1996 GMC 5-speed

[Barry Donovan]

cab supports installed

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Holes were munched, made a stainless steel sandwich for the mounts. the mounts are the buns.

looking close, this truck only has ,25 bounce before the inner fender steel is hitting bumper bracket (right side photo). No cure without lift kit..and I am not going there. There is marks, not sure if fresh or old. About as street as a 4x4 gmc can get. Still sits good and tall anyway. Most likely waiting for the spring return signal, setting tension ont he mounts is the trigger. alignment on the bumper, tells me it has not been secured for a very long time. Same old chevy stuff.

with lower half removed, bolts cut out and gone..went to the hardware store. Good test. Very rough roads... and they still did not fail.
Got what I needed came home, and got to work cutting stainless steel doubled over to gain the shapes I want. The rad support area is quite a physics pig at the mounts. All else is very good. The rubbers... the only mishap this truck has got, all the mounts.

So to make up for the oversized holes, now there is a folded over 2 layer 304 stainless for the top and another for the bottom. Cutoff wheel made a decent but crude hole through both layers for the upper mount to drop through, as a hole saw is not going through stainless. I really like that little cutoff wheel. Total thickness with the 115000 psi food grade stainless... 4 millimeters. Too tough on the springy rad support pops it like a piece of glass. I will not be welding the sandwich to the rad support, let it float to whatever tension is set. The cab and frame is like a bi-metal battle that never ends. Two thicknesses going through 30 below to 100+ above. I bet I hear it squeak a move sometime in the spring...and then again in december on a dark cold day near solstice.

Re-establishing the tension even aligns the bumper. the hood, the grill.. looks like a new truck, gave it overnight. Rewarding .. just those two little mounts up front. Being sure all other work is done first. Fancy cutting and shaping, did good. I may make drive side bigger, but more than a feeling is going to find the hole shrunk to whatever smallness of gap was left. the lower sandwich could have been bigger on driver side by 2mm..but got 90%+ of it surrounded. Maine paper scissors. Stainless will squash the spring steel. I used the poly lower and factory upper. Two new bolts, and nuts...
grade 8.8.

It may never need anything again. There is something to notice on the ride, glad I got those in. They must have never worked peacefully with that crap lower rubber from factory, must have banged around once and awhile. Very tight fit to remove the upper mount as well... almost glad the tips of the cups broke off to gain some room. Very tight fit with a jack as far as it would go, and the two main front cab mounts loosened. That did not help any that I could see.

A real strange event for today is the mystery of the missing new bolt. Either I encountered a nuke (my subaru made stuff disappear), or my neighbor is a psychopath.
Peculiar coincidence, I had just dry fit the scenario I was putting together, left it out in the truck.. came in for a break. Heard my neighbors car start, he parks next to me... the bass kicker guy wearing wife beaters and driving a non-suspension BMW...I think he likes feelings in his butt...
'nuff said.

I thought.. "no way that guy would take my bolt.".. but doubting myself at the same time. They are $2.40, and a 20 mile round trip to get. He is the one that ignores my request to turn down the radio, walks past without saying hi. Ya never know. This is housing for disabled and retired..and not just normal nuclear veterans.

Assuming an act of nuke for now...like me and my oversized hands when they go to work. I bet it shows up sometime... hanging onto a strange place defying logic of the rough ride as it gets to drive around with me...my invisible friend. The nuclear grade 8.8 bolt.
To add to they mystery, I went to pull the e-brake release after work was done...nothing. Got a peak underneath, the wire was not only broken, half of it is missing...including the little lead end like a throttle cable gets. Simply gone. It also looks like king kong pulled the cable apart. Could be my hands. Lead. The end of life for a nuke. I leave that in certain shower stalls sometimes, as I pop tungsten bulbs to walk by them....

I got a stronger idea for the brake release, will reveal what I did for it.

hood lines matched up some, the grille was super easy to get up on its lip, simply tighten down. something was indeed erroneus, not sure what I did for this. I also checked plastic sides of radiator, as those do not like moving around. The front of this stayed square anyway.

The ball bearing heater fan is super smoothie, will remember that about rad support mounts. The heater motor ironically has a main cab mount, the most worked under it for the firewall. Does not care if that is bad... it cares about the radiator supports. Interesting steel. That was the finale telling me I won something pleasant.

The hellwig for the rear may be overkill, this one is dialing in to feeling like rear springs are plenty. Truck hits bumps and bounce like a truck, without side to side. I have to remember springs go with the earth, like north and south pole. Regardless of temperature we are leaning towards winter.. trucks with leafs get tougher anyway. Will be adding the hellwig... climb right into next springs.

pun. kinda funny.

I did something right.







and here is some good timing for a photo.. I heard the big bus comin. Very rural, no traffic.

brake pull fixed temporary, I am looking for a heavy duty one, if not, going straight rod some how, no cable. Hiem links or something. Manual tranny gets parking brake use way too often for the tiny wire they gave it.

[Barry Donovan]

the gentle thief

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It is a big powerful thief.. but not intense. Ode to good steel.
if you ever really get into cars, old stuff... this is one of the subjects you are going to have to face, and it is always a small tight knit crowd, if to gain any friends at all.
The invisible reverberations..bringing ones own words.

