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“New” Air Compressor

10 October 2010, 6:55 pm

My current Brunner 30gal single stage compressor is good for removing/filling tires and general mechanic work, but can’t keep up with my air grinder and wouldn’t have a prayer with the sand blaster I have my eyes on. But, the fact that it was free and worked kept me from replacing it a long time ago. Here’s a pic nicely nestled into the corner of my garage:

I found my new compressor while browsing craigslist last week and it sounded like a pretty good deal. The seller didn’t know what the model was or how large the compressor or tank were. He just said it was VERY heavy. What I soon found out was an understatement.

So anyway, the compressor is a Saylor-Beall VT-735-120 complete with matching compressor head (matching serial numbers). The S-B 705 compressor head on it is rated for a continuous 17.3CFM @ 175psi!! This thing is a MONSTER! It stands over 6 feet tall and weighs nearly 750lbs!!

The tank was manufactured in 1978 by Buckeye Boiler out of Dayton, Ohio. The ends of the tank are .212″ thick and the sides are .25″ with a MAWP of 200psi and a MAWT of 450F. I haven’t determined the actual build date of the compressor yet. The compressor turns over very smooth, but I have not energized it yet.

About the only down side:

Yep, 3 phase… I’m going to be stopping by the local surplus electrical supply store this week to see if I can get a static 1PH to 3PH drive or a 1PH 5HP motor (either 2 pole or 4 pole), but I think I’d rather get a drive.

Ok, so I’m saving the best for last… I only paid… $150!!

Just wait until you see that corner of my garage again with the S-B compressor in it… It is going to make that corner look A LOT smaller!!!

Filed under Tools.
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Not this time…

27 August 2010, 2:56 pm

Well, after the K5 sat down in dad’s shop for the past 2 months, I decided to bring it home so I could enjoy it. I just never had any time to drive down there and work on the engine/dash/wiring swap. The plan now is to bring the suburban up to my place at some point, tear the engine out of it, cut what’s left down to short steel (where possible), keeping the windshield frame and firewall somewhat intact so I can use it as a template for the swap.

Filed under Blazer, Engine, Metal Working.
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About to Begin!

15 June 2010, 7:20 am

So the day has been coming for quite some time.  The K5 and the ‘90 ‘Burb will be occupying the shop shortly for the major surgery to take place.  The heart of the ‘Burb will be transplanted along with all of the wiring, dash, doors, etc into the K5.  This will likely be a summer long ordeal, but I am committed to getting it done.  I won’t have the A/C operational any time soon, but all of that will be swapped over as well. 

Filed under Blazer, Engine, Interior.
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Another Tailgate?..!!!

6 February 2010, 7:07 pm

So I saw a deal on a fully working, complete power tailgate for $60 on craigslist. I thought this would just be a good source for parts (linkages, switches, etc) for the tailgate I purchased a while back, but it turned out to be MUCH better than I expected!! This tailgate is near perfect! There are only a few spots where the torsion springs rubbed chipped the paint loose, but no rust at all!! And original GM sheetmetal to boot!!

Here are some pictures:

Filed under Blazer, Exterior, Interior.
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Slow goin’

22 January 2010, 3:53 pm

Sorry for the lack of updates. I have been doing a lot of work with the fire department lately and the forum also takes up a bit of time.

I have been driving the K5 whenever I remember it’s there, which isn’t too often. I drove it in to work today and plan on driving it tomorrow to fire training. It still drives very nice! Runs great!

I am planning to drop the L05 TBI motor in starting in June. During that little project, the doors, dash, wiring harness, and A/C will be swapped over from the ’90 ‘burb. That will be the next big undertaking for the K5.

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More Craigslist!

22 October 2009, 8:47 pm

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!

Filed under Blazer, Drivetrain, Engine, Tires.
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120 Mile Trip – Rust Free Used Tailgate plus extras!!

