SPSully
Dedicated LVC Member
where I have been (copied from another site)
Ok, so I brought the truck home last night. It was late so I didnt get any pictures yet. This will chronicle the rebuild/build progress on the truck.
As she sits, it a 97 hd 1500 so it has the standard ext cab short bed, 5.7L 4x4. The truck has 530,000 kms on it. The previous owner (friend of my brothers) had the tranny rebuilt 40k ago and the motor is freshly redone. I got it with the motor and tranny in, but the intake mani, ac comp, tb, etc etc etc off the motor. I will be replacing the passenger side inner fender well, then rebuilding the truck. Iam debating dropping a lunati cam in the motor first since everything is appart already. That isnt 100% though. The main goal for right now is get it to pass its one an only safety inspection and then go from there. The previous owner put 50kms on a set of 245/75R16 ruff rider M+S that seem to be beefy as hell!!!! I eventually will be lifting it roughly 6 inches and possibly cranking the tortion bars to fit 35" tires. My end goal for this truck is to be able to tow anything and go anywhere. That means tq and ground clearance are an absolute must. I have already started some VERY minor work and pulled the dealer badge off.
Pics to follow.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
ok pics pretty much how it came home. I put the hood on to keep water out as well as put rags in the intake and such to keep critters out. But no work has been done to the truck in these pics.
motor is freshly rebuilt and isnt even back together yet
body is dirty (sitting in a warehouse for a few months) but is freshly redone as is the lower paint
bed is full of parts to include new rad support and grill
horrible shot of the interior, but you can see the captains chairs.... this thing is fully loaded and everything works. with roughly 300,000 miles on the interior there are a couple wear marks but no rips or tears anywhere.
the passenger side inner fender is the only rust spot on the body. So I bought a new one already in primer, so i scuffed it and coated it in rocker guard. While everything is out of the engine bay and the rad support is out, now is the time to do this, even though I could get away with closing my eyes to it and just slapping everything together. I've got almost triple my money's worth with buying this truck vs others on the market so I cant imagine half assing the re-assembly.
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with progress comes pics I got the inner fender painted and swapped, painted the new rad support and hood latch support as well as spray bombed the batery bracket thing just to clean it up. I also through the water pump and distributor in place as well as the fuel injector spider thing. Nothing is tight yet since Im not 100% where each bolt and bracket goes. Im mocking it up now and then will go through and do it right when I know everything is where it belongs. My headers, cats and mufflers should be in today as well
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
ok, so Im not sure if I should post an update or not since I dont have any pictures, but I will anyway.
I've nick named this "project hack job" based off the condition I got the truck in. The brake lines had rotted out so the ran new ones..... anywhere they wanted. They didnt even remove the old ones, just cut the ends off with wire cutters. They put the trany and motor in, but caught a wiring harness in the bell housing. They also left 3 or 4 of the bolts out of the bell housing. Theold rad support was sawzalled off, the egr tube was wiggled back and fourth with some sort of plier til it broke.... on BOTH ends. For some reason the bow tie was off of the grill and it got glued back on upside down. Dont ask me why but the pockets for storage in the back seats under the arm rests are removed..... still trying to figure out why that would help pull a motor.