The welders, metal workers.. spring steel, stainless, crap steel, tin, galvanized, mild and hard, all buzzing away to spark plugs and batteries and alternators...and time and nature. A sentence on its own: tungsten light bulbs.
Today was a whiff of wd40 about a hundred yards away... that was yesterday coming back out to today.
Truck dialed in, only 24 hours or so.
Almost 48 hours later.. sulfur. Nasty like a lid taken off an old dried out poop septic tank, minus the sewage.
A sentence its own: tungsten light bulbs.

I have concluded it was simply a lightning strike, a day long thief...that is a baby physics. Bolt missing is the one act of nuke. It may be the under dash bar with spots of rust. I have learned to call that fusion. My subaru did a scary version. A lot of amps had to let go of this one. Less than 6 months thrashing this around to a signature smaller than a 2016 leaving the assembly line.

My first intuition to buy this..it turned out to be even better than I thought. It did require to find the black holes... a dig at things dangling, no real life... a leech pretending to be the strong pin with a job. A scraper, smelling like shit buttered up with whatever cologne came at it from the road...with ugly teeth.

A loser. A flat plain wanderer with "patina" quadrupling money on sales of a fairy tale..
A radiator mount bolt it was.

A sentence on its own: the tungsten light bulbs.

The back end of these stay animal until they are done with life. Not a chance for weirdness in the springyness of it. Just old steel, and fix it simple.

The nuclear version of these problems, may they be short lived. May it be fusion and not fission...fusion is some serous welding there. If derived from man made plutonium (a lot of subarus hit ot miss).. the problems repeat, like a memory of spring steel going back to its original making. Half life for that stuff is about 25 years...but there is some more powerful stuff. My subaru is a rock today...subaru did not make it. More god and nature than subaru today in my subaru. That one fused the back end, ate a bolt...a bit like the truck.That event was after 12 or more pounds of weld wire. Tanked ever since. The subaru, it let out a crumpling metallic paper noise, like a bolt with a washer sliding down the shank until it hits the head... and I blinked...
A bolt was gone. I wished my eyes stayed open. Is there a flash of light? what happens at this nanosecond event? That noise is forever in my head. I heard a kc135e make the same noise. I ponder it is the last noise a hammer makes to split an atom. I ponder it is why steel knows human hands...like a ghost in a bad dream..

This truck is a real pleasure.
I won't be wandering far off from frame rails and body mounts for the rest of my days. Seems trucks and antique cars are the last hope.

Moving on the same old truck with a different stance and appearance. Confident.

Seems it will hang onto whatever the factory built. Won't need much.
Got asked to write a tire review, yet another realm I need no fantasy in.

I am restoring a 19 year old gmc, did not need much but steel. 350 k miles, drivetrain work all complete. I cut the very rusted spare tire out from the bottom, and it was a Kumho Road Venture, LT rated. The steel wheel was too decayed to use, and it still had air in it.
So, I looked for kumho road venture. Could not ask for much more. Two thumbs up.
I have a very fast maine northern highway to drive to the city, after 15 miles of leaning decayed road to get to it. This means rally monster truck and nascar truck all in one... I smacked the tire off a curb already, once getting into the nearest city. Excellent product. Very strong and smooth.

Even those have changed to computer precise weave. 2 layers of stainless among the poly and nylon is now todays 3415 pound sidewall.. amazing.

The ionization factor. That sums up the physics...all the way to a gentle nuke action. When a negative over rules the positive, for years and years..something has to die or go extreme to stay alive getting what it wants. Thieving an answer, sometimes it will never get it wants, like a crew chief looking for air on a kc135e.

This one liked chromium as a final. It is kinda funny, steel telling you the answer.
If the sun and rain and cold and summer and salt attacked iron, earth would be melted to dust floating lifeless in outer space.. towards a black hole, as just another ingredient to get something together explosively for millions of years to come.

Iron does not die. The people who create it do.


A fun fact to add to the mystery that not almost coincides with my steel work... it is always. I joke of the interactions with earth, the big santiago quake was 17 hours ago.. Maine has indicators for this fault line, it is bizarre. I predicted columbia one year..that killed more than 10000 on my birthday. Today, sept 17 it is headed for 90F. When does that happen in this frigid place?! Strange to smell autumn, and hide from the scorching sun. Assuming is it geomagnetics, polarities rippled. The little grape called earth spinning in circles.

Anyway, the bolt disappearance happened near the time of that quake. It's as if my neighborhood has a world surrounding it, like yours.

My subaru shakes japan, and takes wild stabs at Nepal. The GMC is straight up and down, goes for Chile. My welds that shake the world.

[Barry Donovan]

4x4 in the summer

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forgot to try that out after tires installed. No need for 4x4 on the hot pavement.
hood lined up, looking stout...chores are now down to cosmetic little things. Even the bed side I dented is self healing. Slapped into 4x4 hi while doing 50 or so. No noise... very slight whine, had to have radio and heater turned off to hear it. I actually use the 4x4 light on the floor to know if it is engaged.
smooth as glass.

the mystery wobble when brakes first on, does it for less than a second now... then smooth. Definitely CV dialing in. This one is coming around nice...
I could flip it for 5k easy.
A test drive and it would sell.

But I like it. The shame of me never becoming a millionare.
It does need all pieces GM gave it to smooth out to straight. The rad supports, all the way to the tail end. Cannot cheat anything, or go hillbilly hockey puck on the mounts.
That seems shameful.. but I have had the wimpiest ricer known to man on the road. This is still much stronger. I also had a heavy half ton 2x4 from 1979. Real shame.

