What's to know about a 95 model?

Looking at buying a 95 Hoe. Has a tailgate and a manual T case (my current one has neither).

So, I know it's a TBI motor, and the trans is 95 specific (owner already told me it lost 4 gear, so it'll needed pulled for a rebuild).

What is there to know about the power train setup? Body/suspension wise is the same as my 97, I'm good there.

Can you run a 4.3 TC in a 95? Any particular upgrades the trans should get while its out?

Anything with the motor to worry about (like the vortec intake gaskets for example)?

I've had a couple tbi motors. Almost indestructible. My tbi truck had 375k rode rough miles n only noise was a wrist pin rattle on til warmed up. Think all the electronics in the dash are 95 only as well but I'm not 100% on that.

All 95s are TBI’s, so the guts are the same as earlier trucks. However, the computer is different than earlier years (94 is somewhat similar) and trans electronics are 1 year only. Same applies to HVAC controls.

If this is a 4L60E like I expect, I would not remove the transmission until I knew for sure that the shift solenoids were getting proper signal, and working correctly. Connect a scan tool, verify operation.

Be careful with torque converters. At some point the lockup clutch material changed, because the torque converter clutch operation went from unlocked/locked, to unlocked/locked-but-slipping. The newer locked-but-slipping system needed higher-temperature friction material in the converter.

I don't know which system a '95 uses, but it'll be in the service manual. If the TCC is Pulse-Width Modulated (PWM) then you have the locked-but-slipping system that needs the special friction material.

'95 is new enough that the steering shaft upgrade that eliminates the rag joint in favor of a U-joint is more difficult.

'95 is the first year of the EBC310 ABS controller in the C/K trucks. I don't know if that's good or bad, just that it's the newer system that--I think--lasted through the end of GMT400 production.

Schurkey said:

'95 is new enough that the steering shaft upgrade that eliminates the rag joint in favor of a U-joint is more difficult.

'95 is the first year of the EBC310 ABS controller in the C/K trucks. I don't know if that's good or bad, just that it's the newer system that--I think--lasted through the end of GMT400 production.

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Steering shaft, I already have a borgeson shaft sitting around (ended up not putting it on the 97 because of other issues).

ABS won't matter in the long run, it'll end up solid axle swapped down the road.

Schurkey said:

Be careful with torque converters. At some point the lockup clutch material changed, because the torque converter clutch operation went from unlocked/locked, to unlocked/locked-but-slipping. The newer locked-but-slipping system needed higher-temperature friction material in the converter.

I don't know which system a '95 uses, but it'll be in the service manual. If the TCC is Pulse-Width Modulated (PWM) then you have the locked-but-slipping system that needs the special friction material.

Click to expand...

What information I can find. So, you have two basic clutch materials. Paper and Carbon.

From what I can find, a carbon type clutch is backwards compatible? Where as a paper type should never be installed in a PWM setup.
I would assume as long as I could verify that a TC for a 95 4.3 is carbon, then it should work fine? Regardless of the trans lock up setup.

@sync Exhaust gaskets, intake manifold gaskets, and throttle body gaskets should be done but other than that they are solid, my 94 has 370,000

95 will have fab lower control arms rather than the cast like what is found on later vehicles. If changing the intake gaskets you will probably need to clean out the EGR system.

Never had issues with that ABS unit other than they are a pain to bleed.

That smaller 4WAL unit on the '95 seems more reliable long-term than the earlier big chunky units on the '92-'94 SUV's.

The '95 is indeed PWM on the TCC as Schurkey was wondering.

Richard