Here is a somewhat complete list of parts replaced by me (lots of new stuff in the pile from PO)
pass inner fender
ac condenser
rubber bushings to mount ac condenser
starter
plugs and wires
ac line (little one from fire wall to the condenser)
ac dryer
ac orifice
headers (they cut the stock y pipe instead of undoing the 6 bolts) with custom exhaust (not installed yet)
oil cooler lines
egr line
bolts bolts bolts and a few more bolts
all fluids
various paints and such for the new body parts
stuff from the po
ac compressor
alt
themostat
fuel pump
egr valve
heads
cam
valve train
water pump
head lights (think they are new to the truck but bought used and pretty good shape)
full gasket set
brakes
front end (every steering component)
I as of right now have everything put back together in the engine bay. I haven't finished with the grill and lights, but the grill is on the front of the truck for mock up purposes. I have the fender back on and the rad support as well as all the coolers installed. I managed to break my damn antenna but the universals are always in stock at crappy tire for like 15 bucks so no biggy. I have to tighten down my egr tube some more, buy and install the all the bulbs for the front, hook up the wiring harness below the grill, put the headlights on, re-install the grill for real, replace the broken up side down bow tie, and replace the antenna. Then I can get the cats and mufflers I bought hung and installed with the x pipe I have onto the headers I already put on. At that point, the intake and exhaust sensors should be working properly and I clear my engine codes and fire it back up. I have fired it up to ensure I'm getting my air fuel and spark, but as you can guess, it ran like crap without the intake and exhaust electronics on it.
I expect the truck to be completely done, inspected, and on the road by the middle of next week.
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ok, so the truck is back together, just need to tighten the EGR line some more and then get the exhaust done. Pics to come tomorrow.
oh wait, I need to get the little bulbs that go in the ambers still, and for some reason my grills lower corner wont stay clipped in, but Im going to make a help me please thread for that.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The truck is done now. I had the 2.5" true duals bent and welded in for me with my cats and mufflers. I decided to dump them just past the mufflers. I may add some resonators to the equation to get rid of the hollow sound, and frankly this truck is loud a hell right now. I am having some transmission issues that I posted looking for help on, but other than that she is ready for the road. Here are a couple pictures:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just an update without any pictures since there isnt much to see.
I got the tranny fixed. It ran really well for long enough to get the test drive drive done and then it seemed to slip and the motor seemed gutless. I swapped the fuel pump since it was whining when the truck was warm. I also adjusted the valve lash as who ever built the motor left em torqued down WAY too tight. The truck idled great after after all that. I took her out for a test drive to the side road not even 1/2 a mile up the road. The truck started running rough and dropped oil pressure. The higher the rpms the higher the highger the pressure, so need less to say I was heading home as quick as safely possible. The rotating assy started knocking pretty bad. I now get to rebuild my motor. The truck I bought for its over all condition and the "rebuilt tranny and motor" now has had a tranny rebuild and soon a motor rebuild. I spoke to the guy I bought her from. It turns out the guy who rebuilt the motor for him, was a guy who owed him some money or some kind of deal like that. The motor rebuild was done as payment for that. The guy lives somewhere else now and cant be reached. Go figure. The guy I bought the truck from though, felt bad and offered to buy my rotating assy and master rebuild kit. I know the guy so he would try to screw me, but he got screwed and never got the truck back on the road to deal with it. Im contemplating doing a 383 build since the block has to be stripped machined and built anyway. Do a decent stroker kit, punch it .030 over, swap my valve springs, and run a LT4 hot cam or something similar. Maybe deck the heads a bit. First step though is to undo everything I just did. I cant wait until this truck goes on the road and I can actually enjoy having it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
so again no pics to speak of.
I had saved up a bunch of cash, then Sarah and I ran into a tight spot with her new horse. The solution was for me to dump that money into her horse and not my motor. So....... I ended up getting a junk yard 350 out of a 98. It had 350,000 kms on it (217,000 miles) but came with a 30 day and was cheaper than buying a distributor, which I needed anyway. I got it back to the shop and cleaned it up a bit when I noticed the intake gaskets were seeping a bit. So we (my brother in law and I) ripped the intake off. Turns out the intake gaskets are shot. Wanting to know how much damage was caused, we popped the valve covers off only to find coolant in the oil. Ok, this becomes a project now. Rip the oil pan off to inspect the bearings..... both main and rod bearings were glazing over from the coolant, but not showing any noticeable wear to the crank. We busted out the plasti gauge to check clearancing and find about 3 thou. A little more thinking and inspecting leads us to believe that stock sized bearings will be fine. Already in this far and the motor having a substantial amount of time on the clock, oil pump and pan gasket come in to play as well as a new rear main seal. I stole my brand new timing chain off my blown motor (less than 100 miles on it) as well as my new valve cover gaskets. For the most part the motor got rebuilt. It didnt need anything else and yes we inspected it all. I could have done pistons and seals, but that would have meant honing and I wasnt getting into that with the shape everything was in as is.
