Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

I picked up this 1988 Blazer a couple weeks ago it's pretty solid but has some issues to be corrected. Obviously it's an ex-Forest Service rig. Its an odd combination of options 2.8 V6 with a manual transmission, manual steering, manual windows, no AC but a rear window defroster. I'm not sure if the side mirrors are factory or aftermarket as I don't remember ever seeing any like them before.

The first thing to fix is the steering as it has a ton of slop in it. I ordered a Red Head box for it. Apparently most of the manual steering boxes on S10's are S10 only and such the core charge is more than the box was.

After removing the guard on the coupling I found the cause of most of the play.

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

Wow, I really like that, great truck. Post more pics if you can!

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

I love ex-municipal trucks. Even cooler with custom touches. I believe those mirrors are aftermarket. I'm wanting to buy something more trim for the Sonoma. It seems manual boxes wear sooner than power. I think it's that the P/S systems absorb more "road steer" between the box and steering wheel. But I do see the contributing culprit

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

always good to see another Forest Service green vehicle out there, and your Blazer is nice and straight

I think the Forest Service tried to keep their trucks fairly bare bones with options suitable to where the truck was working. I imagine in the northwest rear defrost is more necessary than AC. My Forest Service truck came out of the southwest and is very basic but it does have AC- and, weirdly enough, the cassette deck radio

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

Apparently somehow I didn't save all of the post. Here's the other photos. And coupe more. The seats are 95 Camaro and the door panels have had the fabric replaced with GM pleather.

The rag joint was not made of the normal rubber fiber I'm used to seeing (Like the new one) but was made of a urethane looking material. It looked as one part had been broken for awhile as the edges looked kind of polished Needless to say it drives much better now. :mm:

I did contemplate converting to power steering but that would turn a 4 hour job to a 4 week job and I'd miss out on all the aerobic exercise.

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

yeah, stick with the Armstrong steering

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

The lil Blazer needed a change of tread so out with the Michelin Maypops and in with some Firestone Indy 500s. While up on the lift I got some photos to post.

Front suspension has 2002 spindles and lower control arms with UMI upper control arms.

The rear axle is also 2002 vintage with 3.42 gears bolted to a posi carrier.

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

I put the new Blazer to work today. Drove out to Orchards and picked up the lower end of new the engine for my 72 Firebird. I was thinking of starting a thread about it in the Alternative Tinkering section once I start doing more than gathering parts.

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

Got all the wagons together for a photo.

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

I got to wondering how a Forest Service vehicle was ordered so I took a photo of the RPO codes in the glove box, found a decoder sheet on the interweb and started decoding the 62 RPO's listed.

I was able to decode all but 11 of them. I was surprised as to how many changes had been made to the truck since the factory. The SPID showed it originally was a 4.3 automatic 3 speed with OD and a roof rack. After reviewing I the list closer I started to question the decoder list I was using. Maybe it was for a different year or brand of GM vehicles. Then I got smart and compared the VIN number on the SPID to the one on the truck and found they don't match! :dohh:

I guess someone swapped glove boxes or dash boards at some point.

Oh well it kept me amused for an hour. :lol:

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

Having driven the new Blazer for a couple hundred miles now I've identified some things that need correcting.

The console has been covered with vinyl to match the seats and door panels. There is a chrome trim piece around the shifter that I don't believe is factory. However the console isn't bolted down and when it is centered on the shifter you can't lay the rear seat flat as the top of the seat hits the console preventing the seat from laying flat. (Photo #1) And if you move the console forward so it clears the seat back the chrome trim then prevents the shifter from going into the even numbered gears. (Photos #3) Grrr!

This will take some figuring out my part to find a clean solution. After close to 20 years of always having the seat folded flat in the old Blazer I'm not going to start going around with the seat up now.

The truck also has quite a few rattles to trace and fix and the drivers side door takes too much effort to shut. And I need to locate a spare tire. One of those space saver spares that is

Then when I when to change oil, the filter I got for the 2.8 V6 didn't fit. Another PO inflicted problem?

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

Spent a couple hours cleaning and doing some little projects on the Blazer. I replaced the faded marker lights with my freshly cleaned marker lights. Woo hoo!

