72/68 blazer 4x4 dream/nightmare

[Madtrucker]

The journey from AZ to MI was suspect. It was supposed to be on one truck the whole time. That didn't happen, it was unloaded multiple times. It arrived to me in 4lo with unlocked hubs, a broken tv cable and mud thrown up the sides like it had been driven. Unfortunately I wasn't there during loading so I couldn't prove anything. And it was to cold here to drive it and realize what was going on til later. I guess next time I'll book a flight.

[mtully79]

Originally Posted by Madtrucker

The journey from AZ to MI was suspect. It was supposed to be on one truck the whole time. That didn't happen, it was unloaded multiple times. It arrived to me in 4lo with unlocked hubs, a broken tv cable and mud thrown up the sides like it had been driven. Unfortunately I wasn't there during loading so I couldn't prove anything. And it was to cold here to drive it and realize what was going on til later. I guess next time I'll book a flight.

That's suspect. Was the shipping company reputable?

[Madtrucker]

Originally Posted by mtully79

That's suspect. Was the shipping company reputable?

The guy that brokered the transport was a local long time friend of my uncle. The first driver was excellent, he called me at pickup, with travel and weather updates. Apparently his truck broke down and he stored it in a warehouse til the next guy got it. It's my guess that's where things went wrong.

Anyway I feel like I'm at the turning point and can start reassembly. The bright side is the blazer is gonna have a lot of new parts and I now know exactly whats been done, no more guessing. Should mean a lot less worrying and enjoying the outings with my family. My next biggest concern will be the wiring gremlins. I pulled a lot of useless wires and found a ton of bad splices and melted wires. I hope this thing still starts when the time comes. I was hoping to put the wiring off til the end of the season.

For anyone rebuilding or sealing a np205 for the first time the speedo sleeve seal isn't included in any kits. And as I found it has been discontinued, and used sleeve nuts were going for $40 on ebay. So after a lot of google searching I found an oil seal that fits perfect. So now the seal is replaced, t-case has a coat of paint and is ready for installation. I've also decided to give the HF trans jack a try, hopefully I can install everything myself now.

[Chulisohombre]

The jack should help if it reaches. Mine didn't. I had to bench press the teams in and the transfer after while a buddy put in the bolts. That was a whole lotta fun. The next time I used a hydraulic desk chair to Line it up. Worked pretty good too. Lol

[Madtrucker]

I'll keep the desk chair in mind, supposedly it goes up to 23"s. Do you plan on doing a build thread? I'd like to see what you've been building.

[Chulisohombre]

A lot of mine has already been done. I don't have a ton of pics as much of the stuff I did was way before I posted a lot on the Internet. MY main thing now is to get it back legal again now that it's in the garage since I just bought another house. Then drive it and enjoy it most of the summer until I have to pack her away for winter again.i had a tree fall on it during hurricane sandy so I still need to repair that mess as well.

[Brimmy1]

Looking great more pics

[Chulisohombre]

The biggest thing I'm worried about is the caddy calipers I used for the disk bake rear setup ony 14 bolt. It doesn't pull hard enough to fully engage. Rocker boxes need some help as well. I did some body work but I'm no pro. Anything specific you wanna see let me know.

[Madtrucker]

Sorry to hear about the tree, just curious about what you're building. There's always something to learn from other builds, and there doesn't seem to be that many blazer build threads around. And as much as I appreciate the #'s matching builds I like to see people trying to make something old better then it ever was.

[Chulisohombre]

I hear Ya man. A lot of earlier stuff I did just because everyone was doing it or if I broke it, I upgraded it so I wouldn't break it again. Numbers matching would be nice but mine was pulled out of a junkyard and had nothing in it when I bought it. I've been slowly trying to find stockish stuff to throw back in it while making it stronger underneath.

[Madtrucker]

Not much progress, but the trans jack worked out nice. I was able to get the t-case in by myself with a little bit of wrestling. I also got the 1 ton booster and new master cylinder installed, and cleaned up a few other things.

[Chulisohombre]

Glad it worked for you. My buddy had one that only went up half as high so we were stuck. It's not fun trying to wrestle one in by hand.