Started putting everything together and started getting really happy I made the choices I did. The stock sized bearings were all (rod and main) clearanced .0015 of an inch. Thats damn good for this many clicks on the odometer. Get them all in and give it a test spin and the balancer (what we were turning it from) rotates considerably easier than before. We clearanced the oil pump to the pan and then tacked it in place. I have numerous buddies in the engine business who say that those are prone to adjusting themselves or just flat out falling off. So a quick spark here and some time to cool there and voila! I dont have to worry about it at all now. We ended up having to manually lift the damn motor (which was upside down on the stand) to get it into position where we could access the rear main seal. Finally got the damn thing in a good place and the seal was done in seconds. Thats my kind of luck though. Cleaned the metal surfaces and installed the seal. About this time my brother was done with the last of the rod bearings. We slapped the new timing gears and chain on, then the new cover. Put the now cooled off and re cleaned oil pump back on as well as the windage tray thingy. We got the new pan gasket out and installed the new oil pan. We swapped out the rotor and cap on the distributor and changed the evap junk from my 97 motor on the new 98 motor so the pcm wouldnt freak out on me.
There is obviously more to the entire swap, but I wanted to point out to what extent we re-built the motor. Some other things to mention are deleting the oil cooler, finding an unplugged O2 sensor, and sealing the header to exhaust (three bolt flange) gasket. If you remember I sent the truck to have the exhaust bent and hung for me. Well captain madrel there didnt think that all three bolts need nuts. ROIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I made it all better now and there is no way those nuts are going to back off hee hee hee. The oil cooler lines and in the rad were obviously filled with metal from my grenaded motor so I wasnt going to route my new clean oil through there and back into my new freshened up motor. So I mounted the standard oil filter hook up instead of the cooler one and plugged the rad holes.
We got the damn thing all back together and installed and fired it up. We had primed the oil system prior, so it was ready to crank. It starts almost right away. That blew me away. I figured it would have to crank a bit while filling with fuel and such. Not the case. The new pump primed like normal and vrooooom. The first time it was pretty quiet but there was a slight chatter. As Bryan bleed the cooling system of any air, I tightened the header bolts since the headers were nice and hot now. By the time we got the air out of the lines the motor was purring quieter than any other motor in the family. That includes a buick, lincoln, honda, an eco tec and well two diesels that arent really known for running nice and smoothly. I was very pleasantly surprised. Bryan hopped into the drivers seat to test the feel of it and she ripped the tires free without batting an eyelash. MUCH BETTER!!!!!! This thing was the poster child for gutless piles of crap before and now, she is what I would expect out of a mid 90's gas truck, and then some.
I had a few loose ends to finish today such as bolting the transmission dipstick bracket to the back of the tranny bolt, and check the fluids again. Everything looked good today with fresh eyes and we actually took her out on the road. Ran great with plenty of response, power, and not a single noise that shouldnt be there.
