Cpr 1974

[406 Q-ship]

Here is the deal. I bought this 1974 C10 SWB stepper for a pretty good deal after GMAC credit gave me the royal runaround getting a loan on a new truck (who needs a payment anyway). It was tired in some areas but for the most part a good solid truck with a fresh GM Goodwrench 350, a TH350, and not to much else. Well after a mild drop, a suspension rebuild, install of a 700R4, redo and update the interior, rebuild the rear axle with a eaton posi and 3.42's, and then add everything needed to tow. Oh yeah, I replaced the front fenders and both doors along with adding power windows and locks. I did all this in the course of 9 years of owning this truck. Well my father keeps breaking his vehicles and then expects me to run my butt a hundred miles to fix his rides, most of his problems could be fixed if I know about it early. Well that is not what happens, so I do not hear he needs help until the cars of his land on its knees. I finally loan him my truck while I take his GTO to my home to fix all its issues (a ton of them BTW). One day at the sway meet I find a clean 1967 C10 SWB stepper for a very reasonable price, I call Pops to tell him of this find. I will buy the 67 and sell him the 74 for well under what I have in it......hell I did not want to sell it but allow him to use it as a loan.

Forward the clock to last Sept, after 9 months of ownership he has broken the windshield, a stolen stereo, and a stuck float in the Q-jet........and the final coup de grace.........he BLOWS the engine up!!!!!!! ARRRGGGGGG!!!!!

I get a nasty letter telling me how I just was out to screw him over by selling him a piece of junk. To say I was PO would be an extreme under statement, so I give him the money back for the truck, and figure out my next move.

The truck is too nice to just give it away or part it out, so it is either put a junkyard take out, another Goodwrench, or put another small block together.

.......and so begins my tale of resurrection.





Here she is after the suspension in about the condition I found her in



Fenders and door go on and the interior gets updated





A new heart for the girl

stay tuned for more........

[406 Q-ship]

All dressed up with a place to go



Home at last

[Pop's C-10]

Nothing like fresh power..

[Can't kech me]

i know he's your father and all, but i don't think i could do that for even my father

[406 Q-ship]

Progress from the front lines. Well it seems like one step forward and two back in the last weekend. I wanted to get it back together and break in the cam, well that didn't happen do to an unforeseen problem. It seems that a piece of carpet tile got slide down between the bed and the cab, it came down on the mufflers and MELTED to them....AARRRRRGGGGGGG!



Here is the melt to fit carpeting

After 2 hours of scraping the carpet welded to the mufflers, the engine got atol closer.



I guess it is good that the exhaust kind of fought me to get on or I would have never looked at the mufflers to find the carpet on there, during cam break in would have been a fire the would have taken the truck out and possible my apartment building....thanks Dad.

Today the A/C and power steering pump brackets got buttoned up, the exhaust is finalized, and the starter wiring is squared away and the starter is up on the block.........but Murphy came around to monkey wrench my progress. While tying up the battery cable and starter harness to the transmission cooler lines, I find ATF dripping off the lines. It seems that all the people who have handled the cooler lines have bent the crap out of them and they fit like junk now. The lines rubbed on the chassis to the point to wearing a hole in one of them......damn.

[406 Q-ship]

Tomorrow is the day to fire it. Yippy! Hopefully all the leaks are covered and the cam breaks-in well. Can somebody explain how a fan belt that came off the truck now is too big? I had to buy another power steering belt that was 1/2 inch smaller.....

[Can't kech me]

Originally Posted by 406 Q-ship

Tomorrow is the day to fire it. Yippy! Hopefully all the leaks are covered and the cam breaks-in well. Can somebody explain how a fan belt that came off the truck now is too big? I had to buy another power steering belt that was 1/2 inch smaller.....

well?

[406 Q-ship]

Houston we have a problem.......

