gstubbz's trucks

Update time!

I'll talk about our San Luis Obispo trip. Last Friday I picked up the car trailer and headed to Reno to pick up Joe, his girlfriend, and Neil, his roomate who bought this Jaguar. We drove and drove and drove Friday night when we left Reno about 7:30pm. Stopped for food once and stopped for gas a few times, and arrived at our destination of Arroyo Grande right after 3am. Took I-5 down then some road over to SLO then drove down HWY101. We slept in my truck at a walmart parking lot for a few hours and somewhere around 5am a street sweeper was cleaning the parking lot and woke Joe and myself up and I could not go back to sleep. I did sleep eventually to be woken up at 8am.

So we go on our way to pick this car up to find out the thing had a relatively new Optima battery that was about dead, so we push the car on the trailer, and Joe flipped the battery on top of my Odyssey battery in my dodge, stuffed it back in the car, and the dang thing fired up! Runs horribly but we were shocked. I had to put air in a tire on my dodge and some guy in a 1960s Shelby stopped and asked us about the car so that was neat.

The guy's driveway was awesome for pictures! Only good pics of my Dodge though.



We then went to Pismo Beach and spent 45 minutes there which was not long, and people definitely looked to see my truck and the car/trailer in a public pay to park lot. Thought that was funny! Also saw this K3500 CCLB SRW with this rack thing for his side by side and was able to take a quick pic.



So here is the Jaguar once we got back in Reno, the hood didn't latch properly so we threw a strap over it. It's a 1983 Jaguar XJS with a 5.3L V12 and a Turbo 400 transmission. Their plan is to pull out the junky V12 and install a 454 big block and go straight race car.

As far as the trip went going back, took 101 up through Salinas and the bay area over th Tracy then to Stockton and up I-5. Lots of stop go traffic, and lots of thumbs up (don't know if they are for my truck or the car lol), was able to do 70mph with the car on the trailer going down the highway effortlessly. The Dodge has proven reliable and I felt better about it after this long trip and no problems at all, and I was driving it hard. Spent over $350 in gas alone on this trip!



So back onto GMT400 projects.

On Sunday I tried fighting the 6.5 some more, and it's still not running. Swapped the injection pump, then I read that the computer needs to see it cranking at over 100rpm before it enables fuel flow, and the truck gets the tach through the alternator which I never connected the power lead to, which may be why and I was stupid for swapping injection pumps. I still have to put the front of the engine back on so maybe that will be a project for this weekend. I've been tempted many times to grab a 350 or 454 out of the junkyard and swap it then call it done. We will see! I'm sick of it and want to sell it but I won't sell it until it runs and drives.



Now onto the 97 c1500.

I drove the truck home one night last week, and was good for about 25 miles on the way home then the brakes got squishy and the ABS started going crazy. Trying to mess with it by pulling the fuse didn't help, so I drove it home carefully then drove it back to the junkyard the next day. I spent an entire day replacing a brake line that was a little leaky thinking that was the problem, and then the bleeders on the calipers did not want to break free so I said screw it and installed some calipers and pads that were on a 89 c3500 SRW that were much bigger, then bled them to find out my brakes still sucked. Was going to install a NBS master cylinder but Napa ordered the wrong adapter part so I scratched that idea.

Later I noticed some tough grinding on the passenger side, and I look under to see the lower control arm rubbing the rotor.



So I jacked it up today and removed the rotor... to find out the wheel bearing was in a million pieces and the tone ring for the ABS was about missing. So that explains the terrible brakes. Driver side was better though.



Ordered new parts tonight. Also got my parts box of brand new AC Delco spark plugs, wires, rotor, and cap. Installed them and the truck was much happier after having the FACTORY ORIGINAL spark plugs. They looked absolutely terrible and I'm shocked this thing did as good as it did with those plugs during smog.



So now the truck gets to sit like this until new parts show up!



