A thing happened today.
Ethan
Ethan
CK5
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The Green Grendel
- Thread starter campfire
- Start date
Wall art!!!
And then....
Is that a mix between a yard, and a lawn?
Well played sir.
Another ting happened today.
MY thread? You will probably be waiting a while.
This thread is well over a year old now. And the biggest change is that the truck has gone from just barely limping around...back to just barely limping around. It's really just the journal I'm keeping for my own records, it's not intended to be entertaining.
The entertainment portion of the thread is all you guys' fault.
If this thread is "for your own records"...
What kind of record does the above statement keep?
Scratched record that skips
If this thread is "for your own records"...
What kind of record does the above statement keep?
If this thread is "for your own records"...
What kind of record does the above statement keep?
It reminds me that the build is made up of hundreds of little tiny steps. Each one by itself seems insignificant, which is why I put a place holder in there to remind myself. Today I accomplished a tiny thing. No, it's not worth writing up, nor would I expect the general public to care. But if I ever read through this journal I want to be reminded that little things mattered. Lots of little things mattered.
It may seem like it's skipping, but I think of it more like skipping a rock. Between each skip the rock is soaring through the air and getting closer and closer to its destination. More skips means that more has been accomplished. That's a good thing.
Given the prodding, I'll post my insignificant update.
Today I swapped some wheels around and pulled the rear shocks off of the suburban. Noteworthy? naww. But it's one more piece closer to getting this thing on the road. The Suburban shocks have ~3000 miles on them but are destined to be replaced with some taller, higher quality shocks. So they're getting repurposed into this truck. A few days ago I removed the terrible old shocks that came with the truck. I officially hate the shock mount that hides on top of the fuel tank. That is 100% terrible. DieDieDie. I'm waiting for new shock mounting studs to come in the mail, so I didn't install the new shocks. I removed my rear axle's 3rd member and cleaned out the clogged pinion yoke. Chased the threads with a 5/16" fine thread tap. The cheap tap now has a slight helical twist to it.
And a bunch of cleaning up the barn.
HorseBarnThings.
Today I swapped some wheels around and pulled the rear shocks off of the suburban. Noteworthy? naww. But it's one more piece closer to getting this thing on the road. The Suburban shocks have ~3000 miles on them but are destined to be replaced with some taller, higher quality shocks. So they're getting repurposed into this truck. A few days ago I removed the terrible old shocks that came with the truck. I officially hate the shock mount that hides on top of the fuel tank. That is 100% terrible. DieDieDie. I'm waiting for new shock mounting studs to come in the mail, so I didn't install the new shocks. I removed my rear axle's 3rd member and cleaned out the clogged pinion yoke. Chased the threads with a 5/16" fine thread tap. The cheap tap now has a slight helical twist to it.
And a bunch of cleaning up the barn.
HorseBarnThings.
More significant, but not 100% complete, I swapped the new front axle in on Sunday. I still need to bleed the brakes and seal up the diff cover, but everything else is finished. I mounted up 2 of the 8-lug van wheels from the Suburban, so it will be rolling again as soon as the brakes are online (I switched to 3/4-ton calipers to keep the brakes balanced). The plan is to run the good 245/75R16 tires on here and run the 285/75R16 tires on the camping rig.
Rear driveshaft has new U-joints and is ready to install except that I need to polish the slip yoke. And probably replace that slip yoke seal. I haven't sealed up the rear diff yet because I'm trying to buy a G80 carrier off of @Deuling so I don't hafta rock a Detroit on the ice this winter. But his response times have been slow enough I'm not sure it's actually going to happen.
At some point I have a disc brake conversion to put on here, but the rear brakes are working, so I'm not in the mood to disturb them. But I actively hate having drums behind the wheel hubs, so I will not be fixing the drums if anything breaks.
I have the headlights working again, some previous owner took an unfused hot wire through the firewall to a loose fuse holder spliced into one side of the melted fuse holder. Turns out that hack job is what runs the lights.
I'm tired of eating rust flakes.
Rear driveshaft has new U-joints and is ready to install except that I need to polish the slip yoke. And probably replace that slip yoke seal. I haven't sealed up the rear diff yet because I'm trying to buy a G80 carrier off of @Deuling so I don't hafta rock a Detroit on the ice this winter. But his response times have been slow enough I'm not sure it's actually going to happen.
At some point I have a disc brake conversion to put on here, but the rear brakes are working, so I'm not in the mood to disturb them. But I actively hate having drums behind the wheel hubs, so I will not be fixing the drums if anything breaks.
I have the headlights working again, some previous owner took an unfused hot wire through the firewall to a loose fuse holder spliced into one side of the melted fuse holder. Turns out that hack job is what runs the lights.
I'm tired of eating rust flakes.
Next up is buying a hand pump for bleeding the brakes/clutch and getting proper and sufficient oil into tranny, t-case, and both axles. And installing the newly repurposed rear shocks. Front shocks are new. At that point I think I will have a drivable beast and I will start looking into the dozen or so little issues. One of them, which is not so little, is that the blower fan doesn't move air. Which is really important this time of year. GP wiring is still hokey. I only have one seat mounted. I haven't installed the trans hump (nor cut the shifter hole yet). The speedometer cable appears to be both broken and melted.
