My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble

[boynton]

I barely recognize that place! Looking really good.

[swamp rat]

Yea makin my head spin bud! nice shop!

[rgunlock]

Thanks for the compliments. This should be a much nicer, brighter space to work in. If I ever get it done, I am really ready to start working on the 71 GMC.

[rgunlock]

Yay! Finally finished the garage side ceiling. First is a random "before" shot of the space, and then the finished space.

[MTCK]

That looks great congrats. Got the dart board rolling and everything. Don’t miss!

[mongocanfly]

New shop walls look great Rick..!

[rgunlock]

Thanks Marcus and Greg! I'll probably have to hire some day help to do the ceiling on the other side so I don't have to deal with that much overhead work. Just can't get motivated to do any more interior and woodwork given the Christmas present on the floor.

There are a few holes in the wall already, but I'll soon put up a foam surround

[rgunlock]

Kind of embarrassing, but Hazel just got her first bath in about 8 months after living outside because there is another truck in the garage. She still cleans up nice. Bonn likes to attack spray out the nozzle, so he kind of got a bath too

Last weekend, my wife and I drove her about 3.5 hours down to Rockport TX for a fishing weekend and back. This is actually the 2nd time we've taken her on that trip. She does really well on the freeway with the NV4500. Only doing about 2700 RPM at 75-80. Seriously considering taking her on a long roadtrip to Indiana and N. Carolina. I think she could do it fine, but dang she's noisy at highway speed. Mostly the NV4500 in 5th gear. I've had it in at a reputable transmission shop, one of few around here that work on manual transmissions, and they can't find anything wrong to explain the noise. But... It would be a fun trip.

[MTCK]

That’s awesome and how you know you built a solid project! Noise is honestly the biggest knock on my 91 also. Going to try to make it a little better this winter. Those 4500’s have a reputation...

[Old57]

Originally Posted by rgunlock

Kind of embarrassing, but Hazel just got her first bath in about 8 months after living outside because there is another truck in the garage. She still cleans up nice. Bonn likes to attack spray out the nozzle, so he kind of got a bath too

Last weekend, my wife and I drove her about 3.5 hours down to Rockport TX for a fishing weekend and back. This is actually the 2nd time we've taken her on that trip. She does really well on the freeway with the NV4500. Only doing about 2700 RPM at 75-80. Seriously considering taking her on a long roadtrip to Indiana and N. Carolina. I think she could do it fine, but dang she's noisy at highway speed. Mostly the NV4500 in 5th gear. I've had it in at a reputable transmission shop, one of few around here that work on manual transmissions, and they can't find anything wrong to explain the noise. But... It would be a fun trip.

It's looking good! I haven't noticed that noise in my NV4500. I really like how smooth it shifts compared to the old SM465. My only minor complaint is that I wish it had a more even spread across the gears. It seems too low in 1-3. I usually drive around town in 3-4, and it's a big jump from 4-5.

[rgunlock]

Originally Posted by MTCK

That’s awesome and how you know you built a solid project! Noise is honestly the biggest knock on my 91 also. Going to try to make it a little better this winter. Those 4500’s have a reputation...

Originally Posted by Old57

It's looking good! I haven't noticed that noise in my NV4500. I really like how smooth it shifts compared to the old SM465. My only minor complaint is that I wish it had a more even spread across the gears. It seems too low in 1-3. I usually drive around town in 3-4, and it's a big jump from 4-5.

Well, my wife and I did take her on that 3200 mile roadtrip. Wish that the 5th gear noise was the only problem. For now, I'll just say the trip was quite the "adventure". Need to upload a few pics and I'll post a report.

[rgunlock]

This was the route we took for this roadtrip. Up to the Indianapolis area to visit friends, then to North Carolina to visit my brother and his family. Then driving through the Smoky Mountains on the return trip to Texas.

[rgunlock]

Hazel behaved fine the first 1000 or so miles up to Indianapolis. Only problem was 10 miles from home we ran into heavy rain and the bracket holding the wiper blade on the driver side broke. Drove 5 miles to nearest parts store leaning over to see out passenger side of windshield.

First pic is the truck leaving Texas first time since the build. Then entering Indiana, and a nice red maple shot my wife took.

[rgunlock]

After visiting a couple days, we headed out on what should be a fairly full day's drive to Cary NC. Turned out to be a much longer day than expected. Real problems began while going through Virginia.

First issue showed up trying to climb steep grades when the truck would start cutting out... badly! I figured it was fuel starvation. The flexible fuel line between the hardline to tank and the fuel pump had a tight curve. When the hose got heated enough, it was pinching mostly shut. I was under the truck 3 times, not always in the safest spots, trying to tie the fuel hose in a position to relieve the kink, without success. I finally mostly solved that problem by cutting off the kinked area.