I'll update this post when the hellwig leaf helpers are in.
That is the only weirdo mismatch for this truck.. the 1425 pound springs. The 500 pound tension I set will not be maxing out the hellwig, it is just for the truck driving empty. I would doubt needing to do more than that anyway...I only tow a subaru and a boat.
The other indicator was the factory stamp on the bumper... 400 pounds and 4000 max tow. The 400 pound tongue would kill the wimpy rear leafs...at a minimum sag stupidly. Only adding to respect factory build, stop sway.

This is not like the old 3 leaf, it is indeed much stronger... but this trucks front end is behemoth. That is also not like the old at all.

A last note on the bolt weirdness...
it was the subaru parked next to it.
I have a strange fact written in an old post, at least 5 years or so:

"sounded like a washer sliding down the shank of the bolt, and smacking the head."
I heard that under my subaru when the bolt disappeared at the center diff mount I made.. must be 4 or 5 years ago. Left me scratching my head. I was right under there with it. Just made the hole, dropped a bolt down into it. I turned away for a second, there was the noise I described, turned back.. no bolt. I was looking all over the ground, no hiding spots...bolt gone. Been a mystery ever since. It raised the hairs like gose pimples.. I knew something freakish just happened.

Well, the noise has a source after all...
a bolt getting dropped down into a gmc radiator support bottoming out with its washer.
Very spooky isn't it. I did not even think of owning a gmc 5 years ago. Bizarre another bolt went missing, only in silence this time. The real bolt, with its real noise, and real american destination.
I could drive a shizoidal nut case crazy...and the doctor trying to diagnose it.

So that concludes it. My subaru is jealous because I like my gmc, and stole its bolt like a prophetic nuclear devil...before I bought it. Sounds like a bad marriage. A first one.

A strong old fact to coincide with the suby mystery.. the area that did this with the bolt was the rear end tube, that is where my new mount was welded. Right smack dab in the middle. I got advice many years ago to not even weld it, just make my own. Asking why ..

because its a black hole, it will take all weld and still shatter like glass.

The person who said that to me passed on a few years ago. He was one that found that wavelength..it is a rare one, all on his own.
Science... we must be careful.

black hole was literal. RIP for Danny.

Something else I am sure was said by him...never encountered what it meant.

"Avoid the center of a subaru."

Guess where the trailer hitch is when towing....behind my gmc.

[Barry Donovan]

led tail lamps

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bombs away cleaner, and high pressure rinse after a wash down by hand. underneath up by the front axle was very dirty. Cleaned right up, a lot of grey oxide, more than I did not expect to see. I am assuming power steering had a very bad fail in the past. I also found some atf in the mix.. somebodies ancient power steering mishap they never cleaned off.

No leaks to find, took it to full warm at idle. of course, I knew that already.

LED Tail lamps at my front door when I got home, it was dark out...
good time for changing lights.
fancy appearance, not sure what it fixed. Instead of clashing brake and flasher relay, it must be programmed into its little hefty box (heavier than expected) that I zip tied into the framing of lamp...to leave each other alone.

the flickering door lamp and one floor light that went out this past week, returned back to their flicker. The new tail lamp dropped some amps. Reeled in something... another black hole perhaps.
will attempt the door lamps one more time... I bet they keep going.


Not liking the abs light, have reason to believe this is running like the old chevies always did:
front left brake gets hammered...not much for balancing out .

Took dad for a ride, he loved it. Very smooth. His last truck was a 1971.. very rough riding. He jokes that it tricked my mother to having my brothers birth...
a lot has changed since then.

I also spoke to him about a possible nuke episode. He does not surprise at any of these subjects. He sold one of his trucks at 2,300,000 miles.
he is the one that spoke up about the high pressure wash with "bombs away" truck cleaner. I got right underneath and gave it some straight shots.

I have both tailgate latches engaging.. a chore that went with every truck that I can remember. That has not changed much.
looks very aligned and true, all the way around. The mushy half ton rear leafs will be pepped up in coming weeks.
Ready to go anywhere.


Chrome.. it used to be everywhere. Remnants found in a 2016 peterbilt and a 1996 chevrolet..

The nuke event, I am to look all over the truck for chrome speckles...especially the right frame rail. That is the one that gets killed local. Spring steel doe snot like to fail however. it is like a living animal. Sure enough, near the cab mount underneath the firewall, passenger side...
it is unmistakable in the sun... a good swath of them.. shiny speckles. I guess I cathode/anoded a nuke version, and the rail wants to live on with some stainless. When does a vehicle gain a soul...?

it leaves a shadow somewhere after a million, if it is the same man that brought it here...no one needs to be in the seat, nor in the sun.

this one at 350k is a baby. Still growing and knowing to leave the myths behind....it is becoming one.

in the morning, the tail lamp got a washer to get the one last screw in.. looks like this has had 4 repairs in the back. professional done. I counted 3 layers at the tailgate pillars. They were using original holes to hold in tail lamps. One of those original spots is not there anymore. Needed some ingenuity to pull back with a longer screw and a washer. Simple fix. Even the tail lamp is part of the square keeping...want all that in.

Something I found in france:


looks like the rear frame crossmember on my gmc.
Very easy to call that french now...and mean it.

