Refining "Sierra"

[N2TRUX]

Chris and I gave it a hard run last night. My painter buddy didn't come through to paint the bottom of the hood, inner fenders and top of core support white. Chris sanded the top of the core support and painted it satin black for now.

I laid out the new MSD plug wires, while he sanded and masked. We blasted the core support and we started hanging parts. We go the condenser and radiator installed, and started hanging the belts. Unfortunately I hit a snag at about 2:00 this morning. I went to install the fan, and my had was filled with a thick goo. I had no idea what was inside a fan clutch until now. I will replace it as soon as the auto parts opens up.

I worked till I was ran out of parts to install excluding the fan and called it a night.

[Zach079xxx]

What paint did you use on the carb and other parts? Looks really good

[aggie91]

It was great talking to you today at LST. Truck looks great!

[N2TRUX]

Originally Posted by Zach079xxx

What paint did you use on the carb and other parts? Looks really good

We used Duplicolor and VHT High Temp Engine paint. So far its holding up well, but its too early to tell what the carb will do.

[bigblock73]

Do you have finished pics of the rear storage area?

[JWall]

Truck looked great @ LST from the pics I saw!

Nice work as usual!

[SCOTI]

It did turn out great.

[N2TRUX]

Originally Posted by aggie91

It was great talking to you today at LST. Truck looks great!

Karl it was a pleasure to spend time with you and your son. Let me know if you need any assistance.

[N2TRUX]

If your following along you know the truck did make it to Lonestar Throwdown, but not with out a battle. Before I show the final results, let me wrap up on the build.

I left off with a bad fan clutch, and the shroud mocked up to ensure I had all the bolts needed for assembly. Friday morning I grabbed a new fan clutch, painted and installed it.

[N2TRUX]

I had to work some on Friday, then gather supplies for a hard run at getting this thing on the ground and fired up. I knew it was going to be a challenge, I had no idea what was coming my way.

It becomes a blur in the sequence of events, but Chris worked to put together the last pieces of the puzzle on the drivers side while I worked on the custom fit MSD plug wires.
I already knew they weren't going to be routed the way I wanted along the outside of the valve covers due to the passenger side exhaust manifold being too tall. That meant they had to go around and under. Its not the most traditional or attractive path, but it is about the only direct path.

Heres the passenger side mocked up using zip ties.

[N2TRUX]

With everything back together we installed the fender liners, and double checked all of our connections, and fittings. We capped it off with my modified air cleaner and set it on the ground for the first time in two months.

[N2TRUX]

Originally Posted by JWall

Truck looked great @ LST from the pics I saw! Nice work as usual!

Originally Posted by Chaplain

What pics... I haven't seen any pics. Are there pics? Hmm...

Originally Posted by SCOTI

It did turn out great.

Thanks for the kind words. I will post pics from the show, and "the rest of the story" later today.

[edward61]

Man that looks awesome , I really like what you did with the air cleaner .

[N2TRUX]

So no build goes with out a struggle, and this one had its share. I will say up front that these problems we encountered wouldnt have been so stressful had we not been work down to the last minute, and that is a self inflicted wound. If you want to finish early you start early, or at least start your final push earlier.

Friday was a blur of activity, and I had put off a couple of time consuming tasks while working on other small jobs. I had decided if I would rather not make it than cut corners and have to do it twice.

Chris worked diligently on several finishing details, such as finding the correct bolts and brackets to finish up. You dont think about how they all look the same once they have been bead blasted clean until you try to sort them out.

All was coming along fine till we test fired it. Our first attempt gave us nothing. The dome light was on, but no power to the ignition or dash. Knowing that every wire under the hood had been freshly taped up, I was not looking forward to finding the connection issue.

Fortunately Chris saved the day remembering we had moved the power distribution block lower on the firewall and had failed to tighten all the connections. Problem solved, key on and we have ignition. Or not...

[N2TRUX]

Now we have power to the ignition, but smoke rolling up from the passenger side when we crank. Chris spotted the ground cable from the block to the firewall being the source of our smoke and light show. I had rerouted some of the grounds and cleaned all the connections, but apparently we still had a bad circuit. I added a couple of heavy duty grounds from the frame to the block and resolved the problem. Now the motor cranked over just fine.

Over, and over, and over....

[N2TRUX]

It became obvious I had no fire rather quickly. I checked voltage to the coil, and it was a strong 12+ VDC. Pulled a plug, and zero spark. Hmmm? Could the coil have gone bade? Ignition module? It drove in under its own power, what had I left disconnected?

After an hour or more of head scratching, I was ready to call it quits. Instead I called a buddy for a fresh perspective. Chris Lucas (Capt Koas) walked me through most of the steps I had already tried. Then he asked if i had bypassed or eliminated the ESC? Nope, didnt want to change anything till I had it running again.

We decided to give it a shot rather than start swapping parts. Chris remonded me of a tech article Mike Ervin (Swervin Ervin) had wrote years ago and posted it here Changing To A Non-ESC Distributor This page is a great source of info and 73-87 parts. It is updated regularly by Jeff Drew (Bigblock73)

Chris and I made a jumper to bypass the ESC module. We said a prayer and I hit the key. BOOM! the Sierra was among the living once again, and we were elated. High fives and fist bumps for everyone. My wife came out and said I think I heard the fat lady sing.

The celebration was short lived. I wanted a quick test drive before declaring a total victory. We double checked for any sign of leaks, and soon realized we had filled the powers steering tank with fluid. Filled the tank, rotated the wheel several times, and set her back on the ground.

Lets wrap it up and call it a night, or not.....

[N2TRUX]

One last look for leaks before I rolled out of the garage and Chris signaled to kill it. We have power steering fluid going everywhere. Thinking it was one of the lines we quickly verified they were tight. Back up in the air and I slid under with towels and a flashlight. The tank on the power steering pump and separated and was puking fluid all over the motor. By now its 12:30 on Friday night and we are exhausted physically and mentally.

I asked Chris should we call it, or make a go of it. He said lets do it, so I formulated a last chance plan. I pulled the pump, cleaned up the mess and got on the web. I found a replacement pump, and pulley puller at Autozone. Unfortunately they were closed so we packed up and called it a night.

[N2TRUX]

Saturday morning I was at Autozone when they opened, grabbed the new pump, and puller. Blasted back to my shop, painted the pump, replaced the pulley and hung it in place. Another round of prayers, and test fired. We looked for leaks, high fived again and dropped her on the ground.

WE WERE GOING TO LONESTAR THROWDOWN! Mission accomplished!

[N2TRUX]

The Sierra was very well received at the LST show. I spent the weekend answering questions and enjoying compliments from some very high profile builders. Chris and I were elated that we had made it with no issues on the road. We enjoyed the show and I took a LOT of pics of all the cool classic trucks at the show. Those can be found on my Instagram feed, but heres a few from the show of the Sierra. Enjoy....

[68Timber]

Ken, congrats on making the show. I saw the truck popping up on several instagram feeds last weekend and wondered how the final push went. Truck looks fantastic.

[JWall]

Looks great! Super clean & well done!

[Palf70Step]

Truck looks great ken!

[original-71]

I knew I had faith in you brother to make it by LST, truck turned out great it has your touch for sure...

[Greenlee]

Nice work! Removing the wiring from the top of the firewall looks real clean.

[mcbassin]

Excellent job on this truck Ken! Looks great!