Guess what I bought!!!!!!

[Yukon Jack]

With the outstanding assistance of Blazerboy, I now own a wrecked 1988 or 89 Chevy 1 Ton Crew Cab that just happens to have a running 454!

Blazerboy called me up a while ago and said this truck was sitting at a body shop just across the street from his work. Blazerboy went out of his way to track down the owner and made repeated trips to their house to assist me in purchasing this truck. Got the whole truck for $850. I'm about as excited as can be.

The trip to pick it up was very memorable. Being too cheap to call a wrecker, and knowing the U-haul dollies are not wide enough for a dually front end, I got the bright idea to use my round bale hay trailer, heck, it's darn strong I was thinking.

Well, get over to start the process last night with Blazerboy's assistance at about 6:15. Our first order of business was to get the front bumper and sheet metal out of the front tire. A few yanks and tugs with my truck and the fender and bumper were out of the way. We then took the flat front tire off and put on a spare tire that I had.

Next we started to survey our situation and see how we were going to get the truck on the hay trailer. I thought we could use my jack stands and super strong cinder blocks (kids don't try this at home) to get the truck in the air and then back the trailer under it. Jason (Blazerboy) borrowed my cell phone and called his life insurance agent to up his policy a few $100K and then he was game.

We soon discovered the truck was kinda heavy, go figure! We got the truck up on a cinder block and jack on each side, then when whe tried to get it a bit higher, we had a little cinder block disintegration. Nothing major, Jason did borrow my phone for another call to tell his parents that he loved them and that he wanted to be buried with his Blazer.

Well, Jason decided it was time for a modified plan and saw that if we took the wheels off the trailer, we could get it under the truck easier. That was a brillant idea and in no time at all the truck was sitting on the trailer. Course the trailer was unhooked from my truck so we had to then hitch it up.

As you may recall, my truck sits a little higher than stock and it took some serious jacking to get the trailer attached. I wouldn't say we had any near death experience on this part, but Jason did borrow my phone again.

Well, finally got it hitched to my truck and we notice the trailer had a slight, minute, bend. Ah, nothing to worry about, it's strong as hell.



As some of you might know, a 69 4x4 has a closed knuckle axle. They aren't exactly know as a tight turning axle. Turns out I had some serious backing up to do before we could get out of the parking lot. We started to back up and the darn truck shifted a little and the trailer tongue started to, uh, well, bend. In fact, darn thing bent so much that the 1 ton truck's front wheels were now contacting the pavement. Jason breaks out the wrench and we have the front tires in the back of the truck in a flash.

Fight backing up and turning for a while, notice the rain clouds approaching, and finally get somewhat turned around. Problem is where I got turned around to only left one exit path - through the back field of a business. Jason has had a few run in's with the guy who owns that business and they don't get along to well so he was just dying laughing as I take out through this guys field (it was just grass and I did no damage!)

We get to a exit street finally and the darn truck has slide so far on the trailer that the trailer wheel is hitting the fender. We use Jason's truck to pull the 1 ton over a bit, but as soon as we get going, it slides back over. So, here I am driving down the highway at about 5 mph, with smoke rolling off the trailer tire as little chunks of tire go flipping this way and that. I pull over and Jason walks up. We decide to limp up to a parking lot and try to get the truck back on the trailer correctly.

Using our brains, we (and by this time I was referring to us as Sanford and Son) grab our floor jacks, lift the truck up a little and then push the trailer over where it should be. Going 20 mph we plod on our way about 6-8 miles in the now dark night. We only had to stop one more time to jack the truck up and slide the trailer over.

It's now about 9:45, lightning, and we're thirsty and hungry so we stop at a Sonic. We order, the waitress hits on Jason, we eat and then we get on our merry way.

Make it home by about 10:00. Jason has me get a pry bar and we get the hood open. We expected more damage under the hood but it actually looks pretty promising. Jason says, give it a try so I hop in, turn the key and she fires right up!!!



Jason checks the oil pressure and at idle it was above 40.

Well, below is a link to more pics of the truck.

I will be posting a message shortly in the engine area for questions I have about swapping this into my 4x4.

Guess my story is over, Jason, don't forget to call your insurance guy and lower your limits!

http://yukon.b0xen.us/bigblock.html