1982 k30, sticking around

[Will L.]

P.i.t.a. But better to know where you stand with that dude. If he want the garage after you chopped up your truck to make it work... yeah, not who I want as a wingman.

Dot your "i"s and cross your "t"s with that dude. Get everything in writing, and keep all receipts/records. Seen things go wrong for other friends of mine too many times. Had a couple people go sideways on me, but I looked like the wacky one keeping records on everything-- until the day I needed them. Then everyone thought I was a frigin genius.

Days of a right cross to another guys jaw to set it straight has given way to lawyers and judges. Sad, cuz a simple check to his man card used to fix things like that.

 

[red]

Easier to drive the shorter truck anyway. Do you really need it at full length? And move out to help make the pain of a new car payment sink in. You don't need that kind of BS.

Problem with moving out is that 1. Cost of housing in Utah is absurd. Right now my military disability pay is almost enough to cover everything, if I move to a apartment then it's not enough to cover even rent alone and 2. My main goal right now is to get completely debt free, which the motorcycle is the only thing that I will owe money on as of october. At this rate I'll be completely debt free before I'm 31 even if I don't sell the motorcycle. Considering the toys I have and having owned a house for a few years that's pretty damn good.

First time I've had an issue living here in over a year. Big ****ing issue yes. Ignorant ass move by a typical short sighted millenial? 100%

Pic since photobucket has changed their policy. Added reverse lights and a license plate light since these pics.






Thankfully, the project was not completed yet and hasn't cost me much $$$. 2 weeks worth of work to get it cut and driving, about half of that being rivet removal and old wiring that had been hacked up pretty badly. To put the truck back to full length only costs me time, about 1 week to get it back with most of that being bed work. Going back to a longbed saves the cost of driveshaft work, fuel tank, material for shock crossmember, parking brake cable. Gain a usable bed size again and I'm used to driving long trucks on and offroad.

 

[red]

P.i.t.a. But better to know where you stand with that dude. If he want the garage after you chopped up your truck to make it work... yeah, not who I want as a wingman.

Dot your "i"s and cross your "t"s with that dude. Get everything in writing, and keep all receipts/records. Seen things go wrong for other friends of mine too many times. Had a couple people go sideways on me, but I looked like the wacky one keeping records on everything-- until the day I needed them. Then everyone thought I was a frigin genius.

Days of a right cross to another guys jaw to set it straight has given way to lawyers and judges. Sad, cuz a simple check to his man card used to fix things like that.

Yea losing the garage honestly isn't a big deal to me, but waiting to make any mention of that until AFTER that work was done is what pisses me off, especially since it was discussed before between the 4 of us living there on ways to make it work with me parking outside. Note that nothing reasonable was found so it was decided then that my truck gets the garage. This was discussed before I bought the crew cab.

 

[WarWagon]

Not sure how parking in the street is "in the way". However I see inconvenience and random inability to start the truck show up as needed to stay in the way to maximize suffering to those who deserve it along with car payment pain.

At the end of the day a little debt to keep a roof over one's head is well worth it ESP if it avoids landlords and roommates who's word isn't worth the cost of a bullet. IMO pick a place where housing prices are more reasonable. It's all on how you want to live and I salute you for even attempting to try this. *cough* lesson learned move on to better...

 

[red]

Not sure how parking in the street is "in the way". However I see inconvenience and random inability to start the truck show up as needed to stay in the way to maximize suffering to those who deserve it along with car payment pain.

At the end of the day a little debt to keep a roof over one's head is well worth it ESP if it avoids landlords and roommates who's word isn't worth the cost of a bullet. IMO pick a place where housing prices are more reasonable. It's all on how you want to live and I salute you for even attempting to try this. *cough* lesson learned move on to better...

4 people with 4 different schedules, ABCD. A leaves at 5am, B at 6am, C at 7:45am, D at 10am on a typical weekday. D returns at 4pm, B and A usually about 5pm, and C returns about 8-10pm. That with living in a house that has a newer standard 2 car garage (short), driveway big enough for 2 vehicles only, and parking for only 1 vehicle on the street.


