New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter

[Jtrux]

Looking real good. I like the electric fan.

[lks dcvn]

Looks fantastic - when it warms up to 30 I am heading outside...to see what I can get done today on one of mine.

[snowblind]

I used the beast as intended yesterday. I went up for my first day of snowboarding, driving up and back in what was pretty much a blizzard.

My commute is 3 miles of surface streets then 10 miles of 4 lane highway and finally 13 miles of 2 lane, windy mountain road. In the morning there was 1-2" of slushy snow in the valley turning to 6" of powder roughly 5 miles from the end. I left the house in 2WD with the hubs locked and shifted into 4WD-H about 7 miles from the end. During the day it snowed an additional 12"+ of snow turning the parking lot into a total SNAFU. Audis and Subarus were getting stuck left and right but the Jimmy was UNSTOPPABLE. Seriously... 12" of snow is nothing for a rig like this.

The road down the canyon was very, very slippery so it was 4WD-H and L1 the whole way down. The combo of 33" tires and whatever gears are in my truck holds it at 2000 rpm/15mph going downhill in L1.

I'm very happy with the truck in the snow. I want to upgrade the headlights and I need better windshield washer squirters but performance in the snow was outstanding. I was also happily surprised by how smoothly the truck shifted in and out of 4WD-H at 25mph. Very slick!

Here are a couple of photos from the bottom of the commute @ 4500 feet. There was a lot more snow at the mountain @ 8500 feet.









And a shot from the ski hill!

[vtblazer]

...and the heater, how was the heater?

Very cool, build em to drive em!

[snowblind]

Originally Posted by vtblazer

...and the heater, how was the heater?

LOL. The heater was fine. Not the ultimate defrosting machine but I stayed warm. For most of the storms around here the temps usually aren't very cold. Snowy and 28º is probably the norm and now that I have carpet in the back the heater deals fine with that.

We had lows around 10º last week the heater kept up but just barely. I'm going to need to carpet the front floor and seal up all the firewall holes to deal with temps like that!

[NTR72GMC]

Cool pic's. Any of those Audi's wrecked? ($$$$ for me)

[snowblind]

Originally Posted by NTR72GMC

Cool pic's. Any of those Audi's wrecked? ($$$$ for me)

Hahaha. They were just stuck but you know how that goes... Lots of orders for $300 plastic under body trays!

[Tom Vogel]

Looking Good! My Jimmy will never see snow drag radials and HP arent a good snow combination.
Im coming up there for Christmas... my son lives in Syracuse.

[NTR72GMC]

Originally Posted by snowblind

Hahaha. They were just stuck but you know how that goes... Lots of orders for $300 plastic under body trays!

LOL Sounds like you've owned one.

[NTR72GMC]

Here is a pic of my GMC with the 67-68 hood and grill on it just to give you an idea of what it look like. Kind of a bad pic the hood wasn't closed all the way.

[snowblind]

Originally Posted by NTR72GMC

Here is a pic of my GMC with the 67-68 hood and grill on it just to give you an idea of what it look like. Kind of a bad pic the hood wasn't closed all the way.

That is pretty clean... I'm trying to decide if it's easier to swap the grill that I have or the hood.

Thanks a lot for the bumper lights. I'll be putting them in this weekend.

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Nice build thread matt your doing a great job..

[NTR72GMC]

Originally Posted by snowblind

That is pretty clean... I'm trying to decide if it's easier to swap the grill that I have or the hood.

Thanks a lot for the bumper lights. I'll be putting them in this weekend.

No problem, If you want I have a 67-68 hood you can have I wouldn't mind freeing up the space its taking up.

[snowblind]

I took the last few weeks off from working on the Jimmy. I was out of town, then it was REALLY cold, then Christmas crazyness, etc, etc. It's still pretty cold here now but if I let the cold stop me I'll never get anything done.

This weekend I put in the Chevy bumper lights I got from NTR72GMC, installed a new dash pad, installed a new passenger door switch for the interior lights, plugged up a bunch of firewall holes, connected the wiring harness for the Pioneer head unit I got for Christmas. I also set up a little block of wires behind the glovebox with "12v constant", "ignition hot" and "interior light hot" for use when wiring my power/heated seats. The dash pad was BY FAR the biggest pain in the @$$ and took probably 4 hours.

This coming week I'll finish of the wiring/installing the door speakers, put some patches over the fuel filler holes in my rear quarters and hopefully get the new passenger seat mounted.

Here are some current photos. I took the fender trim off last month to put fresh paint on the grill and I haven't put it back on yet. I'm toying with the idea of going with a 67-68 hood and going trimless...

[snowblind]

Originally Posted by NTR72GMC

No problem, If you want I have a 67-68 hood you can have I wouldn't mind freeing up the space its taking up.

