1994 C1500 Fleet Truck

[Erik the Awful]

Cole and I got the bed off this afternoon. It was so much lighter and easier than the stepside bed on WCJr. Who woulda thought? The fuel pump was quick and easy, and as soon as we got it swapped we fired the truck up and it idled, albeit poorly.

While the bed was off we yanked the remnants of the factory exhaust to put in the exhaust I nabbed at Pull-A-Part. Once we got the old exhaust bits down we realized we needed new donuts for the exhaust manifolds. We ran to O'Reillys and got those.

We had to jack the transmission tailshaft and yank the crossmember to get the new exhaust in place, and in doing so we realized the transmission mount was demolished. We drove back to O'Reillys and got one of those. And pizza, because eating is important.

I had to drill one hole in the frame for the exhaust hangar, and the rearmost hangar doesn't have a place to attach. It dumps in front of the rear axle, so I don't think it's going to be an issue.

We got the exhaust hung, and realized too late that the threads on one of the mounting bolts were broken off and missing. We left it with two bolts and it leaks. Sounds terrible, but my hot-wrench has empty bottles, so it's gonna have to abide for a while.

All in all, a successful day. Hopefully it rains again tomorrow so I can cut out the cancer in the floorboard and weld in new metal.

 

[Erik the Awful]

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[OutlawDrifter]

CAD design on the patch - Cardboard Aided Design

That's my prefered method!

 

[Erik the Awful]

I pulled the plugs yesterday and they're all fouled. "Hmmm... probably needs an O2 sensor." Want to guess what was screwed into the pipe right next to the stolen catalytic converter?

Now I'm curious how the owner of the Suburban I robbed the exhaust from had it running with no O2 sensor. Was there a manifold that fit the same as the stock '94 manifold that had an O2 sensor in it? I'm going to have to drop the exhaust back out of the truck and weld in an O2 bung. As soon as it warms up I'm going to crawl under the truck and make sure the O2 wiring is still there.

I ordered another $170 worth of parts, mostly ignition column stuff. The ignition lock cylinder is busted and you can start the truck without a key. The wiper delay switch is busted as well, and I'm not looking forward to replacing it. Since I'll already be in that far I have the rest of the column electrical on order.

The top of the intake also keeps pooling coolant, so I have a new thermostat seal on order as well.

Today's goals are to try and troubleshoot the taillights and drop the exhaust.

 

[firestoness]

I pulled the plugs yesterday and they're all fouled. "Hmmm... probably needs an O2 sensor." Want to guess what was screwed into the pipe right next to the stolen catalytic converter?

Now I'm curious how the owner of the Suburban I robbed the exhaust from had it running with no O2 sensor. Was there a manifold that fit the same as the stock '94 manifold that had an O2 sensor in it? I'm going to have to drop the exhaust back out of the truck and weld in an O2 bung. As soon as it warms up I'm going to crawl under the truck and make sure the O2 wiring is still there.

I ordered another $170 worth of parts, mostly ignition column stuff. The ignition lock cylinder is busted and you can start the truck without a key. The wiper delay switch is busted as well, and I'm not looking forward to replacing it. Since I'll already be in that far I have the rest of the column electrical on order.

The top of the intake also keeps pooling coolant, so I have a new thermostat seal on order as well.

Today's goals are to try and troubleshoot the taillights and drop the exhaust.

The earlier model V-8 drivers side manifolds had a single wire O2 sensor on the drivers side. When they moved the O2 sensor the put a 3 wire heated O2 sensor on the y-pipe in front of the cat. in 1996 the vortec engines used dual cats with four 4-wire monitored o2 sensors. Word of caution, if there is a problem with the heater on the 3 wire sensor or it's heater wiring you will not get a check engine light and the truck will run find while using it, but at idle with will start to surge because the sensor will cool. I know this because I dropped an older engine with the O2 on the manifold in a 1995 that had the 3 wire originally. Years later I put headers, and 1995 y-pipe and converter back on it and it started surging. I found the pin for the heater had corroded and it was not heating up enough and would surge. If i revved it up the exhaust would heat the sensor up and it would drive fine until I sat at idle long enough to lose the heat. Check for full 12 volts at one of the pins and watch for corrosion in the connector if it was unplugged for long. But then again might not be an issue in TX.

 

[Erik the Awful]

I dropped the exhaust today and found that there is a bung on the top side of the 2-into-1 collector. That was a pain in the butt, but since one of the exhaust studs was broken when we installed the exhaust I got the opportunity to fix that. Once the new O2 sensor comes in I'll throw it in with a new set of spark plugs and it should run fine.

