1981 SWB Stepside Build

[dagnabbitt]

The truck hasn't had a good last couple years. In 2024 the only driving this truck has had is about 4 trips to the transmission shop.

After getting the 700r4 rebuilt again it developed a leak that could not be traced. After replacing lines, seals and the pan itself, we eventually concluded that the case was cracked somewhere. The transmission shop was at a complete loss to explain it. So, I asked them to build another identical transmission and replace it completely, which they did at no charge. When I got it back it had no shift kit in it, so I took it back. When it back again the TV cable was set incorrectly, so I took it back one more time. I think we are happy with it now, and hopefully my transmission guy is sick of me.

The truck still has that engine oil leak, though, and I think it must be the intake manifold in the rear of the engine. We have looked virtually everywhere else and that was the last thing on the engine that was monkeyed with, we must not have run a thick enough gasket. So I will pull it off again some time this winter.

In the meantime, though: this weekend I pulled the driver's side door off to replace the pins and bushings in the hinges, a little task that I had never done before on a squarebody. The door was rattling quite a bit on the highway, both up and down as well as left and right. I discovered that the hinge bolts were not particularly tight, in fact one was finger tight. Never seen that before. I am not sure if the lousy hinges loosened the bolts or the loose bolts ruined the hinges.

Anyway the hinges themselves were pretty bad to I rebuilt them with a Dorman kit off of Amazon. Removal of the upper pin was simple, it more or less fell out. The lower pin needed a lot of persuasion. End result is the doors sit really nice and don't move anymore.