1989 Chevy K2500 ECLB 350/SM465 "CayenneCheyenne"

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gstubbz

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Congrats on the purchase! And your moving right along with progress, that's good! Can't wait to see more progress

Thank you! I work on the thing every chance I get and once the engine swap is done I can start working on fun stuff! And by the way I just burned an hour reading your build thread!
 

twomanymontes

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Thank you! I work on the thing every chance I get and once the engine swap is done I can start working on fun stuff! And by the way I just burned an hour reading your build thread!

There is always time for fun stuff! I'm still working on that. I have to order the roof mounts and a 52" LED for mine. I was all set to order it before Christmas and then found a screaming deal on some rare parts for my Monte SS. And your just wasting time in my thread, nothing of real importance there, LOL!
 

aaronb

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It's looking good, that's alot of work in the time you've put into it.are you out in the North valley?
 

gstubbz

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There is always time for fun stuff! I'm still working on that. I have to order the roof mounts and a 52" LED for mine. I was all set to order it before Christmas and then found a screaming deal on some rare parts for my Monte SS. And your just wasting time in my thread, nothing of real importance there, LOL!

I have plans for this truck :) All I have is time and work lol Just sucks that it is 35 miles away from me!

It's looking good, that's alot of work in the time you've put into it.are you out in the North valley?

Thank you! Once I can drive it I'll be happy for a day or two. And I am, I live an hour and a half north up 365 out of Reno (or Sparks I call it the same area lol) so I go to the Sparks pick n pull when I get a chance!
 

aaronb

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Reno, sparks same ****.lol. I'm out in Spanish springs. It's been awhile since I've been to pick n pull. Last time I was there I had to find a hub off a square body Chevy. They only had 1 4 wheel drive there.its sad seeing all the gmt400's in that yard.
 

gstubbz

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Actually, I think I've seen your truck before. When I went to Discount Tire off of Los Altos back in October to have tires put on my Dodge I was walking around and I remember seeing a stepside with a SAS. And I know! I thought for sure when my 98 was totaled it would end up at that one or Carson City but I found it on some online export site.
 

aaronb

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That was me, I was getting the tires rotated and balanced.
I've only seen 1 other stepside in this area with sas and its an extended cab, It's also black.
 

gstubbz

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Bought some more stuff for the Chevy today in preparation for tomorrow.

A new starter, gear oil for the SM465, another gallon of purple power (since I burn through that stuff quickly), and 3M adhesive so I can fix my headliner when I get a chance. $90 wasn't too bad I thought it would have been more, it''s good to have friends at auto parts places!

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Also bought this Compass/Temp mirror from SierraVortec, I figured I would try the mirror out instead of the overhead console DIC this time around. I like the OHC but I was lucky with my 98 since I could have the fuel econ, range, etc. but I can't in this truck so I'm stuck with Temp/Compass!

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Tomorrow morning I'll be heading out with Tyler and Kyle, and hopefully the day ends with it running and driving.
 

gstubbz

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Another update for today! We reconnected all the wires, installed the shifter, core support, starter, air filter, stuff like that.

But it does run, and here are the videos of it running :) Yes I know the hood release cable shouldn't be running over the top, I'll change that the next time I pull off the grille. The first start was actually super easy, a hit of starting fluid and from there on out it cranks right up. It was so easy I was shocked and by far was the most effortless start I've seen for an engine that had been sitting. It hasn't ran for over a year and a half either! The exhaust wasn't bolted up to the manifolds so it's loud, and you'll also hear the generator in the background at first. It sounds super mean with no exhaust and you can hear the cam slightly. Oh I found out the Edelbrock Performer intake on this truck sells for $345, but I'm certainly glad I didn't pay for it! Another plus - no check engine light. When the old engine was on it's last legs it had a check engine light. We also chopped off the side post terminals and replaced them with top post terminals and used one of Kyle's year-old Interstate batteries for this thing.

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Here is a bonus video when I had my 98 and we unbolted the exhaust. Personally I think the Vortec 350 sounds meaner.

