Riggs - My 2000 Chevy 3500 4x4 CCLB work truck and family play machine

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Supercharged111

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Just went ahead and pulled the trigger on the UMP dizzy. Just seemed the right thing to do. Looks like a minor PITA to do the install without pulling the intake, but can be done. Probably a good idea to get that done before the big trip.

I'm sure I'll end up with coil packs eventually but I think you still to leave *something* in the distributor hole, probably won't be a wasted purchase even if/when that happens. Plus it's only $108. Supposedly "billet"....

Could be cut from a billet of dog turd, billet isn't a material. They like to use that word to market their parts as upscale.
 

Reluctanse

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Looks decent for a piece of machined dog ****.

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Got a whole punch list for this weekend, wheels up for 500 miles on Thursday. If I’m not confident, Shiny will be doing the work. She’s tried and true, just needs a wash… finally got the pinion seal leak fixed.

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Reluctanse

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Updates:

Got through my punch list today, except 1 item I'm saving for tomorrow, and one new exciting discovery that will have to wait until Monday (hopefully) to get resolved.

Started off the day getting right at it, going for the distributor. Shout out to Days of Pain and Victory for a pretty good tutorial, link here:
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For those looking to do this, you do NOT need any fancy scan tools etc. Just be careful and make sure you put it in exactly as you took it out. Really not that hard...

Had the distributor out pretty quick, and new one in. All in all about 2 hours going slow and checking my work. Here's old and new next to each other.
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Now the bummer here is the old dizzy was fine, and not the source of my problems.... ah well, more on that later. For $107 I got a new cap and rotor out of the deal, and a known good "billet"? distributor that should not give trouble ever. Check that off the list.

I actually started this last night but also got it wrapped up today, replaced the ancient trailer brake controller that doesn't work with my P3 that's been on a shelf since I sold my truck.
Of course I can't leave well enough alone, so I also rewired most of it.

Old junk. What even is it??
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New unit installed. Ran fresh 12ga power and ground wires, power is coming from the under hood fuse block and the OE 30a stud there. Pretty cool these old Chevy's had that.
The instructions said to ground back to your battery and grounding is the #1 source of troubles, so I went extra mode and ran a 6ga ground wire from the battery over to by the ECU. I'll take more advantage of this later probably when I go dual batteries and big 3, etc., so it wasn't a waste. Plus I wanted a good clean ground, I really hate electrical problems, especially when they can be avoided just by doing things right the first time. Since all the wiring etc was in my drawer of goods this was a free mod. The power wire on the old brake controller was pretty small, maybe 16ga, and the controller calls for a pretty large source, especially if you might be pulling multi axle brake trailers. Who know... I don't want the trouble! And the old controller was ground to the dash.... probably be fine, but why risk it.

New ground wire, coming in on left, yellow terminal wire runs out to ground the controller.
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Tap for brake on, I actually left this alone, even though I despise the add-a-taps and it's not how I would have done it, I didn't really have the time to clean this up and do it a different way. So I left it "for now" (probably forever but we will see).
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New controller installed, wiring all tucked up nice. It's high and tight to the dash so out of the way, but I have to squeeze to hit the Boost button. Luckily you don't need that too often. It could be adjusted down but I like how tight it is to the dash.
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When I wrapped all the work today I took it for a test drive, and found the weird grinding noise I had hoped was distributor still happening. I buckled down to look for the source. Finally figured it out, it was the PCV valve, it would intermittently flutter open/shut at a high speed and make a god-awful racket. That was a $7 fix. I'm still learning, geeze, I could have avoided messing with the distributor by replacing a simple known tune-up piece..... oh well..!
 
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Reluctanse

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Installed the dual battery tray I picked up at the junk yard. Actually had to do some finegaling to making it fit, but ready for batt number 2 whenever. At least it's not sitting around in my way, and then lost when I actually need it, haha.
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Blower motor was a little noisy so I cleaned it out. Actually not as bad as I thought. But while I was at it, I cleaned the cowl as well, also the passenger windshield squirter wasn't working so that was a 2 birds one stone project. Fan is quiet now, I blew it out really well, hosed the motor housing down with electrical cleaner... nice and quite now.

Before

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Cleaner, anyway
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cowl had a bunch of crap too
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Reluctanse

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Also lubed everything up that I could, front ball joints seem plugged so they wouldn't take any grease. While doing that I found a couple SURPRISES!!

Carrier bearing is shot. Explains odd driveline clunk I had been writing off to being a long truck with old worn out bushings everywhere. I mean that's still true, but the explains what I was feeling.
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This support is cracked. Have to get in here, clean things up, and hit it with the MIG. On the to-do list now.
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Pulled the driveline out and got a new bearing, but apparently these are press fit. There's a driveline place a mile from my office, going to take this on Monday and hope they can get it swapped for me.

Also have this little project left to do, I have no idea how the trailer wiring is actually functioning, but it is somehow. I am going to clean this up tomorrow.
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Well surprises aside, I felt pretty accomplished today and got the truck most of the way to where I want it for the trip. I don't think the driveline issue should be a major set back... it's about 15 min to get it put back.

Beauty shot from my test drive.... you can also see I installed the lower deflector shield. I actually like how it looks on there. Completes the front end, feels like.
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Finally detailed and vacuumed the interior, it was super dusty, hadn't done that yet since purchase. Pretty nice how that's done as well. Interior for me is pretty well sorted, but I do think I'll replace the worn out carpet wtih a vinyl kit sooner than later. Work trucks especially should have a vinyl floor in my opinion, it is odd to me how rare that option has become these days.

That's it for now, hopefully clean up that trailer plug rat nest tomorrow, get the driveline back in Monday, and g2g.


EDIT: And!
Other surprise, have some missing exhaust studs, well one isn't missing. It broke off, so there's a bolt extraction in my future. My favorite thing to do. And the steering box is very obviously leaking. Forgot to mention all that goodness.
Steering box was on the list anyways. Extracting broken exhaust studs? Aint nobody got time for that.... headers are a long ways off in my future.
And, whoever put these side steps on did something stupid. The bracket interferes with the parking brake cable, and it's been rubbing. The damage isn't bad yet but definitely needs to get addressed before too long. That's fine, it was annoyed with how low they sat and how loose they are. More to do, more to do...........
 
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Reluctanse

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Figured out why the lights were weird, shockingly the connector had wires in the wrong places. What is it about trailer wiring that everyone always creates a total cluster F when they do it??

Before
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After
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Still needs to be completely redone, but this will work for now. I’d like to figure out how to flush mount it by the license plate like the newer body styles.
 
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