1994 K3500 extended cab dually

[n8in8or]

@n8in8or is the Hayden a better option fan clutch than the kennedy diesel unit ?

Oh man, you're going to be testing my memory. At the time when I built the Optimizer for the Tahoe, the Hayden 2886 was shared on here as one of the good options for screw on fan clutches. It's listed as a Severe Duty fan clutch and it had a good price. That was in 2015 I believe. Now it looks like they may have redesigned it according to this thread. https://www.thetruckstop.us/forum/threads/hayden-2886.48087/#post-572318

I would say you can definitely trust the Kennedy unit. If you bought a 2886 today, I'm not sure. I never really did get the Tahoe hot enough to make it engage so I can't speak to its effectiveness. I guess I'll find out on this truck. I'll bolt it on as-is, knowing I may want to tweak the spring later.

For what it's worth, I intend to do the electric lockup fan clutch that @ak diesel driver came up with on my future builds....except for not having 100% lockup, it seems like a really slick unit.

 

[Will L.]

Yeah, I would still trust the hayden. They make reliable products and have for years- just might need an adjustment on the bimetal coil. Won’t lock up as high ratio as Kennedy’s, but still good.

Something I was thinking about the electric AKDD brought to everyone’s attention- Toyota and many other viscous fan clutches have a measured amount of goo inside, and the more you use the Higher percentage and the faster obtained it is. Toyota for one simply unbolts. I wonder if we could add some through the check ball fitting or is that sealed shut.

100% lock up and not being rebuildable are the only 2 things it falls short of the hmmwv fanclutch (along with no one has made the adapter yet). Someone missing out on money imo. Just sell the adapter and let people get the rest themselves instead of a multi thousand dollar kit. Couple hundo for an adapter sounds reasonable to me.

 

[ak diesel driver]

I'm under the impression it will lock up at roughly the same % as the thermal viscous units

 

[n8in8or]

Welp mo money, mo money, mo money..... I removed the condenser tonight because it was packed with junk in the fins and I wanted to clean it really well. I had a heck of a time getting one of the hoses off, but finally got it. It smelled bad inside and looked a little black. I’ve never seen black death in person, but I’m a little askeered this truck may have had it. I already ordered a compressor kit for it because the clutch connector was missing......and tonight I ordered everything else. Ugh. Also got a heater core while I was at it. I ordered a heater core weeks ago from The Brassworks for Krovvy and still haven’t received it, so I just ordered a standard aluminum one from RockAuto. When this truck gets a resto I’ll pony up for the brass one then. With the miles this thing has, I think I’ll also proactively do the actuator gears from Blendoor.com while I’m in there. So here I go......taking more stuff apart...... And I was doing so well yesterday, actually putting some parts back ON.

 

[Will L.]

Dang. Usually firewall foreword is required. Some folks do the evap at same time just to donit all.

Sometimes better to just run the old stuff till it all explodes because you have to replace everything anyways.

 

[n8in8or]

Dang. Usually firewall foreword is required. Some folks do the evap at same time just to donit all.

Sometimes better to just run the old stuff till it all explodes because you have to replace everything anyways.

I’m just going to do the evap while I’m at it just to be sure. And it’s so much fun to yank a dash that I just can’t pass that opportunity up!!

 

[n8in8or]

Tonight I got the front seats, center console and steering column removed. Then I followed the procedure in the service manual to remove the dash. For some reason though it’s still stuck on the driver side. Unfortunately I ran out of time before dinner so I had to stop. Torrow I’ll remove the speaker and see if I can see what’s hanging it up (or maybe it’s the speaker itself?).



Oh and I found the strangest thing under the center console - an unopened pack of smokes! I wonder how old they are? It’s a 94 truck so I don’t think they could be 1991 cigarettes but maybe?

 

[n8in8or]

First thing I did tonight was remove the driver side speaker in the dash. As soon as I did that the dash fell forward, so that was cool. Then all I had to do was unplug the 167 plugs behind the dash to remove it - man they sure cleaned up the connections in the later trucks!

After that I removed the HVAC unit. I guess it’s a good thing I’m working on it now - one door was dislodged and the other 2 were missing most of the sealing flap. Luckily these parts are the same as the parts I already bought for Krovvy so waiting for parts won’t be a hold up.



Two nights ago while I was in the shower and thinking of the extra work that I had to do now that I would be working on the HVAC, I realized that this would be a good time to repair one of the few spots of rust on this truck which was the driver side floor pan. I saw this when I was looking at the truck when I went to buy it, but the rest of the truck was so solid that it didn’t scare me away. That night I ordered a floor patch panel. Tonight I pulled the carpet back to reveal the rust......it was a lot worse than I expected. I don’t know why this surprised me, I mean by now I should be used to it. Ugh. So I ordered more patch panels. I guess I know what I’m doing this weekend.