Then I removed the woofer speaker that was living behind the drivers seat just being a invitation to drug addicted thieves. (Photo #3 ) Besides the big mess of wiring which I couldn't stand. It was preventing the rear seat from folding flat. (Photo #4 arrow ) Which for me is the default position. And it didn't work either. However during removal I discovered why. There was remote volume knob for the unit and its cable was smashed inside the drivers side seat track. It took more time to clean up than it did to remove the speaker and it's wiring. So before I completely removed the wiring I tested it and found that once the crushed wires were removed the speaker worked. Maybe I'll put in the WMB at some point. There's just no room in the Blazer for it.

Then I replaced several missing screws in the dash hoping to solve some the the rattles. That lead to me finding a unidentified metal component deep in the dash that is loose and hanging free to bang around. I didn't have time to tear into the dash deeper to get to it. I had promised to mow the lawn for the missus. Along the way of fixing rattles I discovered leftover pieces from a now gone Pioneer stereo and 12 disc CD player. More stuff to remove on another day.

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

I decided to run the valves yesterday on the Blazer and got a pleasant surprise. Aftermarket roller rockers. :metal::metal::metal:

They have no names or other information on them and aren't as nice as the set of Harland Sharp rockers that I currently have on the shelf in the shop. But certainly nicer than factory stamped ones.

After measuring them I came up with 1:6 as the ratio. Set up with ARP Poly Locks but only 3/8 studs necked down to 5/16 threads on the top. Like the factory ones.

It's hard to get a accurate measurements of a rocker with just a caliper but I did comparison measurements on the H&S rockers that I know are 1:6's and I feel confident in the findings.

After reading my How to Rebuild LT1 & LT4 book (That came with the truck) on how to find TDC. (I know that should be a no brainer but I discovered that LT1s & LT4s don't have a timing pointer/indicator on the block or timing cover.) That's when I made my mistake after reading what the book said about an X on the balancer being at 12 o'clock to adjust the valves. Well my balancer is aftermarket and is degreed with TDC indicated and thus doesn't have an X.

I then made an ASSUMPTION :banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead: that the factory X on the balancer was the same as TDC on my aftermarket balancer. Long story short it's not!

So when I finished most of the valve train was quieter but 3 or 4 rockers were now louder. As it was now after 9 pm I decided to sleep on the dilemma of the noisy valves. And in the morning I looked up a couple videos on how to find TDC on a LT1 and low and behold I discover that Gen II LT engines don't have a a keyway on the crankshaft or the balancer hub. So the balancer could be installed with TDC pointing anywhere!

REALLY GM! :bsf:

So after some poking around the engine I believe that I was some 30 to 40 degrees off of TDC when I adjusted the valves which would account for most of them being okay. So now I either need to fabricate a pointer and after manually locating TDC install the pointer in the proper place. Or just adjust the valves again but this time with the engine running. I really want to have a proper pointer but in the short term adjusting the valves running is likely going to be best option.

So two nice surprises the rockers and the balancer. One of the benefits of the rockers is I can label them with a marker before I start adjusting to prevent confusion as I work through them. I also have a check list to mark off each one after I've adjusted it. (Pink note pad at top of the last picture.) Then I use a paint pen to mark each poly lock once adjusted

I know it's a lot of double checks but, invariably if I don't mark my progress as I go someone or something will come up and interrupt the job.

Another thing I do is to put a small line or dot on the push rod with the paint pen. (Green arrows in last photo.) That gives me a visual aid when I'm trying to find the zero lash point. I use one finger to move the push rod back and forth while watching the paint mark. When the paint mark stops moving I know l'm at zero lash as my finger is sliding on the push rod.

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

Valve adjustment Round Two was successful!

Ran them hot while idling the engine. Whew, Hot, Hot, Hot! :waah:

But as I suspected most were good but 4 of them were right at the point of clicking. Loosen the poly lock one flat and they would clack. Tighten the lock one flat and they were quiet.

A successful 45 minute task with the exception of below. Never touch the exhaust manifold while running! Dhoo!!!

On a side note the plastic oil fill tube (Photo #2) just barely catches the threads and it always seem loose in the valve cover. It that a normal thing for the center bolt valve covers?

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

I've been doing small areas of cleaning on the Blazer as of late. It's amazing how cleaning the nooks and crannies make the truck so much better.

Before and after below. Not the best before picture but hopefully you get the idea of how dirty it was.

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

That is a really clean Blazer. But I think I figured out why the 2.8 oil filter did not fit.

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

Thank you, I'm trying get it cleaned up bit by bit. The carpeting needs replaced as well and the headliner is sagging so there's a couple of projects on the horizon.