The engine fired right up, got to be the easiest start for a fresh engine. I had primed the oiling system and it acted like it was primed (could not see the gauge in the dash). Well my assistant tells me after one minute of running the engine that the gauge reads zero.....Oh crap SHUT IT OFF. Now the engine made no internal noises, even the lifters were nice and quiet. My first reaction was to think that the gauge was not working but to be better safe than sorry I pull a valve cover and the distributor, run another prime on the oil pump while watching the gauge and the rockers. Guage never lifted off 0 psi and not much oil comes out of the rockers (a very small amount comes out of the rockers). A small block chevy has got have the simplest oiling system and I have an issue with it I will be trying another pressure gauge on the fitting above the oil filter to see it the bottom end is getting pressure and then to see if the gauge is an issue. Then change the filter to see if that helps with valve train oiling......why me?

[406 Q-ship]

Update.......

Changed the oil filter to see if the internals had collasped....nope that is not it. Well in running the priming tool it now does not move any oil at all. After a through thought process I came to the conclusion that it has got to be the pressure relief spring in the new oil pump. I am thinking that the pressure spring is not completely seated cause some of the oil to bypass. I mean the oiling system has not changed (heck it is SBC how easy can it be?) except for the oil pump so by process of elemination......oil pump ordered. God I need this thing to run.

[406 Q-ship]

SUCCESS!!! It is alive. I dropped the oil pan and replaced the oil pump (Thank God these trucks the pan is easy). My first issue was that Melling requires a steel sleeve oil pump drive....great spend more money. Well the speed shop down the street did not have one, called the next nearest and he has one but it is an ARP so much for getting a drive cheap. I called Team C in Bellflower, they have a Melling at 9 bucks, OK that is fixed. Got it all back together at 3:00 pm by 4:00 she was broken in, timing set, and carb adjusted. Took her for a drive for the first time since last September.

BTW The oil pressure gauge is not working. More for the repair list and for some reason now the fuel gauge is not working either.

[406 Q-ship]

Here is the latest after the truck sat for a couple of weeks. The engine runs well....the carb on the other hand is a bit on the lean side. I had built a super mileage Q-jet for my 1967 C10 when I drove it to Florida and some how that carb ended up on the 74, runs OK just lean on tip in. I drove it to the Long Beach Swap meet last month (it got running the day before), the wheel bearing are hurting bad and I will be throwing a set of front brake pads at it too. I hope after tonight that it will be in the pink. I have a few people who might like to buy it.......well everything is for sale I guess.

[406 Q-ship]

Changed out the carb for another one that had been on the truck before, so the lean problem is gone. After a trip out to Pomona for the swap meet it did great. Got back and changed the oil, replaced a out tie rod end, and moved the oil pressure line. I took the best up to date pictures of my girl now that she healthy again, never will she be in the hands of my father.

[v30crewcab]

Nice looking truck.

[406 Q-ship]

Thanks, she is a good truck and deserves to not be treated like a two dollar hooker and now that she is out of the hands of my abusive father she will be handled properly.

[Low84]

Good job on getting it back on the road. What size wheels are those?

[406 Q-ship]

Originally Posted by Low84

Good job on getting it back on the road. What size wheels are those?

17" x 8.5", 5" backspacing if I remember correctly on the backspacing. Tires are 245-50-17

[406 Q-ship]

So the truck almost found a new home this Sunday. I charged up the A/C system (converted to 134A) yesterday and while waiting for the system to evacuate I looked at the power door locks and found I am an idiot. The locks would lock but not unlock and I was ready to get my hands on a power lock relay, well I am checking out the stereo wiring to see if the lowlife who ripped off the truck cut the wires (nope thank you for that but more on that later) and looking in the hole in the dash I can see the relay and notice that I did not plug both wires on to the relay........DOH! So once I hook the plug so it contects BOTH wires from the door switches, it works but backwards so with some moving of the wires it is all working great.

Next I start thinking, the stereo out of my chevelle is a Kenwood and the one that was stolen from the truck was a Kenwood and the a$$hat did not cut the connectors off (thank you lowlife looser). Plug her in and now I have tunes......well kind of. When the bonehead replacd the windshield my father broke he did not put the antenna connection from the windshield to the plug under the dash pad (does anyone do correct work now a days?), so it gets the strong stations. If anyone knows where I can find one of those connections it would be appreciated.

So now it has A/C that will freeze you out, a stereo, and power locks that completely work.

[walkerb]

Nice truck man. Keep up the good work. Like my buddy says, " the lights at the end of the tunnel, if its not a train!"