I'd say that all looks like an issue. I bet this thing purrs like a kitten afterwards. Well, a kitten that has tremors.
CK5
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The Great Smaug
- Thread starter campfire
- Start date
I don't think we've found the problem yet. The screen is clean. I can blow & suck on the pickup line with minimal resistance. I'm going to replace it, the lines, and the pump. But I'm not sure yet what caused the starving.
The fuel in the tank is green, though. Perhaps rust flakes are coming off the inside of the lines?
For future reference, the tank has 5" of fuel (12.5" total height), and the gauge reads a little under half. So there might be some bias in the gauge.
Ok, UPO trip is in the books. The last few days were a blur of thrashing to get the truck together. No time for pictures, but I'll try to remember all I did.
I hooked up my politician gauge to the fuel filter input, and went out for a drive. It read 10PSI at the start, but pressure would drop as soon as the engine got going, and it went far negative by the time I pulled out into traffic. Cruising down the road I recorded -23 inHg (-11.5psi) on the fuel line. -14.5psi is the theoretical absolute at my altitude, so this is almost as much vacuum as is possible in the real world.
I will add that the truck still ran, and produced enough power to maintain 45MPH. I'll challenge anyone to find me another automotive engine that can run with negative fuel pump pressure. It's a head scratcher for sure.
Anyways, I kept replacing lines until the entire supply side was replumbed. As I disconnected the very last piece of rubber hose, I found it was kinked.
So maybe I didn't need to redo all that. But at 11pm on Wednesday night I finally took a test drive. 30 miles of smooth cruising with everything working. Obviously we missed out on Wednesday night camping, and we didn't get the little stuff buttoned up until mid-day on Thursday. Two other guys were coming late, so we arranged to meet them in Marquette and run a faster set of offroad trails directly to Thursday's campsite.
I hooked up my politician gauge to the fuel filter input, and went out for a drive. It read 10PSI at the start, but pressure would drop as soon as the engine got going, and it went far negative by the time I pulled out into traffic. Cruising down the road I recorded -23 inHg (-11.5psi) on the fuel line. -14.5psi is the theoretical absolute at my altitude, so this is almost as much vacuum as is possible in the real world.
I will add that the truck still ran, and produced enough power to maintain 45MPH. I'll challenge anyone to find me another automotive engine that can run with negative fuel pump pressure. It's a head scratcher for sure.
Anyways, I kept replacing lines until the entire supply side was replumbed. As I disconnected the very last piece of rubber hose, I found it was kinked.
So maybe I didn't need to redo all that. But at 11pm on Wednesday night I finally took a test drive. 30 miles of smooth cruising with everything working. Obviously we missed out on Wednesday night camping, and we didn't get the little stuff buttoned up until mid-day on Thursday. Two other guys were coming late, so we arranged to meet them in Marquette and run a faster set of offroad trails directly to Thursday's campsite.
Half an hour into the trip, the sheath on my brand new throttle cable slid through the plastic collet and into the cab. So throttle response gradually got weaker and weaker as the cable got looser. I pulled it back into position, gently applied vice grips to the sheath, and continued on my way.
As I stopped for gas I found oil slung all around the front left wheel well. The hose clamp connecting to the oil cooler had loosened.
I had swapped the front axle to 3/4 ton pads & calipers, but every so often the brakes would act funny. It would pull one way or the other, but I didn't get the problem pinpointed. About half way through Thursday's trail ride I lost front brakes completely. Fluid gushing from my brand new caliper. Drove the rest of the day without touching the brake pedal. Wednesday morning I broke off from the group and headed towards a town big enough to have parts. Of course, they weren't big enough to have 3/4-ton brake pads, but they did have a new caliper.
I pulled the brakes apart and found that the inside pad had been torn out of place (past the caliper pins) and slid down behind the backing plate. Then the caliper piston had pushed directly on the rotor and ground away. Eventually it ground away enough to run past the end of the seal and fluid gushed out. Suddenly the "BANG" on that first test drive made perfect sense. As did the loss of fluid, and the lack of visible leaks.
After an hour of calling around to other towns, nobody had 3/4-ton pads in stock. So I bought a set of 1/2-ton pads and installed them on just that side. I figured the smaller pad would grab less effectively, but they're actually well balanced. Caliper pistons are identical, so it's just pushing harder on the small pad. I'll change the other side out again. I don't trust the pads in there, the one I fished out of the backing plate had undersized safety catches. Not at all equal to what I put in there. But that's a story for another day.
As I stopped for gas I found oil slung all around the front left wheel well. The hose clamp connecting to the oil cooler had loosened.
I had swapped the front axle to 3/4 ton pads & calipers, but every so often the brakes would act funny. It would pull one way or the other, but I didn't get the problem pinpointed. About half way through Thursday's trail ride I lost front brakes completely. Fluid gushing from my brand new caliper. Drove the rest of the day without touching the brake pedal. Wednesday morning I broke off from the group and headed towards a town big enough to have parts. Of course, they weren't big enough to have 3/4-ton brake pads, but they did have a new caliper.
I pulled the brakes apart and found that the inside pad had been torn out of place (past the caliper pins) and slid down behind the backing plate. Then the caliper piston had pushed directly on the rotor and ground away. Eventually it ground away enough to run past the end of the seal and fluid gushed out. Suddenly the "BANG" on that first test drive made perfect sense. As did the loss of fluid, and the lack of visible leaks.