I wondered if anyone would catch the filter joke. My Burban had a whole bunch of PO inflicted problems, this truck is much, much better. :mm:

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

The pinon seal started leaking. At first I noticed spots the size of a half dollar but they quickly got more significant. So I decided if I was going to have to deal with the seal I would change the gear ratio too. The F-body T56's have a 2.66 first gear ratio which I'm sure GM chose due to fuel and emission concerns but otherwise they're a real buzz kill. Especially in stop and go traffic combined with 3.42 rear gears.

The truck had 3.42's in it when I got it. There was a receipt for them being installed along with a list of new parts in the documentation that came with the truck. I wanted to put a set of 3.90's in but they were back ordered so the next best option for me was 3.73's. I ordered a set along with a pinion spacer set to be used instead of a crush sleeve. Then I dropped the truck and parts off at Six States and had them install the parts.

I am pleased with the results as the truck is nicer to drive in traffic with less need to slip the clutch when starting out. On the other end now 6th gear is usable at 60 mph instead of 65. I still think 3.90's would have been the best compromise but I'd probably still be waiting for them to come off back order and leaving a trail of gear oil everywhere I went.

As a side note the shop reported that the reason the pinion seal was leaking was the pinion shaft bearings were loose and the carrier wasn't shimmed properly and it had slightly too much play. So a new set of bearings got installed too. Now the truck certainly seems smoother at this point.

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

Doing some maintenance on the Blazer today and found this mess in the air cleaner. I'm guessing there 20 horsepower there in amongst the sunflower seeds and the hazelnut.

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

I noticed early on that the light output on the Blazer's headlights was atrocious! This was kind of unexpected as it had a pair of Hella glass H4 light housings. Until I inspected the lights I was figuring old bulbs and/or low voltage to the bulbs. However inspection showed the silvering on the inside of the housings was failing. (See photos.) I've never seen this kind of failure on quality lights like Hellas before. Basically the fix was new housings followed by installing relays to ensure proper voltage will be delivered to the bulbs.

I installed new Koito H4 headlamps with 60/55W Vosla +150 bulbs that I sourced from Daniel Stern. And I got part of the relays installed but the high temperature ceramic sockets I ordered are back ordered for 2 more weeks. So more to follow on this one.

https://www.danielsternlighting.com/.../products.html

Now I'm eagerly waiting for night fall to go dial in the new illumination.

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

I had a set of Hellas do that as well, in storage with bulbs in them.

I had used them for about 5 years up north in a cold environment with lots of salt on the road, pulled them from the truck when I sold it and put them away for about 15 years in unheated but dry storage. When I pulled them out to use them they were junk, worse than your pictures.

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

Interesting these were installed in the Blazer which had very few miles put on it the last 10 years or so. It was in covered unheated storage. I've got a set of 7" round Hella that I bought in the late nineties that are still in use in my Burban. They had a period of about 10 years were they were not in use but installed.

It's likely Hella went to a cheaper silvering process and we are seeing the results of that now.

These to me are junk so unless someone speaks up, they're going to be recycled.

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

Now the weather has changed I became aware that the heater worked poorly and there was no defroster or vent output. After removing the heater controls and testing them with a hand vacuum pump I determined that the control vacuum switch worked. Further troubleshooting lead me to find the vacuum line from the engine was leaking. When I checked the line at the intake it appeared that it had been plugged with some glue. During the removal of the factory plastic vacuum line it snapped in two. Classic old GM vacuum line failure. Then while I was trying to figure out the way to fix that the line snapped off inside the grommet through the firewall. GRRRR!

After 30 minutes of trying to access the grommet from inside I gave up. There is no way to get at it without removing the heater air box and that meant removing the dash. I wasn't going to dive that deep now. So I found a hole in the firewall near the clutch pedal and ran a new hose from the intake to the switch in the heater control unit.

With a good vacuum supply from the engine now the heater works better and I have a defroster too! Having a non-AC truck it has the lower output blower so airflow is less that the old blue Blazer. I will look into upgrading to an AC blower like I did on my Burban. More is better right? :lol:

The only photo I remembered to take is of the grommet where the factory hose went through the firewall.

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

I found a free day to take care of some M&R on the Blazer this week. As a bonus it wasn't raining! Woo Hoo!

