1972 SWB Build

[beaterku]

Originally Posted by 1971Stepside

I just feel like it should have been painted red and white! LOL. 3rd isn’t bad at all for a truck.

He originally wanted red and white but changed it to white. I was surprised it do so well. I posited the axles and did the 3 wheel setup. Worked out well.

[bmxbang]

Amazingly clean truck man! Glad to see the progress, I actually remember seeing you post this thing on KCSR when you got it!

[beaterku]

Originally Posted by bmxbang

Amazingly clean truck man! Glad to see the progress, I actually remember seeing you post this thing on KCSR when you got it!

Thanks. It's changed a bit since then.

[beaterku]

I'm falling behind in here. I've been working on the truck as much as I can. I am finally making progress. The last year or work is finally starting to pay off.

The motor is all but buttoned up. Fuel tank is mounted. Final wiring has been sorted and started. The big items are the fuel lines, transmission lines, and finishing up the wiring. I am going to tackle the wiring first to get it done. I have a plan and all of the parts in hand or on order. I am going to use relays and parts that I mostly had on hand to get it running. Then down the road, re-do it with the nice Bussmann relay center.

Here are the latest videos on the build. Thanks everyone!

You Tube

You Tube

You Tube

[beaterku]

Spent some time this weekend sorting the wiring out on the interior. The LS harness is not integrated with the truck and Dakota module and every which way in between. It took a few hours, but it is almost complete. I ran in to a little bit of a snag with the PSI harness and poor crimps. The trigger wire leading from their fuseblock broke free. After some investigating, half of the crimps inside the fuse/relay assembly are no bueno. I am going to de-pin it and fix them all. I think I am also going to bypass the fuel pump relay in the PSI harness and use my own in the engine bay. The terminals they send with the kit are not large enough for the 10ga wire I am using. I did find the appropriate terminals online, but I think I may use one of my heavy duty relays that I am using for the fans and headlights. Keep the high load relays together. Still not 100% yet thought.

Sometimes, I think my anal retentiveness gets the best of me. I can't leave well enough alone.

Here is a little video of this weekends progress.

You Tube

[beaterku]

So, I can't leave well enough alone. I decided to ditch the 10-pin connector and order a 12-pin connector so that I have room for the three cruise control wires in the future. This allowed me to add wire labels that I forgot to do before I crimped everything. My OCD is soothed for today...

[knomadd]

That's smart! I wish I had thought of that when I did mine.

[beaterku]

My problem is trying to remember what I did and why I did it. I have a hard time remembering what I did yesterday, much less several years back. I'm hoping this make it easier to troubleshoot down the road. I saw someone use this method a while back. I am not sure where I saw it, but I thought I'd give it a try. Works really well.

I used an old Brother P-Touch label maker with 1/4" wide tape. Then used clear heat shrink to seal them to the wire.

[beaterku]

I finshed up the interior wiring last night. After many changes of thought I finally got everything lined out. Wires going every which way, but I made heads and tails of it in a logical fashion. Now I'm going to button up the wiring in the engine bay for the fans, fuel pump and head lights and move on to the fuel and trans lines. I spent entirely too much time on the wiring. My anal retentiveness got the best of me. I can't seem to leave well enough alone.

I went through the PSI supplied fuse/relay panel and re-crimped everything. There were some very poor crimps in there. I also abandoned the PSI fuel pump relay and ran the wire back out to the engine bay. I am going to use a heavy duty relay to control that.

I also found these pretty truck splice crimps. A buddy uses them on cars he wires. It make a super compact splice that is extremely strong. These are 1/4" long.

You Tube

[beaterku]

Snuck out to the shop today at lunch to test fit the Dakota Retro VHX guages. I think they are perfect. Looks very much like the stock guages.

[1971Stepside]

Those look sweet! I would have snuck out early too...

[beaterku]

Originally Posted by 1971Stepside

Those look sweet! I would have snuck out early too...

I love them. I splurged on them. Even the wife approves.

