85 crew cab long bed project

[Wincks2]

Glow plug button is in imperfectly.

Using a brass bolt to move the panel toward the driver had unanticipated consequence for the light switch. Now will have to exend the switch, widen the light switch hole, or simply get a shorter glow plug button the back end of which does not extend far enough back to contect the metal.

Have now gone through almost all wiring and think I can find most things if necessary.

Only remaining area is connecting the fuel tank to the fuel gauge. So tomorrow, weather and responsibilities permitting, it will be raise one side of the bed and drop the tank day.

[Wincks2]

When I started working on the truck fear of error ruled. First because of fear of doing something unrepairable. Now have learned that everything is fixable or replaceable or workaroundable. Second because of fear that an error would cost time and money to correct. A single misstep could cost hours of repair time. So spent hours trying to figure out how to not make mistakes before beginning. Suspect I spent as much time learning about the truck to avoid mistakes as I would have spent repairing the ones I made. So have begun to be a little less risk averse when touching the truck. Besides, working on it is interesting to plan and relaxing to do. See the front seat in the post above. Never imagined, when getting the truck, that I'd ever have the dash and panel off and be crawling around under the dash mapping wires, sodering wires, removing wires, or any of the things done so far. Last night, with rain coming down outside the truck and my worklight to keep me company in the cab it was a nice relaxing couple of hours going through the process of putting things on only to take them off to correct something I hadn't thought of doing, then repeating until it was done, even if imperfectly.

[Wincks2]

After a year of being afraid to do it, I finally dropped the tank to learn why it spilled over when I filled it and the fuel gauge wouldn't work.



Started the syphon the old fashioned say. Yech!



Am considering patenting the above system.



It would spill because one of the tubes wasn't connected to anything. Not sure what it is supposed to connect to.

These wires don't match my wiring diagram.

Hope to test the sending unit tomorrow to learn whether it will send a message to the gauge.

[TheSunDanceKid]

if they are white and orange they are for dome light or under dash light depending where they are located it looks like in the back so dome light

[thirdstreettito]

Subscribed!

[Wincks2]

The wires are attached to the fuel sending unit and are black, yellow, and pink-white. My wiring diagram says the pink-white one leads to the fuel gauge. My guess is the black one is the ground to frame. My wiring diagrams don't show the third yellow wire. All three were just dangling when I dropped the tank. That explains why my fuel gauge wasn't working.

The books I have have conflicting and incomplete information regarding the third tube on the fuel sending unit. One is the feed and another is the return. One book calls it a fuel syphon and another suggests it may lead to a canister.

The engine is a 6.2 diesel, so I don't know. There are several parts on this truck that are from different years.
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[hatzie]

I know you have added the pushbutton to your glow circuit. But. It's easy to update the old 82-84 glow controller to the cheap, simple, and reliable 85-2000 style.
There was a howto article on the diesel page several years ago. If you look at a schematic for the newer glowplugs it's not hard to figure out.

[Wincks2]

Thanks Hatzie. Just last night I installed one of those ford solenoids to make it a fully manual system. I use the glow plugs that can't burn out. If I have any trouble, I'll look up that thread.
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[Wincks2]

Have been through almost all of the wiring now. Drew pictures of the most noticable variations from my diagrams. Hope to diagram everything so a wiring diagram accurate for Smokey exists so if I have to look something up next year, there will be a correct wiring diagram.

Turned out the three wires on the fuel sending unit were there because it was one of the 82-83 diesel sending units. The wires are fuel gauge, ground, water in fuel signal. For that year only the water in fuel meter was in the fuel tank. The three tubes on top of the sending unit are fuel out, fuel return, and the third is to run water drain line to a petcock near the springs. Very exciting because it means if I want to switch to the spin on diesel fuel filter I will still have a water in fuel notice system. At least, that is what I hoped when I realized I have one of these rare sending units. Optimism rolled over prudence. Note to self: test the fuel gauge wire before reinstalling the sending unit and putting the tank back on the truck. Ditto re the water in fuel meter. When I got it all back together, the fuel gauge still reads low. At least that is better than before when it didn't read at all because no wire ran between the gauge and the sending unit.


The three wires on top of the sending unit were really running from a plug that plugged into three electrical posts on top of the sending unit. Two of the wires broke off. So I had to fabricate a way to reattach the wires.

Two of the posts were very skinny. Too skinny for the smallest female connector at my local stores.



But it turns out not too small for the other end of the smallest female connector at my local store. i mean the end the copper wire is supposed to slide into. So I took off the plastic, turned the female metal around, and used it backwards.

Added a male end to the wire. So it went wire, male end, female end, wire side of female end, elecrical post on sending unit.



Soldered everything together, shrunk wrapped it, wrapped it in electricians tape, and that created my plugs.



After plugging them all onto the sending unit I also put on them some freeze proof heat proof caulk to protect them from the elements.

Used an old rubber bike innertube for the anti-squeek for the tank.



Then raised it back up again.

[Wincks2]

Call me geocentric, but I'm going to claim procrastinating in Canada is worse than procrastinating in Key West.