I am glad to be a crazy person with steel... I know midget fairy infections from miles away. I don't give up. Mig welding can do a lot.
Just kidding, france is obsessed with full tilts, cockeyed and not making any sense. Never has any genius come from that.. just more circus. Then they call it art when it fails.

We all need a circus once and awhile...

...just not in life and death steel.
This truck with the donaldson cone filter , very hefty front end thinking of plowing chores.. my hefty main cross sill at the front of the bed, has a mini tractor trailer version between the rails (being it is upside down - but it works) by factory. There is some real thought in this... they did look to bigger rigs for some ideas over the decades. It keeps me going.

some things I am proud of taking this truck on.. the rear leaf springs, so many years of our history. It left every idiot behind. I enjoy conquering them the old school way. A new one for me must be remnants of chryslers long lasting fail.. the torsion suspension up front. They did do this one right, It is obvious they were conquering some wheelbase...

steel works as pounds per square inch. Nothing more. You will get nothing more than its value.

[Barry Donovan]

sway bear - REAR

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with the half ton springs actually working to a stiffer framing and body..
I felt a long sway, first rides out.. like the rear springs were stringing for dear life. That has since subsided..but the truck is still empty to feel this good. If I could feel that in the cab.. the 12foot wheelbase must have been something to notice by other vehicles.

the hellwig spring helpers now have bumped this up 160 pounds in structure steel added...and tires at LT is heavier as well. Not sure what the weight gain is there.
The gain on GVWR is 900-1200.
so now this half ton is a 7100-7400.



I found a hellwig sway bar at this SD trucks website, and remembered I have subaru versions sitting around. The subarus front is still much wimpier than 1.125 inch.. so I may buy the hellwig version.

will wait out the feel of the tensions settings on the leaf helpers... I bet I still want a rear sway anyway.

[STINEY]

Hey Barry, I'm pillaging a fairly decent '94 Chevy 1500 2wd for the engine/harness/computer......if there is some stuff you need let me know.

Has a good sized front sway bar ripe for the picking.

[Barry Donovan]

Hey Barry, I'm pillaging a fairly decent '94 Chevy 1500 2wd for the engine/harness/computer......if there is some stuff you need let me know.

Has a good sized front sway bar ripe for the picking.

hey thanks.
being these are parts everywhere... frames broken etc...
that is a nice offer, odds are it will be right around the corner from me.
I spotted a lime green version of my truck yesterday.. not sure how he does not get pulled over for unsafe vehicle. Cab is holding up the broken frame, passenger side. Less than a week ago, I spot an older less painful to lose 88-95 with a broken frame driver side... going down the road, it got gas at sam's club, and kept going.

Now is the time to rummage through junk yards, they typically keep a good pile of the gm stuff at 15 years and beyond..



there was a chance I was going to redo the tire hanger cable and pipe, just to say it is there and working, and never use it.
.. but at 1994, I can only guess yours is as bad as mine.

seeing the 21000 dollar 1996 year and onward with broken frames makes me sweat.. and I paid ten times less for one that was loved and cared for.

imagine still being more than 1000 a year to sit in the yard with a broken frame? I can only guess the trucks added to gm's bankruptcy flip flop.
hang onto the good, let the rest go..
most of us here are good at that.

I hope to hear the willys running with the v6... and with ABS.

[Barry Donovan]

led tail lamp followup

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well.. this is it. It is official.

the greatest vehicle I have ever taken down the road. I must be very simple...

the tail lamps are some smoke version, did not realize it until standing way back this evening. Very hot roddish.. old Chevy SS secretive mystique. Bright and dim, hard to explain. LED is anew thing to look at...you know it is not a regular chevy.

the fuel pump grounds on the same rail, and it is screaming a full throttle runtime now..very computer high pitch sounding.
Needless to say truck sounds like a locomotive, much bigger.

Old tail lamps had a problem indeed.. forgot about gaining on the fuel pump, that is just another bonus.


slammed on the brakes to try ABS. A tip I got is to take the hard braking all the way to a stop... if I get a click, the abs had to reset.
So I did it again,as the front left is the one that let out a click..

right before my own feeling on the steering wheel, it equaled over to the right brake in real time... like bringing a yacht to a stop, a slight yaw back and to center...and stopped.

I am very happy. I set that left brake off this past winter... never came back out completely apparently.
A real good spot to do this stuff is on a brand new road like I was on. Really feel it out.

the last bit left is recovering the past unidentified overload with hellwigs, this should grab any wobbles...which I have determined to be the back end as much as the front. The front owns the back..very light weight back there...but the back needs to stand ground no matter what.

the black truck with those smoke lamps..wow. All i can say.

A north wind is blowing. It is not going to stop this time. It will be here for the next 7 months. The sun is warm if to be near the pavement, sitting on an unpainted deck, is even warmer.

The sound of the pines echo what is to come. All those pine needles to mimick the sound of one wind that takes over the whole region. I suppose that is why they stay green..they worship that cold...and it respected it back.

My mission here is done, only proving to myself I could survive it. A daydream not yet fulfilled but with tractor trailers, military planes and civilian.. in the middle of winter just get up and go, drive until it is warm in the south. The most mythical is the military flights. Very fast, altitudes beyond. I was a crew chief alone with a kc135, flew to england from a very cool november evening, damp. I was aching just to get on the plane. It was warm when we landed about 4-5 hours later... 3900 miles later...a whole other time and place does exist from this cold abyss.. and it is hardly a daydream to awaken.

