What did you do to your truck today??

[special-K]

Can't say you didn't try

[Just call me Sean]

I guess the trying isn't over. The new boards are about the same quality as the old ones. The passenger side works fine but the upper parking light on the drivers side is touchy. I had to jamb a sliver of wood in it to make it work. Something interesting though, I've come across three different designs of the boards.
First are the ones on the 99, second are the replacement design, and I just checked a bulb on the 93 and it has a third different design. The 93 has the superior design, pictured below. Doesn't look like it would be easy to try and modify, and all the connections are solid. The replacement design has snap in bulb sockets while the 99 has them melted in place.

[MiniD]

They don't suffer the same delamination/heating problems. It's more of a pre-emptive thing than a fix.

[hatzie]

Originally Posted by Just call me Sean

LED bulbs don't really help when they don't make contact with the board.

So I finished soldering both sides, put them together, tested them, and filled them with boat resin to keep everything together. Unfortunately, the resin refuses to dry. I've had enough with it for now, I ordered two new boards.

Potting the board is a good idea.
Some marine resins are UV curing.
What happens when you expose the resin to black light?

[Just call me Sean]

Originally Posted by hatzie

Potting the board is a good idea.
Some marine resins are UV curing.
What happens when you expose the resin to black light?

I used some resin I had left over from reconstructing my dashboard. It uses hardener, but I set them out in the sun anyways until I knew it wasn't going to dry. I squirted more hardener on top, only the hardener dried a little. I need the bulb tabs so I pulled them all apart, clipped off the wires and threw them in gasoline. That stuff is nasty and it wasn't coming off. I burned the gas off them twice and they were still sticky, so I left them soaking for a while. I just burned them all again over a candle and the gas soaked in to the stuff but I still had to burn them for a while. Now they're clean. I'll do it all over again but this time I'm getting fresh epoxy.

[Just call me Sean]

Attempt #5. This one came out pretty decent I think. I'm going to let it dry for a while even though it should be fully cured. Two trucks, so three more to go.

[pjmoreland]

Repainted the roof and had the windshield replaced a few weeks ago to address a leaky windshield. It's raining for the first time since then, and it's staying dry inside.

[Just call me Sean]

Just as I thought, the guy at Discount Tire lied to me. I figured he was lying but it still pisses me off. The Goodyear Wranglers I usually use are not discontinued, they just don't sell them anymore. Also, the Generals I got for the 99 aren't in stock when I specifically asked for something they keep in stock. Twice they haven't been in stock. Well, Walmart sells the Goodyears and they have them in stock and they sell them loose. These damn tire shops are pushing me to Walmart.

[Just call me Sean]

Got my wreath on.

[Just call me Sean]

Finished the other taillight. I'll install them later, after the one I just finished dries for a few days. The hazard flasher quit working right a while back so I changed it also.

[special-K]

Originally Posted by Just call me Sean

Just as I thought, the guy at Discount Tire lied to me. I figured he was lying but it still pisses me off. The Goodyear Wranglers I usually use are not discontinued, they just don't sell them anymore. Also, the Generals I got for the 99 aren't in stock when I specifically asked for something they keep in stock. Twice they haven't been in stock. Well, Walmart sells the Goodyears and they have them in stock and they sell them loose. These damn tire shops are pushing me to Walmart.

I see that a lot, pushing a customer to buy what is in stock over fulfilling the customers desired purchase. "They stopped making them" does not equate to "We stopped carrying them". In fact, one is truth and one is a bold face lie. But that's not wrong, that's just business. Sorry, I can't go with that!

Last winter I bought the set of Coopers I wanted off of Discount Tire Direct. They showed the quantity in stock when I ordered them. I get a call back from them a couple days later. The guy wants to know another tire I would want since my selection was out of stock with no ETA.
"I ordered the tires I wanted that showed in stock when I paid. If you don't update your website I'll turn you in for bait & switch"

Out of stock, no ETA. How about these el Cheapos? It's only bait and switch if we do it intentionally.

"I specifically ordered the highest quality tire for the most reasonable price. You know know now they are out of stock. Bait & switch if you don't update"

Offers made for other crappy rubber

"Nope"

Would you want BFG All Terrains? They're more aggressive than you ordered

"I just ordered shocks based on what I spent on the Coopers. I didn't want to spend more and now I can't"

I'm offering these at the same price. We are losing money, the opposite of bait & switch.

"I accept that offer"

I know their big concern is moving quantities of tires over giving customers what they want. I used that against them. If I just asked for a refund their volume would have dropped by one set. Volume is their bottom line. Those BFGs were priced about $400 higher than the Coopers

[Just call me Sean]

I didn't even bother to go there. It's such an ordeal when I buy tires that this time I checked online first instead of just going to the store like I usually do. Generals not in stock, could have ordered it but I wanted to go get a tire now. Started looking at what was in stock, was going to get two at $80 each but they're blackwall and I like raised white lettering. So checked elsewhere and saw Walmart had the Goodyears in stock. Didn't even call, just went there and got a tire. Didn't have to talk to a salesperson, just a cashier that rang it up. It was $105.

