'92 Chevy 1500 - flip truck or kids beater...

[STINEY]

Glad it gave out while parked!

Me too! What are the odds of that happening?

[Loren]

Something about the clutch on my old one, I understood it was supposed to fill w/ brake fluid, with a pretty-good leak and my having no time to fix it, I was going through a lot of brake fluid. One day I ran out and I needed the truck to work, I just filled it with ATF, figuring what could be the harm since I was going to have to go through it all anyhow soon enough. The leak stopped (?!), it worked great, never needed filling again.

btw I thought that was a pretty great transmission, easy shifting - perfect ratios. V6 and V8 same units I believe. I did shorten the shifter by 3" or so, which you have to do up the shaft a ways as there is a rubber damper at the bottom. The rubber cladding around the sides just peels back then you can push it back down again as I recall.

[silver_bullet]

Glad it gave out while parked!

[STINEY]

This truck came in handy when a deer took out my daily driver. Been driving it everywhere, and having fun being behind a manual on a daily basis again.

A few minor issues have popped up and been dealt with.



The original 11 year old battery from my van only lasted a few weeks. Once it turned cold that battery finally gave up the ghost. Bought a new one and motored on.



The brake light on the dash was lit dimly. That light has 3 stages of brightness with each stage indicating something different. Turns out unplugging the Rear Wheel Anti Lock harness at the module under the master cylinder renders the RWAL system inoperative, gets rid of the dim light while keeping the other levels of brightness functional, and gives the brake pedal feel a significant kick in the pants. The pedal feel is great now, actually feels like the system is not full of air, and all I did was unplug that harness.



The tilt column was floppy. Turns out, they don't tighten themselves back up. Weird huh?

Since it was a stick shift column with tilt (somewhat desirable due to no shift quadrant) I decided to keep it for another project, and swapped in the non-floppy automatic tilt column from the '94 c1500 I parted out last year.
Other than the "new" column having a gross steering wheel that leaked more gross-ness even after being cleaned extensively, it slipped right in and worked fine. $12 steering wheel cover fixed that particular problem.

Oh, and the park/neutral safety is now being overridden by the automatic part of the column instead of the clutch start safety switch working correctly. Funny, as all the connections were identical, no extra plug on the column for that part.




Anyhow.....it runs well enough that some very minor issues are becoming annoying.

Like the aftermarket Sony cdx-gt210 radio has something wonky with the antenna. As in, they don't play nice with each other. And its not just the factory antennae, I plugged in 3 other different antennas (2 factory and 1 aftermarket) and they all behave in a similar fashion. I tried all of the antennas with a different radio and they all work fine with it, so its not a powered antenna issue.

2 part issue. Sometimes there is simply nothing to be heard at all on the AM/FM part of the radio. Just like the antenna came unplugged. Nothing to be had, zilch, nada.

Then other times it starts to receive AM/FM............but FM reception is so sketchy that not even the local stuff is clear. Lots of static, as if I am trying to grab a station that is 80 miles away instead of 5 miles. And AM is actually worse, yet there is no alternator whine at all.

Along that line of thought, there IS some whine on the FM (when the thing decides to actually TRY to recieve anything). However, the whine is NOT associated to engine rpm. Instead, it is solely tied to vehicle speed. It is almost as if I can hear the VSS reluctor counting teeth,

CD, aux inputs work fine, and they actually sound good.


Then last Thursday the hydraulic clutch developed a leak overnight. As in it drove into the garage just fine, and in the morning there was NO pedal to be had on the first stroke. Puddle under the slave cylinder area. Maybe just a line? Weird how it didn't fail during actual use, but rather leaked empty while sitting. Thank goodness for small favors though!

[Deaf Bob]

You could turbo it like a Syclone/Typhoon...

[Huskinhano]

Where was that truck when I needed a vehicle last week?

[Barry Donovan]

good point on hydraulic and learning it.
the 4.3 mastered makes the v8 easy.

I was very troubled in my 96 for some time.
my first manual ride was a 283 tow truck, then onto dads rigs of the early 80s...
hydraulic? no. you will depress the 1650 foot pound clutch with both feet if you have to.

then , as odds have it, I got the last of mechanical.. a ten geared subaru.
A couple hundred thousand miles or more in manual clutches.. and the 1996 vortec made me a newb all over again.

I love it now, but it takes time.

instead of a rheostat, there has to be pause.. that is all I can describe of it as any errors.
manual clutch is way better, but that is for "tough" "old school" "scary" "guys with beards."
kids have to learn the hydraulic.

anway, the hydraulic captures the counterbalance shutters. that is when the pause occurs.
I have a very bad left leg, and go all day in cities sometimes.

hydraulic was future, still is.. I just had to get over it. Keeps my bad leg much better.
hope your kids have fun with it.

[JOES66FURY]

Great for a kids first vehicle....That's the way I'd go.....

[Deaf Bob]

Before running dedicated columns in our cars, I duct taped the tilt part because they can and do come apart..
doubt the kid will aooreciate 1/4" of duct tape on his column

[DanStokes]

Wobbly GM tilt steering is a common "issue" (um - problem). All it is is the screws at the bottom of the basket come loose - Mutt had the same thing. I think there are pics in my build thread. I took mine apart and pulled all the guts out as I didn't need them for a race truck but it's the same process except you put the guts back in (turn signal switch, etc.). You need a wheel puller (of course) and one of those spring squisher thingies to get the circlip out of the steering column and release the lock plate. Then you pull everything between you and the bottom of the basket. I Locktited the screws and smacked them back in with the impact screwdriver. So far so good.

Let's see if I can find those pics.......

Sorry - no luck there.

Dan

[STINEY]

It made its date with the pressure washer. Seems to have a little bit less clear-coat on it now. Hope no one tracks the pinkish paint chips to me.


Now to fix the wobbly tilt steering column thingy. Thinking of swapping in the non-tilt column from the '94 parts truck and keeping the tilt for the CJ2A Willys project.

[STINEY]

Though, from your son's perspective (which is kind of funny because if you said "x" son gets this, I'd almost believe it was for him - since you're nebulous as to whic son, I'm thinking this is your truck) as this one runs and the Heep isn't likely to move any further than another web posting about how someone found a Jeep in a barn that hadn't been moved since the 'teens, he should go with what runs now.

and please, tell me where I'm wrong in that ;)

Ummm....well there is....actually you'd be wrong in......it may come to pass that......

Aw shoot partner. Ya gots me.

By the way, that's an impressive run-on sentence you penned there. Trying to give my wife a run for the trophy?

[Russell]

Keep it for the kids. Check out those tires then keep an eye on them, 8+ years old....

[nesabo]

+1 for Beater

[DanStokes]

Groovy! Pretty good looking truck. GREAT truck for a first driver. Not too much power and he can get used to a manual. Yes, it needs a bath, wheel, and wax.

Dan