85 long bed needs trans rebuild.....so....

[jasonroman]

well guys, some of you know a while back i picked up a 85 gmc sierra classic longbed. picked up in pa. then things went down hill. had to tow it home....
anyway time went by, i did my first bodywork, paint, lowered it, new tires. exhaust,etc... so about 3-4k later, just after spraying truck, i get hit pulling into my driveway.
couple weeks later, trans goes.
so prices for rebuild were upwards of 12-1500. so....

in comes 86 chevy c10 shorty
picked her up yesterday, auto, 350. dual tanks
pretty clean. little ding on rear driver side.
today i zip tied the peice on carb. not sure what its called. but kick down, piece that sticks and keeps idle high.
old truck did the same thing. drove it a while and it fixed itself.
bungy cords on tailgate= doesnt stay closed. not sure if the guts aint connected.
drive home was about an hour. pretty smooth. a little shaky around 50ish, but up and over was pretty smooth.
guy said i could be the new tires???
anyway, il post more of what i find.
like the way it looks now, but might have to pull all the suspension parts that are brand new off the long bed an swap tires. put all new parts from blue truck on the shorty.
time will tell

[jasonroman]

oh yea, forgot to mention, the driver side window does not work properly. it goes up. but to go down, i have to hit the switch and push window down with my hand.
any ideas?

[notyo_cheez]

Remove and disassemble the regulator, clean out the worm gear drive and pack it with clean lithium grease. Reassemble and test, if there's no change you need a new motor. Usually repacking it gives 'em a new lease on life, or so I've been told...

[old Rusty C10]

NICE TRUCK!! let me know if youre parting out the other one

[jasonroman]

guessing thats for the window.
i can hear the motor working when i press button down. but the window sits there. thought maybe a track issue?

[jasonroman]

Originally Posted by old Rusty C10

NICE TRUCK!! let me know if youre parting out the other one

thanks bud. not sure what im gonna do with other truck right now. might jsut keep her there and when i have extra, get the trans done.
i put lotta time and money in that truck. just bad string of luck right after all work was done.
trans is bad, but motors a crate engine that was put in truck. runs great.
had a guy that wanted to give me 1200 for truck. i have that in tires,and brake work alone.
hoping to maybe pull out the ccp drop kit and put it on the short box.
will see what happens.
thanks for the nice truck comment.
appreciate it. thought id get more.

wife dont know it yet, but id like to fill driveway. maybe a 5 spd short stepper. a 2 wheel blazer would be cool. and then ill get her the 4x4 she wants.....
ey we can all dream right.

[motornut]

the new one looks in good shape

[jasonroman]

Thanks man. Truck looks 100 times better then the couple trucks I've looked at last couple of weeks. Keeping my fingers crossed that engine and trans are in as good condition as shell. As for keeping it the way it is now....na. if it was a k 4x4. Then yes. But my theory has always been 2wheel drive down. 4x up. Never had a 4x.
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[jasonroman]

anyone have an idea why the driver side door is sticking out on the lower end?

[jasonroman]

well i found out that the door hanging out, is the pins...need to be done
window going up but not down, not sure..took panel off my other truck to inspect an then checked the 86. cant really see whats wrong. motor seems good. just not hooking up.
got the high idle thing taken care of. tried to check timing. but looks like im mising the balancer. or whatever its called. i have it on 85 but the chevy seems to be missing it. and when i pull vacume line off an put it back, im not seeing a difference. think im missing something.
see a little white smoke now n then.
more so after i messed with the electic choke tho

dont have much experience with auto trans. except the one that went in 85.
think i have a fear now.
when i slo down to a stop. im hearing a whining noise.not sure if its normal or im just a little fearful of ending up with 2 squares n bad transmissions.

not sure if engine is 5.7 or? how can i find out

[jasonroman]

well turns out the motor in car is not 5.7. just a 5.0
plan to take engine out of the 85 and put it in the 86....maybe in the spring. i dont know enuff to do the swap but a friend of mine told me hed help. so hopefully the current motor gets me thru till then.
unless of course i find a trans at a decent price and then ill keep blue and gray.
yesterday i messed around with radio. got it working and working right.
swapped out bad speakers for good ones....from blue truck.
pulled dash pad out of the blue on. gray ones pad was cracked up pretty ugly. so cleaner pad will go in the blue.
messing with carb to try and figure out the kickdown/electronic choke.
think maybe the white smoke could be too much fuel?
if i decide to swap the suspension from blue to gray, then blue will be a parts truck, till i get engine out and then parts for sale or scrap or whatever.
buddy told me drive it as is and in spring swap everything over. but not sure i will be able to high drive that long.
maybe if i pull motor, i can sell the 305, glass, parts etc off blue truck and with money i get.....i can buy another square

[notyo_cheez]

Look at jegs.com, they have a deal for a remanufactured 350 street transmisson less torque converter for $600-700 that has the TV kickdown cable deleted for easy installation. If you have a couple pair of jackstands and a floor jack get a trans jack adapter for it and you can do this yourself with a friend or two to assist.