First up was to replace the blower motor. The blower had become increasingly intermittent in its operation. About half the time it wouldn't start
after it was shut off. If I tapped the motor with my pocket knife it would start running or I could also just wait for the right bump to jostle the armature and brushes to get it running but, it seemed like that was requiring larger and larger bumps to do the trick. Needless to say that was getting old.

Replacement of the blower is much simpler on a S10 compared to my 67 Burban. Easy access to all the bolts and just enough room to slide the motor out and in without having to remove other components. Unless you have the ECM for your LT1 mounted adjacent to the motor. Fortunately it was easy to unbolt and slide clear.

All in all this should be a 20 minute job. My issues started when I bought the new blower from NAPA. Initially I bought the motor without the fan. My truck is a non-AC version.

I got the old motor out and the fan swapped on to the new motor and when I inserted it into the housing the fan would hit the back preventing the motor mounting plate from getting closer that about 1/2" to the heater box. So to make a long story short I ended up having to purchase the a motor with the fan included. Fortunately the nice lady at NAPA was able to work the numbers so it was a straight trade for the one that didn't fit.

It appears that the supplier to NAPA has discontinued the Non-AC motor and is only supplying the AC motor with a redesigned fan for Non-AC trucks. The annoying part is the redesigned fan is smaller than the old one. This means the blower is now less efficient and blower output will be reduced. See photo #1 for the size difference.

Another annoying thing is the motor is clocked slightly different so the vent hose no longer fits correctly. The hose is now slightly kinked and no longer sits correctly on the motor. See photo #2.

I can't recommend the NAPA replacement shown in the last photo.

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

The second task was to replace the multi-function switch or what is commonly called the wiper switch. This component operates the turn signals, the high beam switch and contains the wiper switch components. There are several different versions of the switch depending on if you have a tilt column, delay wipers or cruise control.

Replacement of this switch requires removing the steering wheel, turn signal switch and most of the upper part of the tilt column. I won't go into detail about this as this link covers it very well. The link is to a PDF file on how to assemble the column.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...A7AxPTOBQBRXGP

The PDF doesn't cover how to replace the switch without completely disassembly of the column. So once you have the column disassembled enough to have removed the wiper switch you can pull all the slack in the wires down so it is easier to unplug the the switch wiring from the harness. Once removed I had to remove the wires from the connector so I could pull them up through the column. To release the connector pins from the connector I made a tool by grinding down a used Dremel grinding stone shaft so it fit in the connector.

Before removing the pins I labeled the connector to make reassembling it easy. The pins are easy to remove if the tool fits correctly. You have to first push the wire in the direction of the yellow arrow, then slide the tool into the connector as shown by the red arrow.

Once the pins are free of the connector I wrap the with tape with a piece of string. The idea being when I pull the old switch out it will pull the string up the column. Then I can attach the string to the new switch's wires and use the string to pull the wires down the column. When wrapping the tape the idea is not to let the tape make the wire too bulky to pass through the column. The string is laid out next to the wires keeping the bundle flat. (Photo #4) I limit the number of layers of tape to two but have about 5 inches covered.

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

When removing and installing the wires I keep light tension on the slack line so if I detect any resistance on the line I'm pulling on I stop and reverse direction to hopefully prevent the wires from getting stuck in the middle of the column. The first photo shows the string all set up and ready to pull the new switch wires down the column.

Once the wires were pulled down the column I reassembled the column stopping before I reinstalled the lock plate. Getting the high beam linkage correctly installed and working smoothly took a couple tries. I made sure the moving pieces were all freshly greased.

At that point reconnected the battery and tested the high beam switch function as well as the turn signal function. Once I was satisfied with the operation of the mechanical linkages I reinstalled the pins into the wiper connector and plugged the two halves of the wiper connector back together and tested the wiper functions.

Now that everything had tested good I finished reassembling the column. At 3 & 1/2 hours I might of made flat rate. Much better than I did on the blower motor replacement. :lol:

As a side note I'll add that until several years ago I never knew there was a special tool to remove and install the lock plate. I've always used a clamp and two picks to remove ithe spring clip that holds the plate in place and a large washer with two small pry bars and the two picks again for installation.

The old switch was driving me crazy! Half the time when I touched the control arm the wipers would swipe. If I hit a harsh bump the wipers would swipe. It's so nice not to have that happening anymore. Plus with everything freshly lubricated the switch is so smooth and easy to use I want to change lines more just so I can use the switch more. :lol:

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

It was time for some M&R on the Blazer. The left front signal/marker light in the bumper wasn't working correctly. The marker light in the bumper had quit lighting up and the turn signal worked but it flashed at the same time as the marker light in the grill. Its supposed to flash opposite of it.

