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Subjective Sensibility

A handshake agreement and a 2500 mile drive later, I have my work cut out for me. The goal is a reliable camping and hunting truck with good off road capability and potential for a daily driver.
Overview Gallery Discussion
The gauges look just as bad under the bezel. While I knew I would be replacing the orange shift indicator, I did not know until I pulled this all apart that the cluster backing plate was broken off where the wire anchors the shift indicator to the gauge cluster. I am now trying to figure out if I can macguyver something in there instead of buying a whole new backing plate. Also wondering if a 3d printed shift indicator would last in there. Not that it wouldn't take me a dozen hours to model the stupid thing.

dirty gauges.JPG

busted backing plate.JPG
 
Polymath said:
That is a step simpler than my idea of a shoulder bolt / washer which would require a rivnut. Thanks!
Click to expand...
To be fair, I bought a parts truck that had that farmer fix for the idea. I still have those pieces for the next truck I find in need of repair. It worked perfect.
 
Did some more cleaning. Then I found a good deal on 3/4 ton axles and now my budget is back down to soap and water, so more cleaning. Also one can of electronics spray cleaner which i've had for about a decade. Felt good to pop it open and use it all up in one go under the dash. All the air vents are coming apart and getting cleaned up too. Did I mention the cleaning yet?

'77 k20 axles with 4.10 gears and some manner of limited slip in the back. New bearings and studs all around.
axles in garage.JPG

Loving this blue the more I see of it.
dash cleaning 1.JPG

Getting cleaner...
dash cleaning 2.JPG
 
Cleaned up all the gauges, new led bulbs, painted the inside of the housing, now getting all the lights to work.
4x4, E-brake, seat belts all easy to confirm. Choke isn't hooked up to anything at the moment (carb is off).
Don't seem to have any turn signals or high beams so I can't get those to light up. So I ordered more bulbs and an LED flasher to start going through all the lights. Maybe the gauge cluster is fine and the problem is elsewhere. Time will tell.
Also replaced the whole shift indicator assembly just so I could get the orange sliding (middle) finger. I couldn't figure out a good way to make one that would last. Damned things are just too small and fragile, not to mention complicated angles with numerous weak points.

Guages painted ready for assembly.JPG

Gauge cluster assembled.JPG

Gauge cluster lit up.JPG
 
Bend tabs to gain better pressure and don't forget LEDs are directional, if not working rotate the bulb 180 degrees.
 
Yeah. All that is on point. Got the high beams and hazards sorted out but now turn signals remain a problem. I swapped the flashers but still get no left or right signals, no clicking from the flasher. I'm betting I will find some degraded wiring when I go to replace all the bulbs. High beams was a matter of pulling the stalk back harder. It's pretty wobbly, I probably need to replace it and dig into the steering column for some cleaning and assessing of the parts in there.
 
Planning to have 33" to 35" tires in there at some point. Assuming the 700r4 actually went into overdrive (it wouldn't), 35's with 3.08 gears would be pushing the vehicle over 120mph at just 2500rpm. Similar speed in 3rd gear at 3500rpm. I'll be happy if this old thing never crests 95mph. Even then i'd be weary.
 
Way better... Perhaps. But 4.10 will work with moderately taller tires whereas 3.08 just wont cut it. The 3/4 ton axles already have 4.10 in them and I wanted the bigger axles to handle the torque of the 489.
 
My 33” are 32.1I would prefer 4.10 with this set up
However I’m getting BFG 35” which are 34.5” so I think my 4.56 gears will be a good match I too have a 700R4
My 350TBI is a Mule keeps running smooth but lacks power the gears make it feel like it actually has over 200 HP
If I had “free” 4.10 or 4.56 gears I wouldn’t spend the money
the lower gears do help the transmission
 
Yeah. The more I look into it, the less I like the idea of 35's.
32" with a small lift will handle anything I need it to do.
 
Been a while. Spent most of the summer outdoors.
Bigger fatter radiator is mostly installed. Just need to cut and extend the top mounts to hold it in place.

I got it turning over and in the process the trans pan spring a leak and started pissing dex6 all over the place. Really was not expecting that and not even sure how that happens. I had replaced the filter and reinstalled a very clean pan and only put in a small amount of fluid knowing that it would have to pump some through the radiator and I didn't want to overfill the pan. Maybe I did overfill the pan. No idea. I'll have to pull it and reseal it regardless.

I pulled the harness out of the engine bay and cleaned it up a bit, figured out where all the wires go since nothing was plugged in when I bought it and most of the connectors were missing or melted off. I have a 1-wire RaceProven alternator sitting here missing the pulley nut and the bolts to mount it. Will be getting those soon enough but didn't need that mounted up to run it.

Also improvised a way to turn the water pump since I didn't have the fan/belt installed yet. It worked quite well in a pinch just to get coolant flowing through the block and get all the air bubbles out.

View attachment First run -small.mp4
View attachment First run smoke -small.mp4
Redneck water pump.PNG
 
@kennyw Is that really the only difference to the upper mounts? Diesel models were longer by an inch or so? The rad is a chinese amazon special 4-row so I just assumed i'd have to do some adapting.
 
Rubber isolators on top and bottom as well as the fan shroud also change. But the upper brackets are the main thing to get it in there. The diesel and big block used the same large upper bracket. The diesel just spaced them farther apart with a longer plastic filler panel.
 
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