1989 Chevy K2500 ECLB 350/SM465 "CayenneCheyenne"

[Goose 3406]

Wow that last picture is eerily reminiscent of Christine...

 

[gstubbz]

Wow that last picture is eerily reminiscent of Christine...

Should I take that as a good thing or a bad thing

 

[Goose 3406]

Should I take that as a good thing or a bad thing

honestly its kinda cool just a little creepy lookin

 

[gstubbz]

honestly its kinda cool just a little creepy lookin

The Cheyenne is going to live again! I plan to make it a big mean truck

 

[gstubbz]

Today was a good day! We got out to the truck around 1pm and we were driving it by 8pm.

First thing on the list was installing the transmission the rest of the way and I actually picked up some longer bolts this morning to help install the stock bolts, and Tyler brought out his Mac Tools Porta-Power ram which made life so much easier, the transmission popped in within seconds of jacking on it.

Then we installed the transmission crossmember, reinstalled the NP 241C, filled both with new fluid, install the front and rear driveshaft, reconnect all the wiring, etc. There is one plug wire under the truck I need to figure out what it goes to so I'll do that probably tomorrow. I also need to pick up a new carrier bearing and two new u-joints for the rest of the driveshaft since it has a nice vibration while you drive it.

We took the heads off the blown 350, and each piston lost it's rings and were tilted and not straight. The head gasket was toast. The guy who also lives on the property owns a 1995 K1500 RCSB he bought new but the 350 in it has a cracked head, so we are going to give him the heads and he can take them to a machine shop to make sure they are still good and we will install them on his truck.

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Also on the rear bumper there was a McCain/Palin sticker that was covering up some other sticker, so I peeled it off and found this sticker. The PO was a conservative no doubt! Just needs a Trump sticker to top it off lol.

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Yeah the list is completed

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Truck drives pretty good, trying to downshift into second gear is a bit of a *****, I think it might need syncros at some point but every other gear is flawless. It also sounds pretty mean, especially when down-shifting. First 3 minutes I was driving it easy to the gas station, and after that we hot rodded it a bit. Certainly fun with a manual!!

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And yes, it's capable of burnouts. First vehicle I've ever owned that could leave more than a three foot strip!

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The headlights suck, so tomorrow I am robbing the grille, bumper, headlights, center console, and seats from my 6.5 and installing them in this truck! Now onto the easier stuff... and cleaning.

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[Jorge6.5]

Glad you got it driving. Looks like that center console needs some color matching

 

[gstubbz]

Sunday update!

Swapped the grille and headlights, and swapping from the sealed beams to the composites was extremely easy! Match the brown, green, and ground wires and you are set. The headlights are much nicer! Also topped off the power steering fluid and coolant too. In addition I cleaned out the bed which was full of trash and granite slates from the PO and a few other miscellaneous things.

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We swapped in the new seat, although we only installed the drivers side for now. Here is a picture of the old seat! I didn't take any pictures of the new seat installed but I will once the other seat and center console is installed.

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And we drove it for an hour tonight up Fort Sage Mountain and drove up to Sail Rock in mud and washed out roads. The truck's low gear is amazing for that kind of stuff I love it! 4WD also works properly. This is by far my favorite photo of the truck so far!

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Few things to fix. The truck has an exhaust leak in between the cab and bed, still has a slight vibration, and I think the alternator might be dying. Halfway through our trip up the mountain the lights started getting dimmer and we lost the gauge cluster lights. So for next weekend I'll bring out a new alternator. When the truck was running properly it was great! It for sure needs a fifth gear. Future upgrade if I can find a NV4500 sometime this year.

I really like this truck, extremely fun to drive and sounds fantastic! Tyler and Kyle both really like the truck too, and they are square body fanatics and I'm not!

 

[gstubbz]

Thinking about some things to install on the truck at some point soon.

Cab lights. I have the housings and wiring harness, all I need are screws. I'm torn if I should leave them orange or smoke them black. Mocked them up on the 6.5 real quick to have a general idea of how they would look.

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And I also forgot I had these chrome hubcaps from the parts truck. I found two and I know the other two are somewhere nearby. It bugs me that they say GMC though. I plan on painting the rims black and using these chrome center caps, it'll look decent I hope!

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[gstubbz]

Bought an alternator today, 100A NAPA alternator was $111.79 with a core charge of $59.50, totaling $183.71 out the door. Tyler is going out to Doyle today to work on the house out there and he is going to install the new alternator for me too! He helps me quite a bit!

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Also, I was looking at the title and it was issued in 1992, the truck from 89-92 lived in California, then in Nevada and was owned by a construction company out of Crystal Bay. Sold to a guy in Auburn, CA in March of 2016, and then it went through a few hands in Reno and is now mine. However, CompNine refuses to accept my vin so I had to look up RPO codes manually. Original MSRP on the truck was $15,536 and the title says $14,621. Interesting little bit of history! As far as Nevada knows the construction guy still owns the truck. Going to resolve that with the DMV tomorrow.

 

[gstubbz]

When Tyler was out there yesterday he also cleaned up the wiring under the hood, cleaned up the plug wires, and put a proper sized battery in it so we don't have one ratchet strapped in anymore. Truck is coming along quite quickly I must say!

I received my mirror sometime last week, but it did not have a pigtail, so I soldered on wires to the connectors using solid copper wiring that were leftover from making custom ethernet cables at work. Ran out to my truck and gave the mirror power and it works! So this weekend if I have time I'll install the new mirror. The pro to using ethernet cable is that it is small and already covered, which will make running it down the A pillar much easier than using thicker gauge wire.

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Plans for Saturday: Install oil pressure sensor so my gauge isn't pegged at 80, use my expensive 3M spray adhesive to reattach the headliner, install a 6.5 front bumper, install passenger seat, install and wire up center console, figure out why the reverse lights aren't turning on (should be a simple fix I hope), and possibly cab lights. Kyle also has a flowmaster exhaust laying around so I'll replace it since the one on the truck has a big ass hole and I need to have this thing pass smog.

I might also be putting a new bed on this, the neighbor next door has a c2500 ECLB (seen in the 5th photo on this thread) that he bought for front end parts, and his truck is a shortbed to the bed is useless to him. Maybe we will work something out so I can have a clean bed.