Ignorance is Bliss.

[BlueCollar89]

Truth be told, ignorance is less of an insult and more simply not knowing.

I'm no mechanic, but I've taken on the the task of fixing a dud that I'd purchased last year little by little; as I could not afford the labor.

I've got a 94 Chevy Silverado K1500. Wasn't sure where to post this, and given this categories description, I figured I'd start here.

Lets start with what I've done; keep in mind, absolutely everything on this truck was 100% OEM original parts.

Replaced the ball joints, inner and outer tie rods, idler and pitman arms; as well as the clutch. Ok, now she won't kill me anytime soon.

I realize that it seems the majority of this forum is full of entirely capable and competent individuals with the time and money to jack up their rides, and drop $1500 on rims and goodies to make em look cool; but please, save your "OMG, you put tow mirrors on a 1500?" to yourselves, I have no use for tow mirrors behond the fact my personal preference is to have maximum amount of rear view as possible; and I enjoy the look. The mirrors are the only cosmetic change I've done at this time.

What I have yet to do.

She needs rotors, and brakes, and I'm having one heck of a time getting the dang 4x4 to work consistently; I've replaced the thermal actuator 3 times already. I'm unsure as to whether or not thermal actuators are just garbage (after doing research, it seems like a flawed design, as they don't like temp changes), or if I otta just cough up the extra money to pay for a plastic electronic actuator and hopefully solve the problem once and for all (I'd love input on this?). I just haven't been able to justfy dropping more money for a tiny chunk of seemingly fragile plastic.

What is this trucks purpose in my life? It's a 350, and I work from home, so it sits mostly. But when I can afford to drive the dang thing, I like to go down roads car's can't go, and inclines some might rather pass up. That said, I don't do rock climbing. Just think ****** (are we all big kids here? Can I curse? Moving on), Idaho back roads full of 1 foot deep ruts and fender deep mud puddles, river beds and abandoned logging trails most vehicles have no business going down. Round here, just an easy going day with a 4x4. Slow and steady keeps her ready.

I just put on a set of Wild Trail CTX 265/76R16's mud tires on; I'm to po' to put on fancy rims with any kind of offset. I been considering putting some spacers on to give the truck a more balanced appeal. The problem is, I don't know much about tires, or spacers; aside of the fact if you go with spacers, you better invest in quality HUB Centric spacers and you'd better dang well install them properly. If you're a spacer hater, no need to share your lecture, I've done enough research to hear all the woahs of those in opposition.

Case in point, I don't want to lift my truck, and ideally I'd like to keep it stock as possible. With the exception of the fact I'd like my tires to at the very least be flush with the fender with a balanced stance; and ideally I'd like my tires to stick out about an inch from the fender well both front and back. Yea yea, it'll throw mud and my truck will always be dirty; don't care, it's a back woods rig.

Speaking of back woods, I'm running a Cobra 29 LTD WX Classic w/ a 4' Firestick for com's for those curious; pretty standard from what I've read.

I apologize for the novel, I'm not very good at using forums so I do apologize if this content belongs elsewhere. I apologize for any ignorance I've displayed. I'm not here to get into any pissing contests over cosmetic or stance preferences; so I hope your danglies hang low enough that you can overlook any differences we may have in preferences. I won't trash talk your squatter if you don't trash talk my near stock preferences.

All in all, just looking to learn from folks about the ins and outs of how this truck operates, quality parts and upgrades; and lord willing, discovering a solid fix to this malfunctioning 4x4 issue I seem to find as a reoccurring nightmare.

Have a Good'n.
Bluecollar

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[Supercharged111]

Member Trucks is where most of us post our builds unless they're hardcore dedicated off road or street/show build. Even so, most still live in the Member Trucks forum as it gets way more traffic and therefore more help. And yes, we like to cuss here.

 

[kennythewelder]

Welcome to the forum. Make the truck yours. Its what you want, and like. Who cares what others think. Its your to do what you want to it. There are a lot of us on here that build as we can afford to. I have had my 97 since 2002, so I have had a lot of time to make it the way I want it to be, and I still do things to it all of the time. Its always a work in progress. I drive mine every day. I will never be finished doing things to it. If you click my avatar, then my albums page, then my 97, you can see some of my progress, if your interested. If not, thats cool too.