[beaterku]

Finnally making some headway on the engine bay wiring. I integrated the hi/low headlight relays into the truck wiring. I started working on the fuel/fan1/fan2 relays but ran out of time. Once it is all wrapped in harness tape it will blend right in. I am not too worried about hiding the wires. I like mechanical things so seeing the wires for everything is fine by me as long as they are neat and orderly.

You Tube

[beaterku]

Wired up the passenger side relays last night. I was 1 terminal short. Had to order some more. Bonehead mistake. Need to sort the wires and route them to where they need to go now.

[beaterku]

I think I may finally have the wiring cracked, sorta... All of the the relays, fuse panel, and fuel tank connections are done. I sill have to run the supply feed for the fuse panel. I need to run the wire from my alternator and figure out how I am going to run it. After staring at it for a while last night, my gut is to put the 200 amp maxi fuse inside the frame rail next to the starter and run the alternator wire to the starter. Much cleaner installation. I'm on the home stretch. Just ran out of time last night. I'm hopeful to have the remaining wiring done this week so I can test out the relays to make sure everything functions as intended before I wrap the harness.

You Tube

[knomadd]

Congrats on the successful wire job. I know how good that feels after months of wiring. Keep it up and soon you'll be driving it!

[beaterku]

Originally Posted by knomadd

Congrats on the successful wire job. I know how good that feels after months of wiring. Keep it up and soon you'll be driving it!

Thanks. It put a huge smile on my face. For such a simple wiring job, it took for-e-ver. On the downhill slide now

[1971Stepside]

Congrats on the successful wire job. I know how good that feels after months of wiring. Keep it up and soon you'll be driving it!

He enjoyed it so much that he volunteered to do mine

[beaterku]

Originally Posted by 1971Stepside

He enjoyed it so much that he volunteered to do mine

[beaterku]

I wrapped the harness up with nylon tape to clean it up. I think it turned out great. I can finally get back to finishing this thing up. I ran in to a bit of a problem with the fuel pump relay circuit. The relay was clicking on and off randomly. It was really strange. I checked my wiring all the way back to the ECM and found no problems. The ECM was commanding the relay correctly. I thought that I may be a bum ECM. I did some digging and found a thread from 2014sierraAT (Thread Link) and he was having a similar issue. I too have the Dakota Digital BIM module so I enabled boost and it started working correctly. I called Dakota and they told me to disable boost and gear indicator. So a little conflicting information, but it seems to be working now. It has a lifetime warranty so if it kicks the bucket, they will send another one. Part of hot rodding.

I'm still having a strange problem with the throttle pedal. My engine is from a Denali. It had the adjustable pedals. I switched out to a non adjustable pedal. Come to find out, the non adjustable has twice the travel of the adjustable. So I am getting 100% throttle half way through the pedal travel. There are 2 TAC module part numbers for 2003, so I am going to try the other to see if it helps.

You Tube

[beaterku]

Spent some time on the old girl this weekend. Fabbed up a dummy fuel filler for the stock filler location, bracket for the LS fuse center and mocked up an intake. I’m going to cut the intake down and 45 it down below the headlight. Slow progress, but progress is progress.

You Tube

[beaterku]

I managed to get quite a bit done this past week. Working here and there when I could find time. I tore the stock brake booster bracket down, blasted and painted it. I am fairly confident that this was the first time it had been taken apart. What little grease was mostly sludge. The interior wiring is finally done. I mounted the ECM, Fuse/Relay center and TAC module to the floor. Re-installed all of the carpet and trim. I still need to adjust the brake light switch, but I need the booster installed to do that. I worked a little more on the cold air intake. I like it so far. I was one coupler short. I thought I could get away with a 4" straight coupler on the inlet side of the MAF, but the coupler bunched up really weird so I ordered another 3.75 to 4". I am going to paint it in the same VHT wrinkle paint as the valve covers.

I am going to order the fuel and trans lines this week. It's mostly odds and ends from here on out. So close I can taste it.

You Tube

[Low Elco]

This is great timing, as I will be doing all of this very soon. Gotta watch the videos! Thanks!

[beaterku]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

This is great timing, as I will be doing all of this very soon. Gotta watch the videos! Thanks!

Thanks!

[HYPR]

Extremely nice build with a very organized step by step. Thank you Much appreciated.
Bob