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The Chronicles of Woodley... 1986 Chevy K20

The Freeak

The Freeak

Pro-Crastinator
Joined
May 20, 2020
Member Number
471
Messages
279
Loc
Pocono Mtns PA
This started in March of this year- a friend of mine sent me a pic of my "first" truck- a 1976 K10, sm465/ 205/ 12bolt/ 10bolt. I came home from the hospital as an infant in this truck, cut my teeth as a mechanic, helping my dad give it tune ups, and oil changes, grew up riding in it to haul firewood, as a daily driver, it was my first vehicle when I turned 16 and the first vehicle I took "four wheeling".
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Old Chevys don't hold up well in the northeast, and this one succumbed to my teenage enthusiasm for dirt roads, rocks and general tomfoolery.
I'd been looking for a replacement ever since, and when my buddy sent the photo I started looking again.
Found this thing on FB marketplace - advertised as a one owner, low mileage truck. $1500.
Sent the message, made a few phone calls, and later that day I exchanged cash for title... and another piece of paper... which turned out to be the death certificate of the previous owner, who, as it turned out, was someone I knew... or so I thought.

A week later we pulled what has been named "Woodley" out of the woods, up a hill, and onto a roll back for a quick ride to my house.

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Once it was "home" I quickly changed the oil - wow- the filter came off in pieces, and found a battery, and turned the key... fuel pump made all the right noises, so I sprayed it with some starting fluid, and lit it off for the first time in over 8 years. To my surprise, and glee, it fired right off, and even idled... so long as I sprayed starting fluid in the TBI.

OK, fine- time to make it run properly.
But my wife and daughter wanted to clean it up- so we did that.

Looks worse than... no, it was pretty bad.

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A tree limb had fallen on the windshield, breaking it, and denting the DS fender. Oh well.
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Bed has a liner, and underneath it's pretty clean.

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Removed the seat, and my daughter tackled the awful task of removing 8 years of mice... residue... from under the seat, in the glovebox, etc.
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Found some stuff...

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My wife scrubbed the seat, and Ellie scrubbed the truck...
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In the course of cleaning the glovebox, we found all the original paperwork from the day the first owner had bought it - ironically, on my birthday.

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Once it was cleaned up, and sort of running, I made a list of work.
basically, everything from the chassis down needed to be replaced.

I had a Dodge king pin 60,

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and bought a late model GM 14bolt with discs

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,then I ordered some suspension parts, and waited for the springs to arrive.

But in the interim- I taught my daughter how to drive stick, in a truck without brakes.

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Suspension finally showed up in early June...

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I had ordered new spring mounting brackets, and a ton of other shit.
Installation commenced immediately.

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And since I like doing things... differently, I called a buddy, and got these.

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And built these...

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Which did this...

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And shortly... it was back together.

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Moved to the front-rinse lather repeat, with an additional step of adding crossover steering.

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Some shackle hangers from Off Road Design rounded out the front suspension:

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With some offset shackles to accommodate the wider Dodge spring mounting width...
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Not shown- new water pump, steering pump, hoses, all new stainless brake lines, new exhaust...

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a dodge master cylinder and a god awful stack of adapters

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And Woodley was a driver.

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I still need to address some .. things.
Front bumper, fenders, radiator support, probably needs a clutch, I need to tidy up a bunch of electrical, clean the instrument cluster

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(fawkin mice...)

And install the new cab mounts,

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and dash pad...


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and... yeah. You know how it is.

Currently wrapping up building new lower ... rear spring bracket thingys.
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Sweet build! I would love another foolsize
 
McBastard79 said:
Cool. Let us know how you like the slider boxes.
Click to expand...
I've used them (sliders) before on a few rigs. They worked fine. This won't see nearly as much trail time, and I made efforts to improve the small shortcoming I thought might bite me- the slider blocks were only on one side of the support plate. I asked my buddy to build these plates with dual blocks per support plate to better distribute the load this thing might see while hauling/ towing.
I chucked about 900# in the bed and the blocks didn't seem to care... so far so good.

