Old #7 - OR -Building a work truck

[TheWarBeast]

(Warning; the following post is most likely rambling and incoherent and you will have a hard time finding a subject at times. Bear with me, it will be a total waste of time.)

For a little over a year I have had a 97 Suburban (Moby) that has been no end of trouble.

When it ran it was great.

We took it to Tn to get a Yukon to bring back to flip, and this is how the trip ended.

It started knocking, and I thought was a cracked flexplate, with a bad back I wasn't working on it in TN, so I sold the Yukon, bought the F250 (which will be fore sale shortly if you are interested), and towed it home, and took it to the shop. When they drained the oil the #4 rod bearing poured out. That is the second engine that truck has had in a year, I am done with it.

So I found a new truck, a 95 K1500 Suburban nicknamed #7 (think Grizzly Adams). And I am making it into a work truck. Follow along. It might be good for a laugh.

Here it is the day I bought it.

Ain't those grandpa steps sexy.

The drivers seat also had a broken base that made it flop around. We stopped at Harbor Freight to get some stuff to attempt a temporary repair and had no luck with that. I had resigned myself to a 200 mile drive home in a rocking chair, when Heath said, "I'll fix it'" and folded the rear seat down against it. I felt pretty dumb and proud all at once.



DAY 1

The steps didn't last long.

I have also put on a set of 2000 style tow mirrors,

changed out the broken front seat for ones out of the dead truck (they are blue and the other interior is tan, but at least i won't get seasick). It also got the nice tail lights off the other truck.

 

[TheWarBeast]

DAY2

Installed a brake controller

While Steph put on the plug and wired it up.

I also ran the power wire for the emergency lights so I could seal up the firewall and be done with that.
Finally, Heath, and I swapped the wheels over.

The old truck turned donor is looking sad.

 

[TheWarBeast]

Day 3


Since the wife is preggers, and the 7 year old is not a lot of help, and my back is all out of sorts; going is slow on the building. But how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Todays bite was fairly small.


We got out and pulled the roof rack off the old truck, and prepped it for lights. Holes got drilled and nutserts installed.


Yes, the Rhino has a new butthole.
Corner lights are going on too.


Cool fact about my Rhino rack. It was actually used in the Australian Outback. I found it for sale locally in Charlotte, NC. The couple that had it were from AU. They used it on camping trips in the Outback, then brought it with them when the moved here, and never used it again.

The bolts that came with the lights were metric, and all the nutzerts I have are standard, so we had to run to Lowe's.

I also needed something to make a switch panel out of, so while I was there I took a look at the plexiglass. The smallest piece they had on the rack was $6. I asked about a scrap piece. I left with this.


And since there is a road nearby that is closed for bridge repair I took the opportunity to take a couple of pics.

 

[TheWarBeast]

 

[TheWarBeast]

EDIT: Since I am copying this from another website ( yes I forgot to put it on here) I will include the other things too. This was an unusual day.

No work on the work truck, but the work truck had to work.


We got the F250 back from the shop Friday where it got a new fuel pump. Saturday we realized it was pouring fuel out of the pump. So this morning

We got back from that and I started to prepare my salad for the week. I make a huge bowl on Mondays and eat it all week long. I am kinda sorta trying (but not too hard) to loose weight. While I was cutting up my sweet onion, my loving, beautiful wife walked in and said, "be careful", and I sliced off the tip of my right index finger.

So further work on #7 is on hold for a bit.

 

[TheWarBeast]

Repeat my mantra with me. It is a work truck, not a show truck. It is a work truck, not a show truck. It is a work truck, not a show truck....

So I said we would be taking some time off, but I got bored. So we didn't

The wife went out and pulled the emergency lights out of the old truck. I hunted down the backup camera out of a different truck that never got installed in the old truck, and got it all figured out.

Then we installed it.



The mount I made for the camera got put on and the hole drilled to run the wiring through.


It slid and the JB weld made a mess. It's a work truck, not a show truck.

Wiring all hidden, over the rear view mirror you can see the front emergency light.


We also ran the wiring for the roof lights, and all the wires got bundled up and tucked out of the way for later hookup.



I attempted to make a switch plate, but my fumble fingered attempt just turned into a disaster and lots of wasted lexan.

 

[TheWarBeast]

So I can't resist even with a mangled finger.


After ruining the lexan, I had to find another material. While I was poking around I found an old license plate sticking out of the mud, joys of having a 7 year old mechanic.

After cutting teh size I needed, I realized that my buddy has not returned my clamps yet. SoO I had to come up with a way to hold it while I drilled the holes.

Redneck ingenuity to the rescue.

Then I test fitted it again.


Then tested again with the switches in place.


Then it got painted black and is now drying.

 

[TheWarBeast]

We got all the tune up parts for #7, so we went out to tune it up.



To prove how well these old TBI engines run, this engine has not been tuned up ever. The parts I took off today were all factory installed as far as I can tell. 133.000 miles on factory ignition parts.



When we pulled off the wires I was greeted with something I have not seen since the 90s. Packard spark plug wires.



Then Steph handed me the distributor cap. I think I found the miss.





The rotor needed a bit of percussive maintenance to remove it.




Steph swapped out the EGR and managed to break a vacuum fitting. I took a look in the shop and found a TBI off the Titanic that still had the line attached.


When I attempted to set the timing I looked under the dash to disconnect the timing wire. I found this.



Tells me it has never been touched. Still wrapped in factory tape.


I say attempted because when I pulled my 30+ year old Craftsman timing light out of the box, it was broken. Sad. I remember buying it at a salvage store with a set of spark plug sockets, an extension, and a ratchet for $20. Pour one out for my old tools.

 

[TheWarBeast]

Got the roof rack put on. Mostly because we needed somewhere to put the wagon to go to the airshow tomorrow.

 

[TheWarBeast]

Yesterday ( about a week after the last post) we went out to put the steering box on #7. Since the tie tie rod ends on Moby were brand new we stole those and put them on.

While I was under the truck I saw the water pump was leaking, so I sent Steph to get one while Heath and I put the steering box on.

It was about 8pm when we got done. Going out to do a quick and dirty tape measure alignment now.