ok this will be my build post, 1976 chevy 1 ton crew cab dually

[68GMC454]

ok instead of doing a new post every time i look at my truck i will just go ahead and start a build post...so this will be on the crew cab i just got..first let me say may she rest in peace to my 84 gmc,,shes been my baby for 5 yrs,,i will misss her...but her heart beat will live on in the dually,,along with anything else i can snag off of her.. this build will be in spurts..the main thing it to get her back up and running.like i said before,,the dually has new tires, new brakse, new duall exhaust, decent headers..just needs the interior fixed and the floor replaced....with that said hear is what will be happening this week

7/15/07

on wendsday the motor will be pulled from my 84, and all new gaskets will be installed along with a new timeing chain..will try to degrease it,,but im not to worried about that at this time..this thread is to get her up and running...

will install the extra gauges the po had for it,,this new cluster has the clock in it..will be gettign rid of it when i can afford the gauges i want...

the front doors are being exchanged for a set off a 83 chevy, they have power every thing, and i get the floor pan for the left front, and the wirring harness to operate the windows and door locks...hopefully its not that hard to wire them in...

the sleeper shell has to come off to fit into my buddies garage,,then its going back on..to me this makes the truck..i have seen this truck for 9 years...personally im attached to it..not sure on the running boards yet...

i will get some more detailed pics of the dually tommorow so you all can see what im starting with...

so bear with me and hang on for the ride...never did a build thread before, always just built them..also the first tiem i have built something,,and had to have other people do it for me..my mind says do it,,my body says there isnt a chance of doing it..so i got to rely on a coupel of buddies to get it up and running, then hopefully when i got the money,,find somebody to strip it to the frame and make it new again....

billy

[68GMC454]

well i didnt get anything done this week..my friend who is doing the work, had a few other freinds want him to work on there stuff,,and since they are paying him to do it i told him go ahead..gives me a little more time to get a few little parts i need for the 454...also found out the 2 doors he has with electric windows,, might be in worse shape than i want to deal with,,so i might wait ans see if later on i can find a donor burban...

[68GMC454]

ok this next weekend,,i will be gettign my timeing chain and header gaskets..we start stripping my 84 for parts to get my dually on the road....we might start tonight, but more than likly tommorow...i will miss my 84, been a damned good truck,,,hope the new dually is as good or better...not sure what im gonna do with whats left of the 84, probably stash her and i might find a 1/2 swb truck the needs a good cab and front clip...but anyway im going through with this deal,,so my dually should be up and running in the next 2 weeks..would be by this next weekend if i had the money for the parts..lol

anyway i took some new pictures of the 76 dually...

password::::::::::::::barbara

http://public.fotki.com/His-n-Hers/s...k/1976-dually/

and to get more pictures of what im starting with...will try to get as many of it in progress as i can,,but i never rember this stuff, and since a friend is doing 98% of the work with out me,,cant be helped...

billy

[Restrorob]

Keep us up-dated.....I like the looks of it with the sleeper shell and running boards.

[krue]

I feel your pain, I never think to stop, wash my hands, take a picture then go back to work.

[68GMC454]

well tongith is the night..we start stripping my baby down to get the motor ready to go into the dually..man this kinda sucks,,when i first started trying to get the dually i hadnt had the 84 to long..now ive had her for along time..and she served me well doing what ever i asked of her..but her hearbeat will live on in the dually..along with other parts from her..i got some new pictures of the 84,,i want to rember her..lol..i get way to attached to my trucks...oh well keeps me out of the bars...
billy

[68GMC454]

well fianly after all this time we are gonna start on my truck..since my friend is working on it for free i havent pushed the issue,,and everytime we think we can get started on it, somebody else shows up and wants to pay him to work on theirs..but he finally said today we gonna do yours...now i was gonna replace just the gaskets, not the intake or head gaskets, but my friend is gonna go through the heads and if anything is wrong rebuild them,,they should be good, but i fugred ok lets go ahead and do it while its tore down..so i went out and got the rest of the gaskets i needed for the 454.. and he told me i was gonna be doing more on it than i thought..i told him you know im not gonna be able to be bent over he siad i know, bu tyour gonna be cleaning alot of grease and stuff up...i wasnt really gonna do that, but he said you aint putting that nasty motor down in another truck like it is..so im gonna clean it up, and throw some spray paint onit while im at it... now he says he might go ahead and paint the whole truck while hes at it..on really,,cool, as long as its black and looks good from 20 foot, i can live with it..plus that will take care of the rust that us coming up under the old paint...so hopeful in the next couple of weeks i can get her on the road...i also so thought of a name for it..i figured i really couldnt keep calling it baby.. like i usually do for all of my trucks..lol....because i know my motor is just nasty, and i 454,,im gonna name the truck big nasty......i mean nasty from all the oil and junk on the motor..lol

