1997 Chevrolet C3500HD

[wareagleburn]

Looking forward to updates on this beast.

 

[96-1500]

Got a little work done this weekend, not as much as I'd like, but that's life.
Got a steering shaft for it, used part of an XJ Cherokee shaft and part of a K2500 shaft. Seems to work well and very little slop.

Temporarily patched up a very leaky oil cooler line, I'm going to do a permanent fix soon, been reading into that. Also have had some PMD issues - truck came with 4, of which 1 kind of works.

Spent a lot of time sifting through the wiring mess - I'm no electrical expert, and I'm certainly not above jimmy rigging something when you need to jimmy rig something, but.....the PMD had a homemade relocation harness with between 3 and 7 cobbled splices per wire, much of which was either partially bare or pinched (when I picked the truck up the PMD, or FSD if you're a terminology purist, was dangling by it's plug in front of the grille with a heatsink loosely wired to it.)

I mean, it only controls your fuel, right? Nothing could possibly go wrong.

Sent from somewhere between here and there

 

[thz71]

What did you pay for this? Just curious. Thinking about buying another.

 

[96-1500]

What did you pay for this? Just curious. Thinking about buying another.

$2000.

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[thz71]

$2000.

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Wow just the dump beds go for 1500 here

 

[96-1500]

Wow just the dump beds go for 1500 here

Yeah about the same here if not more. I've been joking around that I bought a dump and got a free truck lol. I've seldom come across a deal this good.
I was actually looking at a newer dodge with a Cummins but they wouldn't budge on the price much so I got back on kijiji and found this truck with no price, a crappy pic and a phone number. Just so happened to be in the same town I was looking at the Dodge in (about 2 minutes away), so I jumped on it pretty quick.

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[96-1500]

Swapped out the harmonic balancer and front crank seal today. Easy job. Spent as much time screwing with the serpentine belt as actually changing the parts (for some reason every fan belt I put on takes about 4 tries to figure out how it goes back together. Cursing at the truck usually helps).

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Pull upper fan shroud and fan belt, remove fan (not necessary, but makes life easier. Four 13mm nuts). Jam crank pulley with prybar, remove four 15mm bolts, remove pulley. Next, an impact should just fit to get the crank bolt, 24mm (or find some way to jam the balancer and use a breaker bar. I read a ratchet strap around it and something solid works well), then once bolt is out, put a steering wheel puller on harmonic balancer and remove. Piece of cake.

Crank seal pried out easy with a seal puller but I'm sure a screwdriver would work fine. Clean the crap outta everything and use your fancy seal installer tool for the new seal:

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(My thermos mug just so happened to be the perfect size. Be sure to clean afterwards so that your coffee doesn't taste like a 6.5).

Re-install everything in reverse order (I just set the new balancer on the shaft and GENTLY ran the bolt in with my impact to get it set in place before I torqued it), torque to spec, you're done. IIRC the crank bolt was 200 ft lbs and the pulley bolts were 30 something. Google it yourself and don't take my word for it.

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[96-1500]

Well, I officially blew up my first 6.5 today. Joy!

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[white_trash88]

Well, I officially blew up my first 6.5 today. Joy!

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Howd you do that

 

[volunteerff21]

I have been searching for a 3500HD dump with a 5spd for forever!!! Have yet to find one for sale around here.


Sucks about the 6.5, I've been wanting the big block in mine whenever I get it.


Hope you get it all back up and running, these trucks are beasts. Not that many people realize how stout they really are.