[pjmoreland]

Had to drive to the San Francisco bay area for work this week, so I used the opportunity to stop by a Pick-n-Pull wrecking yard along the way that I haven't been to before. Scored a bedliner in nice condition. There was a horse stall mat in the bed of my truck from the previous owner. I shoved that heavy thing out of the bed to install the liner. For the life of me I couldn't get the pad back in afterward. Fortunately, a female employee of the wrecking yard was walking by and offered me a hand.

Got 17.0 MPG over the approximately 300 mile round trip driving at around 70 MPH the entire time. I'm really happy with that.

[Boog]

17 mpg is respectable for these trucks. Good road trip.

[special-K]

I like those stall mats but they are hea-ea-VEEE! Great to score a good headliner. I find nice ones stained from a pop bottle (I assume) explosion, usually. 17mpg would be wonderful to me.

[Just call me Sean]

I put the lights on my truck about a week ago. I tried to get a decent picture then and again just now. I guess my truck isn't as photogenic as my wife's. Both are of the brake lights. I have the other pair for my wife's truck soldered up and waiting for me to feel like putting them together and pouring them.

[pjmoreland]

That's nice and bright. You had mentioned possibly modifying the backup lights to make both filaments light up. Have you taken a look at that?

[pjmoreland]

I installed a Gov-Lock differential carrier in my '89 K1500 today. Got it out of a '97 Suburban K1500 that had the G80 option. The Suburban gears were 3.73, and mine are 3.42, but the same carrier works for both. I was not expecting the left-handed ring gear bolts.

Took it for a test drive. Put one wheel on gravel and the other on pavement and then punched the throttle. The gravel wheel peeled out a little bit initially, and then the diff locked up as it should. A friend of mine said he had one of these explode on him once, so I'll need to be gentle with it.

[Just call me Sean]

Originally Posted by pjmoreland

That's nice and bright. You had mentioned possibly modifying the backup lights to make both filaments light up. Have you taken a look at that?

I decided that wouldn't make much of a difference so I didn't bother with it.

Why didn't you swap the whole rear in?

[special-K]

You have to drive the Gov-Loc understanding how it works. They engage off of inertia, so once one wheel spins it will lock. If it engages while wheel speed is up under throttle it's a hell of a stress. That's where people blow them up. The one wheel doesn't have to be spinning that fast to engage. If you start to spin out just let it spin under minimum throttle till you feel it engage, then hit it as hard as you want. They are strong disengaged and engaged. It's how they engage that sets their fate.

People say the same thing about automatic locking hubs (on solid axle trucks) exploding. It's the same with those. Let them engage easy, then give it hell.

Both are convenience features designed for the way GM would like you to drive. Not hard core off road use. I've run Gov-Locs with 35" tires and it worked like a charm... and held up

[pjmoreland]

Originally Posted by Just call me Sean

I decided that wouldn't make much of a difference so I didn't bother with it.

Why didn't you swap the whole rear in?

I figured it would be less back-breaking work to just swap the carrier. Swapping the entire rear end would have been less technically challenging, assuming I could have found a 3.42 rear end without too much searching.

[pjmoreland]

Originally Posted by special-K

People say the same thing about automatic locking hubs (on solid axle trucks) exploding. It's the same with those. Let them engage easy, then give it hell.

That's helpful advice. Thank you. It's probably a good thing that my engine is quite mild.

[special-K]

My '67 project has a trashed ring & pinion due to towing it home not knowing the pinion was not torqued on, worked loose, broke teeth. I have a 3.42 posi set which wasn't offered in that coil spring rear, so I've planned to swap that. This is for the 4spd car transmission to keep grunt while having better hiway ratio. Now I'm thinking screw the hiway and I'd like 3.73s and a tougher posi. But I'll still keep the same axle, unless I find a great deal on a complete 3.73 coil rear with a beefy posi ready to go.

[pjmoreland]

I've got a 3.73/700R4 combo in my '68, and first gear is way lower than I need it to be. The 3.42/700R4 combo in my '89 makes first gear more reasonable, but then the jump to second gear is big for that mild TBI 350. The 3.73 is a little more fun to drive, but the 3..42 seems better for gas mileage.

[special-K]

That's how I was thinking with 3.42s and manual 4spd, best fuel consumption w/o overdrive without being to tall off the line. My ultimate plan is install a Gear Vendors o/d and I consider 3.42s the tallest I would want with o/d. If I knew for sure a Gear Vendor was going to happen, I'd go with 3.73s to reap the most pleasure out of the 327/4spd, and still be great over the road. Traditionally, I've been a 4.10 guy. But looking at my elder years on limited income I'm willing to compromise for economic reasons. I want to use it not look at it.