While this was going on, I also started developing a vibration that felt like driveline, so more times under the truck making sure u-joints were secure, transmission mounts secure, etc. I didn't feel any play in the u-joints, so was stumped as to what was going on. While driving, I'm thinking maybe broken motor mount.

We made it into North Carolina at much reduced speeds which kept the vibration down some. While cruising up to Greensboro in the middle lane of 5, something exploded under the truck. I barely was able to coast through 2 lanes of fast moving traffic to the shoulder. Had about 1.5 foot to a wall on one side, and about the same to the lane on the other side. Realized in a big way that I should have made the effort to replace the switch for the hazard lights back when I rebuilt the column, but didn't know it was bad until after the column was back in the truck and I was testing the new wiring.

Fortunately, we were only about an hour and a half from my brother's house. Called him for a rescue. Called AAA to send a truck to haul mine to my brother's. Called for a police officer (wife's idea) to take us somewhere safe off the interstate to wait for my brother. It all worked out, but arrival at my brother's was hours later than planned.

Edit: 3rd pic is out of order. That's a tunnel through a mountain in either West Virginia or Virginia, don't recall which.

[rgunlock]

The explosion turned out to be the u-joint connecting the driveshaft to the transfer case. My brother and I replaced that the next morning. The driveshaft didn't "appear" to be too badly damaged. Some bad road rash on the yoke that hit the pavement. Skinned a bunch of undercoating off the bottom of the cab when it bounced up and slammed the floor also. Decided to drive it to my niece's place near the coast to see if it was going to be roadworthy to get us home later. Still had vibration at 70+ MPH, but didn't seem too bad if I held it to 65-70 max.

On the way back to Cary, the truck started to overheat. No steam, but temp gauge into the red. Pulled off, added coolant and seemed ok. Made it back to my brothers. Next morning we replaced that flexible fuel line with a reinforced line. While doing that, I noticed the AC compressor was way loose. The bolt holding the bracket was also one of the water pump bolts. Tightened that up and stopped the coolant leak. Another catastrophe averted! Rotated the tires to try to get rid of the remaining vibration.

Wasn't the way we planned to spend our visit, but working on the truck was good bonding time with my brother.

[rgunlock]

Leaving Cary, we spent a couple of days driving through the Smokies. Aside from the vibration, things were going well. Well, except that the bracket holding the passenger side wiper blade broke like the driver side had done. Quick stop at the parts store got that fixed. Good thing, because we had a good deal of rain in the forecast.

First day, we got to Bryson City, NC and stayed in a "rustic" inn that had a nice view and served excellent food. Next morning we'd planned a train ride through the mountains, but decided to pass on that as it was pouring rain and hurricane Zeta was headed toward us. It was heading toward us on the same path we intended to take to get home. We decided to get an early start and make Jackson MS which was to the west of Zeta's projected path, so we could avoid the worst of it.

It was a long day, and the vibrations were getting worse again. Decided to stop in Trussville, Alabama and get the tires balanced. Didn't help. We did make it to Jackson and got a hotel room.

[rgunlock]

Next morning, we were planning to leave Jackson MS and drive the rest of the way home. Didn't work out that way. I'd started having an issue where the truck was idling at ~1600 RPM and I couldn't get it adjusted down. Idle speed screw was doing nothing. I stopped at another parts store to get some carb cleaner thinking maybe stuck linkage. Cleaning didn't help, but I noticed the distributor was a little loose. Of course, I screwed up the timing figuring that out. So back into the store for a cheap timing light. Of course you can't really get timing set with the idle at 1600 RPM so all I was doing was making things worse.

Had a brainstorm and gave Cliff a call at Cliff's High Performance Quadrajets. Cliff is a great guy, and even though he couldn't see what was going on, suggested that the fast idle was likely that it was getting way too much air. Duhh, vacuum leak. Turned out that tightening the 4 corners where the carb mounts to the intake took care of the vacuum leak. Idle came down to where it belonged and I was able to retime the engine. Yay, we're finally getting out of Jackson at 1:30PM.

Edit: Forgot to mention this part. While trying to sort out the timing prior to figuring out I had a vacuum leak, Hazel backfired twice... Loudly... in busy convenience store/gas stations... did I mention twice? Got a lot of dirty looks... did nothing for my stress level

Made it as far as Carthage TX. Max speed 63-65MPH due to vibrations getting worse. My nerves were seriously shot, and that was far enough for the day. I had a spare u-joint I bought in Cary, a grease gun I got in Jackson, and tools I'd brought from home in case the u-joint decided to crap out again, but really didn't want to have to deal with it on the side of the road. And I imagined that if it exploded again, it could have been worse than just a cruise to the shoulder.