 

[PlayingWithTBI]

Welcome, love pics and build specs!

 

[95C1500]

No one who squats their truck seems to last long here Welcome aboard.

I can't remember what it's called (2wd owner lol), but I know people replace the thermal actuators for something less bitchy. Maybe someone will chime in, maybe it will come to me. We'll see!

 

[df2x4]

Upgrading to the electronic style actuator seems fairly simple. From what I understand you can just replace the thermal actuator and the harness with the newer electronic style and add a small spacer behind the actuator (which is included in the harness kits I believe). I did some Googling and found another thread with some GM and Dorman part numbers.

"DORMAN
600-600 harness/spacer
600-101 actuator
GM
26060073 Actuator
88959465 Harness/Spacer Kit"

https://www.gmt400.com/threads/thinking-about-going-back-to-a-thermal-actuator.16621/page-2

I know @grampadirt has done this swap, I'm sure he'd be more helpful on the specifics but I think that's the basics of it.

 

[BlueCollar89]

I appreciate the warm welcomes ya'll. I had to laugh at the squatters not lasting long here comment haha.

I'd done some research on that electronic actuator as well. Looks to be around $150 for the actuator and harness. Not a bad price, just going to have to wait a while.

For ***** and giggles, here's a picture of the moment I found out my 4x4 wasn't working, and couldn't back out of a high center (forgot to check the line before committing haha). Tires were still touching up front, but without having movement I just couldn't break loose to back out.

I'll try to examine the threads more accurately today so to not post in the wrong location again; I appreciate your tolerance haha. I'll start a build thread for my truck; though since all I've really done is replacing parts for functionality (I've only used MOOG parts), there's not much to see. That said, I do intend on a repaint, and playing around with the idea of the spacers; additionally I'll do some light upgrades and grille guard. I'll also be building a custom rack system for hauling firewood. I'd also like to put on a roof visor with built in clearance lights, but I've been waiting to find an old boy that's got one in the field somewhere because I don't really want to drop $300+ on a new one haha.

For what it's worth, I'm 30 years old, married with 2 kids, so if I can manage to get the hang of this forum thing, I'm sure I'll be here a while as I don't get paid enough to make **** happen quickly around here haha.

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[RichLo]

Welcome! You'll fit in just fine here

Here's a quick fix if you want to either have the front diff engaged full time or carry a couple extra tools with you to fix it on the trails quickly like you could have done in that pic.

https://www.gmt400.com/threads/4wd-actuator-redneck-fix.40269/

 

[BlueCollar89]

Welcome! You'll fit in just fine here

Here's a quick fix if you want to either have the front diff engaged full time or carry a couple extra tools with you to fix it on the trails quickly like you could have done in that pic.

https://www.gmt400.com/threads/4wd-actuator-redneck-fix.40269/

I can already tell I'm going to get in some trouble here lol, I'm supposed to be working and here I am reading responses .

This was a very much appreciated thought. I was laying in bed last night wondering if I could just rip that garbage actuator out and installing some kind of permanent lock without damaging my differential. As stated before, I'm no mechanic, but if you can shove a screw driver into the actuators location and engage the wheels, I figure why not find a plug with a fixed shaft to shove in there so that any time I drop that 4x4 lever into 4H/L it'll have no choice but to engage.

I read the post, but I'm a bit of an idiot that requires multiple confirmation. if I do that, it won't destroy my differential through daily highway use?

As long as it's not hurting anything, I honestly don't know why anyone would ever have any reason not to want this solution. To me, I otta pull that 4x4 lever and not have to depend on some electrical circuit to engage my 4x4. Maybe I'm just a cave man behind the times?

 

[RichLo]

Nope, your fine. So ever since the 70's manufacturers have been trying to get more gas mileage out of vehicles and the first iteration of the thermo actuator was manual locking hubs on solid front axle 4wd trucks (you get out of the truck and spin a knob on each of the front hubs to lock in the front axle). The only reason to disconnect the front axle is because it takes extra power (gas) to turn the front diff and front driveshaft. If your fine with that side effect for reliable 4wd, stick an old socket in there and forget about it. 2wd will still have the same street manors as usual with the exception of needing marginally more skinny pedal to get going (which you probably wont even notice to be honest).