The Plow Truck: 99 454 CCSB

[Supercharged111]

Are you missing a ground wire that should be under the bolt on the right? Normally, each stud gets one.

Here's mine

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Thank you for that, I was wondering where the equally shjtty ground that was under an AC compressor bolt was intended to be.

 

[Supercharged111]

Today I tried to get the bumper halfway aligned before sending the center mount bolts down to 90 ft/lb. Here was the setup:

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I needed it up a little higher so I added some preload with the jack against the chain tension. The result was not productive.

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So I can only assume it's yet another shortcoming with the body lift. I torqued it as it was and the bumper is still low in the center relative to the outside. If you don't know to look for it, it doesn't really stick out. So I torqued those bolts and moved on to cleaning and painting the washer plate thingies for the core support body mounts to get those torqued. Managed to suck my thumbs into the bench grinder's wire wheel a few times which was both a new and unpleasant experience. I don't recommend it. Got that all done and the face finally back on.

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Looks about the same as before except for now the frame is clean and painted, new outer fenders, new fresh painted/undercoated not rotted inner fenders, added a proper factory PS cooler, bigger M7B style trans cooler, mounts and stuff visible through the grill no longer rust/overspray color, grill and plastic fender filler bits and outer fenders no longer chopped up for oversized tires which is what rotted out the original fenders in the first place, bumper now fully installed and torqued so it doesn't bounce all over the place, grill now stays together, and passenger's headlight doesn't flop around. I'm sure there's more but that's the gist of it.

While I was doing this, I left the truck running for a while. I'd had a bunch of sub-30 second cold starts to move the thing so I could drive the Z06 to work and wanted a decent heat cycle plus I needed to test the new stat. Per the factory temp gauge it appears to be running 195, so win. It also idled down below 500 so another indicator that we're getting to the proper temp. Since this is a new phenomenon, it wasn't without a quirk: a small misfire. It would lug down just under 500 on the factory tach and give the occasional misfire. After a few, it would flare up to about 500. Very minor flare, I had to do a double take to verify it. I haven't given it so much as an oil change or a tuneup yet so hoping it's low hanging fruit. It's very a very minor quirk at this point. But the first time I moved it out of the driveway with the new fenders something very ugly reared its head. The bent frame that has the wheel shifted back an inch plus causes it to rub on the fender with very little right steering input. So I don't even think it's prudent to dump this thing back at the hangar again until I unbend the frame. Hooray. . .

 

[454cid]

500rpm is a little low. That's closer to what my Buick 430 idles at (if it didn't have a bad bearing).

Also, I'd like to now how the garden hose nozzle was helping you in the first picture.

 

[Supercharged111]

You are expect me to give away all of my secrets in here?

I don't entirely trust the factory tach, but my cable for the laptop seems to have grown legs and I can't verify that or ECT. But it is idling lower than before which I attribute to the functioning thermostat.

 

[DirtBag]

Love the progress on this truck. In my opinion its worth whatever it takes to get the frame situation taken care of. Great job man!

 

[Supercharged111]

Thanks. I drove it back out to the hangar today, the race car needs my undivided attention now. Need to unf00k 3rd gear and retard the cam to try and kill a few ft/lb of torque so engine and trans both coming out.

This truck looks a lot nicer than when I first got it. Here it is when I first installed that free grille.

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Doesn't do a great job of illustrating how everything behind the grille stuck out like a sore thumb.

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I like that the lower air dam covers up the body lift too. I got the interior back together too and check this out.

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That's an OG Prodigy, not a P2. I got it last year new in the box circa de 2005 for like $50. I still have to install the 7 pin receptacle to be able to haul anything though. I may need to swipe the encoder motor from my spare transfer case. The 4lo light flashed the whole way out there and when I pulled TCCM codes I got a 1 and a 2.

 

[Supercharged111]

Not very useful with only 2wd, but the plow and lights work first try!

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This was blocking the shelf with my spare transmission and t-case. If both turn out good, trans is destined for the dually and t-case for this truck. I'll split the case open to inspect it as I want to do the snap ring eliminator and for the trans I'll just clean the outside, new input seal, and a filter and pan gasket if there isn't a bunch of death in the bottom of the pan. Been too distracted with race car stuff lately to do truck stuff.

 

[BNielsen]

Thanks to you I decided to go back looking for something in my local haunt of a junkyard, I couldn't remember where it was and I thought it got crushed.
Just buried under a Nissan; a 98 K1500 that rotted in half, but it's got what's apparently pretty decent still bolted to the front.

 

[Supercharged111]

That's ancient right there. I'll try to remember to get more pics of how mine hooks up. It has feet you drop down, rotate a couple hooks, and back right out of the blade. To hook back up just pull forward until it's fully seated then rotate the hooks to hold it in, the feet keep it at the height of your truck. The feet rotate back up out of the way too. My dad had that style when I was growing up and this Western Ultra Mount, circa de 2010 or so, is light years better.

 

[termite]

Both of those look simpler than my Meyer set up. May only be two pins and the lift chain, but its a pain to hook up solo with lining up the mount and plow. Then not overshooting it.