1971 K10 Stepside - Getting a Roller Roadworthy

[pjmoreland]

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

Yes, it will be. I've been driving Blue for a week, it feels great.

I'll bet!

[pjmoreland]

Since I'm waiting for the transmission main shaft shim kit, I spent the evening doing some smaller tasks. I disassembled, cleaned and painted the clutch bellcrank.

[pjmoreland]

I also wire wheeled the exhaust manifolds and then painted them.

['68OrangeSunshine]

Originally Posted by pjmoreland

Since I'm waiting for the transmission main shaft shim kit, I spent the evening doing some smaller tasks. I disassembled, cleaned and painted the clutch bellcrank.

I would have suggested you closely inspect the welds on the Z-Bar Ears before painting. Those welds have broken on me about three times. Twice on the GMC Jimmy and once on the Stepside. Not a good feeling when you're stuck in gear, stalled, in traffic, in the city...

The Jimmy's Z-Bar had some exotic S-style joggling done to it -- weakening the Factory welds. The Stepside was closing in on 400,000 at the time. Daily Driver, urban application.

[pjmoreland]

Originally Posted by '68OrangeSunshine

I would have suggested you closely inspect the welds on the Z-Bar Ears before painting. Those welds have broken on me about three times. Twice on the GMC Jimmy and once on the Stepside. Not a good feeling when you're stuck in gear, stalled, in traffic, in the city...

The Jimmy's Z-Bar had some exotic S-style joggling done to it -- weakening the Factory welds. The Stepside was closing in on 400,000 at the time. Daily Driver, urban application.

Good advice. I didn't inspect the welds super closely, but I didn't see anything obvious under casual inspection. I won't be venturing far from home for the first few months of driving.

[pjmoreland]

Received the main shaft shim kit today, so I set the end play this evening. Took a couple tries. Got it set to .003", and the spec is .002-.006.

While reassembling the overdrive gears, it became apparent that I am missing a component due to the distance between the small gear and the threads for the nut that holds it in place. After a little online searching, I learned that I'm missing a spacer. It's on order now.

[raggedjim]

You've gotten a lot done on this in a short period of time! Nice work.

Did you have a build thread for your avatar truck (68 stepper)? I looked but didn't find one. Thanks, Rg

[pjmoreland]

Originally Posted by raggedjim

You've gotten a lot done on this in a short period of time! Nice work.

Did you have a build thread for your avatar truck (68 stepper)? I looked but didn't find one. Thanks, Rg

I should have done a build thread, but I didn't, unfortunately. I posted lots of stuff on the "What Did You Do Today To Your Truck?" thread. Here are some other threads that I created for some of the projects I did on it:

Fuel Tank Relocation

Bed Wood Replacement

Vintage Air Install

Disc Brake Conversion

700R4 TCC Arduino Controller

Tremec TKX

Buddy Bucket Seats

[raggedjim]

Thanks for the list, I'm sure I've read some of them.

[pjmoreland]

I'm waiting for some parts to arrive, so I worked on a side project today. The fresh air door seals are crumbling, and the metal has some surface rust. I ground off the formed ends of the rivets, cleaned up the parts and painted them.

[pjmoreland]

Painted

[loudchevy]

I really enjoy watching the progress you're making on this truck. The almost daily updates are very inspiring and your work and attention to detail is fantastic.

Well done!

[Ol Blue K20]

Originally Posted by loudchevy

I really enjoy watching the progress you're making on this truck. The almost daily updates are very inspiring and your work and attention to detail is fantastic.

Well done!

X2, I couldn't say it any better.

[pjmoreland]

Thanks, guys. I'm enjoying this project. I'm finding it challenging to have the parts I'll need to have in hand ahead of time. There's always something to work on though.

[pjmoreland]

Finished up the fresh air doors. Sharpened a steel rod and used it to melt holes through the new foam pieces. Assembled with 1/8 x 1/8 steel pop rivets. Applied another coat of paint to make the rivet heads blend in.

[CUSTOM/10]

Hey Patrick, Great progress !!!
Question on the vent seal material. Yours look to be better quality, more rubber like than the ones I bought yrs ago from Brothers, mine are more like Styrofoam packing material. If my assumption is correct, where did you get them ?

Gary

[pjmoreland]

Originally Posted by CUSTOM/10

Hey Patrick, Great progress !!!
Question on the vent seal material. Yours look to be better quality, more rubber like than the ones I bought yrs ago from Brothers, mine are more like Styrofoam packing material. If my assumption is correct, where did you get them ?

Gary

Hey Gary, I got them from LMC. The material feels the same as the original stuff. For my other truck, I got the seals from GMCPauls. My impression is that it was the same.

[CUSTOM/10]

Thanks Patrick !

[pjmoreland]

Reinstalled the fresh air doors.

Started working on attempting to repair an OE tach. The needle was detached from the mechanism at the pivot. Applied some epoxy and lined the components up. Hopefully it holds.

[pjmoreland]

Last night I cut the oak boards for my bed down to 1" longer than final length so I can fit them in my car. I'll be taking them to my dad's shop to use his equipment to cut them to size. I measured the bolt hole locations on my other truck and combined them with the information on gmcpauls.com to make a drawing.

[pjmoreland]

I also tested the factory tach by hooking it up to my other truck. It works after the repair! Thank you, Dale, for the tach. It will be nice to have it in this truck.

Here's a video of it being tested. I gave the potentiometer a very small adjustment to get the tach to point straight up at 2500 RPM.

https://youtube.com/shorts/oBh70Pr-Ktc?feature=shared

[Ol Blue K20]

You're very welcome!

[pjmoreland]

Spent some time working on reconditioning the tach. It has the typical rust on the faceplate. I designed and made a decal that I'll put on it after applying fresh paint. Painted the needle, too. The black paint can splattered a bit, so I'll let the paint cure over the weekend, and then I'll sand and repaint the faceplate.

['68OrangeSunshine]

Hey Pat, What are the small marks under the Tach face pivot?
Looks like one is a Dash and the other a Dot. Warning lights?
I never had a stock Tach.

[pjmoreland]

Those are just the screw holes for securing the faceplate to the tach body. I incorporated those holes into the decal as a way to align it to the faceplate. They will get peeled off afterward.