[jasonroman]

oh and as far as the window goes, not sure what i need to do or take out.
been looking at the blue truck window to see if i get an idea. but not sure if im supposed to undo all the bolts in the door and try and pull the track and motor out?
did notice that one of the 2 bolts is cracked off. so i only have one bolt where there should be 2. the 2 that sit right behind where the switch for locks and window is.
not sure if that has anything to do with it. motor sounds strong. up works fine.
down remains a no go.
just dont wanna mess something up and loose the window, brake the glass, etc.

[notyo_cheez]

I have to strip down the Suburban doors for my project by removing the power regulators, this is new territory for me. I'll let you know what I did.

You can tape the glass in the up position with some duct tape, remove the regulator by taking off the bracket on the bottom of the window then the mounts for the motor, slide the bracket off of the rollers and you should be able to remove the assembly from the access holes in the door. Or leave the roller bracket in place and slide it to one side to free it.

[jasonroman]

thanks man. might give it a shot on the blue truck. and hopefully figure out how to get it out and apart and how to get it back in and working before i mess with the daily driver.
aprreciate teh help man.

[notyo_cheez]

When you have the regulator out of the door test it for function, if it goes down you may have found the culprit in the broken screw although I think there's more to it sight unseen. If it's loose because of the broken screw it might have been binding while trying to roll down.

[notyo_cheez]

No problem.

[jasonroman]

Originally Posted by notyo_cheez

When you have the regulator out of the door test it for function, if it goes down you may have found the culprit in the broken screw although I think there's more to it sight unseen. If it's loose because of the broken screw it might have been binding while trying to roll down.

i thought the broken screw might be problem also, but watching the window go up, dont seem like theres any movement to that part of braket or what ever it is.
well, guess if it comes back to that, i have the part in blue truck right.
see what happens. thanks for help.
blue truck is turning into guini pig/part truck

[jasonroman]

ok. quick update.
been working 2 jobs, so not much time for anything. well, gas and go...
well friday i went to gas up the other tank....topped it off at like 50 bucks. and as im paying guy, i notice gas dripping. only leaked for a couple minutes. so dont think its bad tank. only because it stopped it stopped shortly after.
anyway... next.
today left work, and since insurance card arrived yesterday, i figured id take it to state inpection and see what happens...well....FAIL
IDLE-FAIL
hc ppm....reading=2880.............standard 220???????????

HIGH IDLE
c0%......reading=1.21...........standard 1.20???

ive noticed that truck runs smooth, but around 40-50 theres a bit of wobble.
also notice or hear alot of noise out of driver side front end. maybe shock??
maybe worse?
today i jacked front up, each side. while up in the air i wobbled wheel. and notice there is a little play. could this be the wobble i feel at speeds?
if so, is it tie rods?

window is still not fixed. have not had time to pull parts from blue truck

think blue one might end up a parts truck ):

appreciate any help.
other wise, well aside from lack of power, and little minor things
i love my truck!!

[jasonroman]

if i remember right, my old truck needed front end parts. should i take truck to shop and have them look front end over. or will they just want to sell me a bunch of stuff i dont need?
any thoughts on emissions failure?
guess if my front end needs work, that will = me waiting on lowering truck, buying some moog parts and then.....

[jasonroman]

well, back to window....
was able to get motor and regulator out of blue truck. but boy what a pain in the arse.
not sure if i went about it right. had to take motor off in window, then take more parts off door to get the parts out.
now, since i pulled motor off in door, not sure if it needs to sit in any spot or not.
and im not sure i want to mess up anything in grey truck

looking more and more like the blue trucks gonna be more a parts truck. once i get motor out, the shell will be parted or scrapped. unless i leave enuff on the blue to have 2 good truck.

failed inpection. gonna give it a tune up and hope that will help me at the state inspection.

[jasonroman]

update....
think 350 is coming out of blue truck this weekend.
planning on tanksgiving weekend for the swap.
brother in laws brother in law said hell help me get motors swapped.

[Your41Plague12]

If you can wiggle the front tire when it's lifted, it's most likely a ball joint.

[jasonroman]

Not sure what's going on. The other day I thought wheels were gonna fall off. Driving down 287 and scared....next day, all good. Not vibrations no nothing? Last couple days trucks been riding fine. Working 2 jobs so not much time. But gotta get it checked out. Don't wanna buy parts I don't need. At same time don't wanna loose a wheel or worse.
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[notyo_cheez]

Check your wheel bearings. Listen for a crunching sound when you brake, if by that time the wheel doesn't jump off of the spindle and roll down the street...