My son's first truck
 

our '90 stepper that we bought from the orig owner in '95 with 24 000 miles, finally after 29 yrs of faithful service, 200 000 on road miles, approx 150 000 off road miles and smiles all the way has given it's last....sad face...
had never owned an IFS truck (solids only) and had my doubts, figured it would be a good mall crawler for the wife and to maybe get off our road in the winter.
in fact the whole time she drove it (first 9 yrs) she prob had it in 4by maybe 10 times.....sad face...
after i took it over in '04, it's off road miles skyrocketed, with a 40-ish to 1 crawl ratio, some good tires and it would go, climb, ford any terrain as long as the tires got traction, and made me a believer out of IFS suspensions
shortly after we bought it in '95
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wasn't "pretty" enough for the wife, so cranked the bars, some add a leafs, 285 tires, prom chip, flowmaster cat back and a few other accs
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then i took it over and it's off road chops kicked in. cue the man in black- "I've been everywhere"
literally to hell and back, never left me stranded, although i did have to limp it home once or twice after destroying some parts...
but for the last few yrs i kinda neglected it and only spent whatever money was needed to keep it running. all my money was going into my crewcab
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Re: My son's first truck
 

i did some calculations and i figured it would take 5-7K to bring it back mechanically, not counting the cosmetics.
so it was a no brainer buying this '96 rcsb for $6500.
truck was bought new by a hot rod shop that used it for a parts chaser, then they sold it to the gentleman i got it from.
4.3 V6, 5 spd, and 3:73 gears. body is minty mint esp for a 28 yr old truck.
hot rod shop also swapped the seats for some out of a Yukon i think.
miles were just over a hundred k. runs perfect with no issues, clutch is smooth as is shifting it, brakes, which usually suck on the gmt 400's, are outstanding- they will put your face in the windshield if your not paying attention.
didn't get much of a "test drive" as the p.o. was riding with me, but it run and looked so good and i needed a daily, so i bought it.
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Re: My son's first truck
 

like i said, for a 28 yr old rig, the body is beautiful
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Re: My son's first truck
 

on the way home after buying it (aprox 70 miles) i was completely underwhelmed by the V6. never owned a V6 truck in my life, always 8's and i noticed i had to run it up way more when shifting than the 5.7 in the stepper.
but i had bought it and figured after driving it for awhile i would get used to it....
the offending V6..
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the first thing i did when i got it home was pull off the cow catcher and toolbox. i need to mount a canopy for my dawgs. sold the grille guard and toolbox for $500 so my investment was now down to 6 K.
when the guard came off it was pretty obvious my fr bumper had some plating issues...
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also had a headliner prob to deal with as well
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Re: My son's first truck
 

bumper was a little rougher looking once the chrome came off....
at this time my stepper was still driving, so i figured i would just do a temp fix on the bumper. the plan was to take the mint bumper off the stepper when it died and put it on the new truck.
after tons of welding and grinding, it looks acceptable enough for now
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first winter with us and still hadn't put it on the road yet
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Re: My son's first truck
 

new struts on the box and some new paint got me $500 for this goofy-ness
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one thing i hated about this truck is the '90's silly-@ss decals on it. a few hrs with a hot air welder from work and there gone. also took off the few pieces of rub strip that were left. where the rest of it went went i have no clue...
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Re: My son's first truck
 

the grille was also pretty faded out, so with Tim's suggestion (Special K) i sprayed it with some metallic charcoal i think it was called
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also yanked off the rear bumper to knock out a dent, fix the license plate lights and a new coat of paint
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Re: My son's first truck
 

rear bumper looking a little better now
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cause of my dawgs, i needed a canopy. got this one for free from a buddy, but needed lots of work and was actually off a dodge sb, so the fit was not spectacular, but it would work.....and the price was right...
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also scored these factory flares off a silver sub for $150.
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sprayed them with bedliner
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give the truck a nice look i think
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Re: My son's first truck
 

bumper looks ok now i think
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cause the canopy was free, that left money to make it black. no matter what color my trucks are, my canopy's are always black...that white is just to loud anyways
couldn't belive the damage to the roof of the canopy...turned out buddy had dragged it down his driveway upside down...
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Re: My son's first truck
 

