My K5 Blazer Story.

[Zoomad75]

I was looking and getting a rubber floor mat like you put in the big blue truck the price is twice as much as getting this kit. I think doing the whole tub will do wonders for sound deadening and heat control. No better time to do it than before we get everything bolted down.

I like the heep. Just don't go and weld the spiders up in the rear diff. I did ask Harlan about Canon truck today. He's not heard from Lloyd either, just the rumor that it sold. I know this, that's going to be challenge to pick up parts for at the boneyard. Those things were rare back in the day, it's like a friggin unicorn now!

[DirtyLarry]

Dude the vinyl flooring is $150 and well worth every penny. Did you check out this link? In all reality, all you need is vinyl floor covering for the front area. The rear still has decent floor covering if I recall correctly. The bedliner stuff is always good to put under the mat but don’t think you can just go with bedliner alone in the cab area and that is it. Bedliner alone is not near enough for sound deadening and keeping cab temps down. You’ll probably still want to use a little bit of jute, dynamat, etc. under the mat as well even with the bedliner stuff. Bill ran two trucks (the old yellow J20 and the blue Ram Charger) with only bedliner and they were horribly LOUD and excessively hot/cold. I drove my K10 across town from the Rhino shop to home and it was loud and hot. I would not want to drive any further like that. You will never be happy with just bedliner, especially if you go with us on a desert trip. You’ll cook in there like a shisk kaRob

Ya, the Heep is cool. Can't wait to go get it tomorrow. Hehe, no spider welding for me though. I’m not too worried about part availability as most everything I need is common stuff with Wagoneers. There are still plenty of those around in the yards and there is quite the loyal following online with lots of parts being repopped. If the old AMC driveline becomes a parts issue then it will become a complete GM driveline which will probably happen eventually anyway. I already found the release bearing retainer for the T19 online for $40 which I was surprised how easy it was to find. Now putting it back together after the old man seller took it all apart 5 years ago may prove challenging

[Zoomad75]

I found that site yesterday. To be honest I didn't really look the rear over that close that night I checked it out. I don't even remember if it has the interior side panels or not. I'd like to find the correct console over the older style though. Plus the dash needs help too. Little things for sure.

Yeah the Waggy's have a cult following for sure. Which style front end is on this one? I actually like the round headlight style from the 60's version.

[DirtyLarry]

Well, she ain’t pretty but she’s home





Never mind the ugly grill and bumper. It came with a near mint grill along with headlight bezels. Also got a WARN type winch bumper for it.

[Zoomad75]

Good gravy that front bumper has to GO! I do like the truck. So whats under the hood, AMC 360?

[DirtyLarry]

Yep, 360. I haven't had a chance to look at it much but I think it has a Motorcrap carburetor but electronic ignition.

[Zoomad75]

Carb? You gonna know what to do with one of those? Or peel it off and send it with me to have my Dad the carb master go through it for you?

[DirtyLarry]

Heck, you know I'm not a plummer and know how to work on toilets If there are no computer, injectors, 8 feet of harness and a dozen sensors to go wrong, I’m lost. Yeah, if it needs a carb rebuild you can count on me asking you to cart it your dad for a rebuild. I suspect it does have carb issues judging by the brand Sorensen carb rebuild kit stuffed behind the seat. By the looks of the box it is too badly weathered to be usable. I’m sure everything inside is trash.

[bojak]

Sweet j20. That truck is on my list as well. Sand with white cab like a land cruiser style set up. Do round light grill with cj style hood latches rolling on 35s with black wheels. Add some jerry cans and you've got the one I want to build one day. Very much like the drill Sargeant build but a j20.

[justcuz]

That is the first Jeep pickup I have seen without the bed seam rusted. Looks like a nice salvageable truck. Dana 60 rear, external hub 44 front, probably a dana 20 t case. All easy stuff to get parts for. If you decide to sell any of the running gear the guys at FSJ (Full Size Jeep) would love to get it. Make it available to them and they will be eternally grateful.

bojak's ideas are food for thought.
If you guys are going to make a tow truck out of this thing, I suggest this;
M715 Bed
M715 front fenders
Both these mods provide big wheel openings for up to 40" truck tires, without lifting the truck.
M715 springs front and rear, for weight capacity.
14 bolt (or better yet an AAM 11.5 diesel axle)
Dana 60 front
Winch type bumper you could run your cable through from the tow setup.
Engine and trans of your choice if you choose to change.
Finally all the convenience features tilt, ps, hydro boost pb, ac and nice seats.
This would make a nice all weather tow truck that you could recover vehicles from fields, ditches and other places not easily accessible.