On a side note, Sarah has a 95 1500 and I have a 97 1500 hd. When I picked up my new motor in her truck, the tires were tucked in the fenders a bit. Last night we put the old motor in the back of my truck with a BUNCH of other scrap metal. Keep in mind I have the ext cab so it weighs more, and I have a tool box full of random stuff. When we loaded the motor we were swinging it on the engine crane and then drop it in so it basically got thrown into the bed. The truck didnt drop any noticeable amount. Thats a much heavier half ton than Sarahs 95!!!!! I was pretty pleased to say the least when not only did the suspension rock, but the motor was purring like a kitten. Its going to take a month to let my hands heal from all the damn varsol they were in, but it was so worth it. After I get my e-test and a sticker for my plate, I will finally get to drive and enjoy my truck. The poor thing has no clue the work load in store for it right away.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I finally off my lazy rear and installed the new u-joints in the front drive shaft, and put the shaft back in. I heard you can wheel these things pretty hard in stock form, but IDK. I went to where the wife and I got the 95, the jeep that came to rescue, and the tow rig stuck..... not even sweating. I know its different right after the snow melts in the spring and right now as the snow starts, but still. I only put it in 4hi to test it out. I'm convinced I could have done it in 2
I also picked up a drivers side batt mount from a 98, and have my dodge tow mirrors on order. I took my wiper control board out, cleaned it up and did a BUNCH of soldering. That was one of those jobs I was glad I am an electrical engineer. Not that its that complicated, but my solder gun would have been a pain in the neck. The soldering iron was much nicer!!!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
an update.... with pics this time:
I got the heater blower motor/fan replaced and the heat works like a champ now. I also bought a set of tow mirrors like the new chev HDs. Man are they nice. I didnt opt for led side markers but got the power and heated versions. The view out these things is ridiculous. I have had to have the extended out yet, but im sure I wont be disappointed then either. I've also got the dual batteries in and my 10,000lb winch with snatch block. I also have a new center console with cup holders. The stock set up has the only cup holders right in front of a heater vent and I have literally burned myself on the rim of a can because of it. I bought my 6" lift kit, 16x9 wheels, and 35x12.50 mud tires and they should all be in by friday. I'm not sure when I'll install them, but they will be here ready to go.
now the pics:
truck with new mirrors next to Sarah's for comparison purposes. She has the non power but same looking mirrors I had stock
new tires I ordered (factory image)
new wheels (again factory image)
more to come.... but with me, there is ALWAYS something in the works
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
lift was supposed to come in today, and didnt. My wheels and tires are here and ready for install though
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
finally got the lift on RCX 6"
install
finished
Ok, so I brought the truck home last night. It was late so I didnt get any pictures yet. This will chronicle the rebuild/build progress on the truck.
As she sits, it a 97 hd 1500 so it has the standard ext cab short bed, 5.7L 4x4. The truck has 530,000 kms on it. The previous owner (friend of my brothers) had the tranny rebuilt 40k ago and the motor is freshly redone. I got it with the motor and tranny in, but the intake mani, ac comp, tb, etc etc etc off the motor. I will be replacing the passenger side inner fender well, then rebuilding the truck. Iam debating dropping a lunati cam in the motor first since everything is appart already. That isnt 100% though. The main goal for right now is get it to pass its one an only safety inspection and then go from there. The previous owner put 50kms on a set of 245/75R16 ruff rider M+S that seem to be beefy as hell!!!! I eventually will be lifting it roughly 6 inches and possibly cranking the tortion bars to fit 35" tires. My end goal for this truck is to be able to tow anything and go anywhere. That means tq and ground clearance are an absolute must. I have already started some VERY minor work and pulled the dealer badge off.
Pics to follow.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
ok pics pretty much how it came home. I put the hood on to keep water out as well as put rags in the intake and such to keep critters out. But no work has been done to the truck in these pics.
motor is freshly rebuilt and isnt even back together yet
body is dirty (sitting in a warehouse for a few months) but is freshly redone as is the lower paint
bed is full of parts to include new rad support and grill
horrible shot of the interior, but you can see the captains chairs.... this thing is fully loaded and everything works. with roughly 300,000 miles on the interior there are a couple wear marks but no rips or tears anywhere.
the passenger side inner fender is the only rust spot on the body. So I bought a new one already in primer, so i scuffed it and coated it in rocker guard. While everything is out of the engine bay and the rad support is out, now is the time to do this, even though I could get away with closing my eyes to it and just slapping everything together. I've got almost triple my money's worth with buying this truck vs others on the market so I cant imagine half assing the re-assembly.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
with progress comes pics I got the inner fender painted and swapped, painted the new rad support and hood latch support as well as spray bombed the batery bracket thing just to clean it up. I also through the water pump and distributor in place as well as the fuel injector spider thing. Nothing is tight yet since Im not 100% where each bolt and bracket goes. Im mocking it up now and then will go through and do it right when I know everything is where it belongs. My headers, cats and mufflers should be in today as well
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
ok, so Im not sure if I should post an update or not since I dont have any pictures, but I will anyway.