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also paint the insides of my canopy's grey. new paint on the window frames, new struts, new weatherstripping, some clamps and was able to get replacement keys instead of whole new locks
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Re: My son's first truck
 

after i put the canopy on, i put some insurance on it and drove it a few times. still unimpressed with the 6. it's a nice little truck, but i sure do miss the low end grunt of the 8.
told my son if he worked on it he could drive it. privately i think i had already made up my mind to give it to him. the 6 just was not what i was expecting, and besides, his firebird can not handle our snow very well. 2" of snow and his airdam is plowing...
putting in new end links and swaybar bushings
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then the headliner prob. learned my son how to take down and re-finish a headliner
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Re: My son's first truck
 

and installed.
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while installing the headliner, the pass door closed on both our fingers multiple times, as the detent was all screwed up. hmmmm, i wonder why...
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also didn't like the factory mirrors. they hang too low instead of eye level. so we swapped the mirrors off the stepper
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Re: My son's first truck
 

today was the day i basically gave the kid the truck, told him the bills for fixing are his now and that dad can use if needed till i can get another daily:metal:
when i bought the truck, the hot rod shop had did a cat delete with a 3" exhaust with a dynomax chambered muffler. why anybody would put that on a v6 is beyond me. it don't sound cool. it sounds like a tractor going down the road, most horrible sounding vehicle i ever owned, even wife didn't like it, which says a lot...
as my son does not have money falling out his behind, a new exhaust was out of the question. so he found a Walker 3" turbo muffler for $100. sounds worlds better now. even the wife likes this one...
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another issue we found was the dr side bushing and cup for the rad support had pretty much dis-integrated.
nothing left of the cup
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so a new body bushing kit is out of reach right now, he went back to my stepper and salvaged the drivers one. and no, that is not a hole in the mount, it's a piece of rusted bushing stuck to the mount
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Re: My son's first truck
 

truck seems pretty orig. driveshaft sticker and torsion bar sticker still hanging in there
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gotta love the rust free body....too bad everything under the body isn't as rust free
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Re: My son's first truck
 

I hope you fix up the stepper too but both are great looking red shortboxes

Re: My son's first truck
 

when your 19 nowadays, a cassette deck don't cut it.
my son got a very good deal on this pioneer cd/whatever else they do stereo.
also got a screaming deal on these speakers as well. 6" rounds to replace the door stockers, and 6x4's that mount in the rear pillars.
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the new speakers rattled the heck out of the doors, so we put some dynomat in them and they sound much better. also didn't care for the 6x4's. they just don't have any juice in them, so he disconnected them and took my speaker boxes out of my stepper with some pioneer 6x9's and uses them with the door 6's
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Re: My son's first truck
 

with his limited funds, int mods are minor.
some hd Dickie seat covers to cover them fancy yukon seats
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this rocker was for the fog lights on the cow catcher. been repurposed for some led back-ups. he has a more factory looking switch, but he wants to change the little panel as the prev owner had something bolted to it
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all engine codes are gone. kicked out an egr code, replaced the egr and all is good again. abs light was also on, one sensor took care of that, and the right turn signal dash bulb was not working, but a new bulb took care of that
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my son is like me, likes the old skool lace on wheel covers
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he has also been bringing the door handles back to black. looking at earlier pics, they were sun faded completely grey
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Re: My son's first truck
 

my son has been raiding my stepper again. here's the led back-ups he wired into the reverse circuit...that he swiped off my stepper
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he also jacked my tow hooks off the stepper as he had none cause of the cow catcher
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god darn, he even snaked my 4" stainless tip
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Re: My son's first truck
 

his truck has one single plastic skid plate.
he wants to "borrow" the ones off the stepper, alum for the fr, the diff and the t-case
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my old stepper is looking forlorn, ya, there's rims missing now
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Re: My son's first truck
 

after scrimping to buy stuff for his truck all year (with dads help) my son came into some money.
him and my wife both got a substantial inheritance from her dad's passing early this yr.
well, it was time for some new rubber. them wimpy 265 at's just don't cut it where we go.
so ordered up some 285 Cooper STT's. he wants to also "borrow" the rims off my stepper and get them painted black...wore them BF's down pretty good. there is only about an eighth left on them.
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as the stock shocks are also hooped, he ordered some longer Skyjackers, hopefully be here this week or next
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we also have a set of keys and blocks on order to lift it enuff to slide them 285's under it.
future plans are get the hood re-cleared, the factory clear is starting to flake in a few spots and he's thinking he might like the stepper box on his truck better