 

[ak diesel driver]

Where did you get your HVAC parts?

 

[n8in8or]

Where did you get your HVAC parts?

I ordered them from Amazon. If I remember I’ll takes pics of the packages for part numbers. It’s all GM stuff.

 

[n8in8or]

Where did you get your HVAC parts?

Here are the parts I bought off of Amazon.

I got the air distributor assembly. According to the GM catalog 94 is different from 96, and they don’t make the one for the 94 anymore. Luckily I had the other one here already so I could compare. They look identical for me except for the height of the fins that guide the defrost air. I don’t know if that was a later improvement or if it helps guide the air better in the later dashes....I haven’t put it up to the dash yet to see what it looks like. The biggest thing is it mounts right up to the 94 box and the doors are the same so in my opinion it’s going to work fine.



I also got the mode door. Same for 94 and 96.



Then I also got the linkages for the doors in the distributor. As I recall one of these was bad in the Tahoe so I ordered them just in case.

 

[n8in8or]

Not exactly where I thought I’d be at the end of the day. After running some errands I decided I would reassemble the CV axle first so I could get that off my work bench. Man, the Dorman boots and clamps suck. I’ve decided it’s not worth putting it together with that boot and the terrible clamps it comes with so Monday I am going to call Rockford CV and get the good stuff coming. I should have done that to begin with, but foolishly I thought I would have had the whole front suspension together last weekend. HA!

So that got put to the side and on to the main event: rust repair. After removing the back seat, I removed both front seat belts and the lower rear interior trim panels. That allowed me to take the carpet all the way out. Man, I’m so glad I did!! I kept seeing ants in this thing and it kinda bothered me. I was thinking I’d get an ant trap. Well there was a whole crap ton of them under the carpet!! Here’s what was on the carpet still though there was probably twice that many before I went back to get my phone for the pic. Just as many were on the sheet metal. Nasty.



Then finally on to metal work. I ended up taking quite a bit out - more than I planned, but I had all the panels I would need to go far, just in case. I started cutting just a little off the top of the rocker that was already bubbling to inspect inside. It really wasn’t that bad, but in the end I decided it made sense to cut large chunks out because it would make the welding easier in the end. I almost have all the cuts done. I was going to do just a little more trimming and decided it would make placement easier if the inner fender was out. OF COURSE 3 of the clip nuts on the fender spun while trying to remove the bolts.....so off came the entire fender. Time to call it a day for now. I feel good about the progress I should be able to make tomorrow.

 

[ak diesel driver]

Your gonna end up like me Nate, getting old and way too many projects

 

[Duvall]

Well, the bed and cab are still on the frame.

You know how to make fellow rust belt guy feel lucky about his cab.

 

[n8in8or]

Your gonna end up like me Nate, getting old and way too many projects

I feel like I’m already there.

 

[n8in8or]

Well, the bed and cab are still on the frame.

You know how to make fellow rust belt guy feel lucky about his cab.

Yeah you sure are lucky. I can’t believe how bad the floor was and yet the bottoms of the extended cab isn’t rusted all up. The PO must have worked in a salt mine and wore his boots in the truck.

 

[MrMarty51]

Dangit, sure wooood be nice to haul You people to the east some of the broke down trucks that sets in this end of the country, absolutely no rust., they might need some body components straightened and some bondo but, there is absolutely no rust on them, unless they was imported from back east.

 

[n8in8or]

Dangit, sure wooood be nice to haul You people to the east some of the broke down trucks that sets in this end of the country, absolutely no rust., they might need some body components straightened and some bondo but, there is absolutely no rust on them, unless they was imported from back east.

I’d love to take a car hauler out there and haul a couple back here. I at least want to grab a square body crew cab dually that isn’t a pile.

 

[MrMarty51]

I’d love to take a car hauler out there and haul a couple back here. I at least want to grab a square body crew cab dually that isn’t a pile.

That is the truck of My dreams, especially if it is a diesel, if not a diesel then, a 1987 or slightly newer, with the TBI system and an auto transmixer, to be beefed up LOL or a 4L80 installed.

 

[n8in8or]

Made good progress today. I ended up cutting more of the floor out in the transmission tunnel area. Here’s what it looked like after cutting.



After that I started trimming and fitting panels. That went pretty well overall. Before installing the middle floor panel I welded up some overlapping seams in the panel. I didn’t like the idea of stuff collecting there and they were just spot welded from the manufacturer.



Here are the floor panels installed.



Then I moved to the rocker. I got it cut and fitted and I got a lot of it welded in, but as I was welding the rear seam I ran out of shielding gas. It was actually good timing because it was dinner time by then.




Tomorrow I’ll get more gas during my lunch and then I should be able to finish welding tomorrow night. Maybe even start getting the floor ready for paint if all goes well.