Jon's 2000 K2500 CCSB

[jonathonar89]

Thought I would share my new project I picked up early this year. As I'm sure most of us know, '99-'00 were the only two years you could buy a crew-cab short-bed with the '88-'98 body style. This one is a K2500 with the Vortec 5.7, 4l80E, 8 lug wheels, etc.

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Untitled by Jonathon Randolph, on Flickr

On to the first update...

Although I picked this thing up earlier this year, I haven't even driven it but I have been chipping away at it slowly. A few weeks ago, I replaced the rear brake hard lines, axle hose and painted the rear drums. Got lucky in this department because I found the previous owner install new rear brakes but he never finished the job.

Big mess on the front brakes/suspension. I ordered front Powerstop brakes from Rock Auto in May. When I started taking apart the front brakes to redo everything, I found the previous owner tried to install the newer '99-'06 GMT800 brakes but didn't do the job correct. Since it took me 'til July/August to start working on it figure it out, I was beyond the return date for my Rock Auto purchase and they don't have any customer service contact I know of. I would've like to have finished the newer style brake install but I ended up settling on finding a parts truck in my area with original style spindles for my truck.

Before (with GMT800 spindles)...

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Untitled by Jonathon Randolph, on Flickr

This is kind of funny but my grandma saw all the new parts when she came to my house yesterday and urged me to paint the frame/wheel well. She's not much of a car person, but she did notice all the shiny new stuff. Today, I did just that. Took everything apart, broke out the grinder, cleaned the frame, laid down some primer, painted and reassembled. Thanks for the push on this one Grandma! haha

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Untitled by Jonathon Randolph, on Flickr

Had to call it quits early but I feel this was a good stopping point. Got the new hubs, rotors, wheel studs, lower ball joint, shock and upper control arm loosely fitted. Even though this is stock replacement, the Bilstein shocks and Powerstop brake kit really do make it look nice.

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Untitled by Jonathon Randolph, on Flickr

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Untitled by Jonathon Randolph, on Flickr

More to come on this thing...

 

[stutaeng]

Nice job! How difficult is it to do the GMT 800 brake upgrade?

When I bought my k3500 I was going to replace the front pads/rotors, but then watched a video and decided it was too much work...good thing the pads are still good. I didn't know these trucks didn't have the brakes where just removing the calipers you can slide out the rotors.

I'm interested in doing this mod now

 

[454cid]

The 800 knuckles were already on? What else was there to do? He did the hard part, of modifing the knuckles.... the rest should have been all bolt on. Well, maybe tie-rods, but unless you had the truck towed home, that must have been done too.

That's funny your grandma said to paint it..... I've always been discouraged from painting anything.

 

[Raspi454]

More to come on this thing...

nice find, i was really considering buying this, looks similar to yours.
99 k2500 454 for sale
ccsb k2500 454, before I got my blue truck, but it was a little more than what I had to spend, but it looks like it needs a lil love
would like to see the progress on this one

 

[jonathonar89]

nice find, i was really considering buying this, looks similar to yours.
99 k2500 454 for sale
ccsb k2500 454, before I got my blue truck, but it was a little more than what I had to spend, but it looks like it needs a lil love
would like to see the progress on this one

Yea, I hear you. These trucks command a premium. I’m pretty much fixing/saving a plow truck to become a normal driver again.

 

[jonathonar89]

Hey guys,

I don’t think I was clear enough. I bought GMT400 brakes in May and when I went in to work on the truck, I found the GMT800 brakes afterwards. My problem was I didn’t find out during the 30 day
return policy so I was stuck with the new GMT400 parts.

I basically switched the truck back to GMT400 brakes. The last guy didn’t finish the GMT800 swap correctly so no wonder why he said “it needs ball joints” when I bought it.

 

[454cid]

Hey guys,

I don’t think I was clear enough. I bought GMT400 brakes in May and when I went in to work on the truck, I found the GMT800 brakes afterwards. My problem was I didn’t find out during the 30 day
return policy so I was stuck with the new GMT400 parts.

I basically switched the truck back to GMT400 brakes. The last guy didn’t finish the GMT800 swap correctly so no wonder why he said “it needs ball joints” when I bought it.

I guess I still don't understand.....What wasn't proper about what he did? Swapping back to 400 brakes sounds crazy, to me, no matter what's already been purchased.

 

[jonathonar89]

I guess I still don't understand.....What wasn't proper about what he did? Swapping back to 400 brakes sounds crazy, to me, no matter what's already been purchased.

The GMT400 brake setup was not able to be returned or exchanged when I found out I had the newer spindles. Also, the "newer" brakes that the previous owner put on the truck were rusty and need complete rebuild.

For the GMT800 setup, it's not a simple bolt-on. In order to install the spindles properly, you need an expensive tapered reamer to modify the ball joint hole. That drill bit is $100-$170 and if I recall, the outer tie rod will need to be addressed in one way or another.

Like I said before, if I knew the truck had the newer brakes/spindles, I would have finished out the job properly. Good thing is I have the spindles and brakes to do the job in the future when I need brakes next time around.

 

[454cid]

Nevermind