Another project that I had to pick up with the tow truck today, it's a 74 K10 with a TH350 and a 350. Missing the engine, guy bought it with plans to put a 383 in it but he wanted us at the junkyard to put it all together and replace what is needed with other parts that are in the junkyard. So Nate at the junkyard will be in charge of this project but I'm sure I'll be helping out with it! He's a square body guru so this will be a piece of cake for him. The thing barely fit on the tow truck and the rear bumper was about 1/2" away from the rail on the tow bed.



So that is all, for now!

Looks like the 97 is ready for those new coil springs.
74 looks good. Old enough for kool April
That buddy is gunna owe you for that trip, I dnt think I'd make that long of a trip for many ppl. The dodge needs some r&r now

gstubbz: @ Pismo did you go drive on the beach? I remember going there as a kid and driving my dad's Ford Galaxie up and down the beach...

Hello almost three months later!

So it’s been a good minute since I’ve posted anything on here (I’ve been around on facebook posting things though, and in a group chat with some members on here on snapchat). Since I left off with the 97 C1500, things happened! I left the job at the junkyard since it was costing me to have that job rather than me making money. I wish it didn't end up like that but I was putting all kinds of miles on my Dodge and my expensive tires wore out fast, and I didn't see any reimbursement for that. I still however need to recover my Cummins block and parts, along with the 3500HD.

For the junkyard C1500 project, it is still sitting where I put it on jack stands in front of the garage two months ago. Depending on how my life plays out I might try to buy that truck. It was solid and just needed wheel bearings, seemed like a decent little truck, but if I am moving or whatever I can't take 100 trucks with me as much as I'd like to!

For a good minute I didn’t mess with trucks at all, but I’ve been getting back into it! Part of this was due to me starting work at a new job for a metal scrapyard here in Susanville and working many hours and days with little to no time for secondary projects.

So with that said, my green Chevy. Nothing major with this truck, I do need to put an exhaust on it and replace an o2 sensor. I never expected to say it but that truck makes so many popping noises when you downshift and I know the truck and myself both do not like it! And the SAS. It needs a SAS!

However the starter on it decided to break, and I bought a new starter for it last year for the first engine swap, an ex-friend needed to “borrow it” in which case he took it and I got a crappy old starter back (which worked for a while until the solenoid broke). I got burned on that one (same ******* that keyed my dodge that I’ve made mention of a few times, (**** you James if you ever read this). Either way, I had to go into Napa and spend another $80 on a new starter. Truck fires up faster than it did with the old starter for sure! I just wish it was the same size as an automatic starter because I have 8 or so of those to pick from!

Took it on a little trip up the mountain. But besides the starter issue, it’s been great! Haven’t had to mess with anything else on it lately.



The 1991 GMC K1500 ECSB truck that is my friend Tyler’s which I’ve posted about on here before, has an issue. First was that he tried to make it pass smog and it just refused and is now labeled as a “gross polluter” in California's eyes, due to some PPM (Parts Per Million) category being too high at idle but passing with flying colors at driving RPMs. Well the next issue is that it has a knock. He was driving it out to the hot springs, and it started knocking halfway through the trip. None of us know what happened, the truck has perfect oil in it that was not low at all, with no metal shavings in the oil. I really don’t know what to expect but it is for sure a low end knock. So now we need to find a 4.3 for it and that will be a project for this summer possibly. But now this truck is parked for the meantime.

The 1995 Chevy K1500 SCSB blue truck that we did head gaskets on now has its own problem, I’m told that it is having some problem with the cable linkage from the column to the transmission being off. I haven’t looked at it but I will, and this truck has been parked by the owner due to the issue. I have been summoned to work on this truck because he knows all I ever mess with are GMT400s, lucky him!


Now here is where we see progression!

I do not know what gave me the drive to bring this truck back – but I did. I should have parted it out and I know everyone else who ended up with it probably would have too. But not me! If the parts were not accessible to me like they were I probably would have parted it or at least dropped in a gas engine of some sort since that stuff is easier to come by. This truck was a mess, I bought it for $220 delivered back on December 7, 2017. The poor thing had an engine bay fire, then critters made the engine bay their home making it a huge mess for me to clean up. But I did it! I am stoked about this because I gave this truck another life in some fashion. And that is what makes me happy with a smile on my face!