A and D park in the garage, with B parking in the driveway behind D, and C parks on the street. A pays extra to park in the garage and this parking setup works well with no issues on weekdays for over a year. Discussed and no other way to realistically park is found. D has both a truck and a motorcycle, both of which fit into half of the garage.


Now C plans to switch parking places with D's truck. Which means that one of these options are available:
1. every evening C will have to navigate between the corners of A's car and B's pickup in order to get into the garage, while not hitting D's motorcycle.

2. every evening B will get woken up after just going to sleep to move his truck so C can park in the garage.

3. every morning B gets woken up early to move his truck so A can get out of the garage (if B parks behind A instead).


Clearly no good way for this change to work. So I'm going to sit back, watch/laugh, and not do a thing to help unless I get paid for it.

With the rat race of "a little debt is well worth it", been there, done that, ****ing tired of it. Either working constantly to pay off that 'little debt' with no free time, or broke with lots of free time and concerned about finding ways to pay off that 'little debt'. Enjoy that if you wish, I ain't taking part in that shit nowadays unless it's entirely cheap enough to be covered by my VA disability check. Which means that until everything else is paid off that doesn't work.

As far as places to live for cheap, only moving where it would be a 90 minute commute each way to class or moving into the ghetto would be cheaper. Fuel cost makes the further distance more expensive and I'd rather not be killing someone in the ghetto every week. Could spend about double my current cost and rent out a room at someone else's house but around here the vast majority require you to live by their Mormon rules. No booze, no women, must pray, in bed by a certain hour, etc. Doesn't work for me.

 

[red]

Truck is doing fine. Extending it back to full length has been delayed until the wrecker is back (planned for friday) but will be back to full length before winter.

 

[red]

Gave the truck some attention today. Engine oil/filter change, tried to reseal the dipstick tube (isn't staying seated, pops up and lets oil dribble out of the base) with no luck using a new o-ring and rtv so going to clean it off on friday and use a little bit of JB weld to seal it up. Will make removing the driver side exhaust manifold a problem if ever needed, but I'll deal with that.

Also finally got around to fixing the CDR plumbing. Previous owner had installed a PCV valve into the valve cover, tied into the hose leading from the bottom of the CDR (no clue why). Which helped on 2 things.
1. Engine is no longer leaking from the oil pan gasket or the oil fill tube on the timing cover (only leak now is the dipstick tube).
2. Turns out the oil pressure gauge does work. Was always pegged at 80 with the engine running before so figured it was a wiring issue. Nupe, it's moving now.

Which leads to a concern. With the engine warmed up the oil pressure guage is reading 60psi most the time, and just shy of 80psi under acceleration or when cold. Seems high to me and I don't remember what the correct psi should be. Might just be an issue with the sending unit/gauge though because when the ignition is turned on the gauge goes to 40psi.

Engine starts with a quick bump of the ignition and doesn't appear to have significant blowby.

Dragged the rear frame section out of the scrap pile today, plan is to reattach it on sunday.

 

[Will L.]

Oil pressure is a short in harness, bad sensor, or bad gauge.
Disconnect from sensor and see what gauge does. If it stays at40 off, then sensor probably fine, harness or gauge.
With a rheostat hooked directly to the gauge (once unplugged from truck) you can sweep test the gauge to see if that is problem or harness.

 

[red]

Yea it's gotta be electrical, gauge kinda does whatever it wants. Seems to stay steady at 60psi on the stock gauge when warm now.

Truck must have figured out that some upgrades were coming and decided that it needs a repair instead. Ran out of fuel a few blocks from a fuel station (lost track of the mileage). Managed to get it started again and roll in to fill up (coasted, engine died again). Fill up the tank, fill the fuel filter. Crank/cool/crank/cool with the starter and no luck, then got to hearing some bad noises. engine would partially crank over then would stop cranking and hear a grinding noise followed by a little more engine rotation (less than a 1/4 turn) then more grinding. Towed the truck back to the lot and will work on it when I get a chance over the next couple days (called out for some work).

Pretty sure the starter decided to shred some teeth, hopefully not the flex plate. Starter is still bolted to the block and has it's brace.

