damn murphy and his laws!!!!

[Blue_71]

well, finally got the K20 driving and running without dying.. all the lights work, every switch and doohicky on it works. runs GREAT, ton of power.. of course the front suspension is worn completly out, but i have most the parts to fix it

so here i am, getting all cocky, i decide to take it out for a mile test drive... half mile into it, i start up this big hill, poking along.. dont wanna go to fast, engine is a fresh build and this is its first time on the road in 4 years. i get almost to the top of the hill, go to downshift into 2nd.. SM465 is locked solid in 3rd

does any first test drive EVER go right???

[EAST SIDE LOW LIFE]

Nope!

esll.

[krue]

Not in my experience

[eedgell]

Is that all that happend? Some people have all the luck!!!

[Yukon Jack]

Hmm, my first real drive in the 70 K5 left me and my two girls stranded at an intersection - had to be towed home by a buddy. Little better luck with the first real drive of the 69 K20, just had a leaky power steering hose. Oh, well I guess also bent a pushrod on one of the short test drives so I guess that was a bit of a setback. Yep, I think you're par for the course, most first drives tend to be problematic.

[Blue_71]

well-- got the top off.. after about 3 hours worth of cussing and sweating. those things are a bear when they're not in neutral! did find out the 3rd gear synchronizer is about gone, i believe it to be the culprit. reverse gear is also trashed, about 1/4" of it is ground away. gonna have the tranny guy at work rebuild it, and put new bearings and seals in the NP205. if i keep going im gonna have a brand new truck before i even get done with the testing stage

[Yukon Jack]

Definitely sounds like a rebuild is in order.

[Zoomad75]

They don't call the test drives for nothing do they? Nobody's perfect anyway so to expect a perfect maiden voyage might be a little overly optimistic.

My first drive home after installing the 350 into my k5 went ok except for the teeny little 12" steering wheel made the truck very nervous to drive. It got swapped out when I got home.

I've had two times were I didn't have any major issues after a big job, both in my Nova. Both spelled times for future issues happened later. After installing a 350 for the wheezy 307, the engine ran fine from my house to college 140 miles away. A week later a heater hose sprung a leak and stained all the pretty orange paint on the valve covers and intake manifold. Nothing major, but sucked none the less. Plus I was at work when I found it. Next was after I rebuilt the TH350 in it. It drove great for a month. Then on the way home from school 20 miles from home on I25 in Denver the trans decides to downshift from 3rd to 2nd at 80 all by itself. No throttle input or movement of the shifter. I back out of the throttle all the way and I feel it shift back into 3rd. I roll gently on the throttle to keep up with traffic and it instantly jumps to 2nd again. I ended up getting off the highway and driving across Denver on surface streets in 2nd gear to get home. I must have done something wrong on the rebuid and ended up replacing the trans with a spare we had.

So be thankfull your testdrive found something wrong. Nothing is worse than thinking everything is A-OK and finding out you can't get out of 3rd on your way to work.