CK5
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Project: Dirty South (K5)

are you leaving th axle back or moving it forward?
nice flex and bumper shots

The rear axle will be left back. And yea, verily, there will be much body-trimming throughout the land! Seriously, though, I will cut along the tape line you see in the back and also extend the rear fenderwell. Not sure what the overall wheelbase will be yet since I have a 52" swap coming in up front, too.
 
on my sub it grew a total of 5 inches from 130 1/2 to 135 1/2 also goingto do a 56 front swap it adds another 3 inches i believe.
so 8 total.
 
Progress:

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After listening to quite a bit of input, this bumper is going to be reworked. While I think it looks cool, there's probably a little too much overhang. Something tighter will take its place.
 
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Forwards or Backwards?

Made some "progress" this week, thanks to a few days off work.

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These are the linkages for the throttle and TV cables on the Edelbrock. Note the zip-tie "fix" on the TV cable - a new cable is ready to go in. These linkages must be right on the new Holley so this is a reminder pic.

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Radiator out (being reconditioned), water pump out (new one coming), power steering pump out and steering box removed. AC condenser out, never to return.

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Apparently, I have the only K5 in history without a cracked frame at the steering box.

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This is waiting for me under the dash, which must be sorted out before the new column can go in. Mixed in this mess are a button-starter, some kind of alarm remnant and various teenager stereo leftovers. Wiring problems and me seem to go together like peas and carrots.

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Some more detail on the rear axle perch.

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Glimpse of the fun we are having on the front 60 getting the old coil perches off.

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A panhard bar pivot that will not be retained.

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Passenger side - all this has to come off, down to the factory cast perch.
 
Continued . . .

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Removing front shackle hangers and body mounts for installation of the DIY B52's. Torching out the old rivets was f-u-n.

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I am retaining the stock trailing hanger for the front springs but have an ORD greasable bushing. The shackles are DIY and if you tell Kert that you are retaining the stuck upper hanger, he will weld in a spacer for you on the shackles so the springs will bolt right up. Note the shackles are upside down in these pictures - the spacers go up top.

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Torching out the old bushings from the 52's that will go up front. I can't quite express what a pain this was. After the bushings were burnt out, I had to score the inner sleeve with a cutoff wheel through the gap in the spring eye and then drive them out with a hammer and chisel. Good times.

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This is a 42 next to a 37, for reference.

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42's mounted on the rear. You can see now how far back the 63's place the rear axle.
 
Continued . . .

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Front 42 rolled into position for mockup - looks like the body may need to be clearanced.

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Leading and trailing front spring mounts complete. The pictures don't do justice to the amount of labor it took to get the rusty front body/spring mounts off and the B52's on.
 
looks awesome...keep the info and pics coming...the bumper looks awesome too...like the holes in the plate...
 
More work done today

Before:
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After:
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We are down to the cast perch, but will have to chuck it up to some serious equipment to drill and tap the studs, which were previously broken and welded over.

Meanwhile, in the cab, on the way to this:
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I pulled out all this:
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and these:
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The HVAC will not return. And, I spent a lot of time stripping out unnecessary harnesses, like those that originally ran to the primitive feedback-loop computer for emissions, the HVAC, crappy spliced-in alarm, old switches, accessory harnesses, etc.
 
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Ignition Switch wiring question, etc.

QUESTION 1:
Now, here is a question - a momentary toggle switch was installed as a button-start by taking the yellow wire pictured at 5 o'clock here:
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which comes out of the blue ignition switch connector (the blue and black plug side-by-side into the ignition switch) to one pole of the momentary switch to energize it. The prior owner then took the other pole of the momentary switch and spliced it to the purple wire pictured at 9 o'clock, which was apparently pulled out of one of the two starter switch connectors. I already know the purple wire goes down the harness to the starter.

I'm restoring this to the factory setup and eliminating the button start. Does anyone have a pic of how these two wires (yellow and purple) and their connectors are wired from the factory? Does the the yellow wire go from the blue ignition switch connector to the black ignition switch connector and the purple go from one of them (which one?) straight into the harness and on to the starter? The prior owner literally pulled the wires out of the plastic connectors, so I am not sure which one went where.

I have both Haynes & Chilton's but they are not very helpful in the wiring schematic. I even have an ALLDATADiy subscription and their chassis wiring diagrams suck - too blurry at sufficient zoom to be useful. Anyone have a pic or info?