Couple random shots on the road, and re-entering Texas (that felt really good!)

[rgunlock]

Made it the rest of the way home the next day without any new issues. 63-65 on 75MPH highways isn't fun, but if that was the worst of it, I'd take it.

Best feeling in the world to pull Hazel into my own driveway in one piece!!!

I can't really say that any of the problems were due to negligence on my part, or wear and tear of an old truck. Maybe not enough attention to torque specs... The u-joint that exploded only had 12K miles when we started this adventure, and had been greased. I did know that the fuel inlet on the fuel pump was at a bad angle, but it had been working fine. The rest was pretty much fasteners getting loose, aside from the cheap a$$ wiper blades.

I'm seriously considering retiring Hazel from long roadtrip duty though. I don't think my nerves can handle another "vacation" like this one

[7dee2]

You know they make adventure shows like this, way to Roadkill it Rick!

Seriously though it's the quickest way to test your crap, my friend.

[MTCK]

Nice work!!! That's the kind of vacation that makes lasting memories. Stuff breaks. It happens. I've found with driving the crap out of my old trucks Those sorts of problems get shaken out, I fix them, and new ones pop up, but less frequently. Hope you don't have to sleep in the garage...

[rgunlock]

Yeah, I thought with daily driving and a couple reasonably long road trips I would have worked out the kinks. I guess good news is that with these old trucks you actually can do roadside repairs for many things. In my case, I think I bent my driveshaft so likely need a new one built. I am a little concerned whether my driveline angles had anything to do with the u-joint's early demise. I've got a (presumably good) Spicer u-joint in there now. I also wonder about the wisdom of bolting the AC compressor bracket through the waterpump, but have locktite on the bolt now.

[cmabolt]

Lol, Hey Rick! long time. Chris here. I am about to do a bunch of stuff to my truck so been back on the forums. Sorry to hear about your road adventure. I can totally relate to the stress of stuff breaking when on the open road far from home. Oddly, I had serious vibration issues with my truck after a few 2 hour road trips. I realized I had left the yoke on my trans/transfer case while lifting it into place several times. I actually bent the yoke. I rebalanced the driveshaft several times before figuring it out. I replaced the yoke with a new one on end of transfer case and problem solved.

Good to see your driving it though.
Over and out.
Chris

[TKCR]

Originally Posted by rgunlock

This was the route we took for this roadtrip. Up to the Indianapolis area to visit friends, then to North Carolina to visit my brother and his family. Then driving through the Smoky Mountains on the return trip to Texas.

We could have met up again. I would have liked to see you guys again, and the truck in person.

[rgunlock]

Originally Posted by cmabolt

Lol, Hey Rick! long time. Chris here. I am about to do a bunch of stuff to my truck so been back on the forums. Sorry to hear about your road adventure. I can totally relate to the stress of stuff breaking when on the open road far from home. Oddly, I had serious vibration issues with my truck after a few 2 hour road trips. I realized I had left the yoke on my trans/transfer case while lifting it into place several times. I actually bent the yoke. I rebalanced the driveshaft several times before figuring it out. I replaced the yoke with a new one on end of transfer case and problem solved.

Good to see your driving it though.
Over and out.
Chris

Hey Chris, good to hear from you. I had to get the tube replaced on my driveshaft and so far it seems to be ok. Be sure to post the bunch of stuff you're doing to your truck on your thread. Would love to see what you do.

Originally Posted by TKCR

We could have met up again. I would have liked to see you guys again, and the truck in person.

Hi TCKR, I thought about contacting you but the drive for that day was going to be long and I knew that you had to drive a couple hours to meet me last time. I'm building the 71 GMC for my wife now and she's decided she wants a bench instead of the buckets so who knows, I may be heading your way for a seat if you run across one that would work.

[TKCR]

Originally Posted by rgunlock

Hi TCKR, I thought about contacting you but the drive for that day was going to be long and I knew that you had to drive a couple hours to meet me last time. I'm building the 71 GMC for my wife now and she's decided she wants a bench instead of the buckets so who knows, I may be heading your way for a seat if you run across one that would work.

I actually have a 67-68 frame at the moment, already restored. I also have the new foam for it. All it needs is a cover. If you want me to ship it sometime or meet, we can. And it does tilt. The last 2 pics are the Before. I’ve had it for a couple of years now, so no hurry, it’s not going anywhere.
I know the tag, I wrote 68-69, but it’s a 67-68. Which you probably know, the truck is pretty much the same from 68-71.