I've nick named this "project hack job" based off the condition I got the truck in. The brake lines had rotted out so the ran new ones..... anywhere they wanted. They didnt even remove the old ones, just cut the ends off with wire cutters. They put the trany and motor in, but caught a wiring harness in the bell housing. They also left 3 or 4 of the bolts out of the bell housing. Theold rad support was sawzalled off, the egr tube was wiggled back and fourth with some sort of plier til it broke.... on BOTH ends. For some reason the bow tie was off of the grill and it got glued back on upside down. Dont ask me why but the pockets for storage in the back seats under the arm rests are removed..... still trying to figure out why that would help pull a motor.
Here is a somewhat complete list of parts replaced by me (lots of new stuff in the pile from PO)
pass inner fender
ac condenser
rubber bushings to mount ac condenser
starter
plugs and wires
ac line (little one from fire wall to the condenser)
ac dryer
ac orifice
headers (they cut the stock y pipe instead of undoing the 6 bolts) with custom exhaust (not installed yet)
oil cooler lines
egr line
bolts bolts bolts and a few more bolts
all fluids
various paints and such for the new body parts
stuff from the po
ac compressor
alt
themostat
fuel pump
egr valve
heads
cam
valve train
water pump
head lights (think they are new to the truck but bought used and pretty good shape)
full gasket set
brakes
front end (every steering component)
I as of right now have everything put back together in the engine bay. I haven't finished with the grill and lights, but the grill is on the front of the truck for mock up purposes. I have the fender back on and the rad support as well as all the coolers installed. I managed to break my damn antenna but the universals are always in stock at crappy tire for like 15 bucks so no biggy. I have to tighten down my egr tube some more, buy and install the all the bulbs for the front, hook up the wiring harness below the grill, put the headlights on, re-install the grill for real, replace the broken up side down bow tie, and replace the antenna. Then I can get the cats and mufflers I bought hung and installed with the x pipe I have onto the headers I already put on. At that point, the intake and exhaust sensors should be working properly and I clear my engine codes and fire it back up. I have fired it up to ensure I'm getting my air fuel and spark, but as you can guess, it ran like crap without the intake and exhaust electronics on it.
I expect the truck to be completely done, inspected, and on the road by the middle of next week.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
ok, so the truck is back together, just need to tighten the EGR line some more and then get the exhaust done. Pics to come tomorrow.
oh wait, I need to get the little bulbs that go in the ambers still, and for some reason my grills lower corner wont stay clipped in, but Im going to make a help me please thread for that.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The truck is done now. I had the 2.5" true duals bent and welded in for me with my cats and mufflers. I decided to dump them just past the mufflers. I may add some resonators to the equation to get rid of the hollow sound, and frankly this truck is loud a hell right now. I am having some transmission issues that I posted looking for help on, but other than that she is ready for the road. Here are a couple pictures:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just an update without any pictures since there isnt much to see.
