Nice sign. Looks like it's mounted to the truck? Or is that an optical Aleutian?
CK5
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One Piece at a Time: My 1985 Diesel Suburban
- Thread starter AgDieseler
- Start date
Nice sign. Looks like it's mounted to the truck? Or is that an optical Aleutian?
Thanks! No photo trickery - trussed metal frame for a banner, lashed to the roof rack.
David
Nice advertising. I couldn't quiiiiiite tell whether it was mounted to the truck or to a signpost in the yard.
David
That's a lot of miles.
#my65goals
Roughly half of these miles are from 1985-1992. My dad’s commute and family road trips are the bulk of that. The rest are mine; high school, college, and road trips to NM, CO, Texas wheeling, and Blazer Bash.
And your factory odometer already has the 6th digit.! See you at BB18.
David
With a small gap between customer projects, I'll get caught up on some maintenance and squeeze in a few Blazer Bash upgrades.
First, batteries:
The Odyssey PC1500s lasted about 5 years, but were marginal at colder temperatures. Summit price matched Amazon, and I just went to pick them up (so glad we have a store in DFW now). Also, here’s a good shot of the power cable and busbar.
Next - wiper control and other boring maintenance.
David
First, batteries:
The Odyssey PC1500s lasted about 5 years, but were marginal at colder temperatures. Summit price matched Amazon, and I just went to pick them up (so glad we have a store in DFW now). Also, here’s a good shot of the power cable and busbar.
Next - wiper control and other boring maintenance.
David
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Parts inbound or in stock:
David
- Reid/ORD kingpin spring eliminator
- EBC yellow stuff front pads
- Rear shoes and hardware
- Center pins
- Spring pads
- Spring eye bushings
- Wiper control - stalk and switch
- Wiper motor
- Starter
- Window motor
- Osram LED headlights
David
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Starter is in.
No more slow grinding and hard starting. Interestingly, the starter has always failed separately from the batteries, but this time they both drew down in tandem. Odd.
One more day on the Charger, and Saturday is all about front end work.
David
No more slow grinding and hard starting. Interestingly, the starter has always failed separately from the batteries, but this time they both drew down in tandem. Odd.
One more day on the Charger, and Saturday is all about front end work.
David
Reading back through this today...I realize that I have such an offset solenoid on my Suburban. No idea where it came from, but somebody somewhere was able to get one.
I never found that style, and just built a new mount on my throttle bracket to accommodate the 1985 original; the style that’s still readily available.
David
David
Chatting with @aglinks, and I figured I’d post some way way back photos of the roof rack build.
Early days in the garage. Kert bent all the tube and cut the vertical plates.
Same height off the roof as the original.
Working by myself, and still have to test fit.
Yep. That’s body filler, because I didn’t have a good way to smooth metal at the time - no air compressor, no air tools, and far fewer skills.
That’s 5 years in the rear view. So much has changed since then, but I still like the basic design. I actually have tubing and plates ready to go for sides and a floor. Maybe I'll get around to it after the turbo, sliders, and other stuff.
David
Early days in the garage. Kert bent all the tube and cut the vertical plates.
Same height off the roof as the original.
Working by myself, and still have to test fit.
Yep. That’s body filler, because I didn’t have a good way to smooth metal at the time - no air compressor, no air tools, and far fewer skills.
That’s 5 years in the rear view. So much has changed since then, but I still like the basic design. I actually have tubing and plates ready to go for sides and a floor. Maybe I'll get around to it after the turbo, sliders, and other stuff.
David
I can't knock the body filler, as I have had to compromise due to lack of tools. Just last year I got my air compressor that is large enough to run my air tools.
It's not like the filler was structural...so I don't see any reason to feel anything untoward.
I’m continuing my mission to civilize, so after replacing the window motor, I squeezed a whole 19x32 sheet of dynamat in the driver door. We’ll see how it does.
Rear brakes are serviced and bled. Got a crazy week of work ahead, but I intend to get the front end started later this week.
David
Rear brakes are serviced and bled. Got a crazy week of work ahead, but I intend to get the front end started later this week.
David
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That is awesome! I need to build new roof bars this summer. My factory bars are completely useless.
Glad to be back in the shop.
Kingpins rebuilt sigh Reid bronze bushings and ORD poly “springs”. No additional shims needed.
While I was at it, I installed EBC yellow stuff pads and did another power bleed. Pedal still doesn’t feel quite right - pads aren’t fully bedded - but it stops much better.
David
Kingpins rebuilt sigh Reid bronze bushings and ORD poly “springs”. No additional shims needed.
While I was at it, I installed EBC yellow stuff pads and did another power bleed. Pedal still doesn’t feel quite right - pads aren’t fully bedded - but it stops much better.
David
Seems like brake pedal never feels quite right immediately after messing with them. Couple drives later I forget all about my misgivings.
Inspired by @Shawn, and never again wanting to experience the late night drive across the Texas border with only my Sylvania halogens to light the path, I picked up a set of the Osram LEDs.
Cheap pigtail adapter, which is handy because the ground wire is opposite from the factory. I’ll run a sleeve of 3:1 heat shrink over this later.
All the lumens.
David
Cheap pigtail adapter, which is handy because the ground wire is opposite from the factory. I’ll run a sleeve of 3:1 heat shrink over this later.
All the lumens.
David
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