What did you do to your truck today??

[Just call me Sean]

I just had to run to my wife's work to put an alternator on the S10, so that was a little bit away from my driveway. At least I had that brand new one sitting on my back seat because I still haven't found my dual alternator bracket. And it's warrantied so I'll exchange it tomorrow.

[pjmoreland]

The other day I had my air cleaner off to access something behind it. After I reinstalled the air cleaner, the engine barely started and didn't want to idle. I started panicking because I was going to have to admit to a friend who advised against getting a truck with TBI that he was right. On further inspection, I discovered that three of the four retaining clips on the injector connectors were missing. One of the connectors had popped loose. Whew! Spared from admitting he was right until another day! Anyway, this evening I replaced the connector housings with a set I got from a late '80s van at the wrecking yard. It was fairly straightforward to pop the pins out to transfer them over.

[special-K]

I had a similar experience. I flushed my coolant system. I had pulled the thermostat, gutted it, and reinstalled before flushing. Mind you, I am unfamiliar yet with the workings of this TBI/EFI system. When I went to start it to help with the flush it only cranked. I had already had two times it failed to start after, or during, rain. This was the morning after a rain, so I put the rotor and cap on I had for that problem. It still only cranked. Shoot, now what? I had power at the pink wire going into the coil but none coming out. So I started a thread asking how this system works, because I knew the ECM was involved somewhere. Before seeing the replies I decided to replace the coil anyway. The coil wire and contact on the coil were very crusty anyway. Still only cranked! Then I decided to fasten those three connectors to the thermostat housing stud. Maybe those wires had some purpose? (It was an oversight) Fired right up!

[hatzie]

Originally Posted by pjmoreland

The other day I had my air cleaner off to access something behind it. After I reinstalled the air cleaner, the engine barely started and didn't want to idle. I started panicking because I was going to have to admit to a friend who advised against getting a truck with TBI that he was right. On further inspection, I discovered that three of the four retaining clips on the injector connectors were missing. One of the connectors had popped loose. Whew! Spared from admitting he was right until another day! Anyway, this evening I replaced the connector housings with a set I got from a late '80s van at the wrecking yard. It was fairly straightforward to pop the pins out to transfer them over.

If you need them again.
The GM part number on that injector connector is 12102568.
AC Delco PT285 is the terminated injector connector pigtail.

[pjmoreland]

Originally Posted by hatzie

If you need them again.
The GM part number on that injector connector is 12102568.
AC Delco PT285 is the terminated injector connector pigtail.

Thank you. Those connectors do seem to get pretty crispy over the years. I think the connectors I got from the wrecking yard were replacements because there were splices in the wires. Hopefully they will hold up for a while. The previous owner of my truck broke every plastic component he touched. I have replaced countless connectors and trim pieces at this point.

[Just call me Sean]

I went to the junkyard and picked up a non cracked a/c box for the van with resistors and relay, and the wiring harness near it. I also got a seatbelt end for the 93 because it doesn't like to unhook easily. The first one I grabbed was from a bench seat regular cab which has the center seatbelt. The second is from a Suburban with buckets. I was told mine had a bench but the power 60/40 was swapped in. Mine has the bucket seatbelt end, I bought both anyways. $30 for everything.

[hatzie]

Originally Posted by pjmoreland

Thank you. Those connectors do seem to get pretty crispy over the years. I think the connectors I got from the wrecking yard were replacements because there were splices in the wires. Hopefully they will hold up for a while. The previous owner of my truck broke every plastic component he touched. I have replaced countless connectors and trim pieces at this point.

I don't know how some folks do that. I picked up a Jetta 1K (A5) GLI several years ago that had a bunch of broken buttons and clips and trim pieces. I went to a U-pullit with a checklist and found all the broken stuff. I sold it once it was sorted.
Some folks just have the demolition touch I guess.