I want to drive myself out, my own vehicle.. cannot recall doing that. Only in the summer or spring or fall. I did face some trauma..a deep breath will be a windy night in january, 18 below..remembering the stove pipe glowing red, pipes long gone frozen, and not seen a human in a week. Very scary. Life and death was a breath away...and I knew it.

My only darkness left is the V.A... my true life, it is at peace. It is bizarre to come around with what you said you were going to do.. 25 years later. Even worse is what has died since then. Those that might remember me in a real way. Barely a plan and barely alive inbetween..yet travelled all over. Must be something on my side. Cases like mine are dead as an old chevy pickup here. I hope to drive off one last time in the one I built... I hope it's cold as all hell.
A most amazing sound, be it near a full moon, calm crisp.. real late at night, well below zero...
the sound of nothing shy of a locomotive coming, tires, even though street version, making their own...
A loaded logging truck, with white smoke if to catch a glimpse...seeming a never ending length to the contrail..

That was my turning point, way back when, when I did not think I was going to get much further. A loaded tractor trailer simply going by.
That industry is all but dead here now as well. Even though a lumberjack for a time.. I know it is for the better. Like fuel injection to pickups. Today my old scenario is nearly impossible to repeat. One could hear some LT tire and a gas v8 coming just as confident as a rig. A lot has changed.

I am really liking some of the pickups..it is easy to see who survived the last of old school. The builders with experience. Some nice trucks out here for the most part. Glad I finally got one.. the oldest of the new big ones..but I finally got one. Very humble, the more I think of it. I am in a limbo, not stuck.. waiting on something else besides me. Not to be depressing..

I do have some opposites from some of the learnings on the trucks here. "Never get a chrome diff cover"


With my chrome nuclear episode behind me..that might be a pun.. I'll put this on the rear end, call it good.

The first 40F cold spell came through.. still active under there in the back. Not about heat..its a molecular value. Content enough a critter that left a strand of web went crawling through in the right rear tail, no paint has flaked. Most rewarding to be that brutal with welding. I treated the high mode of the "little" mig as the slow low mode.. some unique colors during the chore, free iron melted into the puddle. Low smoke.. I knew
I knew it instantly... gained more than a double over factory. To stand on one corner of the bumper, half tons need to wiggle, almost like twist. I know of no one that likes that of half tons. This one does , lost nothing in the factory dynamics of trying to be animal.

the hellwig will be just right.

[Barry Donovan]

I guess I babble after nuclear events..
enough of that, back to some photos.

Those new led lamps in the sun. Things have really come around for the old truck...not that I had any problems with cab falling off the frame, and needing some basic steel in the cross sills.
Quite the animal. this 96 and onward.. nowhere near the same as the old stuff.

zero misalignment anywhere... 500k miles is a go, maybe more. It is twice over factory where it matters.
A lengthy cruise down the highway, got one in today. Best ride yet. That is all this needs now. I'll get a couple of hundred miles in sometime before snow flies.

A chill in the air, this one does not care anymore. The rear leafs do reveal they are tired..the springs like the 60s F and less. This also showed me today, with all being smooth..the rear springs has part of the front cv stabilizing while brakes on. No doubts about it.

This brand new must have been a dream. Easy to see how 350k miles can go by...

The hellwigs and setting their most basic tension will puff up the back 1 inch. That is called pretension on the droop. The helpers could be at the 500 pound setting or all the way to 1200..it will appear the same. Springs are tricky like that. Should have that done this week...waiting on delivery.

Another factor in the leaf helpers, it should act as an unsprung weight, just another stabilizer down low, just for existing in its location. 11 pounds each side.

I am hoping there is a hellwig sticker. It has been around for quite some time. A part that acknowledges an aftermarket cure for something.. an inbetween 1/2 and 3/4 ton. We all know that is missing.

While on the highway an aging tundra passed by.. that is the truck that share the same leaf helper part number. This gmc is a giant compare to the tundra. Just goes with how extreme they went with the back springs... I like half tons, but not the 3 leaf + 1 main animal. That is going too far. I did learn to look for 4 leafs and a main.. that was advice going back to my first heavy half ton. That chevy seemed to outlast by a few years, all the others.. in the same violent locale.

Here is a cool video. Who knew they began in 1941?

It will never be the 60 pounds hubs of a 14 bolt floating diff... but a lot better than where it is now.

Hellwig and Hurst stickers, all I got. Sounds like a fake death.



And the sube on the left, it looks like it takes a deep breath...


great name for a truck...

Fake Death

Speaking of death, I looked in the mirror to scratches below my throat, center of chest... fanning out from an invisible point, like fingers, perfectly mathed. I did indeed encounter an active element...it even had its own sun apparently below my clothing. These infections need bath time. A day later I won't say where stuff came out.. but very soap bubbled and brown like dirt was in the equation. Chemistry chain done.

If in doubt and healthy enough, simply attack the old vehicle with long sleeves and a mask. That is something I put on to attack the cross sills, bed upside down. Glad I did. After years of no sun... watch for triggers. The spare tire is part of this too.. the iron was quite eaten. In fact it did worse than any framing or body parts. The spare tire rim was very eaten.
when all is done, the electrical thief will reveal its ugly head. that is the source of the gathering. A cathode/anode.

