Firewood truck
Newbie
Hello, I wanted to do an introduction post for myself. I recently got a 1988 K2500 ( 6 lug) reg cab 8' bed truck to use as a beater/heavy towing rig. It's not what anyone might consider a 'nice' truck, but it isn't a full blown rot-mobile either. It sat for a while in the grass next to the PO house. It did move under it's own power and I did manage to limp it home, but after I started digging into it to see what absolutely needed replacing in order to be safe to drive, I realized that I should have had it towed home. 'Road Kill' level of hackery/problems!
I found this site while I was searching out some technical info. I am mechanically competent so I have been doing all of the work so far. When I figure out where to link a pic from ( on site storage or something else) I will share a few pics of the beast. This truck is simply a work truck/ firewood truck, I will not be restoring it or spending much effort into any cosmetic upgrades. I just need it to be mechanically sound as financially feasible. Basic stats- 5.7, granny gear 4 speed ( Sm465 ) 3.73 gears. 7200# GVW. manual crank up windows, cruise control that might work, I have no idea. Intermittent wipers, tilt wheel.
Big repairs so far- new parking brake cables and adjuster, new shoes, wheel cylinders and all hardware. The drums were good enough. New front rotors/pads. Caliper carriers taken apart and refurbished, the pins work well. New rear brake line after find (3) sectioned pieces that were joined with compression fittings. New flex lines, new MC. She stops pretty well!
New shocks, I went cheap and got some monroe gas magnums from amazon but picked up from a local parts store. One dead rear shock and 1 leaky front shock, straight out of the boxes. 2 weeks worth of trying to get a refund between amazon and the parts store, monroe customer service wouldn't do squat for me. Got the refunds through my Visa card, washed my hands clean of it. I went with KYB gas-a-justs from autozone, they seem to work well
I got rid of the home made exhaust ( literally straight pipes that were pie cut, hand bent and booger welded from the manifolds to the tail pipes) and put on a full OE exhaust harvested from a '94. I only had to drill 2 holes in the rear of the frame for the rear-most hanger mount to be installed. It's solid enough that it will last for a while. I plugged the O2 bung at the CAT, since my truck has a single sensor on the left side exhaust manifold.
I scored a good deal at Rockauto on some TRW branded upper control arms that came with ball joints. They goofed and sent me 2 rights, then over-nighted a left side. Now I have an extra Right side that will go up for grabs when I get the ability to post in the classified. I found a guy on Marketplace that was parting out these trucks near Red Lion, PA. I got adjuster cams from him. I ground off the welded washers and got the cams installed, a local MR Tire did a decent alignment on it.
What else... oh yeah, I had to replace the front diff. When I removed the old CVs in an attempt to reboot them, the axle shaft literally came out of the left side and I noticed the messy RTV around the joint where the axle tube meets the diffy housing. Someone's been in there before... I also found that the t-bars were cranked to the moon. I set them so that the new shocks were sitting at mid travel. So in the end, a new(er) front diff and new CVs from Carquest. The front end is done and shouldn't need anything from me for as long as I keep this pile of GMC.
I am about to start tearing off the intake manifold again, I didn't get enough squeeze out at the rear of the intake, it's leaking oil down the bell housing and onto the cross over pipe.
What's left- besides the intake manifold gasket that I don't want to do, I need to replace the slave cylinder and hot and ground cables from the battery, as they are growing green fuzz as I type this. I need to put the dash back together, I pulled the cluster to trouble shoot the dead speedo and found a few blown capacitors. I replaced them and got most of the cluster functions back, the speedo will intermittently work when it feels like it, and the e-brake light is flashing 9 times to tell me that there is no speedo signal. The sensor is new ( Standard brand, decent stuff) so that isn't it. I have a complete needle cluster that I would like to swap ( including the DRAC unit) but it's a low priority right now) The truck needs to haul big lumber and pull a 16' trailer soon, things that my Tacoma wouldn't do very well.
I found this site while I was searching out some technical info. I am mechanically competent so I have been doing all of the work so far. When I figure out where to link a pic from ( on site storage or something else) I will share a few pics of the beast. This truck is simply a work truck/ firewood truck, I will not be restoring it or spending much effort into any cosmetic upgrades. I just need it to be mechanically sound as financially feasible. Basic stats- 5.7, granny gear 4 speed ( Sm465 ) 3.73 gears. 7200# GVW. manual crank up windows, cruise control that might work, I have no idea. Intermittent wipers, tilt wheel.
Big repairs so far- new parking brake cables and adjuster, new shoes, wheel cylinders and all hardware. The drums were good enough. New front rotors/pads. Caliper carriers taken apart and refurbished, the pins work well. New rear brake line after find (3) sectioned pieces that were joined with compression fittings. New flex lines, new MC. She stops pretty well!
New shocks, I went cheap and got some monroe gas magnums from amazon but picked up from a local parts store. One dead rear shock and 1 leaky front shock, straight out of the boxes. 2 weeks worth of trying to get a refund between amazon and the parts store, monroe customer service wouldn't do squat for me. Got the refunds through my Visa card, washed my hands clean of it. I went with KYB gas-a-justs from autozone, they seem to work well
I got rid of the home made exhaust ( literally straight pipes that were pie cut, hand bent and booger welded from the manifolds to the tail pipes) and put on a full OE exhaust harvested from a '94. I only had to drill 2 holes in the rear of the frame for the rear-most hanger mount to be installed. It's solid enough that it will last for a while. I plugged the O2 bung at the CAT, since my truck has a single sensor on the left side exhaust manifold.
I scored a good deal at Rockauto on some TRW branded upper control arms that came with ball joints. They goofed and sent me 2 rights, then over-nighted a left side. Now I have an extra Right side that will go up for grabs when I get the ability to post in the classified. I found a guy on Marketplace that was parting out these trucks near Red Lion, PA. I got adjuster cams from him. I ground off the welded washers and got the cams installed, a local MR Tire did a decent alignment on it.
What else... oh yeah, I had to replace the front diff. When I removed the old CVs in an attempt to reboot them, the axle shaft literally came out of the left side and I noticed the messy RTV around the joint where the axle tube meets the diffy housing. Someone's been in there before... I also found that the t-bars were cranked to the moon. I set them so that the new shocks were sitting at mid travel. So in the end, a new(er) front diff and new CVs from Carquest. The front end is done and shouldn't need anything from me for as long as I keep this pile of GMC.
I am about to start tearing off the intake manifold again, I didn't get enough squeeze out at the rear of the intake, it's leaking oil down the bell housing and onto the cross over pipe.
What's left- besides the intake manifold gasket that I don't want to do, I need to replace the slave cylinder and hot and ground cables from the battery, as they are growing green fuzz as I type this. I need to put the dash back together, I pulled the cluster to trouble shoot the dead speedo and found a few blown capacitors. I replaced them and got most of the cluster functions back, the speedo will intermittently work when it feels like it, and the e-brake light is flashing 9 times to tell me that there is no speedo signal. The sensor is new ( Standard brand, decent stuff) so that isn't it. I have a complete needle cluster that I would like to swap ( including the DRAC unit) but it's a low priority right now) The truck needs to haul big lumber and pull a 16' trailer soon, things that my Tacoma wouldn't do very well.
Last edited:
