Talk me into, or out of, it...

[someotherguy]

An aftermarket system replacement is out of the question seeing as the truck is factory A/C-equipped, it just needs repair and conversion to R134a. No way I'm spending the coin on an aftermarket system that has proprietary parts.

My likely best move here is to get a new compressor, condenser, hoses/manifold, orifice tube, and dryer.. flush the evap and liquid line out, and swap out the rest. Interested in other options that make sense. I like the idea of upgrading to a Sanden but it'd obviously add more initial cost, plus all the "kit" providers are indicated for small block only. The accessory bracket on the big block is definitely different so maybe their adapters don't work.. dunno. Haven't contacted any of those sellers yet.

Richard

 

[454cid]

Checked for voltage at the A/C clutch connector (the severed chunk of harness) and no power unless I jump the low pressure switch, which is no surprise. I've got to make a decision really soon on what to do with the A/C. I could buy another clutch and hope everything else is OK, but that could easily be $100 and the effort wasted if the compressor turns out to be bad. Either way the system needs to be vacuumed down and charged, and it's still R12.

Richard

Does Sanden make something that would be an easy retrofit? The clutch was something that prevented me from doing anything with the AC on my Buick. I eventually just removed the compressor, but I know that's not a viable option in TX.

Edit: I see you just answered that.

 

[someotherguy]

Never in my life would I have imagined it's so hard to find an alignment shop. There's hundreds of them in this city, all of them have terrible reviews (one that has been recommended by several people on FB the reviews say they won't even give you a printout of the before/after), and one semi-nearby me sounds like dude knows what he's doing but charges dealership-level pricing.

JFC can I just get half a break on this crap..

Richard

 

[Caman96]

I’ve had a couple of really bad experiences with auto shops lately, paid top dollar to for complete sh*t work too, only to get flat out lying denial. This was on my son’s truck and I ended up fixing it myself. I’m not even a mechanic so why can I fix it better?

 

[bluex]

The best local shop here for alignments also did frame repair. They stopped doing alignments about a year ago an I have been hunting another good one ever since.

He charged more but he'd do a full alignment rather than a toe an go like most places. I've even offered to pay him frame labor rates an he still isn't interested in doing them. I'm considering buying a quick trick setup so I can do it myself. Because if I find a decent shop it doesn't last long or they won't set them to anything except what the computer tells them. An a dropped truck doesn't 1-1.5* of positive camber, then they want to argue about what it should be too, just because of what the screen says....

 

[Erik the Awful]

I’ve had a couple of really bad experiences with auto shops lately, paid top dollar to for complete sh*t work too, only to get flat out lying denial. This was on my son’s truck and I ended up fixing it myself. I’m not even a mechanic so why can I fix it better?

Nobody actually mentors trainees any more. They'd rather just throw them in the job and let them sink or swim. We have a generation of technicians who have never had serious mentorship or apprenticeship, because that costs employers money. It doesn't help that shops would prefer to poach good techs than train themselves. At some point shops will realize there aren't any good techs left to poach and they'll start mentoring young techs again, and maybe they'll even start paying them enough to keep others from poaching them.

The reason they're getting away with $#!++/ work right now is that vehicles have become a disposable commodity. Whenever a daily driver gets a couple hundred thousand miles on it, it gets replaced and scrapped because it's more affordable to have a payment than to keep spending money for people to not actually fix issues.

I'm considering buying a quick trick setup so I can do it myself.

All you really need are two pieces of absolutely straight conduit, four conduit brackets, some flat aluminum stock, hardware, some electrical tape, a metric ruler, and two cheapskate fishing reels.

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[someotherguy]

So I picked a shop not too far from the house that has an old school approach (place does a lot of work on classics/customs - when I was there they had a 55-56 Chevy pickup, 69 Chevelle, and a 69-70 Nova in the bays - nice!) and the alignment guy spent 2 hrs checking, tweaking, and test-driving. Found lots of problems. I expected some of them, but not all.

1. Driver side tie rods have the expected gap between them in the sleeve, but passenger side are nearly touching. Speaks to possible replacement of steering gear/pitman arm/etc. in the past and maybe not clocked correctly, but, everything under there looks original. Also, tie rods were stuck like crazy and took getting animal with them to adjust.

2. Lower control arm bushings are shot. I didn't get a good look at them when I was doing the front drop, but when it's up on the alignment rack, being able to stand under the truck in the pit gets you a much clearer view of them, you can see they're off-center from the bolt due to wear.

3. Passenger brake caliper is sticking. I probably didn't notice because the toe was so bad the truck didn't know which way to go, but now that it's set, it pulls side to side during braking. When he returned from 2nd test drive he raised it back up on the rack and I could tell very plainly trying to spin the tire that it had a lot of resistance. Hoses on both sides are new, so looks like calipers, pads, and rotors are in my near future.

They didn't charge me much considering he spent 2 hrs on it, because most of what he did was set the toe, and camber on driver side. I'll be going back to them once I replace everything because they do seem to know what they're doing and care about it being right.

Took the opportunity of already being out and about and sweaty (nearly 100F day in a broken-A/C, missing headliner truck) to go pick up some equipment for work and deliver it to our shop.

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Impressions upon freeway driving the truck for the first time since the drop. The rear feels like it compresses too easily, and bottomed out pretty harshly a couple times on some bad spots of road (we have plenty of that here) - has me wondering if I really shoulda pulled that bottom leaf. I know it's not normally in contact but the tiny bit of clearance it adds maybe/maybe not makes a difference? The bump stops are awful tall considering they were supplied with the flip kit; they're much taller than the button-style ones supplied with the 2500 kit I used on the black '94.

I didn't have anything of significance in the bed for weight, just half a dozen aluminum dolly axles, maybe less than 200lbs total.

Truck still has a whole bunch of issues to iron out. Get a beater, I said.. it'll be fun, I said..

Richard

 

[Caman96]

It’ll get there, and it really does look good too. How did the front end feel all things considered?

 

[someotherguy]

It’ll get there, and it really does look good too. How did the front end feel all things considered?

Eh, it's crap, but I kind of expected it. The wear in all the other parts is pretty obvious now that it isn't toed-out so badly. I told them I wasn't expecting miracles, knowing all the suspension parts are original, I just wanted it set back as close to correct as possible since I'd installed the drop kit. It needed it. Anyhow, hoping it'll improve once I address the brakes, as the sudden wander side-to-side when I hit the pedal is annoying.

Richard

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Glad you found a good shop, pickup is looking good Richard!