The Great Smaug

[Chevy305]

Some cheap junk yard winstar fans will suit your needs just fine. With wiring, switches, and a relay you'll be in the whole setup for under $100. But are you really going to notice any extra efficiency when you're dragging around all the extra camping stuff and trying to hurl a brick through the wind?

 

[campfire]

Some cheap junk yard winstar fans will suit your needs just fine. With wiring, switches, and a relay you'll be in the whole setup for under $100. But are you really going to notice any extra efficiency when you're dragging around all the extra camping stuff and trying to hurl a brick through the wind?

The primary kind of efficiency I'm looking for is removing heat so I never boil that radiator over again.

What I currently have isn't cutting it under heavy loading, so I hafta do something. Maybe this got buried in the last 17 pages, but the primary reason I'm messing with the fan is because the original mechanical fan fell off its shaft and punched a hole in the radiator. Not cool. If I had a good mechanical fan lying around, I would run it. I have one on there now, but it's undersized and it wobbles some. Wobbly fan sounds to me like another radiator risk. Maybe I'm overthinking this.

If a (good) stock fan dropped into my lap I would run it, but if I hafta go hunting for one I may put in the time to run the electric ones. I don't expect it to make a tangible difference in overall fuel consumption. But at the rate these truck guzzle fuel, it wouldn't hafta make much difference to easily pay back the $100.

 

[campfire]

Tonight I wanted a break from the other stuff going on, so I went out and spent a little time organizing the tool/parts pile in the barn. Decided to pull the pedals on this rig, as it's one small step that needs no new parts. This truck has a whole lot more wires than either of my others do. It does have factory A/C and cruise control, but otherwise it's optioned nearly identically to Big Blue. The rear of the truck has one extra dome light (instead of the cargo lamp) and the rear A/C pod. I didn't expect to find many differences.


Carnage shot. I pulled the steering column into the cab but opted to set it aside instead of disconnecting the wiring harness.





The bypassed clutch switch connector. I'm pointing this out because this would normally interrupt the feed to the solenoid. If you find that your ignition switch has failed, you can induce cranking by applying 12V to the solenoid side of the plug (on my '83 it's the purple wire, but YMMV). Very convenient when it comes time to diagnose electrical gremlins (or if you ever lose your key, it's more fun than crawling underneath to gain physical access to the solenoid).

\

This pedal set had 4 modules bolted to the sides, in addition to dual brake switches. The one that is missing is the oddball one, and I'm pretty sure it is for cruise control.



It came off in 2 pieces. The part that stayed with the truck was both an electrical switch and a vacuum valve.



The half that stayed with the pedals (the plunger plugs off the vacuum line). I'm pretty sure this will go back together. Cruise control did work before this exercise.

 

[campfire]

So tonight we're going to play NAME THAT ELECTRICAL MODULE. I have 5 items to identify (not counting the cruise control module on the speedometer).

First up is this silver relay-looking thing. This is the only box of the 5 that is on all 3 of my trucks.





Second up is this black plastic module. Another relay?

 

[campfire]

^^^Those were on the driver side of the pedal bracket. On the passenger side we has this suspicious ECM/PCN/MoreBrainsThanA6.2Needs kind of box. Inside sits enough circuitry to implement sophisticated control logic, this isn't a simple switching box.



With fins on the steering column...I'm assuming this is related to the blinker/wiper/CC switch. But that's just a guess, I haven't followed any of the wiring yet.




Last module, back up on the pedal bracket, was this one.






So...what do these boxes do? I'm a little bit confuzzled.

 

[campfire]

For reference, the CUCV has no modules on the pedal bracket. But it has several that are hanging loosely.






I tried to get a view of the relative dearth of wiring under this dash. It's lots simpler under here.





Big Blue looks much less molested, the two modules that it has are nicely tucked up out of the way. No wires annoying me except that clutch switch bypass.



And no modules on the passenger side of the bracket.



No large brain box here.

 

[campfire]

Google results, FWIW.

P/N 370869 is a power lock relay (curious, as Big Blue doesn't have power locks ).
P/N 14014515 is a torque converter control relay.
P/N 14047829 is an "Engine Coolant Sensor" module. Kinda surprised me, but I believe this to be the other module that Big Blue does have.

And that leaves the big one. P/N 25031955 is the Speed Control Module for the cruise control system.

I guess those answers make sense. I'm surprised that cruise control involved so many wires connecting the 3 or 4 modules spread throughout the vehicle. Modern aftermarket CC systems are a much smaller animal.

 

[campfire]

Today I cut down the original brake pedal to fit in the new pedal bracket, transferred hardware from one bracket to the other, and painfully removed the two extra studs that the bracket had (because it came off of a vacuum boost truck instead of a hydro boost truck). Discovered that GM was kind enough to punch out exactly the hole that I need for the clutch M/C, but also filled it with the CC wiring harness. Pulled that harness out and found a new route for it to take.

I also discovered that the clutch M/C from the donor truck (1988 Suburban) is not the same as the 1986 C10 M/C that I'm running in the CUCV. The shape is slightly different and it appears that the 2 bolt holes in the flange are further apart. I hope that's an illusion, but the flange doesn't match the cardboard template that I used last time. Odd. Rockauto lists the same part number for both applications, so I'm not sure what to think.

 

[campfire]

I broke it.