Re: My son's first truck
 

we took it out the other night. wheels not to bad, not as good as the step, but it's got the cruddy little at's on it. should do better with the Coopers and a little height
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Re: My son's first truck
 

thanks
with our little windfall, i had seriously thought about re-doing the stepper, but man it needs a lot. of course we do have some sentimental attachment to it, (29 yrs worth) but i need to be realistic. even if i fixed it up, it's still an almost 400 000 mile (not kms) truck that has seen some serious use. i bought the new truck cause the last fews months one thing after another after another was hitting me with the step. and it won't really "die", it will live on in our new truck..
and i been thinking, we have 3 trucks already, why not get what i want, another blazer, but maybe gmt400 style, or a 2dr tahoe, fairly modern and reliable but easy as $hite to work on

Re: My son's first truck
 

my son and i pulled these off the rear leafs today-bit of a chore, sure glad i bought that 1200 ftlb milwaukee impact the other month...
half a inch thick the entire length. rear susp could'nt move it was so stiff. now it flexes nice. seeing how it was a parts chaser for a hot rod shop, guessin' they put them in for hauling home engines, axles, etc.
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one shock of 4 showed up today. other 3 are coming in 2 more boxes (?!)
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we mounted up the new tires on my old stepper rims today, just to see how they will look. plus we can mount them on his truck this weekend so we can decide how high to lift it
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stepper is looking even more forlon now. 3 different tires.
pass fr is a 245/70 16, dr fr is a 285/75 16, and the 2 rears are the old tires and rims from wifey's 'yoda, 245/65 17
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Re: My son's first truck
 

spent like half a day cleaning my old stepper rims. literally the first time they been cleaned in about 10 or so yrs...
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kid bought some chrome valve stems, luggies and center caps for contrast...
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Re: My son's first truck
 

we finally got all 4 rims done
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the blocks for the rear came the other day
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didn't have a big enough (frikkin) metric impact socket for the u-bolts, so i tried a regular socket on my 1200 ft lb milwaukee impact....ripped it right in half, so before we wrecked anymore sockets, we said the hay with it and zip wheeled 'em off in 3 mins
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in and sitting a bit taller.
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Re: My son's first truck
 

the keys came in yesterday, so we spent half a day whacking on stuck torsion bars. also left my cam in wife's 'yoda, who was at work, so had to wait till she got home for pics.
now it's looking like a truck and not some girlie play toy...
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approx 2" clearance at the front of the fender cranked hard over, and about 1 1/2" clearance at the back of the fender cranked over. for a piece of mind i also zipped the inside corners of the fender flares off

Re: My son's first truck
 

kid is a little upset no off roading till the rest of the shocks get here, but no sooner had we mounted the tires and 2 young girls, 16-19, my son's age, walked by and commented they liked the rims...i was like there, quit complaining you got a chick magnet truck now...:lol:
really liking how our driveway is shaping up now, i drive a lifted truck, my wife drives a lifted truck, and now my son is tooling around in a lifted truck....the only thing missing and needed is a lifted blazer or 2 dr tahoe.
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i have come across 2 very interesting tahoe/yukon's for sale, gmt 400 flavor. one is stock with some goofy rims and has 55 000 miles and is a beauty queen, which would pain me to drag thru the bush, and the other one is a LS swap, nvg 4500, hi pinion dana 44 sas with a 14 b rear axle. i'm really liking the sas tahoe just for the fact it's a 5 spd. only prob is finding time to go check it out before it sells- it's 3 1/2 hrs from me
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Re: My son's first truck
 

me and my son did a cut-polish and clean on his truck today
he also took off the wiper arms and re-painted them
new shocks goin' on tomorrow
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Re: My son's first truck
 

well we put the new shocks in, had to cut the fr shock bolts with a grinder. took it for a drive and she rides real nice now, them old shocks (waaaay old) were toilet, they were making a grinding noise up and down.
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so while we were taking the truck out to test the ride of the shocks, we stopped for fuel. as my son is filling the truck, i noticed fuel puking out from under the truck...turns out the filler tube is rotted
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yup, that's a hole in the tube...
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lookin' better now, no more leaky's
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Re: My son's first truck
 

Looks like it's coming along pretty well.