[68GMC454]

well good news....on monday i got MMI form workers compensation, which means maximum medical improvement..first they know i need surgery but wont do it..the case will stay open for the rest of my life, got to see a doctor once a year for the rest of my life, and when it finally gets to the point where i cant stand the pain or get around they will do the surgery..go figure..but the good news about this is i can get to work on stripping down my 84..i told my friend i needed it ready to drive to alabama as soon as possible..

so tonight,,thurseday, it went in to the shop..didnt get much done, but the distrubtor fadiator fan and some other stuff is out..tommorow night while at college for tutoring, he wil pull the motor i told him i would skip and be there he told me know your goign to school, because theres nothing your gonna be able to do....

anyway the 454 shoudl be ready to go into the 76 by sunday, barring nothign goes wrong..now, as for the rest of the truck, i have not been able to sell anthing, so im cutting out the floor pan section i need for the 76, and the drivers rocker to...the windshield will be pulled, the steering gear box, and a feew other things i need for the 76..after that, i pour a beer on the ground in her memory and use the 76 to haul her to the shredder...shame to waste good parts, but since i cant sell them,,i can use the money i get out of the 84, to buy primer or other stuff i may need for the 76..

so im on my way to havingthe 76 up and running and i can stop driving the 98 taurus around and finaly get into one of y dream vechiles....

so will try to get pics tommorow of the motor in all it nastieness...

[68GMC454]

well we got the motor out tonight..man,,i dont think i ever had one this nasty..lol...god only knows how many years it has been leaking oil,,but it is bad..will get pictures tommorow before i take it to the car wash to pressure wash it...just a few more things i need to pull off of it, and then its off to the shredder with whats left...if this guy buys my motor home im gonna buy some primer and paint for it, and paint it to..if not,,then just sand it done and take care of the rust and put it in primer.. i do know before i dorp it down in the crew cab, the crew cab is going to get the under hood area pressure washed..hopefuly these new gaskets will take car of my leaks,,,dont want to work on any more nasty truck..lol..but it sure feels good getting greasy and grimy again.. but i can tell you that my back is lettign me know im doing to much,,but i will worry about that after i get my crew cab up and running...

[68GMC454]

well it finally happend..everything was coming apart good, nothign wrong with the heads, they were in great shape,,as im pullin gthe crank pully off the harmonic ballencer, or damper what ever you want to call it, fell off in my hnds..ok not a good sign, got the rest of it unbolted and pulled off. pulled the oil pan off, found out the bottom end looked great,,and has been rebuilt sometime in the past.. the harmonic ballencer has dammaged the timeing chain voer with a big groove,,so got to replace that to..but so far that is the only thing i have had that was unexpected..the timeing chain and gears are shot, but i knew that and already had the new one...hopefully tommorow will set it down in the dually..i got pic of the motor today,,but my friend had already had his son pwer wash it before i got there..as soon as my ol lady gets around to resizing them and sending them to me, i will post them...but over all everybody was pretty surpised at how clean the inside of the engine was..i wasnt,,it doenst burn or use oil,,just leaks it really bad..lol..what can i say she liked to mark her territory...
billy

[68GMC454]

well first let me say there is no way i could have gotton all of this done with out my friends help..i have done alot of the work myself, i pushed myself physicly but even though im not doing to good right now,,im happy as a pig in slop..since thursday of last week we got the motor pulled, cleaned up, figure out why the darned motor eats pilot bushing, the harmonic balencer was bad, so if you are doing a clutch job, and the pilot bushing falls out,,better check your harmonic ballencer,,mine put a groove in the timeing chain cover, and the lip of the oil pan...for now i used jb weld on the timeing chain cover, and the oil pan got a little extra rv silicone put on it...the motor has been pwerwashed, everythign prety much washed in gasoline, the painted,, the brackets, pulleys, oil pan, valve covers were painted dupli color bronze mist..the block and intake and heads are dupli color hi temp caliper paint..why caliper paint, i got a coupel of cans of it for 50 cents each. same with the other color..lol..
this is the engine after it was power washed