Bmxbry9 said:
Sweet build! I would love another foolsize
Click to expand...
Thanks! I'm excited to have it done.

Hooligan said:
Hmmm, looks like the truck has been claimed …it is no longer “yours”.
Click to expand...
LOL- for sure. She's already talking about driving it to school in three years when she's licensed.
 
The Freeak said:
I've used them (sliders) before on a few rigs. They worked fine. This won't see nearly as much trail time, and I made efforts to improve the small shortcoming I thought might bite me- the slider blocks were only on one side of the support plate. I asked my buddy to build these plates with dual blocks per support plate to better distribute the load this thing might see while hauling/ towing.
I chucked about 900# in the bed and the blocks didn't seem to care... so far so good.
Click to expand...
Right on, thanks for the input.
 
Got a few hours in today.... Wasn't feeling well, but had to make the most of the evening before it got dark.

Cleaned the mouse off the instrument cluster.

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Reassembled and installed the cluster after a thorough scrubbing with bleach...

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Installed "a" front bumper (hope to build something a bit more substantial in the near future)

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Not shown- also installed the cab mounts, and started cleaning up my new-to-me front fenders so I can paint them with the finest enamel tractor supply has in stock.
 
Who makes that front hanger for the rear spring?
 
Well, "Mission Accomplished"... after a full day and a morning (Sat/ Sun) working on simple stuff- new license plate lights, installing all the bolts in the rear suspension, attempting to get a front driveshaft installed (too much angle for the stock shaft, even after grinding the CV yoke), installed the PS inner fender well, and built a new mount for the battery. (excuse the ghetto cabling- that will be revised shortly. )
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And after the battery was secured, we took the truck for its first drive...

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To get our tree.

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All in all, it drives well for what it is. Got it up to about 55mph on our local roads, and it felt good- smooth rolling.
Definitely needs an alignment - it's all over the road, and a bit more refinement of the various remaining issues, but I'm happy.

It's surprisingly gutless- lacking power... so that will bug me until I decide whether I'm going to ... Eh, it's going to get SOMETHING to perk it up. Eventually.


The one thing that's actually bugging me- the PS turn signal indicator (dash) is illuminated once the running/ head lights are on. I'm not looking forward to tracking this short.
 
Updates...
This thing is proving temperamental.
Ever since I got it running the idle quality has been... lacking. Sounds like it has a "3/4 race cam" when it's bone stock.
Running rich as hell too.
I have replaced the following with known good/ new components:
Plugs, Cap, Rotor, Wires, Pick-up Coil, Ignition Coil, MAP Sensor, Coolant Temp Sensor, Fuel Tank, Fuel Pump/ Sender, Fuel Lines/ Filter.

The PU Coil and Ignition Coil were most recent, and were accompanied by checking resetting the timing (0° with appropriate wire disconnected).
Saturday I decided to check the TPS voltage/ response. Immediately broke one of two fucking aluminum screws that secure the TPS to the TBI.

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And they are some rare to Nth° bloody metric size. I think.
Managed to adjust the TPS down to 0.550 volts (Dr Interwebs says .5vdc is correct?) and it ran just as poorly.
Finally asked a buddy for help- in the form of a high quality / professional grade scanner.
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Cleared all codes, observed sensor function, everything seems fine. Checked vacuum (should have done this long time ago) steady signal, but low. really low. like... barely 10"Hg.
In the course of finding the appropriate vacuum port, I ended up using PCV vacuum. It idled smooth and high with the PCV port open. Seems ok. Left the PCV disconnected, and the vacuum gauge on the PCV port. Engine idles poorly, revs appropriately, and smooths out above idle. On a whim I pulled the oil filler cap off at idle the the idle shot up. BINGO. I'm pretty sure the intake manifold gasket is leaking vacuum INTERNALLY.
Ordered a set of gaskets and I'll tear into that later.
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Updates to follow.
 
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