QUESTION 2:
The red box you see at 6 o'clock in this pic:
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Was this part of a factory cruise control? It appears connected, among other things, to a harness that went to a female connector that connected to the cruise control on the old column and it is nothing more than a circuit board inside the red box, but the box does have AC Delco on the outside. It mounts on a bracket right next to the accelerator pedal. Or, could it be the torque convertor lockup controller for the 700R4? Basically, I want to know what it is so I can ditch it if possible.

edit - answers at post 60

The rig has been through an engine swap over the years, so there is lots of leftover stuff like this . . .
 
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More surgery

Progress early this week on sliders, which will be integrated with the frame and, ultimately, the cage. The steel is 2x4. The rusted-out rockers were cut level with the floor pan. The full doors will not be returning.

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whats up fellow houstonian. crazy were kinda in the same boat. im rewireing my truck with a painfull harness so was just going over this today. you probably already figured it out but if not. the yellow wire (purple in my harness) goes from the blue conector to the neutral safety switch at the bottom of the steering colomn, then to the starter solenoid.
 
on the red box i have no idea. i threw away my old harness a long time ago (stupid move). if its for cruise you dont need it(unless you want cruise). if its a pulse wiper control module then i dont know. but if you can tell me what color wires go into it i can tell you. plus i have some other diagrams if you need them. hope i can help.
 
the yellow wire (purple in my harness) goes from the blue conector to the neutral safety switch at the bottom of the steering colomn, then to the starter solenoid.
Okay, seems like that makes sense. Looks to me then, the prior owner may have cut out the neutral safety switch in put the toggle in its place. He had yellow to 1 pole of a momentary toggle then other pole of toggle to purple in the harness. To start the engine, you had to turn the key ignition switch to run and then hit the toggle.

My replacement column is a manual and I'm going with a B&M floor shifter. Any thoughts on wiring this properly in that scenario?

Other question, since yellow fed from the blue connector, did the purple wire originally feed from the black connector?

Thanks VERY much for your help on this.
 
on the red box i have no idea. i threw away my old harness a long time ago (stupid move). if its for cruise you dont need it(unless you want cruise). if its a pulse wiper control module then i dont know. but if you can tell me what color wires go into it i can tell you. plus i have some other diagrams if you need them. hope i can help.

Diagrams would be great if they are legible - email is xanthias -at - texas4x4 -dot- org

I'll check on the wire colors going into the module. Again, many thanks.
 
the wire in my harness is purple probably because painless changed it. they kept almost all the wires to factory colors but some changed. the diagrams are from the painless kit. most of them are horible but all the wires have numbers and text printed down them. so i can tell you how all of its wired(from the factory).im not even using 50% of the wires. plus they want me to use a jumper on my alternator to basicly turn my three wire into a one wire (for simplicity i guess) and i dont like that at all....the jury is still out for me on painless...
 
Basically if he got rid of the netral safety switch with a toggle then you could just splice them together.

You have power to the key switch that runs to the safety switch then to the starter. Turn the key complets the circut. I have never seen a that big red thing in any of the dashes that I have ever been into maybe factory after-market cruise ?

Does it still have the factory ignition switch in it not the tumbler part but the steering column part ?

The only other things on the column at the bottom are the neutral safety and reverse light depending on the year the high beam switch might be also.
 
Thanks KG. Yes, the old column had the key ignition switch in it, but it was destroyed, basically, because the prior owner lost the key and broke the ignition switch to turn it over with a screwdriver. One of several reasons I rebuilt a manual column to swap in

So, in the OEM harness, looking over the diagrams (which are not as good quality as I would expect) at AlldataDIY.com, it seems the correct configuration is yellow wire out of blue connector to neutral safety switch, then NSS to purple wire to starter(?) - see below.

Yes, I'm thinking the red module is a cruise added on, perhaps by the dealer because the cruise stalk in the column looks aftermarket but the red box says AC Delco on it. .

For that matter, the reverse light switch was gone, too, replaced by SPST toggle so reverse lights could be activated manually (who knows why?). I've already isolated those wires.

Now, thinking through how could I make the neutral safety feature functional again - with a floor shifter . . . (Normally, I wouldn't bother but I'm going to have my kids in this rig so I think it is a good precaution.) On the one hand, if I were to retain a column shift, I assume I'd need to get a new one of these:

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#ECHNS6497 from NAPA . . .

5 pins, the yellow lead in from the blue ignition switch connector to the neutral safety switch for the yellow to energize the switch and then out from the NSS via the purple wire to the starter solenoid. The other two pins are for the feeds to the back-up light switch and the fifth pin is the lead that completes one or the other circuit, depending on the position of your shifter (?)