Hosted on Fotki

this is one after it was painted and mostly put back together

Hosted on Fotki

now this was supposed to be a quick change the gaskets and install it in the dually, i guess im lucky the motor is clean inside and has been rebuilt some time in the past. there is water in the clynders fromt he pwer washing, the rings are good becuse it is not leaking down and draining out..it will be turned over as much as needed to get it pushed out of the plug holes.. over all the motor is tight...
i got these numbers off the back of the block..........14015445 there were no numbersby the heads but these were under the right head,,not from the factory because the 5 are on a angel, tes515658....not sure but im thinking they are from who ever rebuilt the motor..i could be wrong...

can anybody run the numbers for me and tell me what i got...not sure if this is the original motor for the 84 i took it out of...

heres the link to the pictures i rembered to get...lol
password::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::barbara

http://public.fotki.com/His-n-Hers/s...k/1976-dually/

pictures start at number 33..

billy

[68GMC454]

well i ran the numbers off the block, the motor numbers match the block castigns from 76 to 90,,i think it said...and its a truck motor..so im guessing this was the original motor for the 84... have not dropped it back down in the 76 yet, i think gonna wait until i get the new harmonic balencer.. which im still about 3 weeks from getting, hopefully we wait, then i can throw in a new front seal for the tranny, and new fluid in the torque converter and change out the filter and pan gasket on it..it doesnt leak, but might as well while its tore down...from the stories i been hearing on this truck, it has been hot rodded in the past...i found out who owned it before the guy i got it from, he drag races and still does, thias truck used to pull hiss cars until he went and got a new frieghtliner.. that explains the built 454 that used to be in the truck...the tranny has some new stuff on the out side of it,, so hopefully its in good shape...i think today if im up to it im gonna go change out the front seat by myself,,if i can handle the wieght of it...i think im gonna have to change out the seat mount...i will try to install the drivers window to while im at it...hopefully by the end of sept i will have all the rust sanded down. the floor out of my 84 is gettign donated to fixed the drivers side also the drivers side rocker also the lower driver side fender will be used to fix the 76 driver side fender....i think the rest can be fixed with out replacement parts. got to get the tailgate hardware to, since the 76 is missing most of it...got to get new pins and bushing for the doors, most of them are hard to shut...got to get this all done before it starts to snow, since the truck is to long for the garage..
now would i do all of this again the way its being done, depends on the situation...with my limited income, im lucky to be getting it done to start with, so for now im happy with it...if and when the money im waiting on comes in, im not sure im gonna rebuild the motor, its in good shape and hopefully the new timing chain will fix my issues with the motor...will get a new carb for it,,i know the one i got needs a rebuild, but will work for now..if i get enough moeny, i will be changeing out the turbo 400 for a 5 speed from a newer model, i like a stick, and over drive would be great, not lookig for huge increase in the mpg, but hey if i could get it up to 10 mpg, i would be happy.. this truck will be my daily driver except when there is snow on the ground, i didnt even use my 84 for a dd...i figure it will get lowered a few inches probably with bags in the next year hopefully....i been doing the best i can to keep ya'll updated, wish i had more pics, but if i get greasey finger prints on the ol ladys cam im in trouble..lol...got a brand new box of gloves, and forgot to use them, but it felt great gettign greasy again after being laid up for so long...

[68GMC454]

well we got the motor set down in the dually today, then it started raining.. inbetween rain storms, i got the carb on and water pump. still waiting to get a harmonic balencer, so other than wireing it up, not gonna be ready to drive till after the 8th of oct when i get paid... so i will be putting the interior together.. which shouldnt be to hard, since its all there,,just got to figure it all out...

[68GMC454]

well while i was underneath my truck this last weekend i got to studining on the drop it has..now my 84 3/4 2wd had plenty of room under it to work on it. but the crew cab even if it didnt have the running boards would be alot lower..
anyway,,is there a way to figure out what kinda drop it really has. the fornt shocks are short,,so they did that part right, the rear has a shackle drop with the factory springs..it will still carry a load on it..but the top of the overload sprinds is about 1/2 inch away from riding on the top perch or stop...i will get pictures this weekend.. but the shackle drop looks like it is over 6 inches...now sombody has put alot smaller 16 inch tire on this thing so it doenst look good to me,,so it it be gettign a taller tire put on it, and since i found out the tires have some weather cracking on them, i need new ones anyway.. so that will fillt he wheel wells back up....

