Mountain Top break down

[DirtyLarry]

What a drag. So, Friday a couple buddies and I headed for the mountains for a weekend of fishing, wheeling and camping. This would have also been the maiden voyage for the new 6” lift and ORD rear shackle flip on my ’78 K10.

Anyway, the truck ran like a top on the 150 mile trip up our favorite spot near Mount Antero (Buena Vista, CO) although I heard a weird chirp followed by a weird low tone pop noise under the hood once and a while, which I didn’t think much of since the A/C was on and it was hotter than heck. We get to the trail head, air down the tires and start on our 1.5 hr trip up the trail to our camp spot to drop off my buddies stock Silverado before the trail starts to get nasty. Truck still ran fine all the way up. The next morning I started it up and it was knocking like crazy plus the serp belt was squealing like a scaled dog but knock didn’t sound like a rod knock. We yanked the serp belt off and spun all the accessories and found nothing obvious. Put the belt back on and the noise was there again but slowly went away. At that point I was suspecting the serpentine belt tensioner but decided to head up the trail anyway so we cruised up the trail about another mile (at 2 MPH in 4 low) and it really started making a racket. Now that it is sounding this bad I decided to take it back to camp as it was obvious the truck was not crawling off the mounting until whatever that terrible noise is was fixed. Finally got it back to camp popped the hood and used pry bar as a stethoscope to listen to the engine. The noise actually sounded like the water pump but it wasn’t leaking, feeling loose or anything. The only strange tell tail sign was the water pump pulley was as smooth and shiny as chrome.

We decided to hop in my buddies Rubicon and make the 2 hr trip to Salida to find parts. Good luck with that on a Saturday. Thankfully, the NAPA there had everything I wanted. We picked up a water pump, belt tensionor, idler pulley, coolant, sealant, metric tool set because.....of course, I didn’t pack any metrics in my stinken tool box! AGH!

Finally we get back to camp and throw on the easy stuff first….the tensioner and idler. Nope…that isn’t the dang noise. So we replaced the water pump and the noise was GONE! What pisses me off this the engine is a new crate 454HO with only 5K miles. I actually replaced the original GM standard rotation water pump with a NAPA water pump for a late model C/K truck reverse rotation as I am running late model C/K truck accessories. Of all my wrench spining years, I have never saw a NAPA pump fail at such a low mileage nor have I ever saw a water pump make this king of noise without leaking or haveing end shaft play. Weird stuff. The nice thing about GM stuff is how easy they are to work on. Replacing a water pump on the side of the trail at 10,000 ft with no facilities or any luxuries. Ah, yeah.....remember that metric tool set. That SOB kit didn't even have a 15MM that would sure have made replacing the belt tensioner easy!

So, Saturday was shot in the arse because of running up and down the mountain chasing parts. Sunday was better but we didn’t have much time to play as we had to hit the road to go home. This trip sucked.

And after all that the only pictures I got is one of our camp the night before we had to bust out the wrenches and another of us airing the tires back up once we hit the main road.

[Yukon Jack]

That is a bummer and weird about the water pump going out so quickly. Glad you were able to fix it and that the problem wasn't worse. Looks like a beautiful place!

[special-K]

Not a good thing in hot weather.Glad you caught it and got it done.Question:wouldn`t your driveway be a better place to do repairs?I mean,why climb up a mountain in the middle of nowhere to replace a water pump?I`m sorry,I had a bowl of jumbalaya and it`s making me silly.Too much hot sauce,I reckon.Fix`um where they break,I always say.

[eedgell]

I have seen the bearings go out with no leak and no play, but lord what a noise! Yes this state is beautiful! The people are pouring in like sand through a crack though.

[vtblazer]

Wow, nice trip!
Seriously, sounds like a great place you have to go to.

Your truck looks right at home in those hills.

[DirtyLarry]

Well, the good news is the local Napa store warranted the failed pump so I got my whopping $54.27 back.

I hear you eedgell, they might have to rename this state Texarado or Calirado before much longer. Both TX and CA are awesome states but the people seem to like ours better. I wish they would have came here in their RV’s to visit instead of moving trucks to stay.

Here is a link to the place we where headed before the water pump decided that we shouldn’t. http://www.traildamage.com/trails/index.php?id=51

And picture below is another nearby lake we went to a couple years ago. It is called Grizzly Lake. It is a mofo trail to get there in a full size truck especially w/o lockers, which I didn’t have at the time. Talk about a seriously tall wall to crawl up at the start of the trail right after a dip through a creek that soaks the heck out of your tires followed by a narrow cliff hanger trail up to the lake with huge boulders to crawl over. Your exithole will litterly pinch holes in the seat of the truck on this trail. Very picturesque at the top though!