[Madtrucker]

The trans and motor are back in, I did need to let the air out of the front tires for the trans jack to work. That jack has been worth the time saved waiting for help, even if i never use it again. Chances are the jeep will need it soon though. I also cleaned up the power steering pump and bracket, I still need to shim it with the right spacers though. I plan to get a new heater core and hopefully go through some of the wiring. After it's all plumbed and I hear it run I'll patch up the small core support rust issue. I'd also like to get a quart of paint to match as close as possible to touch up some old issues til I do final body and paint. I'm hoping a guy down the street can tint it, I'm sure painter supply will be a few shades off.

[Madtrucker]

I was able to patch and clean up the core support, and add new mounts. Then I took a trip up north to pick up the jeep, and that's when everything stopped. We were about to list our house for sale the next day, til our youngest daughter went from urgent care to er to an ambulance ride to U of M children's hospital. That was a rough couple weeks, I'm hoping to get my mind right and get back in the garage agian. Gonna try to list the house again next week then get moving on the blazer again. I missed the best driving weather, hopefully I'll make some of the cruises.

[Bladeboy1998]

Sorry about your daughter man. She is in good hands at the U of M, some of the best! Go blue! Can't wait to see more progress on the blazer!

[GMaholic]

What number oil seal did you find to replace the speedo sleeve seal, thanks !!

[Madtrucker]

I believe it was Metric Oil Shaft Seal 10 x 16 x 4 10x16x4 10mm x 16mm x 4mm Single Lip from ultimate industrial solutions. Haven't driven it much but so far no leaks.

Those inserts would look like a pretty cool custom highlander package.

[mud.man.rj]

Nice build, to bad so many problems with it but good thing is now you know what's there front to back so can trust it being your work, sure has come along from the start, Blazers and Jimmy's are my fav truck..

[GMaholic]

Thanks for the help with the oil seal info, nice build post !!! Great job.

[Madtrucker]

So a lot has happened this summer, just not a lot to the blazer. After I brought the jeep home I put it up for sale thinking it would take all summer to sell. The 2nd person to show up gave me what I wanted, so SHE GONE! Then we listed the house 4th of july weekend, multiple offers immediately, so waiting for closing. Found another house with double the sqft but smaller garage , just waiting to close. I guess I need to learn to make sacrifices when it comes to having 4 kids, hopefully they end up being a good shop crew for me one day.

Anyway with all my spare time I managed to get the blazer back together and somewhat road ready. At least I thought so til a trans line blew and destroyed the alternator and soaked every inch under the hood. So now it has a new alternator, voltage regulator, and trans lines. All that led to fix the pulsing in the electrical that kept blowing stereo fuses, while fixing the trans lines I noticed the missing body ground. Happy to say I have tunes again, so I test wired an old amp and some 10's. After we move and settle in, and fix a few other problems I'd like to make some side panels to house some speakers.

As for now I need to remove the old electric fuel pump that seems like it'd cause problems. I have a mechanical pump, for some reason the previous owner left a dead electric pump inline. Seems like the mechanical pump would have to work to hard to pull fuel through. Hopefully I'll get another test run in soon, the Hines Park cruise is Sunday and one of the best imo.

[mud.man.rj]

What a difference looking from the Jeep to the Chevy...

[Madtrucker]

I built that jeep from stock with nowhere near as many problems, I'm starting to think I sold the wrong toy.

I went on a deeply disappointing shakedown run tonight. I pulled the old fuel pump off, double checked everything and took it out again. It cruised nicely around the neighborhood for a bit and all seemed well. I decided to get on it a bit and see what it's got and.......... Nothin! Still the exact same dog it was before the 355 roller motor, Trans swap and gear change. I still have the stock exhaust, but come on double the horsepower and no change. What the hell am I missing? Gonna check the plugs tomorrow and see what's going on there.

[mud.man.rj]

It's weird how some things just take quite a bit of pissin around to figure out, things that you may never thought of like one time had a torque convertor problem and had built another 454 with like 200 more hp and still guttless, ended up be torque convertor was crap, had to sort things at times.

[Madtrucker]

I had considered that, but I made sure I replaced the converter as well. What are the odds of getting a bad one. The only things that stayed the same are the carb and exhaust. I'm wondering if I missed something in the t-case.

[ClassicStyle]

Amazing what a bad ground can cause it this case a missing one. I hate trans leaks. Atf is a terrible fluid to clean haha.

I love the truck, Ive always loved 67-68 clips on 4x4 Blazers. Jealous you got her out of my home state