[68GMC454]

well finally got some moeny today, so i went and got the harmonic balencer i needed..had to drive 40 miles to get one off the shelf..but i got it, and saturday if its not to cold i should fire up the truck..i got just enough money left over to get the anti freeze and a couple more quarts of oil,,had to use some in my ranger, ranger leaks as bad as the 454 did..just what i need, another oil leaking truck but since it was free i will still drive it.. sorry to keep posting,, since its so slow of a motor swap..but wiht the budget im on im lucky to be this far along..be glad when i can get back to work..

all that really left is to installthe harmonic ballencer, bolt up the torque converter, headers, and alt power sterring pump.. everything else is pretty much in there already..

once i get it running i will bring it home so i can do the interior, which will be mismatched for awhile, but i can live with it..i hope to get some of the surface rust sanded down before winter, but im not gonna be driving this truck in the snow, so it shouldnt rust to bad before next spring...


once i get back to work i will get the replacement body pieces i need and get them installed, then get about 5 gallons of paint,,not sure how much really,,but its a big truck.. dont have to paint the bed since its already rhino lined...

since i never got anybody to buy the 84 i stripped, it will be on it way to the shredder this weekend..hate to see it happen, but i dont have a place to park a stripped down truck....

well thats it for now...

[68GMC454]

well i finished stripping parts off my 84 last night.. man it sure is a greasy nasty mess..not gonna know what to do with a truck that doesnt leak oil....funny how alot of grease and grime makes things come off really easy.. i pull the sterring gear box, i need it for the 76, and it came right off...the pittman used a air cisel with the pittman attatchment, and it just came right out...makes it nice when you dont have to fight every nut and bolt...got the winsheild, and other little things i been meaning to get off of it...

im gonna use the doors off the 84 for the 76, it needs neds pins and bushing in the hinges anyway..also easier for me to swap doors than to try to figure out how to get the window back into the door.. im going to learn how to install a windsheild today, will finish up the motor...just got to put on the harmonic balencer and alt, bolt up the torque converter... then wire it...headers get bolted on today,,it should fire up by tonight...got to put in the left tank,,im not gonna put both tanks in it, because i hate the way chevy designed the dual tanks with the darn caps on both sides of the truck..but im gonna either do a 40 gallon burban tank in the rear or a custom in bed tank under the sleeper.. gonna use the rust free 76 doors for a floor piece for now, just gonna srew it in place, next year i will get floor pans and rockers for it...

im gonna be doing fiberglass work on the dually fenders soon, im going to change out the marker lights on the fenders for ones from a 07 ford dualy i like the way they look.. gonna loose the overhead cab lights. and go with a visor with lights, its had one before..

i guess i ramble on to much,, and with no coments makes me think im doing this wrong...but it will soon be over,,hopefuly the electrical works right and i dont have to get into rewiring the truck... i may start sanding on it in the next couple of weeks and at least get it in primer... got to weld in all the trim holes and the mirror holes on the doors, wel li guess it never ends,, but this is a daily driver, so no frame off for now, but i dont plan on selling it, but if somebody offers enough i might be tempted...

ok for the total price involved in this truck so far

350 for the 68 gmc i traded for it.
around 250 for gaskets and other little parts..

so im not into it to much......

[68GMC454]

mna im beging to think this dually doesnt like me...it has been a rough project from the start..everythign so far has fought me the whole way as far as putting it all together....it will be worth it in the end,,but i have never had one give me this much trouble on just dropping a motor in it, and gettign it up and running...i know if i ever have to do another harmonic balencer, im gonna use some white grease to see if it will go on easier,, took about 45 mintues to beat that darned thing on...and of course the headers didnt just go on easy,,they took a long time to get lined up right... but if we work on it today, should be able to fire it up,,but the way things are going probably gonna be sometime this week before i get it fired up...i got to keep thinking of that,,b ecause it sure is a pain in the butt tryign to get it all back together..

[Restrorob]

Originally Posted by 68GMC454

i know if i ever have to do another harmonic balencer, im gonna use some white grease to see if it will go on easier,, took about 45 mintues to beat that darned thing on

I sure hope you didn't damage the thrust bearing in that engine. On the next one before the timing cover goes back on use coarse emery paper on the crank to remove some material, Then keep trial fitting it until it can be lightly tapped on or pulled on with the bolt.

Hang in there, It will get together. Nothing ever goes easy when in a hurry.