3 October 2009, 5:50 pm

So I took the longest trip yet with the K5.  120 miles round trip to Webster and back.  Not a lot, I’ll give you that, but up until this trip, all I have driven it is 15 miles at a shot around town, etc.  The purpose of this trip was to pickup a rust free tailgate I located on Craigslist.  Paid $45 for the tailgate and the seller threw in a replacement floor pan for the passenger side and some miscellaneous trim I didn’t even know I was missing.  Another $20 and I had a fully rebuilt front driveshaft in hand.  All in all, it was a very worth while trip!

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.

Filed under Blazer, Drivetrain, Engine, Exterior, Interior, Metal Working, Transmission.
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Oil Change… Oh boy…

28 September 2009, 10:01 am

Changed the oil yesterday. All went fairly well except for the oil out of the filter that had the consistency of cold maple syrup. NICE! Well… Not so much…

I flushed out the crank case with some fresh oil, installed the drain plug, installed a new filter, and filled it up. Started it up and the oil pressure rose up to around 45psi with a cold engine. Took my kids for a spin and it dropped to around 15 while cruising down the road at probably 2200RPM. Hot idle, stopped in gear is down around 7psi. Hot idle in park is about 10psi.

There are no noises (lifter tap, etc) to warn of the pressure being too low so I currently am going on the assumption that it is ok and that the factory gauge is just not that accurate. Heck, it only has 6 lines on it with only the last one being marked at 60psi. The other lines are 0, 15, 30, and 45… I have a 3 gauge cluster that I have been toying with installing. It came out of my Chevelle and has a mechanical oil pressure, mechanical temperature, and a volt gauge. I could steal the tachometer out of my Chevelle as well.

Since I have another motor, I am not too worried about it. If this one dies, it will just step up the time table on my 90 TBI motor swap which is currently scheduled to start in the spring.

Filed under Blazer, Drivetrain, Engine.
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Used 4.10 Gears Arrived

31 July 2009, 3:01 pm

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!

Filed under Blazer, Drivetrain, Offroad, Tires.
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Gauges Fixed – Passenger Window TOO!

26 July 2009, 9:27 pm

Well this weekend I tackled the job of pulling the dash apart to replace the bulbs for the gauges.  While I was at it, I removed the clear bezel, wet sanded it to remove the discoloration, then polished it back up.

Surprisingly, now that I have the problem with my hands/forearms, my hands do not cramp up like they used to when working in tight areas or with repetitive motions.  Good thing!

Put it all back together and found that the fuel gauge and temp gauge did not work.  Removed it and traced out the lines.  Found a bad connection to the temp gauge and fixed that with a short strand of copper and a little bit of solder.  Removed all of the gauges and cleaned them while I was in there.  Put it all back together and still nothing…  Checked the fuses and the 3A cluster fuse was blown.  A quick run to Autozone for some fuses (all I had was the mini blade fuses) and it was back to working great.

While I was at autozone I bought a new headlight pull rod/knob to replace the broken one that was there.  So that was done.

I also picked up a new window crank handle for the passenger side.  Put it on and noticed why the previous owner had removed the old one…  The window track was broken making it almost impossible to roll the window up once it was down.  I had another rear window track from a pickup that I was able to cut off the truck upper bracket and weld on the bracket for my cut down doors (73-75 full convertibles had a different upper bracket).  Put that in and tried it again…  The window still jumped off…  A bit more inspection showed that the window regulator was bent up to the point that it was pulling the window out of its channels.  One of the doors out in my shed had a good manual window regulator so I removed that and dropped it into my door then dropped the window back in.  ALL IS WELL!!  It was a bit of a hassle to get the window back on the regulator, but now that it is in, it works as good as new!

Now that my roof is done, my next purchase will be that 74 Jimmy to cut up!  The first thing I am planning on doing is skinning the doors to get the additional supports out of them.  Then I will be converting my extra set of doors over to full convertible use. 

Filed under Blazer, Drivetrain, Exterior, Interior, Metal Working, Welding.
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