To start I swapped in a known good bulb. No easy cure today, so I pulled the lens out, so I could feed the socket out the front of the bumper, for more comfortable access. The older I get the more important that becomes. :lol:

Using a test light I confirmed that I had 12dc, to the contact tabs in the socket, when I was supposed to. Hooking the test light ground to the bulb's ground tab and testing revealed that the ground tab in the socket wasn't grounded. The wiring looked OK so pulled the ground wire out of the socket and found that it was broken.

The ground contact in the socket is a two piece affair. One part the bulb contact seems to be part of the socket and there is a separate piece that is crimped to the wire and slides in next to the first part making contact. The 2nd part has the locking tab on it to secure it in place.

I purchased a new socket from the local generic parts store and removed the pre-crimped wires it came with. By carefully using small side cutters and a pick I opened the crimps on each of the bulb contacts. Then I cut the old factory contacts off and installed the new ones. I was able to recrimp the tabs on to the insulated part of the contact but the tabs that crimp on to the wire didn't crimp in a way that made me feel confident it the electrical connection so I soldered those connections.

After reinstalling them in the new socket I tested it and all was good!

The marker light itself needed a good cleaning as it had a moss colony growing inside of it. The colony wasn't as well established as the ones that I found in the grill marker lights but still enough to degrade the light output.

Next up on the repair list was the bezel around the radio and dash vents, 3 of the 4 screws holes were stripped and it constantly rattled and squeaked. The mountig screws thread into other plastic parts of the dash so I mixed up some Quick Set JB Weld and filled the holes. And hour later I drilled them to the correct size for the screws and now I have one less annoying rattle. :mm:

Sorry I don't have photos for this but I left the camera in the wife's car and she went to work with it.

But later that night when I went for a drive the light failed again after a couple of miles. Grrr!

First thing in the morning I pulled the socket and inspected the ground tab. Once I pulled the rubber water stop on the wire clear, I was able to detect a slight bit of play between the two parts of the ground contact.

I then used my special GM tool #HO455 (Photo #1)to remove the contact from the socket. With 2 pairs of needle nose pliers I carefully bent the contact slightly in order to remove any play between the two pieces. My first try was too much of a bend as the contact didn't want to slide into the socket but the second try snapped in nicely with no play.

The 2nd picture is a poor photo of the socket and the ground tab ready to be reinstalled. You can barely see where I solder the wire.

At this point I'm not sure that my messing around with the wires caused the problem with the loose contacts on the ground. The overall quality of the aftermarket socket is poor and I believe this may have been an issue with the as provided wires. I found that the bulb doesn't fit well and the socket fits into the marker light housing poorlyas well. I fully expect it to fall out at some point. It has solved the problem for now, but I'm going to be looking for a GM replacement socket for peace of mind down the road.

I'm sure you have noticed my special tool for the contact removal is nothing more than an aluminum pop rivet that I have flattened with a hammer and the ground the end flat. I have found these to work well and I have made several versions that are different widths and thicknesses. I also pinch the actual rivet part in a vice to secure it as it makes a good place to grip the tool.

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

The clutch master cylinder had started leaking, so not only more M&R but I'm pretty sure there's going to be damage the paint on the firewall.

This repair started out with some re-engineering of the system. The clutch pedal is quite hard and I'm sure I can make it better than it is. Either by changing the master cylinder bore size or moving the post on the pedal that the master cylinder hooks on to.

Using a mirror I was able to determine the current master cylinder has a 0.81 bore size. I know the 1995 Camaro used a 0.75 bore master cylinder. So the PO made a choice to use a different size. I took some measurements of pedal movement and there is no limitation that would prevent me from going to a 0.75 bore. Going to the smaller bore should reduce the foot pressure needed to operate the clutch.

I obtained a clutch pedal from a new first generation S10 from the wrecking yard so I could modify it then just swap them with little down time. But now that it's leaking I will just dive in.

Removal of the bad cylinder was pretty straightforward and I had it out in about an hour. Once it was on the bench I noticed there were a lot of metallic particles in dust boot on the shaft. They must have come from wear on cylinder bore. Something investigate later.