[68GMC454]

yeah its going together slowly, i didnt figure on it taking this long for basicly just swapping the motor to the other truck...but im glad i had the gaskets or i never would have known the harmonic balencer was bad..and even though i didnt want to clean up the motor and degrease it, im glad my friend made me do it, and paint it while i was at it..it looks alot better than it ever did...the real problem im having is i had help from my friends boy taking it apart, so im having trouble rounding up all the nuts and bolts....that and its been 6 weeks or so since i pulled the motor...

[68GMC454]

wooooooooooohoooooooooooooooooo shes alive...well somewhat anyway...had a friend come over who has a automotive bussiness that deals with electrical...so the good news is he figured out what wires i needed to get it started...the bad news is, he said to replace the wiring harness under the hood and under the dash...but it will fire up..still need the water hose that goes from the water pump to the intake...
cant drive it, went to put the drive shaft back in it, and the carrier baering was just trashed..its in more peices than i need..

so im closer to gettign it back up and running, but more money needed to finish it.. personaly ive never had one that has nickel and dimed me lioke this truck has, but alos never tried to do this on a really limited budget either... to some of you, the 3 or 400 ive had to come up with to get this truck back on the road isnt much, but when i can only spare 50 to 100 a month, sometimes none at all, makes it rough..i know next time i do this, im gonna make sure all the nuts and bolts get put in one place, i have had to call alot of different people i know to find nuts and bolts...

so instead of new door pins and bushing, i got to get a carrier bearing and go get a used wiring harness...

is there a differance between a standard cab wiring harnes and a crew cab...

[streetstar]

Given what you have to work with -- it sounds like you are making some really good progress so far.

There is always going to be "something else" when it comes to an engine swap, isnt there? Whether its a late night parts store run, or a power steering bracket that doesnt line up, or like you said - headers that are supposed to be an easy fit that take forever.

It will be worth it when its done to your specs in the end

[68GMC454]

well i was surprised yeasterday when i went ot buy my new carrier bearing and the little hose that goes fromt he water pump to the intake..
first i just knew the carrier bearign was gonna blow my monthly budget of 100 or less..i just knew it, so i was pleasantly suprised when it was on 19.99.
i was happy as a pig in slop...
now why does the little hose i need, not listed in any book or puter..the book say to use a piece of heater hose, obvisly they have neve put one of these on, so after looking at the rack where all the hoses are i picked one that should work,, the hose cost me 13.00
why does the hose cost alomost as much as the darned bearing.....

so this month i can get my truck running, get the windshield changed out, maybe even blow my budget and get it tagged and drive it some...

so in the next couple of days, it will bbe runing and i can move it with out useing a chain.. so the night mare of jusst dropping a motor in it is about over...

next step will be to get a wiring harness, complete one inside and out.
figure out where the brake fluid is going,
get the intior cleaned out and reinstalled,
weld in a patch panel for the drivers floor,
swap the doors, so i cna have door locks and windows that work...

but i will be driving it soon..

but the way things are going with this truck i wont be surprised to find somethign else wrong..jsut the way this truck project is going... good news is it doesnt leak oil, and i think i fixed the tranny lines that were leaking.. so hopefully no leaks...

[spudz]

Some projects go smoothly... Some fight you the whole way... BUT IT WILL go together!!!! So keep pluggin away!!!!

[68GMC454]

well what a day,,i got both gas tanks installed, had to replace all the fuel lines in the back of the truck, 50.00 for hoses or close to it...had to buy some stupid fuel lines for a fuel injection, they didnt have enough with out it, that stuff is 5.00 a foot...i installed my first windsheild today, last one i will do to, i got a friend who will install them for 20.00. so its worth it to me to just pay him to do it. got the drive shaft installed, either the tranny linkage is not hooked up right or somethign wrong with the tranny, if so i got a good granny tranny to put in it...but now i got a knock for some reason, but i think the motor got reaally hot, i shut it down fast...hopefully its not hurt. i just dont have the money to rebuild the motor... so tomorow got to check the tranny linkage, and see if i got a air bubble in the water system...but man she sounded darned sweet before it got hot.

[68GMC454]

well this is the last post for awhile...ive decided to push my crew cab around back until i can get the money to rebuild the motor....after pulling the oil pan off, i looked in the oil pan and it is full of stuff....not sure where it came from, since it was clean when i pull it off to replace the gaskets...personally i would have been better off to have kept my 84,, but i will live with my choice...

i would like to know where the stuff came from, but one of life little mysterys i guess...to bad was a good running engine that only needed new gaskets and a timeing chain...so this project is down for along time probably....

thanks for all the information and help....