QinVB

Website above shows my last involvement with construction. Wanted to do something good for the planet instead of building interstates, etc. Didn't work out. I'm completely over working in construction after more than 40 years of it. Rehab project on my house and the need for a truck led to the '98 2500. Never having owned a GM 6.5 TD, and the rumors of them being full of problems, led to this forum.

1998 GMC 6.5 TD 2500 Sierra SL utility body. Ex City of Norfolk Public Utilities water meter service truck. Major items that would either not pass inspection or keep it off the road appear to have been repaired by the city, but only as required. Many little PITA items that don't effect whether, or how, it runs needed fixed and there are still some remaining. My goal is to make the truck reliable by eliminating the known things that cause breakdowns on the road, and to make it look good again.
So far completed: Door hinge pins and bushings, upper control arm bushings and ball joint - one side only, the other side had already been done by the city - of course they didn't do both sides at the same time - only the side that was the worst. Front brakes, new brake hoses repack front bearings - both sides, while I had it up in the air doing the control arm. About to eliminate the vacuum pump(VP) as it just crapped out this past week - got the two codes for boost problem, and there is no vacuum, waste gate controller arm all the way down, so it's not the solenoid or the waste gate controller, but the latter will be history soon. I stopped driving it until it's fixed. Transmission work is described in the forums for 4L80E. As is lift pump info. Body work and repaint prep is ongoing, very back end of truck is complete with new hitch and lights to pass inspection. Bed, inside walls, and tops will get DIY bedliner with flat black Rustoleum top coat for ease of touching up new scars - this week after VP elimination.
My P-30 Step van dually 6.5 nonturbo had the brass and copper radiator that I just had recored stolen, along with the two new batteries, and still sits waiting to be brought back to life. Thief is in jail, but no one in the area got any money for what he stole - cats, rads, batts, siphoned fuel, etc, etc. So we are paying for the scumbag's keep for the next two years on top of the cost to replace what he stole. He probably got less than a hundred bucks at the scrap yard for what cost me many hundreds to have done.