which is why it's in great shape. I plan on getting it rustproofed yearly in hopes of keeping it looking good.

yeah that's what I'll end up doing probably to get the tailgate open. I was looking at a diagram on lmctrucks, and I didn't realize until looking at the diagram that there was a handy little panel just for dealing with stuff like broken latches haha, I thought I was gonna have to like pull the entire back off of the tailgate and take it off the truck or something. Very cool. I'm hoping it'll be a pretty easy and inexpensive fix.
 
Looks great. Mileage is probably 146k from the ODO rolling over, still not bad at all for a 23 year old rig.:waytogo:

I'd recommend the power plate, power charger and injector spacer from cfmtech (http://marine-performance-parts.com/gmtbiperformance.aspx) over the Poweraid brand since the cfmtech spacer also balances the flow between both bores. If you want to go all out they've got an adjustable fuel regulator and inline pressure gauge adapter to tune the fuel pressure a little better as well.
 
Thanks!

I'd recommend the power plate, power charger and injector spacer from cfmtech (http://marine-performance-parts.com/gmtbiperformance.aspx) over the Poweraid brand since the cfmtech spacer also balances the flow between both bores. If you want to go all out they've got an adjustable fuel regulator and inline pressure gauge adapter to tune the fuel pressure a little better as well.[/QUOTE]

Yeah that's like the spacer I was gonna look into. Would that power charger be a good thing to get? I've never heard of that before. Does it give some good power gains?
 
It replaces the stock flat sided breather ring between the air cleaner and throttle body with a bowl shaped one so that air can come from all sides, not just straight down.

Basically turns this |_____| into this \_____/

That coupled with the spacers and a good exhaust gives an estimated 15hp gain, a little better fuel economy and improved throttle response.
 
oh wow, that's great. Yeah those might be 2 of my first investments lol, seems like you can't go wrong with those
 
DanJz said:
oh wow, that's great. Yeah those might be 2 of my first investments lol, seems like you can't go wrong with those
Click to expand...


IMO first investment and probably the best for your money will be a paid membership to CK5. Worth every single penny every day I log in. :wink1:
 
I wish the fuel pressure regulators weren't so expensive. $75 for that tiny little thing, but they recommend bumping the pressure up a few psi - stock from the factory was around 11psi, 14 is ideal for stock tbi with minor mods.
 
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