But the 1994 6.5 diesel has ran again on 7/8/18 for the first time since 2009. It’s been damn near a decade since this thing roared to life, and I was able to make it happen. I drove it for a mile too! But it needs other things fixed now. Just the usual tiny things, nothing overly major in my eyes. Over time I have cleaned it up and slowly replaced things, and this truck was by far the worst I have ever touched and recovered. Here is what I’ve had to do recently:

I installed the harness and everything required to get it running (possibly). However I could not get fuel to the injectors even after cranking it for what seemed like years. It was getting fuel to everything but the fuel injectors. So this was a problem with the injection pump. We tried messing with the fuel shutoff solenoid and it ended up breaking when we went to remove it, and it was just a nightmare. Thinking that I had an IP problem I pulled the IP from the parts truck in the junkyard at the time, and installed it in this truck. For a good while this truck sat with the replacement IP installed as I lost an important bolt when my friend Joe and I were swapping pumps.

On Saturday 7/7 I found this bolt threaded into the intake bolt mount randomly (so we must have put it there for whatever reason) and it’s what I needed to start re-assembling this thing. So I went balls to the wall all weekend with the truck. To the point where I was awake for over 36 hours (no I didn’t need *******, shockingly lol) because I was so motivated for once in my life to work on this trash. The race was on to reassemble the truck! I started at 8pm on Saturday night and the truck was back together by 7am Sunday morning. I was working on it by myself and ended up fixing a lot of other things along the way so it wasn’t me drinking the entire time accomplishing nothing. Also gave it a fresh oil change and filter.

I tried all morning to crank it and was still getting nowhere. I was getting upset and was on my 5th urge of wanting to burn this thing to the ground. So then I was told to replace the crank position sensor – which I was iffy about. I knew mice chewed through the wiring but I read the truck will still run although not great without the sensor, and for first time firing it I didn’t think anything of it.

So rather than throw money at this thing and blow $70 on a sensor, I walked out to the parts truck in the back 40, and by happenchance found the front cover from my first 6.5 diesel with the sensor still in it, although greasy. I cleaned it up with Tuff Stuff (carpet cleaner of all things) and it turned out nice. I had to make a DIY tool to remove the old sensor in the block as it was a PITA. I used a little piece of flat metal, drilled a hole in the middle, ripped out the wires in the sensor, and threaded a self-tapper through it by hand and then yanked and was able to remove the old sensor. Pain in the ass but I pulled it off!




I went back to cranking with the new sensor, didn’t help. Swapped computers, PMDs, etc. At this point a friend was pestering me with “it needs to be timed” “it needs to be timed” “it needs to be timed” “oh and it needs to be timed” “why are you bothering to try making it run if you don’t have the tool to time it” so after kindly telling him to **** off and to stop telling me to time it, I looked at other things. I pulled the codes and here is what I found:


13 – Engine Shutoff Solenoid Circuit Fault


19 – Crankshaft Position Reference Error


29 – Glow Plug Relay Circuit Fault


83 – TCC PWM Solenoid Circuit (Automatic Transmission)


To be honest I should have done this when the first injection pump was installed but I didn’t. I’ll elaborate on code 13 here in a second.

For code 19, that was understandable. I need to clear the codes to also reset the sensor from my understanding and part of what I’m also told is the glow plugs don’t help starting the 6.5 unless this sensor is working properly (and this is why you have to use starting fluid every time to start it). Code 29 is understandable; I had the relay unplugged so I could bleed the fuel system. For code 83, that is also understandable, the harness for the front diff and transfer case was not plugged in, and four wires on my transmission plug are questionable since they are all the same color and I’ll have to play mix and match until it’s right.

So back to this code 13. When I was trying to make it run the first time I checked every single fuse in the truck. Not one was blown, however for some damn reason when I checked this time the “fuel solenoid” 20A fuse was toast. No idea how or what happened, maybe when we were messing with the other fuel shutoff solenoid, who knows.

I had to go through and make some ghetto temporary wires for starting it up for the first time but that’s okay I’ll go through and make everything perfect this coming weekend.