[pjmoreland]

Originally Posted by hatzie

I don't know how some folks do that. I picked up a Jetta 1K (A5) GLI several years ago that had a bunch of broken buttons and clips and trim pieces. I went to a U-pullit with a checklist and found all the broken stuff. I sold it once it was sorted.
Some folks just have the demolition touch I guess.

Member '68OrangeSunshine likes to say that all POs are crackpots. In the case of my '89, I tend to agree!

Nice scores there, Sean

[attack eagle]

Bought a grey denali console and sub (as well as its EC rear view mirror)

Tried it out for a few days and decided it was a keeper.

Upgraded it with LED lighting cannibalized from the town and country console for the OEM+ look… as well as installed a lightning cable for my CarPlay into the upper section, and wired it so it goes to a single 4pin for power,ground and audio +/- on drivers side, plus usb on right side so it is easy to unplug and remove in the future… like when I get new carpet. I used a 1-2 ft usb extension so the join to the apple cable is accessible by just removing the lid and thus serviceable in the future.

Oh and I stripped it down to bare parts, sanded the leather with 400 and 800 grit to get rid of the plasticizer layer, and changed the color to SEM lt neutral to match the Escalade surround and color matched dash.

Overall it’s 100 times better than when I pulled it out of the junkyard!

[Just call me Sean]

I finally found the dual alternator bracket I made. I left it bolted to the van. Unfortunately it won't work on the truck because the accessory brackets are different.

[Just call me Sean]

The van is together and while running it I found the upper radiator hose leaking. I changed it and saw the thermostat housing leaking. I recently changed the thermostat and it has the rubber gasket which was cut up somehow. So that might be good news for me, that's where the water was going so maybe I won't have to change the head gaskets. I still have to straighten out the wiring and I ordered the steering box seals but I can drive it again.

[special-K]

That's good news on the thermostat rubber seal. No bubbles in radiator? I wish I was that lucky. I'm next in line with a blown head gasket. My coolant had come down a couple times last year, like twice in a year. I've been looking for evidence of leaking and not finding any. Never a drip. But it started using it a lot around the holidays. No white smoke and the oil looks normal, but there are bubbles. I can see now between #2 and #4 now at the block is evidence. Time to yank the heads

[pjmoreland]

I've been looking and looking for a good set of dash speaker covers with clips, and I finally found some at the wrecking yard this past weekend. The passenger side was missing one of the two clips, so I reattached a clip by melting chunks of a zip tie with a soldering iron. That clip actually feels more solid than the other clips. It's nice to no longer have covers held on with putty.

[Just call me Sean]

I would like to just be able to lay my speaker grills in place, but I can't do that until I get the right sized speakers.

After checking out my 99 with the same front seat as my 93, I have determined that the 93 is missing the front center seatbelt. So I went back to the junkyard and got the other side. I don't know why someone would mess with the seatbelts, the rear seat had an incorrect seatbelt end too.

[hatzie]

Originally Posted by Just call me Sean

I would like to just be able to lay my speaker grills in place, but I can't do that until I get the right sized speakers.

After checking out my 99 with the same front seat as my 93, I have determined that the 93 is missing the front center seatbelt. So I went back to the junkyard and got the other side. I don't know why someone would mess with the seatbelts, the rear seat had an incorrect seatbelt end too.

Infinity Kappa 4x6 speakers should fit in the 88-94 dash and in the cab corners.
I have a set of them in the package tray side supports in my 1984 Rabbit GTI.
The dash in the MK II Rabbit will only accept 3.5" speakers so I used the coaxial 2 way Infinity Reference speakers.
They're reasonable sounding speakers.

[Just call me Sean]

Yea I bought a pair of Sonys for the dash but decided to put them in the rear at the time since they were the difficult ones to do. Then never got another pair.

[pjmoreland]

I found a 1991 tach gauge cluster at the wrecking yard that I'm going to put in my '89. I'm following the guidance in this thread:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=313815

I opened up the gauge cluster this evening and swapped around the little fuses on the PCB to set my rear end gear ratio and tire size for the speedometer. I also disassembled the odometer and set it to match my current odometer.