Once I cleaned the firewall and frame my fears about the paint were confirmed the black paint the PO had used had bubbled and I was able to wipe it off. I cleaned it as well as I could and rattle canned it for the time being. It's going to take removal of the inner fender well and the brake booster to do it right.

Once that was done I bolted up the new master cylinder and dry tested the movement of the pedal. And here's where things took a turn to dark side. Ugggg. Another day not making flat rate. :lol:

The pedal and the master cylinder were not aligned up with each other. I had to pull the pedal actuator rod towards the drivers side about a 1/2 inch in order to hook it up to the post. This caused the rod to rub on the side of the mounting bracket. It contacted hard enough to cause the rod to bow when the pedal was depressed As a result of this rubbing the bracket, at the firewall, the rod side loaded the piston inside the master cylinder. This must have been the cause of all the metallic particles I observed earlier.

I decided that there should be enough room to move the master cylinder to to drivers side to solve the problem. Fast forward an hour with the Dremel and I had the mount bracket moved. The POs work on this part of the truck was definitely not as good as the other parts of the conversion. There was too much material removed, (Photo #3) although some of it must have been left over from the factory clutch mechanism removal. Another thing for another day.

Back at the task at hand, once I moved the master cylinder I discovered that all I had accomplished was to change when the rod contacted the bracket. Before it was during the bottom half of the pedal stroke. Now it was during the top half of the stroke. That was no better than before.

It was now time for dinner so I knocked off for the day. Food and rest and a fresh mind in the morning would be good.

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

What is the pedal you started with from?
It sounds like maybe you need to swap to a OEM S10 pedal and duplicate the master mount location. Shame about the paint

FWIW, my '95 Sonoma with factory master pushing an internal slave into LS truck pressure plate works fine, nice light pedal. They changed clutch master location between 1st and 2nd gen s10s so they must have also changed pedal setup. Yours looks a lot like the master setup on 3rd gen Camaro. My son's LS swapped '91 Z28 using factory 3rd gen pedals & master, with a t56 and internal slave has a very heavy clutch pedal as well.

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

The next day after laying on my back looking at the situation for 15 or so minutes I decided to get a straight edge and hold it up to the side of the pedal. Doing this revealed the second part of the problem.

The pedal assembly in my Blazer is different than the S10 I obtained the spare pedal from. In the wrecking yard truck the bolt that the pedal swings from also has the brake pedal swinging from it. On my truck the pedals are on different bolts. And it appears that the clutch bolt is not 90 degrees to the driveline like the brake pedal is. This would explain the difficulty I am having getting a proper alignment.

I then started adding washers to the driver's side bolts to try and find the angle. After 4 tries I determined that 3/16" worth of washers would get me close the angle I needed. Then I made a crude shim for the bracket (Photo #1) out a piece of 3/16" flat bar. Once that was done and test fitted. It was close, but not perfect, but I decided it would work if opened up the slot in the mounting bracket a bit. (Photo #2).

At this point some issues with the new master cylinder became apparent. Every time I checked the angle by shimming it the washers meant bolting the cylinder and bracket in and removing them after checking. It was then I noticed the master cylinder mounting surface wasn't flat and the holes were not accurate. I flattened the surface with a file (Photo #3) and found some plastic I could use as bushings to keep the bolts centered in the holes. (Photos #4 & 5) Doing this gave me nice repeatable results each time I bolted back together.

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

Sorry I didn't notice your post showing up between my two. As far as I know the pedals are stock for the truck. The PO switched to the Wilwood when he installed the LT1 and T56. I don't know if he tried to use the stock master or not. The stock master cylinder is 11/16 or 0.687 which may not move enough fluid for a 1" slave. I'd need to do some more math on that.

Having completed the repair and driven the truck with the 0.75 master cylinder the clutch pedal is somewhat lighter, but it is much easier to feather the clutch on launch than before. A real improvement over the 0.81 master cylinder. That makes it seem lighter as I'm not having to try and move my foot in millimeter amounts when releasing the clutch.

The redo of the linkage has lowered the pedal about an 1 1/2" which means less foot movement so my shifts seem lightning fast now. :lol:

The 95 T56 still used the external slave which is always going to be stiffer than the internal slave the LS's got.

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

Cue Paul Harvey. Time for the rest of the repair.

First is another photo of the bracket and shim. I used the two studs to hold the shim in place every time I installed and removed the master cylinder and bracket.