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The oil filter I brought was for a 350, but wouldn't work with my oil filter adapter (it wouldn't even thread on) and to my luck we found an oil filter for a 4.0L Toyota V6 which was the perfect size and thread! So that was nice because I didn't really want to run into Reno for just an oil filter.

So then we jump to the bad news. So the slave cylinder would push in the clutch fork, but the fork would not return, and the pedal was sticking almost to the floor. I swear no matter what it is I own, automatic or manual, it has transmission issues. For hours we tried dicking with it to no avail, and we decided we wanted to flush the fluid since it looked pretty terrible. When I was taking the line off the slave cylinder it bent since the fitting was seized to the hard line so that put us at a road block.

And... I called the Napa in Reno and they said they had a new slave cylinder for $23 I think it was, so it was 4pm by this point and they closed in an hour, so we boogied on down which took just over half an hour to arrive at the Bennie Ln Napa. Then I purchased the slave cylinder and found out that the other Napa in Sparks had the hardline I needed (which was a $70ish part by the way) and they closed at 5pm, and by this point it was 4:45, so somehow I was able to haul ass to the other Napa by the Grand Sierra Resort and made it there at 4:57 and picked up the hard line as well as a few other things I needed with moments to spare!

Then we get to bleeding and that went smoothly once we cleaned out the reservoir and installed the new line. The fun begins when the slave cylinder would push on the clutch fork but the fork would not return, so it's getting stuck on something. What really sucks is we did all of that work to pull the engine and transmission in one shot (replacing the clutch, flywheel, bearings, everything except the clutch pedal) to come across this issue. I guess this is the best time it could happen since there is no transfer case attached or a drive shaft.

This truck does have a hole in the rocker, I always give my friend in Maryland a hard time because all of his **** has rust holes and how he envies us on the west coast with no rust, so I sent him this photo and I received a ration of **** from him. The e-brake cable is also super loose so that's on the list of things to fix.

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Always make sure to have a computer and a hotspot ready, it made life much easier using my MacBook to look stuff up rather than my phone!

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In the end, we are waking up bright and early tomorrow and dropping the transmission to figure out what's going on. Maybe, just maybe if we finish that early enough we can finish everything else out and drive it. Another sidenote - we stopped for gas at Golden Valley out of Reno and stopped by Wendy's to pick up some food, and we were the only one in line and they had our food ready by the time I rolled up to the window. By far the quickest fast-food place I've ever been to!

Last minute update while I am reading online about the slave cylinder - maybe something is up with the pivoting point on the clutch fork so we shall find out tomorrow!!
 
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gstubbz

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So today wasn't a good day.

We pulled the transmission out from the back of the bellhousing, and found out that the bearing we replaced from the O'Rilleys clutch kit was the wrong one. So we made a trip to Reno's Napa again, and ended up having to go to the Sparks store to pick up the correct bearing. So we installed the new bearing, and after bleeding the clutch some more the rod from the pedal to the clutch master cylinder broke. Then we decided the rod can wait and attempted to install the transmission but we found out we really needed two jacks. I called AutoZone and they said they had a master cylinder in stock so we headed back to Susanville.

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We go to pick up the clutch master cylinder to find out it doesn't include a new rod, so we shot over to O'Rilley's to find out they didn't have a rod either. Went back to AutoZone to pick up that master cylinder and I called my buddy Joe who happened to have the manual pedal assembly laying around if he ever decided to swap in a manual into his 1990 K2500, so I took the rod (which I need to buy him a new one), grabbed a jack and headed back out to the truck.

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Thereafter we installed the new rod and the clutch is working like it should. We tried installing the transmission but after dicking with it for hours we were unable to get it the rest of the way in so we called it a night at 10:30 since we were pretty burnt out.

Today really sucked, it was snowing pretty hard on the way home and we wasted well over 4 hours today just driving to pick stuff up. Oh well, it happens. Maybe next weekend we can make it move.

Here is a cool photo I took during the day.

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Until next weekend... if you ask any three of us what we hate about working on vehicles, it's transmissions.
 
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