I swapped out those cables for the metal straps on my '98 years ago. Helping a friend of a friend move. One of the 'Strong like bull. Smart like tractor' 20-something-year-olds grabbed the handle & just let the tailgate drop. Both cables let go at once. Then...he walked up on the tailgate to get in the box. (!!!) The formerly near-perfect tailgate now had 2 big creases across the width from where it was sitting on the bumper. Dropping it was bad enough. Walking on it afterward? Stupidly ignorant! The kid didn't have a clue. "I thought that that was the way it was supposed to be." Threw everything out of the back of my truck & left. Went & bought a nice tailgate, in the same color, & presented the bill to the kid. Took 3 months & contributions from the person moving, the guy that conned me into helping, along with the kid & his parents chipping in, to get paid. Anyways... IIRC, when I replaced the cables for the straps, the only difference between the 2 were the mounts on the tailgate. They're specific between the two styles. No modifications to the box or the tailgate. It was a direct swap. One of the first things I did when I bought my '97 was to ditch those cables.
Have you owned it since it was new? If not, my guess is that they were replaced for some reason, and the cables were what was available at that time.
No, I haven't, I've only had it for 19 years (bought it in 2002). The PO told me about what he did to it but, never mentioned a cable swap. Are there different guides or bumpers too? Now I'm curious, ha ha.
Thanks, will have to check that out. I had thought they were just on microfiche. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Pardon the sidebar, but if anyone is interested @hatzie scanned some of the TBI part manuals: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=690988 Looks like everything after 1993 went to microfiche. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Agreed, my dads 1990 had straps. GM’s marketing team said it was to stop the rattling tailgate issue.