Battery warmer blankets added tonight. Temperature 18 below celsius.

That white cloud isn't fog. It is the photographer's breath.

So, for winter:

Glow plugs checked and all eight now working. Getting the second bank to work made a big difference.

winter weight 0W40 diesel oil now in engine.

Antigel now in fuel.

Both block heaters working.

Both battery warmers installed.

Still to do:

add something behind the grill to prevent windchill.

check the batteries. They seemed low today when not driving. Running the glow plugs even moved the battery charge indicator down near the red zone.

[Wincks2]

Cut up a crazy carpet, added four holes, and wired it behind the grill to prevent wind chill. Got the idea from another thread where the author spray painted the crazy carpet to disguise what he referred to as "the southern ingenuity". Works fine up here too.

Finally addressed the rear shock problem. Didn't have the tools to drill through the frame rivets which is what I thought was necessary to replace the original frame bracket. So I took it to an alignment and spring shop to have them do it. Turns out all it needed was a new set of shocks with the rubber thing fitting correctly in the shock's top hole. On mine one of the lips of the rubber thing had worn off so the shock kept slipping off of the stud. They had already put some time into looking at it so I just had them put on the new shocks. Wow, it really rides nicer with two rear shocks rather than one and with both of them working well rather than, I now suspect, none working well.

So far she hasn't failed to start this winter except once when I hadn't plugged her in for the coldest night. Plugged her in and a few hours later she started right up. I think my batteries may be weak, but with the warm winter we are having up here, I may just see if they last till next fall.

[Nothinghead]

I need an update!

I like your style, very humorous.

I too am just jumping in. I figure it can't be all that hard. It's good to see you tackling so many problems successfully.

[Wincks2]

Update. Bought the truck to pull a 1978 fiberglass camping trailer to go camping and fishing. People have been looking at us kind of funny due to the rust. So I've decided to fix the cosmetics. Found an autobody man who does extra work in his garage at night. Didn't want to lay out the cash if the engine is bad so had it compression tested and the results were good. 1-310, 2-320, 3-320, 4-320, 5-320, 6-320, 7-310, 8-320, and the glow plugs all tested fine at between 1.4 and 1.6. So, I've been searching for three doors and a tailgate that says nothing on it or else says GMC rather than Chevrolet. Found the latter this morning and might have the three doors I need by early next week. Bodyman will take her June 1 and have her done by end of month which is when the kids are out of school and looking to fish. He is going to cut and weld new rockers, front floors, door wells, rear cab corners, fix the damage to the box and prepare her for painting and then paint her. Have been spending time looking through the crew cab photos for a nice look to have him do.

Much of this remains a mystery. It would be nice to have labelled photographs of the engine from every angle and everything else on the truck so I know what the shop manuals are referring to. Also some better understanding of electronics would be helpful. Big leap forward when I began to grasp that the wires are like streams and the electricity is like water and when wires meet the water flows to fill all connected streams. Still haven't figured out how to use my multi-meter, so the wiring is touch and go. Actually, often touch and spark. Folks on this board have been very helpful.

That is a nice looking Blazer you have there.

[Nothinghead]

Thanks.

I have a bit of an electrical nightmare ahead of me as well I think. I know nothing about electricity, and looking at the wires, that is where a lot of my time will be spent. No better way to learn though, right?

I can't wait to see the painted truck.

[Wincks2]

Wiring diagrams are very helpful. At least regarding what prior owners haven't changed over the years. Some cleaning solution and sponge, I guess, I use spit on a paper towel, is helpful to rub on the wires. Turns out they are different colours and not all black. Sometimes the colour match the original wiring diagrams and that helps a lot. Lots of crawling around under the truck and reaching arm's length to follow wires to see where they go. With the internet you can read for hours about automotive wiring and how loads work. Fascinating stuff. Fortunately, I've been able to muddle through so far without having had to get a really good understanding of how it all works. But of course there could be trouble just down the road if something goes wrong. Then it is back to the university of the internet to try to figure it out.

It is a nice feeling when you get something fixed.

[Nothinghead]

I am on a University Of the Internet master's program right now...

I need to get one of those shop manuals and check out the diagrams. I am sure it isn't difficult, just foreign. I am tempted to get a new harness and then I will know for sure it is all good and not a fire hazard.

[legendman]

Subscribed, Wincks your doing some nice work. Having a couple 6.2 diesel trucks myself I am partial to yours. On the hunt for a crew cab dually myself to throw a 6.2 in.

[Wincks2]

Nothinghead check a few threads regarding wiring harnesses. My reading made me think that some don't work out as well as others and they all require a baseline level of knowledge for dealing with the connections that was above mine. Maybe because mine isn't stock. Maybe if yours is stock, the harness will fit right on to everything easily. I found that the problems were, thankfully, one wire matters each. So by following the wires from what wasn't working to the power, I could find the problem. It took some time, but really wasn't too bad. Don't know what would have happened if there were lots of problems that connected to each other.

Legendman, thanks for your kind words. Those duallys are cool. Didn't know about them when we bought ours, but I do like to look at them when they go by.