Re: My son's first truck
 

getting there...
few more things we want to change and sort out.
took it out for some light wheeling, does not bad for a v6, 41:1 crawl sure helps.
totally impressed with the cooper stt's. actually find they bite better than the KM2's we were running
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leafs flex much better without them overloads. if they were still on, tires would be in the air
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puppies seem to like the more room than my old stepper :lol:
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Re: My son's first truck
 

well we hit our first real mechanical probs with the '96.
i knew we had to get it aligned after throwing some lift keys in it, but it drove real nice at lower speeds so it was kinda on the back burner for the moment, but on the freeway a few days ago it didn't feel right. felt like an old '70's large barge, do a lane switch at speed and it seemed to take it's time and wouldn't come back fast enuff so now your doing the wiggle waggle down the road till it straitened up. people behind us prob thought we was drunk or something...lol
we did a backyard alignment and determined there was no more adjustment in the stock camber bolts. so we put some new bolts in and did another backyard alignment so we could get it to the shop. the alignment guy actually commended us on the not bad alignment job with a tape measure and 3 ft long level.
$160 bucks later and she steers with one finger now :metal:
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niiice! no chineseum...
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Re: My son's first truck
 

the other mechanical prob is a little more involved.
once or twice while in 4lo it would clunk. i thought maybe a bad cv, but after inspecting the cv's, they were pretty solid. then last friday while trucking up this mountain we had a more serious prob. was in 4lo again going up a 30-35 degree gravel hill with a little throttle thrown in and she popped into neutral twice on the hill. little freaky the first time as it started rolling backwards- instantly...
so i'm thinking maybe the shift fork is boogered or the pads are worn off. will also check the "infamous" snap ring on the output shaft
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luckily if anything is broken or chewed up, i got this 241 case with 2 yrs of use on it. my buddy bought a 94 k1500 new in '94 and in '97 he blew the t-case. he just made it in under the 3 yr warranty and gm put a new case in for him. two yrs later he blew the tranny and i ended up with the t-case. been sitting in my back yard since '97....wondering what the guts look like after 20+ yrs of non-use...besides his was out of an auto, ours is a manual
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Re: My son's first truck
 

me and my son pulled the transfer case out yesterday. took a little over an hour to get it out. unfortunatley i could only use my impact on the driveshafts. we had to use a wrench to get all 6 bolts from the t-case to trans out, and were only able to turn the bolts less than a 1/4 inch at a time cause of the adapter webbing in the way.
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Re: My son's first truck
 

we cracked open the case and my diagnosis was only partly correct. the snap ring on the output was broke, and the main shaft was walking all over. the shift fork had a major groove cut into it explaining all the metal on the pickup. pretty much everything on the main shaft was toast. input gear had chipped teeth, the shift hub, the pilot and input bearings, synchronizer hub and sleeve, synchro stop ring, sprockets and chain....and the fork pads...betcha the prev owner was prob slam shifting the t-case from 2wd to 4lo.
we pulled apart my spare t-case, but after 20+ yrs, the innards were pretty rusty.
then my buddy came thru big time for me. he had a '99 t-case with push button and and super low miles. not only did he give me the case, he swapped out all the internals into my case today while i was at work. i owe him big time now. so tonite me and the boy slapped the case back into the truck. about an hour and a half, getting dark here around 5 o'clock and we were doing most of it by flashlight
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Re: My son's first truck
 

and the day before the t-case bs, we were out in the bush and the actuator crapped out.
luckily i had just replaced the actuator in my stepper 5 or 6 months ago so my son grabbed that. when it carps out we'll switch to an electric actuator.
gm in all there infinite wisdom decided to change the shape of the actuator plug from 1990 to 1996. my son had to cut the plug off and change it with the newer one.
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Re: My son's first truck
 

we tested out my buddy's rebuild-darn fine work he does. although we did have to swap the 4by indicator switch from the stepsides t-case cause the front axle wouldn't unlock, but other than that it works perfect.
the rain gouged out a nice 2 ft deep trench down the road
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actually quite a few trees down from a recent wind storm...and one bit the kid...
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up to the snow line
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Re: My son's first truck
 

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like i said, trees down everywhere
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starting to catch the "blue hour"
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kinda hard to tell, was dark out, we had to drive thru this tree that fell while we were up the mountain. my son was driving and a big stick tagged the vent visor
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