I did a compression test while all the plugs were out. Dang 'ol 305 got a new lease on life.

1 - 155
2 - 150
3 - 157
4 - 170
5 - 165
6 - 169
7 - 150
8 - 165

I also dug into the rear harness wiring and found a wire broken off flush with the electrical tape in the T-junction for the tag light. Turns out it's the ground wire for the taillights. Lights are fixed.

I threw the lights that I bought for Roscoe on it (broke a small piece of the top corner off one, doh!) and put a hose clamp on the tailgate mount so nobody can steal the tailgate. Last weekend we got the rear bumper about halfway sledgehammered straight and then missed a blow and broke the sledgehammer handle on the bumper bracket. If I don't find another bumper for nearly free before I buy a new sledgehammer handle, it'll eventually get the old bumper back.

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I need to dig around in the wire harness and find the wire from the key to the starter to put in a starter defeat switch. The truck's already been stolen once before and since he lives in a rough area, it needs an extra layer of protection.

There was a crapload of mud on the transmission crossmember held in place with transmission fluid. Looking at it, the VSS seal is leaking. I pressure washed the crossmember and I'll get the VSS seal tomorrow.

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

The earlier model V-8 drivers side manifolds had a single wire O2 sensor on the drivers side. When they moved the O2 sensor the put a 3 wire heated O2 sensor on the y-pipe in front of the cat. in 1996 the vortec engines used dual cats with four 4-wire monitored o2 sensors. Word of caution, if there is a problem with the heater on the 3 wire sensor or it's heater wiring you will not get a check engine light and the truck will run find while using it, but at idle with will start to surge because the sensor will cool. I know this because I dropped an older engine with the O2 on the manifold in a 1995 that had the 3 wire originally. Years later I put headers, and 1995 y-pipe and converter back on it and it started surging. I found the pin for the heater had corroded and it was not heating up enough and would surge. If i revved it up the exhaust would heat the sensor up and it would drive fine until I sat at idle long enough to lose the heat. Check for full 12 volts at one of the pins and watch for corrosion in the connector if it was unplugged for long. But then again might not be an issue in TX.

Maybe that's what my truck is doing....it definitely has the surge and/or rough idle, when warmed up, but it's not consistent about doing it. Seems to do it less when the weather is cooler.... I've replaced everything but the coil and module. But it's not throwing codes....not in the last several months anyway.
When I first got it, I was getting codes occasionally for the O2 sensors. I changed the fuel filter, plugs, cap and rotor over a period of time and it would always do great for a while....then back to some degree of roughness (but not consistent). The truck had been driven very little for several years before I got it, so I ran several tanks of gas through it as well as Berrymans B12 chemtool and periodic doses of marvel mystery oil. Haven't done either of these "medications" in the past couple of months. It mystifies me, because when you get it out of the idle circuit, it runs great! If you have to get in the throttle to get up on the freeway, pass someone,etc. it hauls like you'd expect a truck with 4.10s to. Never tried to do a burnout but I imagine it would....

 

[454cid]

I threw the lights that I bought for Roscoe on it (broke a small piece of the top corner off one, doh!)

Tyc lights? They do that. I read about it on Amazon, I think. Then I did it myself.

 

[Erik the Awful]

I updated my previous post with a pic of the taillights. I posted an intro video to the truck a day or so ago, and I shot more video today. Editing sucks.

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Tyc lights? They do that. I read about it on Amazon, I think. Then I did it myself.

Yup, TYC lights. You have to be careful to tuck the seal. Their seal is a vast improvement over the factory seal, but you have to be careful pushing them into place. So far, I'm a fan of their products. Inexpensive and not bad quality.

@HotWheelsBurban Check to see if your O2 sensor is making at least 7 swings in 10 seconds. If it's not, replace it. If it is, it's not your problem. The O2 sensor on this truck was just missing outright. Thankfully the thieves took a moment to unplug the O2 sensor(!) so I don't have to hunt Pull-A-Part for a pigtail.

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

I updated my previous post with a pic of the taillights. I posted an intro video to the truck a day or so ago, and I shot more video today. Editing sucks.

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Yup, TYC lights. You have to be careful to tuck the seal. Their seal is a vast improvement over the factory seal, but you have to be careful pushing them into place. So far, I'm a fan of their products. Inexpensive and not bad quality.

@HotWheelsBurban Check to see if your O2 sensor is making at least 7 swings in 10 seconds. If it's not, replace it. If it is, it's not your problem. The O2 sensor on this truck was just missing outright. Thankfully the thieves took a moment to unplug the O2 sensor(!) so I don't have to hunt Pull-A-Part for a pigtail.

Okay cool thanks!