After an hour of calling around to other towns, nobody had 3/4-ton pads in stock. So I bought a set of 1/2-ton pads and installed them on just that side. I figured the smaller pad would grab less effectively, but they're actually well balanced. Caliper pistons are identical, so it's just pushing harder on the small pad. I'll change the other side out again. I don't trust the pads in there, the one I fished out of the backing plate had undersized safety catches. Not at all equal to what I put in there. But that's a story for another day.
From Friday morning onward, the truck ran flawlessly with zero issues. There are things left to finish, but there aren't many things I want to undo or redo. It is comfy and capable. It conquered every obstacle on the route and never got stuck. In fact, I don't remember the wheels slipping aside from some of the sand dune climbs. It just crawled over stuff exactly like it was supposed to. I didn't get the skid plates installed, but the truck didn't care.
That being said, with the extra 4" of height and the much looser steering caused by braking or swaying (no sway bar), the truck isn't as fun for zipping around town with the kids. It has crossed the line away from being a daily driven street queen. It is an (off)roadtrip machine, and that's what it's going to keep doing.
Oh yeah, it's also twice the volume of the other truck. So that's cool, too. I had my brother tagging along this year and the extra room was appreciated.
That being said, with the extra 4" of height and the much looser steering caused by braking or swaying (no sway bar), the truck isn't as fun for zipping around town with the kids. It has crossed the line away from being a daily driven street queen. It is an (off)roadtrip machine, and that's what it's going to keep doing.
Oh yeah, it's also twice the volume of the other truck. So that's cool, too. I had my brother tagging along this year and the extra room was appreciated.
I'll sort through trip pictures later, but for now my list looks like this:
Figure out a decent throttle cable.
Replace pads & brake hose on the driver side.
E-brake - The redneck adapter bracket broke right before the trip and just didn't get reworked in time.
Check for any other damage I missed earlier.
New things:
Exhaust - Needs a third hanger so the pipe doesn't rattle against the transfer case. I used a ratchet strap to limit the rotation, but that's not a long-term solution.
Shocks - Didn't get to them before the trip, and decided against changing them before I had a chance to install proper bump stops. Bump stops are sitting on the shelf ready to go. The current configuration isn't too bad, with the shocks limiting the up travel on hard landings. But we can do better.
Swaybar (already have the disconnects installed, just need the bar).
Skid Plates (T-case & Fuel tank)
Interior - Headliner, seats, carpet.
Electrical stuff - Gauges, plugs, dome lights, etc.
Spare tire - get it out of the cabin.
Brush guard & front receiver
Wire both ends for winching
And whatever other ideas pop into my head.
Figure out a decent throttle cable.
Replace pads & brake hose on the driver side.
E-brake - The redneck adapter bracket broke right before the trip and just didn't get reworked in time.
Check for any other damage I missed earlier.
New things:
Exhaust - Needs a third hanger so the pipe doesn't rattle against the transfer case. I used a ratchet strap to limit the rotation, but that's not a long-term solution.
Shocks - Didn't get to them before the trip, and decided against changing them before I had a chance to install proper bump stops. Bump stops are sitting on the shelf ready to go. The current configuration isn't too bad, with the shocks limiting the up travel on hard landings. But we can do better.
Swaybar (already have the disconnects installed, just need the bar).
Skid Plates (T-case & Fuel tank)
Interior - Headliner, seats, carpet.
Electrical stuff - Gauges, plugs, dome lights, etc.
Spare tire - get it out of the cabin.
Brush guard & front receiver
Wire both ends for winching
And whatever other ideas pop into my head.
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It doesn't tremor as much as the other truck. I think the turbine quiets it down a bit. It's not at all bad in the current configuration. Though the 4" exhaust does hang low enough to have brushed the ground once.
Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.
Outstanding.
David
Outstanding.
David
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oh, I miss that sound! I need to get mine running...@sreidmx, here is a starting video for you. It had idled for a minute or two before this, so it's not a 100% cold start.
View media item 33661
Demonstrating the high idle issue (and also the lack of functional CDR).
View media item 33662
Glad I read this. you're doing great work Campy. I had an incredible offer to trade my two broke 'burbs for a running gmt400 burb. It is tempting but I'm a diehard square body guy...even when they're broke...lol You give me hope lol
4 words that sum up the month You could turn that into a decent Haiku.
Thanks for the props. One piece at a time, one vehicle at a time, we're keeping this junk on the road.
Oh, the MBRP muffler is just fine. Not loud at all. I guess the Blazer just set a much lower standard than I realized. Which is the general theme of this week. The new truck shows the shortcomings of the old one. 
Yeah...you now have hope that if you throw enough money into a square you'll eventually wind up with a $1000 rust bucket.
Back in the days of sig quotes, this is what I used:
Everybody knows that, but did you know that 9 out of 10 CK5ers will spend ten thousand dollars on a three thousand dollar truck and be happy about it
I’m very happy this is going so well. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for you and this truck!
Me, too!
We pulled in from the trip and I parked the truck out in front of the house. It hasn't sat there in over 3 years. Feels kinda funny having the barn completely empty.
Feels kinda funny having the barn completely empty.
You’d best go buy another one to work on then!
I have another one to work on. It's just sitting in the pasture instead of the barn.
But yes, I'm sorting through ideas for the next mechanical project. 90% sure it will be outside the realm of the full sized truck. After 3 in a row I have some other ideas to chase. Now to narrow the list down.
