For the first time every a GM shop manual let me down

[Rich69shortfleet]

At times the original shop manuals can be a little vague, but the instructions and step by step outline are usually pretty decent. I recently replaced the interior door latch controls and the window regulators. Some years back the passenger side regulator broke and I replaced it with a good used 72 version (all I could find at the time). It always bugged me that the window crank stuck out so far given my 69 door panels. Also, I figured if that one broke, the driver's side one couldn't be too far off from failure.

The reproductions I got from Manes looked decent and had a high build quality. The door latch controls were a snap to put in. For the window regulators I consulted my shop manual. It said to remove the 4 bolts holding the mechanism to the inner panel, push it inward and slide it forward to disengage the rollers from the window tracks. Um, yeah, but, you CAN'T just push the mechanism into the door because the front vertical track (the back part of the wing window mechanism) is in the way. Well anyway, after a lot of cussing and more disassembly than I thought I'd have to do I got them both in and they work great. BUT, I sure wish these trucks had screw in roller tracks like my Chevelle, those sure do make changing windows and/or window regulators a much simpler job.

I also replaced the heater controls since my original suffered a broken DEF lever recently. I put in the 67/68 version which is mostly black since I'll be converting the interior to a black and white motif in the future. The controls look great and were another quality product. I also wanted new controls to work with the Vintage Air system I'll be installing later this Summer (hopefully).

Now if that new temp sending unit would arrive soon I could wrap up all my current plans to work on the truck. When that arrives I'll be removing the aftermarket gauges (temp, amps, oil pressure) and sticking with just the factory gauges, changing the thermostat back to a 180 degree unit (have a 160 in there now) and of course installing the new temp sending unit. This is all on top of a complete interior LED lighting upgrade I did just recently.