My plan is to run the tach signal wire through the bulkhead connector on the firewall. I pulled a bulkhead connector from a truck at the wrecking yard this afternoon just to figure out how it's constructed and to harvest a set of contacts from it. Took me a while to figure out that there is a white plastic comb-shaped piece that locks the contacts into place. Everything is covered in black caulking. There was one empty slot in that connector, so hopefully it is the same way in my truck.

I also grabbed the gauge cluster connector out of the truck at the wrecking yard so I can use one of its pins for the tach signal. The truck that this tach gauge cluster came out of had the tach wire routed in a big bundle of wires through a firewall bulkhead pass-through (not a connector) on the passenger side. It then passed through a connector behind the glovebox, and then entered another bundle of wires that ran along the dash over to the gauge cluster.

[LeesTruk]

Good Find!! Those are hard to come by.

[Boog]

'91 must have been a changeover year for the instrument cluster. My original 91 has the "moonies".

[special-K]

I ordered the tach in my '92. Then I guess they became standard after that. Must have been in '95 with the new dash. I ordered a few options that within a year or two I was seeing on every truck.

[pjmoreland]

Originally Posted by Boog

'91 must have been a changeover year for the instrument cluster. My original 91 has the "moonies".

From what I've read, they offered the tach for maybe half of '91. The '91 tach gauge cluster fits the same connector as the 88-90 moonies cluster, and then in '92 they went to a different connector. They did make some slight changes to the connector pinout though, so I'll have to move some wires around. Reminds me of upgrading from idiot lights to gauges on my '68.

I'm assuming the gauge cluster change in '92 was in preparation for the upcoming change from the 4L60 (700R4) to the 4L60E, which required changing from an ECU to a PCM.

[special-K]

That could be. Mine was the late in '92 introduced 6.5TD with an NV4500. Minimum electronics. At first I had to call it a '93 at parts places. It took a few years for listings to show for '92.

That truck took just about 6 months to be delivered. I never got an explanation. I got false alarms at least three times before it actually came. Actually, I knew there would be an extra wait up front, which ended up being about 6wks to start. I got them to give me the fleet color Woodland Green, but had to wait for enough orders for a batch to came in. Ordered in Jan, received in June.

[LeesTruk]

PJ/Special-K, I have one each, of those clusters. The '91 cluster differs from the '92-'94 in that the odometer/trip meter on the '91 shows a 6 digit trip meter, whereas the '92-'94 has 7 digits. That's on the cluster face. At the rear, the '91 has a steel backing plate, and the '92-'94 has an open back. Also, the harness interfacing connecters are different. I've included pics of all of this. Sorry for the blurred pics of the odometers. What you CAN do is swap the odo/trip from one to the other simply by removing the cluster face, remove a couple of little screws and unplug the odo/trip motor. The '91 cluster actually hides the tenth of a mile digit. The cluster on the left is '92-'94, the right, '91. So, PJ, if you want to keep the truck mileage original, just take the Moonie odo/trip and swap it into your tach cluster. Even that can be done. Ain't GM grand?

[LeesTruk]

I forgot to mention, the '92-'94 speedometer uses an external DRAQ that receives its signal from the VSS. The '91, like the Moonies, has internal circuitry that must be altered for the speedo to read correctly. But I have to assume you knew that going in

[pjmoreland]

Originally Posted by LeesTruk

I forgot to mention, the '92-'94 speedometer uses an external DRAQ that receives its signal from the VSS. The '91, like the Moonies, has internal circuitry that must be altered for the speedo to read correctly. But I have to assume you knew that going in

Yep. There's a handy chart in the link I posted earlier that explains how to make the speedometer adjustment. I just had to swap the positions of two of the fuses that are soldered to the PCB.

That's good to know about the compatibility of the odometers.