Regardless of what pros tell you. Salt is not rust...the bad science is. I even found wax is useless once chassis is content in physics. A lot of jokers out there, just for a market.
While I am at it..
The gmc was summed up with electric trailer brake outdated design, and by freak chance the worlds worst circuit board for the tail lamps.
The less subtle, but a monster, the 194 bulbs in the license plate lights..the ground is right on the bumper.
Other than that, one big simple truck as always.

A tip for you.. if to find agood one, swap the tail lamps to LED. I would have started there if I had known. Get it right out of the equations of thief.

[Barry Donovan]

hellwig

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got the leaf helpers today, somebody's return, all parts there, stickers still on board. The amazon ad claimed there was scratches.. but found none.
Knocked off... I think it was 40 bucks. Have to check.
Removed stickers, will be relaminating one of them to slap on the back window.
my front LED is yellow, white pinstriped truck on black.
Seems artsy to be fitting the same colors.

Looking over a dry fit, one ebrake mount is drooping, will have to rebend that. All else is a go.

Looking at the u-bolts, this truck is indeed the old wimpy half ton. The width of the springs does not even fill the u-bolt width..
that is a source of misalignment over the years.

This is a couple hundred cheaper than getting all new 3/4 ton springs, and will not be pushing the boundaries of math created by GM.
the suspension is "comp selected", meaning computer. It lasted all this time for a reason.. respect it as much as I can.

Should get these on this week, am going for the old ingersoll rand 450 foot pound air gun for the chore...awaiting garage time.
Won't take long for this task.
Increasing the stack on the skinny springs, the center bolt... gaining both ends with ubolts once installed. No choice but to be cured. Common sense just to look at. I am guessing the 120 foot pounds has lost some of its grip given the years as well.. good time to get all four of the u-bolt nuts refreshed, retorqued.

I am looking forward to playing with the tension, make up for uneven wear on the old springs. Cannot see it by eye, or feel it.. but this install might reveal an aging weakness.

I put these in the back of the bed in the meantime, clicked the tailgate closed..both latches simultaneous and tight. My job with the chassis is all done straight as can be. This chore is the finale. It may be a good place to start on some of the trucks I have seen, I simply waited.

edit:
I saved about $25 going for the return or demo version.
I also found it allows for a 2000 pound lift..so this is a gain of 600 on the factory. I calc'd 500-900, so I was close.
I dug into this, snapped the ubolt right off on one side. I then hopped in my subaru and got 4 more. All replacements are fine thread and harder than original.. I remember that from 25 years ago.







how close does life and death get...
These were tough if to analyze. Been through a lot more than sinking in the yard for 19 years.

anyway, I am waiting for garage for the install..but may cut off the front ubolt on passenger side rear leaf to see how that one is doing. This one is from driver side front rear leaf.
The ride home from the parts store was in my truck, had to go get the other 2 ubolts.. they did not have all four at the time. The front sounds like a loose balljoint..in more than one spot. I had one new ubolt in place where the one in photo snapped off. Seems it racked the truck back over to the left yet again even more...very big hard measures... yet too small for an eye to see.
Will check the front passenger side balljoints, tie rod out too, when the time comes.

This is a tricky spot, no means to know, until it is broken. The weak part was hidden in the lower clamp.
The tougher grade ubolts and hellwig...good idea.

my pile of debris for today


job done, driver side was the life and death munched. Right side of photo. Very low grade u-bolts by gm..shame shame. The new ubolts are not only tougher, the nuts are longer and stronger, and can leave the ends of ubolts within them as they are..and still grabbed more than gm's coarse thread nut. Some truck owners know the benefit of keeping ubolt ends in the nut, and not dangling. Requires some simple math.

hellwigs installed, not much for a test yet..but tried to make reverse shutter, it is doing very good on first tension settings. The right rear spring was toast compared to driver side, and evened it all up first install. It did jack up the truck by 1 inch or so. Getting out of my driveway is a 1 foot drop off cliff.. ok exaggerating by an inch, but it is noticably different already.. just getting out of the yard.

Tail pipe is about to bust off, noticed that while I was under there... will get after the rest of this soon. Another thing I found after done..I have 9/16ths ubolts. supposedly only 45 foot pounds holds them. I had no problem going nearly double that on the new bolts.

spring job done.

[Barry Donovan]

hellwig photos

---

The lower ubolt nuts are 7/8ths the last I looked at the socket. Factory is 3/4.. in fact a spark plug socket fits factory. I may be wrong on the size of that too. anyway, the new ones are bigger, and the washer is also hardened steel to match it. Came in the box. I measured in a way to not reveal the ubolt ends when it was together and tight. Part of the geometry of strong frames is tougher springs. The less they move, the more the whole thing stays a triangulated entity. A joke here when I was a boy growing with the 70s junk failing in 2 year intervals... "when the frame breaks, weld it, add 1 ton springs."

This one stood ground even through a pcb type infection, nukes, lightning, septic, atlantic ocean, 30 below, 110 above, an overloaded suspension, blown engine gaskets, flammable toxic power steering, heavy metaled coolant, and sulfur from a oil filter that did not flow...all cross sills broken, 6 bad cab mounts, 3 broken bolts within them, a stretched sway bar bolt, broken tire crossmember, 2 broken bolts to the extra linkage attached to what was left..and ABS that insisted on making the front left brake work harder and yaw the truck like an old kc135 on a windy day...
..slamming the broken tab on the shock mount that locked the C to be C channel.

there must be a smarter word than "incredible" for that...I can only guess at a few things that made the difference. I won't babble them.
This spring extra just might make a 50 year something out of this, as this one stood ground the whole way. We have not seen that from GM in... 50 years at least.



new u bolts, the nuts, and the hellwig. The driver side really let off some tension, both front and back ubolts. Big popping noise to cut through them. Those were the ones almost broken. Passenger side was nearly passive, old ubolts hardly clamping down.