I got the tranny fixed. It ran really well for long enough to get the test drive drive done and then it seemed to slip and the motor seemed gutless. I swapped the fuel pump since it was whining when the truck was warm. I also adjusted the valve lash as who ever built the motor left em torqued down WAY too tight. The truck idled great after after all that. I took her out for a test drive to the side road not even 1/2 a mile up the road. The truck started running rough and dropped oil pressure. The higher the rpms the higher the highger the pressure, so need less to say I was heading home as quick as safely possible. The rotating assy started knocking pretty bad. I now get to rebuild my motor. The truck I bought for its over all condition and the "rebuilt tranny and motor" now has had a tranny rebuild and soon a motor rebuild. I spoke to the guy I bought her from. It turns out the guy who rebuilt the motor for him, was a guy who owed him some money or some kind of deal like that. The motor rebuild was done as payment for that. The guy lives somewhere else now and cant be reached. Go figure. The guy I bought the truck from though, felt bad and offered to buy my rotating assy and master rebuild kit. I know the guy so he would try to screw me, but he got screwed and never got the truck back on the road to deal with it. Im contemplating doing a 383 build since the block has to be stripped machined and built anyway. Do a decent stroker kit, punch it .030 over, swap my valve springs, and run a LT4 hot cam or something similar. Maybe deck the heads a bit. First step though is to undo everything I just did. I cant wait until this truck goes on the road and I can actually enjoy having it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
so again no pics to speak of.
I had saved up a bunch of cash, then Sarah and I ran into a tight spot with her new horse. The solution was for me to dump that money into her horse and not my motor. So....... I ended up getting a junk yard 350 out of a 98. It had 350,000 kms on it (217,000 miles) but came with a 30 day and was cheaper than buying a distributor, which I needed anyway. I got it back to the shop and cleaned it up a bit when I noticed the intake gaskets were seeping a bit. So we (my brother in law and I) ripped the intake off. Turns out the intake gaskets are shot. Wanting to know how much damage was caused, we popped the valve covers off only to find coolant in the oil. Ok, this becomes a project now. Rip the oil pan off to inspect the bearings..... both main and rod bearings were glazing over from the coolant, but not showing any noticeable wear to the crank. We busted out the plasti gauge to check clearancing and find about 3 thou. A little more thinking and inspecting leads us to believe that stock sized bearings will be fine. Already in this far and the motor having a substantial amount of time on the clock, oil pump and pan gasket come in to play as well as a new rear main seal. I stole my brand new timing chain off my blown motor (less than 100 miles on it) as well as my new valve cover gaskets. For the most part the motor got rebuilt. It didnt need anything else and yes we inspected it all. I could have done pistons and seals, but that would have meant honing and I wasnt getting into that with the shape everything was in as is.
Started putting everything together and started getting really happy I made the choices I did. The stock sized bearings were all (rod and main) clearanced .0015 of an inch. Thats damn good for this many clicks on the odometer. Get them all in and give it a test spin and the balancer (what we were turning it from) rotates considerably easier than before. We clearanced the oil pump to the pan and then tacked it in place. I have numerous buddies in the engine business who say that those are prone to adjusting themselves or just flat out falling off. So a quick spark here and some time to cool there and voila! I dont have to worry about it at all now. We ended up having to manually lift the damn motor (which was upside down on the stand) to get it into position where we could access the rear main seal. Finally got the damn thing in a good place and the seal was done in seconds. Thats my kind of luck though. Cleaned the metal surfaces and installed the seal. About this time my brother was done with the last of the rod bearings. We slapped the new timing gears and chain on, then the new cover. Put the now cooled off and re cleaned oil pump back on as well as the windage tray thingy. We got the new pan gasket out and installed the new oil pan. We swapped out the rotor and cap on the distributor and changed the evap junk from my 97 motor on the new 98 motor so the pcm wouldnt freak out on me.
There is obviously more to the entire swap, but I wanted to point out to what extent we re-built the motor. Some other things to mention are deleting the oil cooler, finding an unplugged O2 sensor, and sealing the header to exhaust (three bolt flange) gasket. If you remember I sent the truck to have the exhaust bent and hung for me. Well captain madrel there didnt think that all three bolts need nuts. ROIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I made it all better now and there is no way those nuts are going to back off hee hee hee. The oil cooler lines and in the rad were obviously filled with metal from my grenaded motor so I wasnt going to route my new clean oil through there and back into my new freshened up motor. So I mounted the standard oil filter hook up instead of the cooler one and plugged the rad holes.