Went out today to install the new pedal cluster. arghouahdsonuvdsojwenkatby (pedal cluster is far from my favorite job in the world). I managed to break the socket that's built into the input shaft of the hydroboost unit. I have no idea how that happened, the rest of the job was pretty routine. But now I have a brake pedal linkage that falls out of place.







On a side note, it is starting to look like a 3-pedal truck. I just gotta get ahead of the list of suicidal parts instead of continuing to fall behind.

 

[GWeakland620]

Sorry to hear of your luck. As for help, I will be none here.

As usual...

 

[folkenheath]

Bummer on the hydroboost man, it looks like the rod angle was too much and it broke the cup off. It looks to be part of the piston, so the whole thing may be scrap? Can you swap it for a reman unit?

 

[campfire]

Bummer on the hydroboost man, it looks like the rod angle was too much and it broke the cup off. It looks to be part of the piston, so the whole thing may be scrap? Can you swap it for a reman unit?

Yeah, it's part of the piston.

I did remove it briefly to get the bracket lined up, but I wasn't man-handling the rod or pulling it sideways.

I'll either rebuild or replace it, but for now it's on hold. Not much reason to continue buttoning up the dash, it'll just make reinstalling the repaired hydrobooster more difficult.

 

[campfire]

Also, for my reference, I'm saving this link for next time I need ideas. Pretty cool camper build. Mine won't be like this, but I plan to borrow some ideas as I go. Thanks to @Big Ray for sharing it.

http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...p-grafted-into-it-also-dual-360-swivel-seats/

Suburban with Westfalia top.

 

[GWeakland620]

That is a cool build. I like the little "upper level" for the kid/kids. That would be a fun setup.

 

[campfire]

That is a cool build. I like the little "upper level" for the kid/kids. That would be a fun setup.

Oh yeah. We've been talking about pushing up the roof ever since we bought the beast. But the idea of split-leveling it is sheer awesomeness for someone with a growing family. Baby isn't as little as she used to be, I can't just throw her bed in a random corner like I could last year, she's pretty good at climbing out of all sorts of things now!

If my goal is not needing a tent, I'm going to run out of sleeping room, even starting with a smauggy behemoth. Unlike many folks, I hafta keep that second seat. So I only have 5.5' x 6' for a platform bed back there. This'll be fun.

I just hafta get past the "mechanical things keep breaking" phase.

 

[GWeakland620]

Oh yeah. We've been talking about pushing up the roof ever since we bought the beast. But the idea of split-leveling it is sheer awesomeness for someone with a growing family. Baby isn't as little as she used to be, I can't just throw her bed in a random corner like I could last year, she's pretty good at climbing out of all sorts of things now!

If my goal is not needing a tent, I'm going to run out of sleeping room, even starting with a smauggy behemoth. Unlike many folks, I hafta keep that second seat. So I only have 5.5' x 6' for a platform bed back there. This'll be fun.

I just hafta get past the "mechanical things keep breaking" phase.

I know you'll get past the mechanical issues, it'll just take time and some money. But I have faith in you.

I'm excited to see this build really pick up speed in the future. I'm sure it'll be awesome.

 

[campfire]

I know you'll get past the mechanical issues, it'll just take time and some money. But I have faith in you.

I'm excited to see this build really pick up speed in the future. I'm sure it'll be awesome.

I know. I'm thoroughly ready to be done with the "broke" phase of life. We are so close. So close. Sigh.

 

[GWeakland620]

I know. I'm thoroughly ready to be done with the "broke" phase of life. We are so close. So close. Sigh.

The end is near! The end is near!

 

[campfire]

The end is near! The end is near!

 

[campfire]

Cleaning out the shed today. When this pig finally gets on the road I would like it to have a brush guard. Or, in this region, it's really a deer guard. We have a lot of brush, but we have even more deer, at least on the road. I have a standard CUCV brush guard. This look has been done many times, but it's a reasonable piece and it's an easy bolt-on part.

(Yes, I know it's offset, the bumperettes won't let me center it for a quick-n-dirty picture).





I also have this one, quite heavily built, but patterned for a GMT400 rig. With 1/2" uprights I'm pretty confident this frame would tear apart before anything bent them. I can't raise it into position without removing the air dam, so use your imagination here and picture it 4" higher.






The mounting flanges are wide enough that it should be easy to mount. But it sticks further forward than I would prefer. Even if I brought the wings all the way up to the fender, the nose would still be sticking out a bit.



But the biggest problem in my book is that the headlight opening is only ~9" tall.



The headlights need a minimum of 11" to be reasonable.



The CUCV guard gives it 15"



Pictures of a different CUCV guard on an actual CUCV.



It also sticks out in the nose, but not quite as much as the newer guard.



I'm kinda surprised that the factory brush guard doesn't try to mimic the angled contours of the grille.


I'm thinking the GMT400 guard is too heavy (it's twice the weight of the other one), and it's also not as good of a fit. But I'm also interested in opinions. I've seen guards that infringe on headlight area, is that less of a problem than I realize?

I may or may not keep the stock bumper, haven't decided that yet. The CUCV guard mounts to the stock bumper, so it would be less advantageous if the bumper changes (the direct frame mount would open up other options, bumper-wise).

I think typing this out has convinced me to use the stock guard and pass the newer one along to someone with a newer truck.