[Zoomad75]

Came across another piece for the K5 at work last week. A customer had us do a ton of work to his 81 K20 pickup and one of those items was installing a new winch to replace the non-working winch he's had on it forever. I inquired about buying the dead winch to tinker and see if I can get it working again, he scoffed at me and said, I was just going to pitch it you can have it.

So, the project gains a Ramsey REP8000 8k winch. Powers out, but not in. Freewheel clutch handle is broke too. Never fooled with one before so this little project could get interesting.

Not much going on due to my boy's crazy soccer schedule, a couple of upcoming car show's with my Dad and Larry riding off to AZ and UT for Expo and prowling the desert.

Stay tuned...

[MTCK]

Staying tuned! I think you will be happy you are skipping the body work and getting on with the fun stuff. I just came to the same realization on my 83 this weekend that it is going on the chopping block. There is just nothing left to save...

[DarkMonohue]

I don't come over here often but I'm sure glad I saw this. How's the J20 coming? Have you been to ifsja.org or fsjnetwork.com yet?

[y5mgisi]

Subscribed.

[Zoomad75]

Been busy.. Work, soccer, work more. Had a deal flop right in my lap earlier this summer. A customer of mine needed help selling a '56 Pontiac Chieftan wagon (not a Safari).

We made arrangements to yank it out of the shed it's been in for the last ten years (last ran 3 years ago that we knew) and had it hauled to my house. The NSRA Rocky Mountain street rod nationals were the following weekend. I washed the dirt off of it, charged the battery for a day and the Poncho fired up! Bonus! It was puking trans fluid like a stuck hog out of the front seal though. On the advise of my tranny guru I shoved a bottle of Lucas trans conditioner down it's gullet and topped it off with some fresh dex 6. Amazingly it slowed the leak from a big one to just an every now and again drip. Brakes stopped nice and even the A/C blew ice friggen cold! Plan was for my Dad and I to park it in the swap meet area, but we didn't want to get locked in there so I just put it in the show. Made two laps of the fairgrounds to find a parking spot with the a/c on full at an idle and it never got hot. Parked it, wiped off a couple of spots I missed in the dark and threw the for sale signs in it. Within 10 minutes I had people asking about it. By 20 I had one dude very seriously after it. By the end of the first hour a deal had been struck and I sold it. Made 10% on the deal and got to cruise it for the weekend.

Those proceeds put a needed shot in the arm of the parts procurement process. I've had some turmoil at the shop so needed time off hasn't come. But as per usual Larry's come to the rescue! He and I got the 8.1 fat block I traded him for the pcm and harness out of my garage last month. We moved the GMC front clip over to his place too to help unload it at the same time. Larry's cleaned and painted the block, mounted the accessory bracket and alternator. He sends me texts at work: Ran out of parts to install- bring me more! I dropped off more and we repeat the cycle.

This weekend I've ordered the engine swap brackets, the raptor liner and scored on a set of polyurethane motor mounts off of craigslist for $40 for the pair. Wrangled a set of H2 6.0l exhaust manifolds out of my Dad's stash and a fresh water pump too.

Before the interior goes together we have to spot blast the minor crust on the floor, weld up a couple of small holes and prep it for the Raptor liner. We can shoot the inside. Larry's already yanked some of the butchered wiring from under the hood and under the dash. We've got some other questionable crap to remove too. One more cleanup under the hood and some more tractor black paint and we can stab the 5.3 into place.

The train is starting to pick up some momentum. Whoo hoo! Big thanks to Larry for using some of his free time while I'm tied up!