If you look closely at the slot around the master cylinder push rod you can sort of see how little room there was for the push rod to move side to side.

The last thing I wanted to address was the pedal height. Previously the pedal was about 1 1/2" higher than the brake pedal, which meant that I really had to lift my leg up on every shift. There was plenty of adjustment in the actuator rod so I just shortened the rod with the lower coupling nut as the upper one was as short as it would go. Now I had two pedals that were the same height. All good until I pushed the pedal down. Then the upper coupling nut hit the clutch/starter safety switch. Now I know why the pedal was so high!

I ended up machining one side of the hex off of the upper coupling nut to make clearance around the switch. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of that.

I noticed that the upper coupling nut was 3/8" NF thread for the heim joint and the other end was 5/16" NF thread for the all-thread. To do this the PO put a heli-coil in the 5/16" end to reduce the size from 3/8". Pretty clever I thought, as I would have gone through the work to make a custom one off coupling nut.

In the second photo you see the clutch actuator rod with the two coupling nuts. Unfortunately it's all right hand thread, so no nice turnbuckle action. The arrow points to the area I machined off to clear the switch.

The heim joint has been ground down on one side to make it narrow enough to fit on the post and have the keeper hold it in place. The odd part is that the keeper will only go on with the ground off part heim joint against the pedal and the keeper against the unmodified side.

The last photo shows it all back together and working nicely. I've got about 50 miles on it and no leaks. :mm:

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

I finally found time to install the shift light I got for the truck. I've been running around with no tachometer since I bought it. The PO said he had a tachometer in it but it started acting weird, so he removed it. So to start I located his old wiring and tested it with my multimeter.

It was a 4 wire plug so it was pretty straightforward. 12v positive, ground, tach signal, and a wire from the dash lights. Things seemed to check out with the meter except for I had 12.8 volts at the battery and only 10.8 at the tachometer plug. My multimeter will test frequency or hertz and putting it on that setting I was able to rev the engine and see the frequency change so I felt good about that.

However when I did a temporary hook up of the new tachometer it didn't work. So I dove into the wiring harness. Which meant taking the dash apart to get at it. (Photo #1) I couldn't be sure of any of the wires as it has two different harnesses blended together. Starting with the 12 volt positive wire I determined it was working as it should once I moved my ground lead to a good body ground. This led me to suspect the ground wire was the problem.

Tracing the ground wire back I found that it went to a bolt that is part of a support for the bottom of the dash in the middle. (Photo #2) When I checked continuity from the bolt head to my good body ground there was about 1.5 ohms of resistance. Not great but not terrible either. I removed the bolt and discovered the support rod was loose on the other end. When I wiggled the support the ohms jumped all over the place. Obviously over years the bouncing of the truck loosened the upper fastener. Ahh, the joys of a stiffly sprung vehicle. :lol: It's no wonder his tachometer was acting weird.

The other unknown was where the tachometer signal was coming from. Just to be sure I removed the Red connector from the PCM (Photo #5)and located pin 13. Which is where the interweb said the tach signal originates from. Using a tone signal tracer I was able to quickly prove the that the wire in the 4 prong plug I thought was the tach signal did in fact originate from the PCM.

Now I was sure of everything, I installed the tachometer. I moved the other ground wires that were connected to the dash strut to the new ground location.

Photos 3 & 4 show the finished installation. A link to the shift light.

https://youtu.be/cH9OWy59pyY?si=jMKHe4FzpCpp8cAo

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

In the previous post I mentioned using a tone signal tracer. If your not familiar with them they are usually used for telephone wire identification and tracing circuits in large buildings. They consist of a tone transmitter and a tone detector.

Basically you hook up the transmitter to the wire you want to trace and touch the detector to the outside of the wire your tracing. The detector will beep when it comes close to the wire hooked to the transmitter. The video in the link shows how it works.

https://youtu.be/Y0HjaR0tj7Q?si=CW6_VaClHT3cF62-

Photo #1 shows the tracer I used. I used a paper clip to connect the generator to the the pin in the PCM plug. Using this method saved me a bunch of work trying to trace the tach signal wire through the wiring harness.

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

Knocked out another project on the STII. I removed the 2 1/4" tail pipe and replaced it with a 3" tail pipe.

