Restorations

Found a few more items on Craigslist for my truck

1 – Brand new, never installed, purchased 20 years ago Bestop swing arm style rear tire carrier – $35

2 – Used aftermarket fuel tank from a 1990 Blazer with TBI engine complete with sending unit & pump – $35

The tank is a little rusty, but it is exactly what I need for the conversion to the TBI motor from my ‘90 donor ‘burb.  The tank that is in the ‘burb is a 40 gallon tank and it will not fit without substantial modifications in the back of the truck.

I already have a swing arm style rear tire carrier, but it is bent up a bit and has a crease in one of the tubes.  This was too good of a deal to pass up!

I had the chance to purchase a set of used 4.10 gears off of ColoradoK5.com. $100 delivered to my door for a 45:11 Dana 44 gear set and a 41:10 14BFF gearset. Not too shabby and the gears look excellent. The wear is almost undetectable to the naked eye.

So the future drivetrain will be a D44 / 14BFF combination with 4.10’s. Just need to get some of the parts broken down and cleaned up and then installed on my 2nd Dana 44 axle and my 14BFF!

The luck continues! Today I picked up a GM Corp 10-bolt front axle with 8-lug outers from an NP203 equipped 3/4 ton truck for $50! Everything spins over very well and it looks very good inside. Since this was originally on a full-time 4wd truck, there are no lock out hubs installed, rather a dust cap and a solid plug for connecting the hub to the axle. These will be nice to have once I do start wheeling this truck harder than I am now.

Here are some pictures:

The only thing I was really hoping for out of this was that it would already have 4.10 gears. But as can be seen in the photos below, the ring gear states 41 11 so they are 3.73 gears…

So this axle has the same gear ratio as my truck currently.  Now I have the 8-lug outers to go with the 14-bolt full floating rear axle!

For another $20, I picked up a set of 15×10 8-lug rims.  They need some good cleaning, but they are not too shabby for $20:

The holes in the floor board on the driver side were covered up with some sheetmetal.  I took it back to the shop and the sticker went on.

Had a little hiccup on the way home from the shop though…  The night before when I was buttoning everything backup inside the truck, I decided that it was time to rip out the “security” valve that the previous owner had put in.  Well, I did not have enough time to remove the valve itself, but I did remove all of the wiring associated with it.  That was a mistake…  The truck started to falter on the way home.  Decided to die about a 1/4 mile from the house.  I had everything in the truck to make repairs on the side of the road and did so.  Gotta love old vehicles!

I have been driving it around all weekend, messing around here and there and am surprised at how nice this truck drives.  My biggest complaint is how loud the damn tires are!  Those 33×12.5-15 BFGoodrich Mud Terrain tires really howl when cruising down the road.  This will be addressed in a bit.  New 33×9.5-15 BFGoodrich A/T tires will be put on for the everyday driving.

I have also realized the need to put an overdrive transmission in.  I am in the hunt for a 700R4 transmission right now.  I know where I can pick another 2wd version up for relatively little money and then swap in a tail shaft to allow it to mate up with my NP203 transfer case.  I also know where I can pick up a very nicely built 700R4/241C combo with driveshafts good for a 6” suspension lift for around $1200 OBO…  I just do not have the money right now and do not know if the deal will be available until I do have the money.

Jason (my cousin) and I were able to get a good start on tearing down the ‘burb tonight.  We started by removing the doors. 

The “barn door” style rear doors were a cinch to remove only requiring the impact wrench.  The rear doors on the sides were also quite easy requiring some trim to be removed, electrical connections disconnected and then removal of the mounting bolts for the hinges. 

The front doors on the other hand…  After removing the trim on the inside it became evident that the wiring had to be disconnected from the components inside the doors and then fed back through the hole in the door first.  Only then could the doors be unbolted.

Once the doors were out, we pulled the glass.  This was made very easy with the way the glass was installed at the factory.

So the Chevelle headers do not fit to my liking.  The passenger side would have a problem with the front driveshaft if the suspension were to hit the bump stops.  Going to full static articulation (lifting the front passenger wheel until the rear passenger wheel begins to lift), I still had enough room for a wrench to fit between the driveshaft and one of the header primary tubes.  But with more than an inch left before the spring would hit either of the two bump stops, I decided to play it safe and get the proper headers.

I was able to get a set of Hooker headers for $146 delivered next day from Amazon.com.  The headers and the exhaust system I have purchased are made to work with each other nicely.  However, not as nice as a true bolt in.  Some "massaging" of the exhaust will be necessary to get the mufflers and tail pipes located where I want them. Nothing a cutoff wheel and a welder will not fix.

The good news is that I was able to save the Flowmaster Series 40 mufflers that were on the truck and they will get welded back into the system.  I am trying to find some high temp cold galvanizing paint locally right now so I can spray down the welds to try and prohibit rust formation.

I also did some more digging into the speedometer calibration and what needed to be done.  I pulled the driven gear out of the back of the transfer case and had a look at it.  It has a 7 tooth drive gear and a 19 tooth driven gear. I would need to step up to a 23 tooth driven gear to get the speedo to read right.  However, only up to a 21 tooth gear is available.  So I will need to purchase an add-on unit (speedometer ratio adapter) to get to the proper ratio.

I have pictures of all of this stuff, but will have to update later.

So Friday I was able to take the Blazer for a longer drive, ~15 miles one way.  Back roads are great at seeing how the suspension works over bumps, pot holes, and wash boarding.  Nothing but smooth driving.  The snow made it a little bit of a challenge on the way back as the 33×12.5×15 BF Goodrich Radial Mud/Terrain tires are just too wide and aggressive to get any bite on snow covered asphalt. 

I did notice that the speedometer is noticeably off.  I am assuming that the gear ratio is left unchanged and since the original tires for this truck were H78-15B which had around a 27.8″ outside diameter, the speedometer is off by ~20%.  This was using the information on the following websites:

NovaResource.org – Speedo & ChevelleEngineer – Speedo

My next task before I actually put this truck on the road is to patch the hole in the bed floor which at this point in time will just include some silicon sealer and sheet metal screws.  I will also have to get the exhaust so it exits out behind the rear wheels to pass an inspection.  I am not sure if I am going to slap on the headers just yet as the temps outside have been quite frigged and I will need the cooperation of the weather to get it done.  Time will tell.