[Zoomad75]

Summer's winding down. Haven't had as many weekends to wrench due to work issues, but that has allowed the parts procurement to keep moving. I've obtained another "dead" winch. Traded getting it removed from a Jeep for the other dead Ramsey winch I picked up earlier. It's a Warn XD9000i unit that's a little crusty and didn't work with a new control. It was a Jeep/Mopar accessory on a TJ Wrangler hence the giant MOPAR label on the front.



So after a little digging on Pirate I found a way to bypass the solenoids to check the motor directly. I hooked a pair of jumper cables to the ground stud and motor stud F1, took the winch ground as a jumper from the A terminal and F2. It moved like it should. Swapped the jumper to F1 and moved the positive to F2 and it reversed direction. Perfect. Motor's good. Just need to diag the control side now.

Here's a couple of the other parts picked up recently.




Just got done topping off fluids on the old beast in preparation of a weekend run coming up. Might be the final trip for the old dog, but we'll make it count for sure.

[DirtyLarry]

Cool! It won’t be long and we’ll be bolting that sucker together.

[Zoomad75]

It's been a while for an update. We had a hell of a run with the 75 over some familiar dirt. We wheeled over Tin Cup pass in the dark. Got to see the sky on a moonless night at the top of the pass at 11,000 feet. Unforgettable. Next day my son took the wheel and took on Taylor pass. He tackled it like he's been doing this stuff for a long time, despite it was the first time behind the wheel off road, with a manual trans no less.

He had been driving it to school so the 75 hasn't been torn apart yet. I've been stashing pieces here and there. Winter is here.. A few of the guys wanted to do our normal New Years day snow run up to the area around Westcliffe. Seeing as the 75 was mobile I decided let's take it. New years morning was a cold day with a forecast for snow in the area where we were headed. Took 20 minutes to get the cold blooded beast to fire up, but it did and settled into a high idle to warm up. Loaded it with snacks, drinks, tools and a new GoPro and my body John pulled up. He, my son and I piled in to get to the gas station meeting point. Pulled out of the driveway onto the snowy street and made it to the corner. Now here's where my inner teenager comes out. I turn the corner, goose the throttle and proceed to spin the K5 around once as we all laugh like 10 year olds. I straighten it out and we proceed down the street. The single digit temps are making the speedo cable howl in anger and then it happened. We hear a significant loud metallic "clang" ring out from under the truck. It almost felt like it popped out of gear, so I grab the shifter and check it's position. It was still in gear. Check the t-case and it's still in 2wd. Odd. Pull it over and roll under it to look for something loose or otherwise out of the norm. Nothing is visually out of line so we hop back in and get over to the gas station. We are the 2nd truck to show up so I proceed to top off the fuel and John goes inside to get some coffee. I follow to get some batteries for my regular camera. We come outside to see more have shown up and that's when I see it. The puddle of 80-90w pouring out on the ground below the rear diff. UGGG! Further inspection reveals an exit wound in the cover. That's where the fluid is coming out of. Plans are revised. We limp the K5 the couple miles back to my house and unload the snacks and drinks to Bill's Ram and we pile in to catch up with the group in Wetmore.

We drive through snow blowing out of Westcliffe and head south to the turn off. The snow let up to a clear day on the trail all the way up to our friends cabin. Not as much snow as last time, but enough to still be fun.

Here's what I pulled out of the rear diff:



Here's a link to my Youtube page for some of the footage I shot since I wasn't driving...

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj5...wvXMwip-veMTCQ

Now the plan was to swap the 75's axles and suspension to the 91 when the swap commenced. Those plans now have to be altered. It's time to upgrade. The search is on for a 14b full floater. A customer of mine and I got to talking this week and he said he had a pair of 8lug axles back at his place. Guess where I went for my lunch break? Yep, his place. He takes me across one of his hay fields to another outbuilding and outside of it sits a 8 lug D44 and a 14b bolt. Then I focus a little more and id the rear axle as a semi-floater. Bummer. He was let down too. He then remembered his son has another truck he was parting out at his house. Location? Westcliffe. Ironic, huh?

He's not sure what ratio the axle is, but he's going to check and let me know this coming week.

So if this falls together, I'll need to get some 8 lug wheels and tires to match. The saga continues..