[krue]

So people actually crawl up rocks for a reason, not just to break their trucks?

[jeffspower]

Ending up with truck problems in an area with scenery like that isn't much to complain about. Living here in the midwest provides next to nothing for truck play. Man- made mud pits & back roads with nothing but beans & corn for scenery is the norm. I'd consider myself very lucky to have access to a playground like that!

[DirtyLarry]

Originally Posted by krue

So people actually crawl up rocks for a reason, not just to break their trucks?

Yeah, people actually crawl up rocks to do stuff other than…..well, crawl up rocks so they can be in a magizine and call their buggies, truggies, or whatever they call their stuff rock crawlers. Mine is not a rockcrawler…it is a trail rider especially purpose built for outdoor adventures (fishing, camping, wheeling, more fishing....).

Here are a few more pictures from trips over the past year.

[Yukon Jack]

Originally Posted by DirtyLarry

Yeah, people actually crawl up rocks to do stuff other than…..well, crawl up rocks so they can be in a magizine and call their buggies, truggies, or whatever they call their stuff rock crawlers. Mine is not a rockcrawler…it is a trail rider especially purpose built for outdoor adventures (fishing, camping, wheeling, more fishing....).

I watch alot of the 4x4 shows on TV and by far the most enjoyable ones are where they are just out trail riding. I usually skip the rock racing and competitive rock crawling episodes.

Originally Posted by DirtyLarry

Here are a few more pictures from trips over the past year.

I tell you, those pictures look like heaven on earth to me! Just beautiful!

[Southedisto]

Sweet truck, and great pics.

[knsmodels]

I wanna see some pics of the fish you catch in those beautiful places.....

[CrashEd]

I had trouble with tail lights on 4 july many years ago in Wyoming up in the mountains. It was about dark and as i set under my trailer fixing the wiring the town down in the valley started setting of fireworks. What a site i bet i had the best seat on the mountain it looked like i could reach out a touch them. funny how things stick in your mind. For us flatlanders even a break down in the mountains sounds fun.
Ed

[CrashEd]

Keep posting pictures please i just love looking at them. I lived in Denver for a while and all them trails makes me wish i would of never moved back home to IL well that was like 20 years ago though.
I have went trail riding in the mountains out there but it was trail I70 and i always had a 18 wheeler LOL!!
Ed

[Zoomad75]

Dude, bummer hearing about the Water pump taking a dive out on the trail. Our trip to Lake Wilson out in Kansas was fun, but very hot. Carnage was limited to two tires on the bro-in-law's RV, a dead fuel pump on a jet ski and another blown tire on the jet ski trailer on the way back.

We had fun, but I would rather have been changing a waterpump up in the mountains than a trailer tire on I-70 in the Kansas heat and humidity. That and diagnosing a weak fuel pump on the jet ski in boiling heat too.

Hopefully you scouted some good spots to pitch a tent when we go in August!

[customcamper72]

man that looks like god's country, beautiful scenery.

[Zoomad75]

Originally Posted by customcamper72

man that looks like god's country, beautiful scenery.

We are spoiled. We got another trip in the works for the weekend after next. DirtyLarry and his K10 with the goofy guy (mark) in the black windbreaker riding shotgun and Me in my K5 with my boy and the father time looking guy with the white beard (uncle pete) in an earlier pic.

Should be fun as we got a couple of Whopper's planned to hit for trails. Mt. Antero is the first on the list. High pucker factor on a narrow talus shelf road WAY above timberline. The trail summits above 13,000 ft of elevation, with a spur that takes you almost to the top at 14,000 ft. Our poor old carbs are going to be pitching a fit that high. The treat will be Brown's lake sitting around the backside of the mountain just below timberline.

One side benifit of our altitude is the lack of air makes the beers ever more potent. 2 or 3 beers feels like 6.

[ks147j111928]

Gotta love NAPA parts... I replaced an alternator on a 96 El Dorado last week and the bearing just took a crap on it for no good reason (other than it was made in Mexico?). Not a nice noise... One of these days I am taking my K10 on a 'Mountain Pass Specific' road trip, I have it mapped out already. Now to finish the truck!

Oh yeah, Hoosier Pass with a bad hangover is not fun no matter how good an idea it seemed... ugh...

-Dan