Halfbreed - GMC Z71 + IH Extd Cab

[1985-GMC]

Man I love your work, you are very creative!

[cAlvis165]

This is looking good!

[EZ SPEED]

Originally Posted by 1985-GMC

Man I love your work, you are very creative!

I agree...VERY creative !!!

[Palf70Step]

Very neat!

[67ChevyRedneck]

Oh no... I've gone cross eyed...
Posted via Mobile Device

[FrankieD]

I think I have to move to a warmer climate so I don't have to take 4 0r 5 month's off

[sparkydog]

I'm using the evenings this week to get ready to convert my wiring over to the Autometer 4 in 1 this weekend. Once I snip the wires off the back of the connector on the GM harness I can't go back to the stock GM panel (not that I want to). So I wanted to make sure of a few things. First was to make sure that I got the correct style fuel gauge that will work with the GM sender in the tank. CHECK - it reads correctly when I try it with some jump wires.

Next was Volt meter. CHECK (kind of hard to screw this one up).

Then oil press and water temp. Neither read correctly because they don't work with the factory GM senders. Water temp sender was easy thanks to Google. I found the 1-wire sender located on the drivers side cylinder head and swapped it for the Autometer sender and a fresh wire with lug converted the GM harness to the Autometer sender.

Now for the hard part. The oil press sender on a 96 Vortec is on the top rear of the block beside the dizzy and it is going to be real hard to access that area. If I could reach back there and remove the GM sender it is a 3-wire combo sender and switch that involves the fuel pump (or so I read). So I would need to either replace the sender and jumper the 2 wires involved with the fuel pump and just use the tan wire for the gauge signal or...

put my new Autometer sender in the spare oil port on the side of the block above the oil filter. However - even if I do this (because it is easier to access) I still want to tie the signal into the tan wire that is up there on the rear of the block.

Does anyone have experience with reaching back there to replace the sender? How did you do it? And has anyone jumper'd the fuel pump circuit like I am talking about?

[cAlvis165]

If you leave the GM oil pressure sender/fuel pump switch, you'll still have the protection that the oil pressure switch offers. It will not allow the fuel pump to run if you are in an accident/flip the truck and the engine looses pressure. That way the pump doesn't spew fuel all over the place in the case of a bad accident. You'll still have to tap into the tan wire after you mount you Autometer sender in the alternate location, but at least you'll have the protection of the original oil pressure/fuel pump switch.

Just my 2 cents. Keep up the good work!

Chad

[sparkydog]

Good advice! ^^^^

I will take your .02 thanks!

[sparkydog]

Grrrrrrrrr......

The Autometer oil press sensor is big enough that it won't fit into that extra port above the oil filter. Too big of diameter and long enough to run into the exhaust header flange.

I'm wondering if I could remove my oil cooler adapter housing (where the lines take off and head forward) and put a port on it? Plenty of room on the side of it and very accessible.

[sparkydog]

As the warning light relo project swung into high gear the war room got pretty messy.

Next is a shot of the newly wired console ready for it's first trip back up into the roof of the cab.

Then a shot with the key on and 5 out of 6 of the lights doing their thing.

Finally a shot after a few seconds of running - now all the lights but the left one are off. The left one is (I mean will be) the green DRL light which stays on.

So far so good. And so far it's OK that my crude looking light housing is working. But the final task is to come up with a clean, factory looking front cover. Wish me luck!

[sparkydog]

I'll be driving the first couple of days with the fire extinguisher riding shotgun. Nothing like an electrical fire to ruin a perfectly good project truck.

[ERASER5]

"And remember, only YOU can prevent project fires!" -- Smoky the Bear

[NONHOG]

Originally Posted by ERASER5

"And remember, only YOU can prevent project fires!" -- Smoky the Bear

And a battery quick disconnect!

[FrankieD]

Yea California has had enough fires they are poluting the earth

[sparkydog]

I took a quick intermission from the instrument panel to bang out this new screen for the fireplace. The Gecko kept falling off the side of the house during a strong wind so he was re-purposed into a handle for the screen. I'm real happy with how this turned out.

[sparkydog]

On with the panel!

First I wanted to eliminate the small whoop-dee-do the went over the top of the IH steering column so I grafted a section from my extra IH panel.

Then I marked where to cut out the section with the old holes.

[sparkydog]

A few hours later I had a new section welded in and rough-finished.

And then the new holes and a first mockup with the two gauges Santa gave me.

[cAlvis165]

Awesome! Love the Gecko as well!!

[1985-GMC]

Could you add a brass extension to it? Ive got one for a small block that about 1.5" long and it turns at a 45* in the middle, they probably make straight ones too.

[FrankieD]

^^^^^^ unless you want to pull the Dizzy

[sparkydog]

Continuing with the gauge mods. Pic 1&2 of the panel. In a later post you will see that I didn't like the three smaller holes and filled them in again and relo'd.

Pic#3 is of the oil pressure sending wire that I was able to just barely fish out from under the dizzy and splice into my new sender. That's the splice to the left and the other wire to the right is my fishing pole. The oil filter sandwich plate on my GM truck turned out to have a pressure port on the side that I could use.

Pic 4 is of the now retired GM panel showing the mileage that was on the chassis. I have put just over 21,000 miles on my truck since she sprang to life in November 2011.

Pic 5 is of the overhead idiot light cluster. The flash certainly makes it look like a hack job. In real life it blends right in and looks just fine. It's a layer of clear plastic with gray spray paint on the back side. The circles are where I masked the paint off and glued the GM graphics for the idiot lights on.

[sparkydog]

Halfbreed is my one and only vehicle right now so I have to be careful what I rip into on the weekends so as not to take it off the road for more than a few hours. Here is a shot of the panel inside the cab with the blinker lights moved to the left and right of the cluster and the high beam tucked near the middle.

I also did a better job with the wire labels.

Final pic shows that I have changed my mind and filled in the openings where the speaker grill was on the top of the dash and the ash tray and the heater controls. I think it looks better big, bald and beautiful. Less is more on on IH.

[cAlvis165]

Lookin' good! What is the plan for the third gauge hole? Tack?? Also, this is the first time I noticed the shifter knob--nice touch! Good to see the monkey is still helpin' out.

[Palf70Step]

I like the new arrangement better too. Great work on this!