The PO had 3" exhaust all the way until he put the CalTracs on, then he had to get the tail pipe rerouted to clear them. Unfortunately the muffler shop he used, cut the 3" pipe off and replaced it with 2.25 non-mandrel bent tubing. The 2.25 measures about 2 inches on the bends. (Photo #1)

I bought mandrel bent 45's and 90 degree elbows from True Mandrel. Fortunately for me they are local so when I called them Saturday afternoon the owner said he was home but it would be no problem for him to run in and get me what I needed. And 90 minutes later I'm headed home with more tubing than I can carry. Since he came in I bought much more than I needed.

:metal::metal::metal::metal::metal::metal::metal::metal::metal::metal:

https://truemandrel.com/product-cate...mandrel-bends/

Cutting the old tail pipe off revealed the flow out of the muffler was further restricted by how the shop installed the tail pipe. The second photo kind of shows the issue. They used a reducer to drop from 3" ID to 2.25" OD. That wasn't terrible but they left the 2.25" tubing long, so long that it extended into the interior of the muffler about an inch basically making another baffle for the exhaust to worm around to get out.

By cutting and fitting the pieces I worked my way from the muffler back tacking each piece together. Once all the pieces were tacked together (Photo #3)and it cleared the frame, shock, and fuel tank I welded them together. (Photos #4) I did have to use bottle jack to separate the axle away from the frame to be able to fit the complete tail pipe in place.

After welding I put air pressure in the tubing and sprayed leak check to find any pinholes. I found two which I ground out and rewelded.

For pressure testing I don't have a regulator set up to regulate the air down to 2 to 5 psi for leak testing so I put a nitrile glove on one end of the pipe and slowly open the regulator until the glove inflates. That gives me enough pressure to find any leaks plus it also provides protection against over pressure in the tubing. (See photo #5)

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

Some more photos. I would have liked to of had the end of the pipe stick down another inch or two below the quarter panel but that's where the last 45 ended. I do like that it hides the exhaust size but with the 3 inch tail pipe it no longer sounds like a V6. It's not as stealthy as it was. I'm sure I will have to find an exhaust tip to lengthen it.

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

nice work!

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

Thank you, sir.

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

Started more exhaust work. I purchased a set of Sanderson headers for the truck. I did a lot of research (Too much I think.:lol: )on S10 V8 headers and came to the conclusion that I could get a set of long tube headers that might fit. (There is no set reference as to how far forward or back a SBC engine should set so there is no header that is guaranteed to fit.) That combined with my wanting to maintain the single exhaust (single catalytic converter = less $) and more a sleeper aditude. Long tube headers would have made that a much bigger pain just due to the lack of real-estate underneath.

Once I actually had my hands on the headers it was apparent that there was definitely room for improvement of the Sanderson design which are mostly designed to fit any S10 with a SBC. ( Photo #1) Just looking into the collector it's pretty obvious things are cramped and exhaust flow at that point takes a back seat to packaging. So I did what any hotrodder would do, I cut them up!

Then I made a trip back to my friend's at True Mandrel and purchased a pair of longer collectors. (Photo #4) I will do some prep work on the collectors to get them close to a good fit on the headers. Only I once I have the headers in place I will finish the fit up prior to welding them up.

Re: Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.
 

The tilt part of the steering column suddenly started getting loose over the last 100 miles or so. It had gotten to the point that the wheel had about a 1/4" of play in it. Something needed to be done. My earlier S10 had the same problem and then was the tilt mechanism pivot pins had worn out and needed replacing.

I spent an hour trying to find new ones locally to get it fixed quickly. Unfortunately i found that all parts for these steering columns have been deemed obsolete and no one carries parts for them anymore. Grrrrrr!

I tore the column apart so I could pull the pins out and make some new ones on the lathe. However once things were partly disassembled I realized my diagnosis was wrong! It was the 4 bolts that hold the tilt mechanism to the column and they had come loose. (See photos) This was a easier much problem to repair.

After removing the pivot pins I was able to access all 4 bolts. I did a quick check of the threads by tightening the bolts and found none were stripped. I cleaned the bolts and the holes with brake clean. After applying locktite I torqued torqued the bolts back down and was done.

Well not completely. When I removed the upper bearing the plastic cage for it came apart. Once again no parts availability, so this morning I ran to the wrecking yard and found an S10 with only 167k miles on the clock and no one had yet messed with it. Hooray! 15 minutes later I had a good replacement bearing. I poked around the yard for another hour picking up odd wiring bits and a pair of turn signal return springs. (Those have a limited life span and none of aftermarket ones work correctly.)