1988 K3500 5.7L TBI 4x4 looking for a part

[Kat141]

Hi all, bear with me I am new on here! I have a 1988 K3500, purchased new by my dad, cab and chassis as he put a flatbed on it! It has the 5.7L with throttle body injection and is a 4x4. We use as a ranch truck. The smog pump just froze up and we are having a heck of a time finding a replacement. Any leads or if anyone knows where we can get one would be greatly appreciated. A little back story, my dad passed 7 years ago and really don't want to get rid of this truck! This is a pic of the truck, sorry not the best, not my dad, just a friend of his! Thank you in advance!

 

[GoToGuy]

They are NLA, ( no longer available from GM). You might try hunting some treasure yards, pik n pul, so fourth. There is , on some models that don't require smog pump a idler pulley is installed in place of pump.
I'm going to tear one open to see if it can be rebuilt.

 

[1998_K1500_Sub]

I have a 1988 K3500, purchased new by my dad, cab and chassis as he put a flatbed on it! It has the 5.7L with throttle body injection and is a 4x4. We use as a ranch truck.

I have to comment...

Here's our 1988 K3500 5.7L TBI. Dad bought it in ... 1990(?), it's been an IL farm truck ever since and seen almost no salt. Dad's been gone a few years now but the truck still provides service.

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[PlayingWithTBI]

There is , on some models that don't require smog pump a idler pulley is installed in place of pump.

Or, to bypass the pump, you buy a belt for a 5.7L w/o A.I.R.

Here's the label from my 88 5.7L FYI - there's one mounting bolt for the pump which is part of the accessory bracket mount so, if you wanna remove the pump altogether, you'll need to fabricate a spacer.

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[Kat141]

Thank you all for the replies! I found a guy on Ebay out of Canoga Park, CA that rebuilds them, B-Z Rebuilders! I ordered it and received it in 2 days! Just took my husband a few hours to install it and a new belt. Truck is up and running again!

 

[someotherguy]

Thank you all for the replies! I found a guy on Ebay out of Canoga Park, CA that rebuilds them, B-Z Rebuilders! I ordered it and received it in 2 days! Just took my husband a few hours to install it and a new belt. Truck is up and running again!

Good to know! I'm sure that will be helpful for our members that are in areas that are super-strict with emissions - as California is, so it's no surprise that's where you might find someone rebuilding those parts. I've never had one apart but I'd suspect the reason for it seizing up was as simple as the bearings going bad.

There's a single bearing number that is used in a wide variety of automotive applications - one part # for it would be the Timken 203AB which is used in a lot of the power steering pumps, alternators, and more. "203" is the core of the part # and there's a lot of suffixes for different variations of it. I found this bearing in a custom idler pulley used in an aftermarket hydraulic pump application for a wrecker unit. It allowed me to spend a few minutes worth of labor and replace a $12 bearing instead of giving the wrecker supplier $100 for a new pulley.

That whole last paragraph was some inspiration for those that might repair an old part that has seized up. I'm sure there's more to the rebuild process of a smog pump than just the bearings, but that little bit of info might get someone out of a jam in the future. I'll add that I have no idea what the bearing # is in your particular application, just saying the 203 is a very common one and there's lots of grades of quality out there for them. The $100 pulley we were constantly replacing had a very low grade bearing in it so me spending $12 on the Timken was an upgrade!

Richard