 

[red]

So good and bad news. Pulled the starter tonight and it's teeth are screwed up, but the flexplate teeth look ok.

Picked up a donor 6.2 engine (complete, locked up after a rear main replacement) for cheap and plan to use it's starter after a quick test of it along with it's dipstick tube.

Bad news, looks like when the starter was replaced the last time it ripped the wiring apart and the previous owner used twist caps to reattach the broken wires, along with friction tape to seal it (yea not even electrical tape). So tomorrow evening will fix the wiring problem, test the spare starter, and install it. Hopefully drive it home again tomorrow night.

 

[red]

Took alot longer than planned but finally success. Picked up some new wire and used good quality connectors with heat shrink to extend the starter wiring harness and installed the replacement starter from the donor engine. Then spent the next hour getting the damn fuel system primed. Tracked it down to a clog in the input side of the fuel filter housing so pressurized it until the clog popped hard at about 120psi, showered everything within about 15 feet of the engine bay with diesel. Reinstalled the filter, connected the fuel lines again, and after a few cranking cycles it fired back up happy as could be.

This truck doesn't have the stock fuel filter assembly, it's a different unit from Detroit Diesel.

 

[deejaaa]

....This truck doesn't have the stock fuel filter assembly, it's a different unit from Detroit Diesel.

got a pic? i have been using a filter base off a cummins.

 

[red]

Looks like I spoke too soon. Went to start the truck a few minutes ago and it's grinding again. Flexplate is gonna have to come off, damnit.

Picture of the fuel filter assembly.

 

[MrMarty51]

OH darn, sorry Red, I just could not click the like button on Your last post.
I do like that detroit filter though.

 

[red]

Great news! Not the flexplate. Forgot to use locktite on the starter bolts and they had worked loose. Tightened up and now seems to be good

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

 

[MrMarty51]

Great news! Not the flexplate. Forgot to use locktite on the starter bolts and they had worked loose. Tightened up and now seems to be good

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

Hey Red, I likes this post. LOL
Always nice when what seems might be so complicated turns to a pretty easy fix.

 

[red]

Yea gotta love it when that happens. Had to crank the truck for awhile yesterday morning (truck was parked on a uphill slope), has me wondering if maybe the mechanical lift pump is worn out. Need to plumb in a pressure gauge to confirm.

Couple pics of the damaged starter compared to the spare unit from the cheap donor 6.2.






Wanted to do a quick swap of the dipstick and noticed that it won't be a quick swap. The engine in the truck has the wrong exhaust bolt there to hold down the dipstick tube. Hooray.....






The partially disassembled donor engine. Debating on opening it up to fix the problem and have a spare engine on standby.






Over the last 3 days have been pretty busy working to put the truck back to full length. Frame is reattached, shocks, brake lines, parking brake, axle moved, suspension back to stock, passenger side fuel tank mounted/plumbed/wired, lights moved (into the rear bumper until the flatbed is finished). All that's left is the rear driveshaft needs a new ujoint before it goes in, and the flatbed needs to be assembled.

The frame reinforcement bracket is just sitting on the frame in this pic.




Spent alot more time than I planned trying to figure out how to setup the flatbed. Still planning to use most of the bed from the m103 trailer I cut up but the problem is it has no underside reinforcements and sits flat on the frame. So when the axle moves up it would come in contact with the bed on even the 235/85/16"s. Then remembered one large piece of metal I had in the scrap pile, the sub frame from a old military 5 ton dump truck bed. It's 7" tall so I'm thinking of notching out the bottom of it to follow the truck frame along it's 2" curve, bringing it down to a 5" rise for the bed.

 

[deejaaa]

spare engine is never a bad idea.

 

[red]

Kinda agree with that idea on a spare engine for just in case. In the near future it will just be assembled and closed up until I have the extra money to deal with it.

Made a little more progress on the flatbed today. Getting the deck attached to the subframe first. Bed is 8ft long. Eventually those fender wells will get cut off and replaced with flat plate.

 

[EWC]

Is that fuel filter mounted upside down ?