The nuts not exposing the end of ubolts is threaded 3 to 5 more fine rows beyond factory nuts.. quite clever how that turned out. And they are hardened, the curves at the 'U' are more robust. Good stuff. Mild steel is coarse thread, and will never be fine. Hardened steel is fine thread, and will never be coarse. I can admit I paid 15+ bucks a piece, for each u-bolt. I needed as much integrity as the napa store that sold them. You can find these half that cost..life is worth double that for the hardened instead.

This took about 30 miles... dialed in. Better than brand new, no kidding. It is actually amazing. I am sure the ubolts get some credit for this. The rattle up front verified my nuke reversal... the caliper bolts loosened on their own. Tightened them in at a gas station in bangor maine. Now slicked up on their sliders. They were stuck a few weeks back. No rattles pounding on these roads. Back end has no walking. Changing lanes on the 80 mph highway is nothing. This could do a top speed run as of now. Feeling very much like a truck, makes me more proud than a hot rod. The hefty tires and way gravity is owning things... I love it. Not much thought in how fast it goes, or how fast it gets there.

Smoothest vehicle I have ever driven..and its a truck of all things. Incredible, seriously.









the sky is doing something amazing. I guess photographers call it the magic hour. Big red sky in some mist that was passing through.. this place does amazing things sometimes. I do not take good photos of nature.

[Deaf Bob]

If/when you take your spring packs apart, get new center bolts!
Lightly grind wear mushrooms off..
If the spring above has the lower spring eaten into it, buff a light romp for the spring to ride, not stop in the worn groove.
Be sure your grind marks flow with the direction of the leaf movement.. Lengthwise, not across the width but front to back..
If you can, use the nylon inserts..
Little stuff like that makes a nice ride..
I'm told the graphite stuff you spray on like paint is nice but have never tried it from "before to after" it is said it eats the nylon, others say no..
Greasing the spring leaves wil work untill the grease wears off the surfaces Plus they hold dirt!

[Barry Donovan]

If/when you take your spring packs apart, get new center bolts!
Lightly grind wear mushrooms off..
If the spring above has the lower spring eaten into it, buff a light romp for the spring to ride, not stop in the worn groove.
Be sure your grind marks flow with the direction of the leaf movement.. Lengthwise, not across the width but front to back..
If you can, use the nylon inserts..
Little stuff like that makes a nice ride..
I'm told the graphite stuff you spray on like paint is nice but have never tried it from "before to after" it is said it eats the nylon, others say no..
Greasing the spring leaves wil work untill the grease wears off the surfaces Plus they hold dirt!

I thought of the center for the driver side..it really let out a pop cutting ubolts.
but it was all there tight.
the u-bolts were stretched, like the sway bar bolt, and 3 of the cab mount..
I am calling it lightning. The driver side had the storm of overload, and that crazy tail lamp as well. Not sure which exit is the entrance.

Like welding, those chores are something to smell some hours later like it let out a puff... a limbo inbetween, dialing in.. New ground and existence.
it knows it is 19 years old. Get the job done, stand back for a time.

it did torque in nicely. Not much for realigning, it went there as soon as the ubolts popped.

my dads rigs used to go to shiny, and even breaking. Chunks sometimes.. if it wasn't the main leaf, keep going loaded for the day.
shackles, bushings... real nightmare on the old rigs.
I remember being told not to look at the shine.. "it will suck you in."
they know nuke/molecular.

the pickup trucks play with leaf spring science, for comfort. Hellwig is still a champ, if to want to play the games.
this 3 leaf +1 main is way way different than the old wimps. Way different. If not knowing any better I may have called it a 3/4 ton.
simply a jumbo version of the old wimps. No lube for these things that never sit still.

now at 4 leafs, one main..and the tension setting allowed by me or anyone on the hellwig. I think it is genius. Not my genius..but the trial and error of getting something like that into a product. Very clever. Still not a 3/4 ton, and rides nice. Have not tried the weight load limit..will be a long time for that.

I am hoping the mystery stopped at the front right caliper, it unscrewed itself today, simply tightened it back in. I called this thing an animal for good reason. I actually have fun with that stuff. The subaru was way more complicated. I love the trucks. Set an anode to earth via springs is always a success.

[Barry Donovan]

hellwig followup - 12 hours

---

spotted in one of the photos, one bolt needed a little more tension to even out.
the dreaded right rear leaf.. they are never straight, not even in a 3/4 ton.
give your new truck 3 minutes on maines rte 16.
this time of year has a jake brake vibrating a house a 1000ft from the road.