Now we can get to the actual starting part. Sunday evening I finally started to see fuel weeping through the injector lines I cracked open. Kept on going and got closer to firing, tried using the glow plugs to fire and it did not fire (possibly due to code 19) so I unplugged the glow plug relay and used starting fluid. It fired right up!! And I mentioned that I did this and how I should have NOT done that and should have used a gas rag blah blah blah. Frankly I didn't really care and the glow plug relay was already unplugged so nothing would explode.

It started leaking coolant through the thermostat housing at the block side so I had to fix that with RTV and a few other little things after the first start. It also has a leak at the heater core connector. So what I did temporarily just to drive it was run a hose from the t-stat housing to the radiator to bypass the heater core entirely.

I then put on tires that held air, although the fronts and rears are different sizes but that was okay and I have other wheels I plan to put on it at some point soon. Put the truck in gear and it goes forward and back.

It was getting dark at this point and I wanted to drive it. The damn mice literally ate the wiring for the headlights all the way up to the connector pigtail. I needed at least one headlight for driving it for a minute so I found another chopped off pigtail on the shelf so I grabbed the connector, added some wire, connected it to the headlight, and then the battery for a working low beam.

Time to drive the truck! I could feel that it was building boost, but the problem I’m having is limp mode where it only lets you have second gear moving forward, and reverse. So I will look into this soon and see if I can get it going.

But if for whatever reason this transmission hates me after I give it quite a bit of my time and give up, I am putting a manual transmission in this. I am not going to spend my entire life trying to make the 4l80e work. SM465 more than likely and the swap won’t be hard regardless of friends bitching and saying quote "Nobody want that 4 spd in a 6.5. Need 5 spd"

So we will see where this truck takes me and if I like it enough to sell the army truck instead and put the bumper and light bar on this truck, and maybe go with a different paint color. Desert Tan possibly? May be more fitting for the terrain out here than forestry green.

Here’s a night pic with the 6.5 sitting next to the 1991 GMC with the rod knocking 4.3, they match well!





So that's what is going on with those trucks, I'll make a new post here in a minute about my friend Joe's GMT400 and the nightmare that has been...

So Joe's truck! I really don't know where I left off with this thing, but we pulled the engine he rebuilt, put new head gaskets in it, and a week later there was coolant in the oil. So at this point we are done with that engine, we grab the original engine that was in the truck, put in the cam and valve springs from the other 454, drop it in the truck, get it going, and then he took it on a lake trip and an oil cooler line broke and the oil went bye bye. So that engine has rod knock with the new engine.

After that the truck was parked...



And this came up! 04 Dirty D LLY ECLB GMC Sierra 2500 project. Kid he bought it from bought it as a project, the guy before him was parting it out after a tree fell on it so this kid spent a ton of time and money on parts for this thing, only for it to not make boost. He was over it so he sold it for a very very good price. 127k on the odo too. Believe it or not, the cab and all four doors came off 5 different red trucks. You would never even think a tree fell on it and crushed the cab!!

This is the only pic I have of it, fairly clean but I'll take a better photo the next time I see it. We fixed the boost issue, the sensor needed to be properly grounded it was reading 27psi of boost at idle!



Ironically we were both talking about red trucks and how I like this CCLB a lot and gave me plans for one!



His brother has a GMT400 work truck and managed to stuff it in a ditch, here's a photo I took of it. After this photo we had a double rainbow!



Okay that's it for truck stuff, I think

I'm done buying trucks for the meantime, I need to sell everything off. Minus the HD, that is being kept over everything else since it is my multiyear project lol

Glad to see you back on here Gavin! I missed your daily updates and all of the neat projects you took on.

DirtBag said:

Glad to see you back on here Gavin! I missed your daily updates and all of the neat projects you took on.

Click to expand...

Thank you

I liked typing all of the updates but lost track lately with other things, but not to worry I have more stuff to write about this weekend! I'm at a point where I want to mellow down but the likelihood of that happening is none ha!

You really need to get that 3500hd home before something happens...

Nice truck. Love the front bumper. I would like to get something similar for mine.