What color is your hood?

I'm not sure on what I want to do. From the photos I've seen I can't decide if I like the look of the early or the late hood better. I also kind of like the fender trim... I probably need to come out to your place one day and see the hood in the flesh.

[NTR72GMC]

Originally Posted by snowblind

What color is your hood?

I'm not sure on what I want to do. From the photos I've seen I can't decide if I like the look of the early or the late hood better. I also kind of like the fender trim... I probably need to come out to your place one day and see the hood in the flesh.

I have a white one and a green one, the green one is the one on my truck right now.

[snowblind]

Originally Posted by NTR72GMC

I have a white one and a green one, the green one is the one on my truck right now.

The white one might work... paint my cowl and windshield white and it would be like one big racing stripe. :-) I have too many things on my plate right now but give me a few weeks and I might take it off your hands.

Here's a photo of my new head unit. It's a Pioneer DEH-P510UB. In addition to all the other usual stuff it features front and rear USB connections to play music from ipods or thumb drives. There is a very real chance that this stereo will NEVER have a CD inserted...

[NTR72GMC]

Originally Posted by snowblind

The white one might work... paint my cowl and windshield white and it would be like one big racing stripe. :-) I have too many things on my plate right now but give me a few weeks and I might take it off your hands.

Here's a photo of my new head unit. It's a Pioneer DEH-P510UB. In addition to all the other usual stuff it features front and rear USB connections to play music from ipods or thumb drives. There is a very real chance that this stereo will NEVER have a CD inserted...

If you use the green one it will look like a pumpkin! That's cool with me these next few weeks are going to be crazy for me as well. Cool radio by the way.

[snowblind]

We had about 4-6" of snow in the last 24 hours. I continue to be impressed with the transfer case and 4wd capabilities of this old rig.

The ski resorts are expecting upwards of 20" by tomorrow morning. I'll be heading up to shoot photos but I have no idea what time I'll have to make the drive. The road is regularly closed for avalanche danger. I will get advanced notice of the closure but it may have me driving up at 11:30 at night... or 6 a.m.

Here's a photo from Christmas Eve.

[Jtrux]

I would love to be able to drive mine up into some snow like that someday, looks fun. I've only seen light snow in all my years (all 25 of them that is).

[snowblind]

Originally Posted by Jtrux

I would love to be able to drive mine up into some snow like that someday, looks fun. I've only seen light snow in all my years (all 25 of them that is).

I would love to be somewhere warm enough to work on my truck!!!

I went up at about 7am. The storm blew out earlier than expected so the plows had been busy and I didn't even lock the hubs until the mouth of the canyon road. Then I didn't shift into 4wd until the mid-point of the 6 mile canyon.

The mountain got a lot of snow though and is was super sunny and clear. Mornings like this in the mountains are just incredible. Achingly beautiful is the only way I can describe them.

On a sadder note... on Saturday night I went to a funeral service for a long time ski patrol member. It was on top of the mountain and they did a service and then lit off a "21 bomb salute" with avalanche hand charges. Frozen tears at 11,000 feet.

Here's one of many photos from the morning.

[snowblind]

The Jimmy died on the road Monday night. Pulled away from a stop and sputter, sputter, dead. Cranked but wouldn't start.

It was dark and cold and I have road side assistance through my insurance so I had it towed home. Yesterday I checked it out and found power to the HEI but no spark. Searching the forums and getting feedback from members it's probably a dead module or coil in the HEI.

Napa wanted $55 just for the coil so I ordered whole new distributor for $50 from Skip White on ebay. I also ordered a "rebuild" kit with new cap, rotor, coil, module, etc. Hopefully I can get the stock HEI back up with the new parts and then put the new dizzy on when it gets a little warmer.





Parts are scheduled to arrive on Friday.

[Shock_Me]

Hey Matt,

Did you ever fix the problem of transmission fluid leaking into your transfer case? Mine's doing the same thing

Pete

[snowblind]

Originally Posted by Shock_Me

Hey Matt,

Did you ever fix the problem of transmission fluid leaking into your transfer case? Mine's doing the same thing

Pete

Sort of...

I topped it up and it leaked out the speedo for a while and then stopped leaking. I keep checking the fluid level and it's held steady just a little above the low mark on the dipstick. I'm not worried about the transfer running dex so I'll leave it alone unless the level drops.

My power steering pump has stopped leaking also. I think that's due to dirt build up and freezing temperatures. Everything will start leaking again when the temps warm up.

[Shock_Me]

Yeah I did a search, and it appears to be a known/common problem. Seems like a tough thing to fix totally, so some suggest leaving it alone and checking tranny levels regularly, and do a yearly service or oil change on the transfer case. I dunno what I'm going to do yet My Blazer is parked for the winter, so I have a few months to think about it.

Pete