Joined the crew cab club!

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5vortec7

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I happened upon this 99 K3500 7.4l crew cab long bed on FB marketplace back in January. Single owner with 191k, crate 7.4l installed at 145k. Originally listed at $6,500 dropped down to $5,500 when I saw it. When I scheduled a time to go look at it the guy said it would die seconds after starting the first few times but other than that ran like a top, $4500 as is. Brought $4k and went to check it out. Needed tires, surface rust starting on the roof, paint was starting to delaminate and indeed would die immediately after start up unless you gassed it a little. PO said he’d spent $3500 at a local shop to try and figure out the problem to no avail. Got him down to $3650 and drove it home.


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5vortec7

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Eng1 fuse would blow within the first few miles after replacing it. MAF and O2 sensors are on that circuit. MAF was new and swapping with the one out of my 99 K2500 7.4l burb had the same result. Narrowed it down to a problem in the wiring harness. While starting to unhook all the sensors to remove and dig through the harness found this...

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O2 sensor wiring rubbing on driveshaft that the incompetent shop couldn’t find. Spliced with solder and heat shrink and it stopped blowing the fuse and would start up and stay running. Now it throws the running rich code, still working on figuring that out, any ideas would be appreciated!
 

5vortec7

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Next up was fixing the bearing whine coming from the rear end. I do 90% of the work on all my vehicles but don’t have much experience setting back lash so brought it to a shop and had the bearings replaced as well as the carrier with a Yukon duragrip. $3400 dollars later it was running quiet again. First time we had snow afterwards I threw it in 4 wheel and the truck started jumping and skipping down the road. Took it out immediately. After jacking it up and counting the tire vs driveshaft revolutions I confirmed my suspicions of the wrong gears being installed in the rear end. Brought it back and they put the correct gears in. Goes to show if you want something done right, do it yourself! Had the driveshafts balanced, new u-joints and driveshaft center support.
 

5vortec7

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Next up was addressing the surface rust on the roof and delaminating paint. Took it to one of my carwashes and a whole hell of a lot more of the paint came off than I had hoped. Did a quick rattle can fix in the driveway to get me by until it’s mechanically sound and I can afford some body work and new paint.

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5vortec7

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Next up was window visors and tint, started with 15% all around and 35% on the windshield. Ended up going back to get all but the windshield down to 5%.

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Supercharged111

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White paint sucks, my tailgate gets less white every time I wash it. The deal you got on the truck flew out the window when you had gears done. $3,400 is insane. Did they do the front too?
 

stutaeng

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Congratulations! it looks like a nice truck! Those PY0 rims look really good on these trucks.

Yes, that's insane for differential gears! Around here it is around $1,500 for front and rear, maybe $2,000 is top end from those 4wheelparts places.

My nephew just had some installed into his by his buddy for $250 rear only, labor only. I'm going to get his number so he can do mine when I re-gear.
 

5vortec7

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Wow, nice truck and great work so far!

The O2 running rich could be because you soldered that wire back together. The solder changes the resistance and causes it to give false readings.

Thanks man, that makes sense. Guess I’ll have to run new wires or grab the back half of that harness from a junk yard, luckily it’s behind the connector hooking up the backside
 
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