This one is up about 1.5 inches, only using about 3/4 of the hellwigs ability. Less than a day later after install. The k1500 reviews I found claimed an inch, if any lift at all. This one came down by 24 hours...looks factory.

figuring weights and maximums.
gvwr 6200 is now 6800.
curb weight was 4575..
that is now 4750.
that number increased to structure weight, steel, springs. With real LT tires..it may be 4800 something. the p rated are half weights..in fact my nightmare is written here someplace.
the hellwigs only weighed into 14 pounds. 7 pounds each side down low.. it is noticable for this model of truck.
today these are weighing in at 5200.. assuming the wimpy back end has everything to do with the 1996 being this light for the size.
The curb weight number, that is synonymous with dry. Some countries weighted the fluids. GM doesn't.
a 25 gallon tank is more than 150 pounds full, 5 quarts of oil..10-15 pounds. they called these 5000 pounds for that reason. Coolant, all weights filled.
This one is a real 5000 with the fluids.



This is a popular item for the chevy 1/2 ton...and tundra in the same category. Those must have been real bad before hellwig install. Going to this point, with the small lift... 31.6 inch tires look like they need 34 inch to fill the back wells...and then that equals a 3 inch lift...and then you need a lift kit for the lift..and then...

With the tailgate already up to my neck.. I am leaving it alone. It occurred to me in the photos..the ubolt nuts are quite large, and they look puny in the photo. An alice in wonderland moment. Springs can do that.

the sun is at the back, it gives a shot right down the rails in the mornings. The cat yellow paint was my idea, just for this time frame. Like stonehenge casting shadows I can see where it was the day before, as each day goes by to reference. No rulers needed.

this one is stretching the left rail, to the new tension. The right one is simply bowing back out.. won't be able to see that one by eyeball.
This strength gain is strong enough to watch the left shock mount compress into a new shape. Being right where I welded, a parallel lower C and upper is making a nice looking rail.
More than halfway tightened on the hellwig, it is obvious 300 to 500 pounds. I won't bury it. Waste of time, and ride quality.

The max load on this GMC is actually quite pleasant by factory. All inbetween was a droopy slopped twisting animal. The hellwig fixed that.
one more plastic round thumper for the left front lower load spring will call this complete. Really do not need that litte piece that snaps into the leaf.. but it will finish it nicely.

A very confident sight is the new ubolts and new nuts being larger. Needed every bit of what I have given..
a fun thing I remember about this place...
it gets very quiet. Setting the tension listening for click and creaks like an old steel ship...

this one wanted the very front monster cross sill for something as I set the right rear just 3 more turns....

click.........click.......click...click..click.. little final snap.

new spot.

it is kinda funny, this back end bounced like my uncles lobster boat with an I-6 diesel sitting in the middle, like what would be the end of a cab for a pickup, stretching the aft deck defying logic the same.

Strange engineering trait that got its way into nearly everything. Always assumed bobtailing tractor trailers is the culprit.
From pickups to lobster boats...

A factor of Idiot. This one responded fast, the tiny length of the bed being so close to the backbone (big part of the rails) sure helped.
I see autumnal equinox passed through this morning. Funny to realize your own nature with steel...ancient math goes with it.

If I could do an IRS suspension.. this truck is a candidate.
The ride with my subaru yesterday, up the same tortured road. I now know how I called this fast...
it does not need to slow down for the terrain. Very impressive, always will be. Still running on original rear draglinks, after all those years of subarus with the tubular bending nightmares, the 1987 is still there, better than ever.

like every vehicle, the idea is great..what we get is not. Hence welding. Trucks are super easy, as hot rodding or nascar is not typical to the goals of a truck. I had fun with the hellwig, great stuff.

[Barry Donovan]

rear bumper

---

I had deciphered weight to be at 5000 with fluids.. and wondered where I could add some more.
found this bolt-on ranch hand bumper..very nice stuff. weighs in at 128 pounds. No need to mess with receiver.




I have looked over the oem bumper, the framing for the weak stainless shell is quite strong. I am thinking of a way to grab at some cheap steel and laminate oem,keeping factory munting points...and run a weight dispersion over to the tire crossmember, which is already on its way to being outrageous custom. (I have the right side to finish off..but oem is holding fine)

that tail weight would be most welcome. May be an excuse for the 3/4 ton springs.
my middle bed crossmember is also quite rbust, and I have not bolted it to anyhting, let it float like oem. The middle is where a fifth wheel hitch wold go, so I know they do drill down in and bolt things there.

thinking ahead..

I hate receivers, no need of them. Should be right at the bumper. My truck has recovered from the hacking and holes of the receiver, good chance to portray what I want.

I was also looking at ubolts, insane lift kits dangling with total dependence on them.
I checked the actual thickness of my old ones and found this:

it has an end coarse thread measuring 9/16th.. the rest of it is even more pathetic at half inch, and squashed square edges.

the old nut was 13/16ths, 1/2 inch deep. the new nuts are 7/8ths and 3/4 inch deep.

my goal was to go the half inch deep with the new nuts like factory, as all else is tons over the original strength.
I was second thinking the poke through of ubolts...and this put my mind at ease. I may even add lug nut caps, something shiny.

the other change is at least a double on the foot pounds, fitting tighter around the springs just to slide the real 9/16ths on the 2.5 inch width. An odd thing emerged, something I remembered from an older truck. Go at it and try to square up equal depth on the ubolts..

impossible.

Very close though, for the given geometry of what it has to hold together... it is within 1/16th, both suspensions.
impressive no doubt. That is alot of years to alter steel...and it did not.



the minimum depth for the nuts is 9/16ths on one of them, the rest go a little deeper. That could be simple as scraping oxide...
very impressed with it.

many times over factory, the overall chore. I now like it even more.