Needing some advice on a '79 Blazer

[Babyface1249]

I recently inherited a '79 blazer that the previous owner obviously knew nothing (or very close to nothing) and hard mounted the tranny to the crossmember which is hardmounted to the frame, which led to a cracked tranny housing. This issue also led to wrecked motor mounts and the engine sits a wee bit too far back so the distributor hits on the cap whenever it runs. It's got a carbed 350/th400/np203 full time converted to part time. My biggest question at this point is do I keep the current drivetrain and just fix/replace the tranny and the motor mounts, and the crossmember issue? Or, do I dive right in and make it the truck I *wish* it was, with a fuel injected ls motor/4l60e or 4l80e/np241? Or any suggestions between. I don't have a big garage or shop to do the work in, so that's my main hesitation with taking on a big project like this. Any help from someone who knows more than I do (pretty much anyone on this forum) would be greatly appreciated! Oh and I guess I should mention that I want to use this rig for moderate rockcrawling and to have around for big snow storms when the little saab gives up on me.

 

[79rustyk10]

Id fix what you have just to get it going. After that then you can make/change plans.

 

[rebelgregory]

My recommendation depends on whether it is a long term vehicle. You have to assume that any money that goes into it will not be returned at resale. If you're planning on keeping this thing forever, I say go all in. If you just need it to move reliably under it's own power, then you know what you have to do.

I've had mine for 12 years and repeatedly find myself removing parts that I spent money to upgrade to finally install the parts that I originally wanted.

Of course, not having a spot to wrench on it could be a real obstacle with the kind of project you're talking about.

 

[Babyface1249]

Thanks for the replies guys. I think for now I'm going to get a new tranny, fix the motor mounts, maybe rebuild the carb, fix the screwed up crossmember, and hopefully get some decent use out of the old beast before having to drop a couple grand into it. Any suggestions on the best place to get a TH400? Or whether to go with used or rebuilt?

 

[rebelgregory]

Not AutoZone. I just had a buddy buy one from there. Long story short, 3 transmissions and 1 torque converter later, his truck runs again.

I will not try to defend AutoZone, but to be fair, Movera is the name of the company they get trannys from, so be wary of anywhere that sells movera vehicular immobilizers.

 

[chulisohombre]

Take the trans to someone you know or can be vouched for locally. Much easier and if it breaks they are close to you to get it fixed. Maybe you will be happy with it and leave it at that point. At least it will be drivable and won't need a yon to get going again. Mine was down for so long ehile I collected parts it just started being a lawn ornament I couldn't have fun with anymore. If I had to do over I would have just kept it running and saved parts for when I could put it together the way I wanted instead of piece by piece.