With the B&M Megashifter I'll be using, it looks like a matter of hooking the correct wires up, since the shifter comes with its own back-up light switch and neutral safety switch included:

http://www.bmracing.com/bmracing/installation_instruction/7.pdf
 
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Thanks to getting my mitts on a Shop Manual, I now have definitive answers to these questions

xanthias said:
QUESTION 1:
Now, here is a question - a momentary toggle was installed as a button-start by taking the yellow wire pictured at 5 o'clock here:
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which comes out of one of the two starter switch connectors to one pole and the other pole was spliced to the purple wire pictured at 9 o'clock, which was apparently pulled out of the starter switch connector. I'm restoring this to the factory setup and eliminating the button start. Does anyone have a pic of how these connectors are wired from the factory?

The answer is as I was thinking the post above - the yellow lead comes from the blue ignition connector and feeds the neutral safety switch. The purple lead then goes from the neutral safety switch to the starter solenoid. This should work fine and retain my neutral safety feature using the supplied switch with my B&M floor shifter.

xanthias said:
QUESTION 2:

The red box you see at 6 o'clock in this pic:
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Was this part of a factory cruise control? It appears connected to a harness that went to the cruise on the old column and it is nothing more than a circuit board inside - it is labeled "AC Delco" on the side. It mounts on a bracket right next to the accelerator pedal?

The answer is, it used to be part of factory cruise control but tied in, as you might expect, with the brake light switch circuit, etc. so the cruise would know when to disengage. The factory engine in this truck was a carbureted 305 and the cruise control worked via a servo. I can eliminate this and will have to tease out its harness.

Engine Chit-Chat
More interestingly, the vehicle VIN, which you can decode at http://www.decodethis.com/ specs out for a 305, which also jives with the option code on the original window sticker (LE9). So, I pulled the block casting number (14010207) and it's a 350, so we've had an engine swap in this rig, which explains some of the harness dead-ends. Further, the 350 had an aftermarket Edelbrock intake and carb. You can check your block castings at http://www.mortec.com/

The engine swap creates some new questions in my wiring research. Apparently, the LE9 305 from the factory had an "electronic spark control" module. This was a closed-loop system that controlled detonation by modifying advance and then returning control to the "EST" or electronic spark timing distributor. EST distributors did not have vacuum advance. It worked from two sensors, a piezoelectric knock sensor on the passenger side of the block, (which is also present on this 350, curiously) and a vacuum switch on the firewall that provided a signal at throttle tip-in to retard timing to reduce knock - this vacuum switch is still left over on my firewall. Inside the cab, the ESC module itself was supposed to be mounted on the brake pedal bracket and it is gone. Someone bothered to hook up the knock sensor on this 350 and to hook up the harness to the vacuum switch, but not a vacuum line. Here's what the EST HEI Distributors looked like:

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Transmission Chit-Chat
Now, here's where things get weird. According to the shop manual, only California rigs had an ECM and I did remove one from above the glove box in this rig. However, the original 305 engine VIN code (H) for this truck is wrong for a California (F) engine (yay CA emissions). Further, if you had an ECM, you didn't have vacuum advance, which really tells me nothing here since this is a swapped engine. The distributor on the 350 is a vacuum-advance HEI unit that does not have EST ("electronic spark timing", which would be signified by a 4-prong connector coming out of the distributor, with brown, black, white and green wire leads to connect to the ECM).

So, how does a rig that does not have a California VIN have what appears to have been an ECM?

The plot thickens a bit more with the 700R4 transmission, which was originally spec'd to this rig according to the sticker (option code MXO). As you know, the 700R4's have lockup torque convertors. I had wondered if the ECM, or the no-longer-a-mystery red box, controlled it. According to the manual, on "F" VIN units (i.e. California units with an ECM and a 305) the ECM did control what GM calls the "TCC" or torque convertor clutch. I haven't crawled under and traced the transmission's harness yet, but that's next up. I think I see a lockup kit in my future, such as those offered by:

Bowtie Overdrives:
http://www.bowtieoverdrives.com/catalog/catalog.php?Action=GETSUBCAT&CATID=OA1

Summit Racing:
http://store.summitracing.com/egnse...+lockup+700r4&searchinresults=false&N=700+115

I wonder if the old ECM I pulled was still performing that function, even if all or most of its other functions were disabled by the 350 swap . . .
 
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