Stink Ten Two. The second Blazer.

[HO455]

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.

[dagnabbitt]

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

[special-K]

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

[4793]

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

[HO455]

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.

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.

[special-K]

yeah, stick with the Armstrong steering

[HO455]

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.

[HO455]

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.

[HO455]

Got all the wagons together for a photo.

[HO455]

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!

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

Oh well it kept me amused for an hour.

[HO455]

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?

[HO455]

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.

[HO455]

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

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 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!

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.

[HO455]

Valve adjustment Round Two was successful!

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

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?

[HO455]

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.

[leegreen]

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

[HO455]

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.

[HO455]

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.

[HO455]

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.

[HO455]

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.

[leegreen]

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.

[HO455]

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.

[HO455]

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?

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