The K5 needed new drag link ends which I had ordered & picked up earlier in the month. Half hour later and the drag link was in. Went to start it to back it out of the garage and… “RrrRRR, BANG!!!”… What the heck… Tried the starter again and it was grinding horribly… Crawled back under the truck to find the nose cone of the starter in pieces. After removing the starter, I found a 3/8″ by 3/4″ long course thread bolt in the nose cone..! Pull off the dust shield to find all three torque converter bolts installed, but 2 of them were loose enough that I removed them easily by hand… To make matters worse, all three were course thread bolts/nuts with regular nuts (i.e. not self-locking). $8 for the proper fine thread bolts with matching self-locking nuts, another $52 for a life-time warrantied NAPA reman starter, about another hour of work, and the K5 was back operational.

In a way, I’m glad the starter went as it could have been a lot worse if the flex plate broke due to missing/loose bolting. And you can’t complain too much about something breaking in the garage where it’s warm, dry, and easily fixed! I had been meaning to replace the starter for awhile now since it has been getting more & more difficult to start…

Also, just a quick update on the A/C leak previously fixed on my Tahoe. I ran my infrared flashlight over the repaired area again today and it still showed zero signs of leakage. The defrost setting has been doing a fine job clearing moisture out of the air with as rainy as it has been lately and I can hear the compressor engage on-demand. No short cycling!

Today I did the initial power washing of the compressor & tank. This thing has a heck of a layer of grime on it!

On the plus side, the S-B compressor is in the shop. This weekend I plan on getting down there to get the compressor & tank degreased and looking nice. I’ll remove most of the plugs on the tank and reseal the connections while I have everything apart. The hunt is still on for a solid state variable frequency drive to power the 3PH 5HP motor that originally came on the compressor.

The trip up to Webster went quite well.  It held 65mph just fine cruising down rte 104.  The oil pressure was fine while cruising down the road.  When I finally pulled off of 104, it dropped a bit low and I could hear a slight noise (I hesitate to call it a knock) from the motor that I did not recall hearing before.  This kind of troubled me… 

I stopped at my destination where I was for about an hour and then started on my return trip.  On the way back home, the temperature started to creep up.  It wasn’t getting too high, but still high enough to worry me.  Every other trip that I had taken never resulted in the temperature rising this high.  I turned on the heat (it was a bit chilly out anyway) and dropped the windows.  I used the heat to gauge whether I was loosing any coolant.  While driving down the highway, the heat stayed steady on the high side of the factory gauge.  Every time that I would drive through a small town, it would drop down…  I think I know what’s going on..!  I’ll elaborate when I get time to dig into it.

I will be using it primarily for the frame and plan to completely detail the frame then install my 3/4 ton running gear under it.  The doors will be gutted for their inner supports and other miscellaneous brackets/trim required to convert the pickup, suburban, and later model doors for use on a full convertible.  This will save me from having to cut apart my current doors.  This truck also has a rough set of low back bucket seats in it.  The plastic trim still looks to be in good condition so I may restore those seats and use them in my truck instead of the high back buckets I currently have installed.

All in all, I should be taking this home for between $150 and $200 depending on current vehicle scrap prices.  I’ll be going down there with cash in hand and the flat bed in tow…

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.

I continued with the trim removal on the inside, getting all of the plastic trim removed carefully so that I could attempt to sell it to regain some of the money I spent on buying the truck.  This was not a difficult task and after about 45 minutes, It was done.

The carpets, headliner, and side trim in the back were junk and treated as such.  The main reason why the previous owners were getting rid of the truck were quite evident once the interior was gutted.  The entire passenger side was sagging 4” below the bed floor inside.  The center two body mounts were busted up through the floor.  There was absolutely nothing but the roof holding up the rear quarter at the C and D pillars!

As I was planning on chopping the truck up anyway, I busted out the saws-all.  The passenger quarter panel was my first victim and two cuts is all that it took to be removed!

The truck was quite rotted underneath.  The next time I am down there, I will take a picture of the underside of the rear floor to show just how bad it was. 

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.

The ride back down off of the flatbed was interesting though.  It was raining outside which left the bed of the trailer quite slick.  The practically bald tires on the ‘burb offered no traction and the truck just slid on down.  There is no real problem with that, it just came as a surprise to me.

Here are some pictures:

Parts retained for the K5 include:

• TBI 5.7L engine and full wiring harness
• Tilt Steering Column
• 2wd Steering Gear box – for future cross-over steering setup
• Full dash, firewall, and all A/C components – for a future swap to add A/C and the later model dash
• Front doors – good doors with minimal rust and full power windows/locks
• Center console
• A portion of the rear bed floor if it is still in salvageable shape.

For my Chevelle, I will be keeping the recently rebuilt 700R4 transmission

The rest of the Suburban will be parted prior to finally scrapping it.