Lots of little tiny things. One piece at a time, just like Big Blue.
Lots of little tiny things. One piece at a time, just like Big Blue.
I'd say you have been busy.
Pictures from Sunday evening. R&P stamping, 3.73 gears and 1987 date code.
The internals. Shiny springy thing.
Up on blocks, using a jack on each side as a safety backup (thankfully not needed).
Axle go bye-bye.
New axle in place, along with the cheapest shocks that money can buy. Monroe brand, purchased by my younger self in about 2010 for Big Blue. But Big Blue hasn't ever needed new shocks, and so they've just been sitting in wrinkled cardboard boxes. These combined with the almost-new takeoffs from the Suburban will give this truck brand new crummy shocks. And next time my older, smarter self will buy better quality ones.
These stub shafts have both sets of snap ring grooves. I didn't realize GM did this, as my other axles only have one groove or the other. This was significant when I did this conversion on the Suburban, as that axle only had the inner groove (used with automatic lockouts only). Was not able to run an inner snap ring on that rig.
Buttoned up with Mile Marker hubs. I have 3 of these hubs (used), and weirdly one of them uses a larger Allen wrench size, one that I wasn't able to find in any of my sets. Weird. It's about 3.5mm, but 1/8" was too loose to engage it. I left that one on the shelf and used the two matching ones.
I've been working outside lately, given some nice weather. The grass isn't a great working surface, but it sure beats the sandbox! The Suburban now has the dark horse barn all to itself. Well, until snow returns.
The internals. Shiny springy thing.
Up on blocks, using a jack on each side as a safety backup (thankfully not needed).
Axle go bye-bye.
New axle in place, along with the cheapest shocks that money can buy. Monroe brand, purchased by my younger self in about 2010 for Big Blue. But Big Blue hasn't ever needed new shocks, and so they've just been sitting in wrinkled cardboard boxes. These combined with the almost-new takeoffs from the Suburban will give this truck brand new crummy shocks. And next time my older, smarter self will buy better quality ones.
These stub shafts have both sets of snap ring grooves. I didn't realize GM did this, as my other axles only have one groove or the other. This was significant when I did this conversion on the Suburban, as that axle only had the inner groove (used with automatic lockouts only). Was not able to run an inner snap ring on that rig.
Buttoned up with Mile Marker hubs. I have 3 of these hubs (used), and weirdly one of them uses a larger Allen wrench size, one that I wasn't able to find in any of my sets. Weird. It's about 3.5mm, but 1/8" was too loose to engage it.
I left that one on the shelf and used the two matching ones.I've been working outside lately, given some nice weather. The grass isn't a great working surface, but it sure beats the sandbox! The Suburban now has the dark horse barn all to itself. Well, until snow returns.
I bought this axle (and the pile of lockouts) a year ago from @big dan. Big Dan (yes, I know that's not your real name), would you be able to refresh my memory on what has already been replaced on this axle? It is in need of some work, but I want to know what has already been done so I don't wind up replacing parts that are already good. So far I know that one upper ball joint is loose enough for me to wiggle the hub with my fingers. And when wiggling the loose stub shaft the inner shaft was quite loose on both sides.
When I installed the lockout hub (stabilizing the sub shaft), I no longer could rattle the U-joint with my fingers. But am I wrong in thinking that the outer bearing inside the housing should have kept the inner shaft from rattling in the first place? IIRC from doing the other axle, only the sub shaft was loose, the inner one was not supposed to be movable. 
Oh yeah, and when turning from lock to lock, the steering sticks at either extreme, and it frees up with a bang when I turn back toward center. Dat's not good. Stuck U-joint(s) perhaps? Everything is happy when it's not at the end of range, but I should be able to turn it from one side to the other without having problems.
I'm not wanting to rebuild this axle, but if there is an inner problem the time to address it is before I seal up the pumpkin.
When I installed the lockout hub (stabilizing the sub shaft), I no longer could rattle the U-joint with my fingers. But am I wrong in thinking that the outer bearing inside the housing should have kept the inner shaft from rattling in the first place? IIRC from doing the other axle, only the sub shaft was loose, the inner one was not supposed to be movable.
Oh yeah, and when turning from lock to lock, the steering sticks at either extreme, and it frees up with a bang when I turn back toward center. Dat's not good. Stuck U-joint(s) perhaps? Everything is happy when it's not at the end of range, but I should be able to turn it from one side to the other without having problems.
I'm not wanting to rebuild this axle, but if there is an inner problem the time to address it is before I seal up the pumpkin.
The axle was a nice step (I think it was a 5-hour job from start to finish). But everything else sure seems like little piddly stuff, like tracking down that loose hot wire. It's important to have the headlights working, but it doesn't really seem like a milestone.
I spent about an hour last night wrestling with just the driver-side rear shock mount. And I didn't even get to the passenger side (the easier one). I don't feel much closer to the finish line, all I feel is the iron dose I received from being under there.
Tonight, I removed both shocks on the Suburban in a shorter amount of time. Lots easier to get to when there's no fuel tank in the way.
Remind me to get some pictures, I now have the new rims on this truck and my one lonely spare white dog-dish rim on the other truck. A foretaste of what is to come.