We got the damn thing all back together and installed and fired it up. We had primed the oil system prior, so it was ready to crank. It starts almost right away. That blew me away. I figured it would have to crank a bit while filling with fuel and such. Not the case. The new pump primed like normal and vrooooom. The first time it was pretty quiet but there was a slight chatter. As Bryan bleed the cooling system of any air, I tightened the header bolts since the headers were nice and hot now. By the time we got the air out of the lines the motor was purring quieter than any other motor in the family. That includes a buick, lincoln, honda, an eco tec and well two diesels that arent really known for running nice and smoothly. I was very pleasantly surprised. Bryan hopped into the drivers seat to test the feel of it and she ripped the tires free without batting an eyelash. MUCH BETTER!!!!!! This thing was the poster child for gutless piles of crap before and now, she is what I would expect out of a mid 90's gas truck, and then some.
I had a few loose ends to finish today such as bolting the transmission dipstick bracket to the back of the tranny bolt, and check the fluids again. Everything looked good today with fresh eyes and we actually took her out on the road. Ran great with plenty of response, power, and not a single noise that shouldnt be there.
On a side note, Sarah has a 95 1500 and I have a 97 1500 hd. When I picked up my new motor in her truck, the tires were tucked in the fenders a bit. Last night we put the old motor in the back of my truck with a BUNCH of other scrap metal. Keep in mind I have the ext cab so it weighs more, and I have a tool box full of random stuff. When we loaded the motor we were swinging it on the engine crane and then drop it in so it basically got thrown into the bed. The truck didnt drop any noticeable amount. Thats a much heavier half ton than Sarahs 95!!!!! I was pretty pleased to say the least when not only did the suspension rock, but the motor was purring like a kitten. Its going to take a month to let my hands heal from all the damn varsol they were in, but it was so worth it. After I get my e-test and a sticker for my plate, I will finally get to drive and enjoy my truck. The poor thing has no clue the work load in store for it right away.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I finally off my lazy rear and installed the new u-joints in the front drive shaft, and put the shaft back in. I heard you can wheel these things pretty hard in stock form, but IDK. I went to where the wife and I got the 95, the jeep that came to rescue, and the tow rig stuck..... not even sweating. I know its different right after the snow melts in the spring and right now as the snow starts, but still. I only put it in 4hi to test it out. I'm convinced I could have done it in 2
I also picked up a drivers side batt mount from a 98, and have my dodge tow mirrors on order. I took my wiper control board out, cleaned it up and did a BUNCH of soldering. That was one of those jobs I was glad I am an electrical engineer. Not that its that complicated, but my solder gun would have been a pain in the neck. The soldering iron was much nicer!!!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
an update.... with pics this time:
I got the heater blower motor/fan replaced and the heat works like a champ now. I also bought a set of tow mirrors like the new chev HDs. Man are they nice. I didnt opt for led side markers but got the power and heated versions. The view out these things is ridiculous. I have had to have the extended out yet, but im sure I wont be disappointed then either. I've also got the dual batteries in and my 10,000lb winch with snatch block. I also have a new center console with cup holders. The stock set up has the only cup holders right in front of a heater vent and I have literally burned myself on the rim of a can because of it. I bought my 6" lift kit, 16x9 wheels, and 35x12.50 mud tires and they should all be in by friday. I'm not sure when I'll install them, but they will be here ready to go.
now the pics:
truck with new mirrors next to Sarah's for comparison purposes. She has the non power but same looking mirrors I had stock
new tires I ordered (factory image)
new wheels (again factory image)
more to come.... but with me, there is ALWAYS something in the works
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
lift was supposed to come in today, and didnt. My wheels and tires are here and ready for install though
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
finally got the lift on RCX 6"
install
finished