[DirtyLarry]

Wish I could have gone along with you guys. Bummer about the axle, but that is the encouragement you needed to get busy with a 14 bolt anyway

[Zoomad75]

You would have had fun. The burb would have done just fine too. The axle was a drag, but turn out to be a blessing in disguise since it happened so close to home. Had it broke on the way or on the trail we would have called you for a rescue.

Still, it's odd it broke in the first place. There wasn't an ounce of moisture in the diff. When I pulled the cover, what fluid was left was just as clean when I poured it in 3 months ago. A thought was that a spider or side gear came apart. Inspection with the diff cover off proved inconclusive. I could not see a tooth missing on a spider or side gear. I didn't jack the rear end up to allow the ability to rotate the parts so there might be one I couldn't see. The big tooth in the pic is actually one of the pinon gear teeth. By what I could see, driving it much further would have peeled a couple more off too. Found some 16" wheels on Craigs for cheap tonight too. Waiting on an email back.

[Zoomad75]

Crazy how things work out. Got some updates, no real activity on the truck but did work out some deals to move forward with the project. With no real interest in my '75 (then again, I've not really pushed to advertise it either) and a blown up 12 bolt axle the 75 isn't gaining value at all as a whole. So as usual, Larry's been at work again.

He's found a 14b full floating axle with another like minded square body nut when they were at a local bone yard. The buddy bought it and then proceeded to buy a CUCV Blazer off of Craigslist that already had a 14b and a D60, so he's now got a spare axle he don't need. I get the call that he's looking to unload the 14b. Plus Larry's managed to sell the 91 GMC front clip for what I got into it. It looks like we are upgrading to 8 lug axles at the same time.

Fast forward a few days and Larry lets me know the buddy that the axle came from is in need of a good frame on his CUCV Blazer. Sounds as if the Army and most recent owner were not kind to it. The right hand frame rail is bent and causing alignment issues with the springs/shackles. Plus it's had a home brew front 56" spring swap with some great bubble gum welds and a steering brace that would would make a blacksmith cringe. So I call him up and since my 75 is dead in the water we make a deal for him to buy the frame. I'm keeping the drivetrain and suspension as well as the seats and other bits. The body is too far gone to mess with so it's going to get recycled. I hate to see the full vert top go to waste so I've thrown it on Craigslist but if nobody wants it, I don't have a place to store it so it may go with the tub. (that is just a statement, not intended as an ad outside of the classified section of this site)

It's sad to think about my 75 going the way of the Dodo. But it's sacrifice will allow a couple more K5's to live on with it's parts. It's going to get interesting in the coming months for sure!

[MTCK]

Progress is progress. Looking forward to the big swap show.

[Greenlee]

It's funny how these projects can change direction on you. I was searching for a transmission for my project and ended up buying a whole other truck that turned into the one I rebuilt.

You may want to save your windshield frame and top from the 75'. I have seen a few people on here convert them to the newer 76-91 body style. It sure is cool to have a fully convertible rig!

[Zoomad75]

Originally Posted by Greenlee

It's funny how these projects can change direction on you. I was searching for a transmission for my project and ended up buying a whole other truck that turned into the one I rebuilt.

You may want to save your windshield frame and top from the 75'. I have seen a few people on here convert them to the newer 76-91 body style. It sure is cool to have a fully convertible rig!

The plan is if somebody wants the top, we'll have my guy that does all the glass at our shop pull the windshield and then we will chop the header out. The windshield is pretty new and lacking the normal stone chips we get around here plus the gasket is brand new when I had my guy put it in.

Time to cancel the insurance on the beast and organize a plan of attack to take the parts off I'm planning on keeping for use on the 91. Get the little stuff done here before we trailer it over to the busted knuckle garage. Too bad is snowing now.

[DirtyLarry]

I know I am excited to get both of the K5 projects going (Zoomad’s GSA Tan Border Patrol K5 and Ian’s CUCV). Going to be fun spring and summer helping you guys with these. Just need to finish up the Polar Bear engine swap so we have room in the Bigassgas Garage (previously known as the Busted Knuckle Garage ) to get going on these. Wish I had me a K5