What did you do with your GMT400 today...or yesterday....

[Big T]

Thanks guys.I appreciate the reply.They snap in place nicely but I did read online they sometimes allow air leaks as well.I’ll just toss em in the toolbox.This is how my current setup looks without the fittings in place.

Here’s a pic of my recent leak on an Air Dog Raptor lift pump with the push on fittings. First leak was at the hose, probably to removing and reinstalling the hose twice. That was cured by a hose clamp. The leak here was from the fitting itself. Look closely and you can see that I had to loop the hose from the pre-filter to the pump. That creates some side pressure on the push on fitting and the internal o-ring seal, which probably resulted in the leak. Got new replacement fitting and that is working so far. When I did the replacement, I cut back the hose to fresh, unstretched hose.

 

[Will L.]

I hate all those fittings. Barbed nipple and some hose clamps is my happy world

 

[Paveltolz]

Had a Get Together with Big T this evening. He'll spend the night here and continue his sojourn in the morning up to MT. Great to see him again...always educational on multiple topics; not just 6.5s.

Compared a lot of notes, how too's and project plans. He'd driven in the truck when I had the motor first built and was running an ATT. We both agree the truck is better, happier and funner truck to drive. Being at least 1500lbs less than his Burb helps a lot. We weren't able to come up with a quick electrical solution to his headlight issues but, he's got a plan for correcting that now along with fuel line adaption.

I have to agree that his Raptor Lift Pump is quieter than my AirDog but, it's definitely quieter than a Walbro. We went for a drive and he's sold on the lighting provided by the LED bulbs and since I bought the same housings he has, he knows how they'll perform. We did a lift pump test and under full power, sustained acceleration up to 'ok that's fast enough' the AirDog never dropped below 10 psi. Good thing the dashcam doesn't record actual speed. Oh wait, uh, um, never mind.

Fun evening. Thanks Amigo, for dinner and the great conversations.

 

[Big T]

Officially it’s a bored 6.2, but it rips and I thought this was just a test drive to show me the LED headlights.

 

[Big T]

Big T’s reaction to the bored out 6.2:

 

[Paveltolz]

Big T’s reaction to the bored out 6.2:

Now my feelings are hurt.

 

[Paveltolz]

BigT is on the road. On the way to breakfast I noticed a lack of tail lights, brake lights and turn signals. Figured the signals were just a California authorized delete option but the others? Yeah, not so much.
Back to the house for everyone's favorite thing...electrical diagnostics.
I'll let him share the story's details if he wants but, BLUF, we got it diagnosed, sorted out and, with some tightening up of a couple of other things he was on the way with only a 90 min. delay. Hope to link up in MT next month and see the new spread.

 

[Big T]

Arrived at Montana shortly before 7:00 pm MT.

The issue with the rear running/brake/turn signal lights was two fold. I had a trailer harness adapter that Paul found the outgoing side unplugged. The 7 pin trailer plug LEDs were showing function, but nothing on the outgoing side to the tail lights. So that harness adapter is shot.

Why was the adapter unplugged? My suspicion is my ac repair guy. They called me to pick up the truck. When I arrived, he said to give him another hour as he was trouble shooting electrical. He thought my alternator was toast along with a battery. They were not a problem when I brought it in. Anyway picked it up and noted headlights that were out. Found a red wire to one of the relay harness fuses detached. And so my electrical troubleshooting began. This was complicated by me working the day job and trying to change gears when I got home. Superimpose moving furniture and beds by myself, after new carpet installation. Then the time constraint of having to drive to Montana. I now know that I drove without any tail or brake lights in the shit show Memorial Day Weekend traffic to Vegas.

Anyway between Paul and I, pretty impressive and quick trouble shooting effort to get the rig safely on the road. Always enjoy wrench on 6.5 rigs with Paul and look forward to doing more. Brother EW is a good man. I need to adopt more of his fastidious attention to a clean shop and truck. Maybe when I have more time in retirement. But hey, how about them brakes?

 

[dieselolds]

Early this morning I removed the electric shift transfer case from my 96 gmc truck with the 6.2.The old transfer case is leaking in a few different places not to mention with the mileage it has it’s a ticking time bomb anyway.

Tonight I installed a new electric shift motor that I purchased several years ago so now it’s installed upon the replacement transfer case I received from Texas a few months back.In the next day or so I’m hoping I’ll have everything back into place.A new output seal from Napa and felpro adapter gasket will be used also.

 

[Big T]

I reset the Borgeson steering shaft to get the steering wheel as level as possible. While the input shaft to the steering box has a flat spot that flat spot on the OEM rag joint shaft must be fitted to, the Borgeson u-joint has no flat spot. So I can try to clock the steering wheel level by rotating the shaft a notch or two.

 

[MrMarty51]

Is those a truck is fixed happy smiles, or, is those Montana Honey Moonshine happy smiles ?

 

[Big T]

Is those a truck is fixed happy smiles, or, is those Montana Honey Moonshine happy smiles ?
View attachment 87897

Yeah at that point the smiles were due to fixing all tail light function. Honey moonshine was in celebration of making it to Montana after a long day.

 

[Big T]

Is those a truck is fixed happy smiles, or, is those Montana Honey Moonshine happy smiles ?
View attachment 87897

Gotta admit when Paul let the man bun down, I felt like another Brother ew, brother what’s that? Up until I hadn’t noticed, but I was focused on the work at hand.

Back when I spent 15 years financing Hollywood motion pictures, deep down I had this threat that one day I’d grow a mullet or do the man bun thing to be with the Hollywood in crowd. Never quite got there. I still have a full head of hair and most of my hair color, so there’s that.

 

[Twisted Steel Performance]

I was wondering who was who ....

 

[Paveltolz]

Yeah, I got the five-head mullet. Just having some post Army retirement fun. The ragtop is too fluffy for wearing loose but, no 'man bun.' Ewwwww

 

[Will L.]

Yeah, I got the five-head mullet. Just having some post Army retirement fun. The ragtop is too fluffy for wearing loose but, no 'man bun.' Ewwwww

Yeah, you’re looking a bit more “hippi” than last time I saw ya. Haha

 

[dbrannon79]

Well today on my black 93 truck I did what I didn't think I could do! I have been wanting to do something with the AC on it just to see what worked and what would need to be done just to have it function. I know it all needs to be replaced and gone through but I got a stubborn hair up my rear today!!

I ended up picking up a new AC dryer, orifice tube, clutch cycle switch, some pag-100 oil, and 4 cans of 134A. started tearing things down to flush, pulled the front grille off and went at removing the old orifice tube. the line coming out of the condenser was bent in two places. I managed to tweak the lower bend straight and finessed the other bend right where the threaded fitting was. Got it all straight enough to pull the old orifice. Once I got it out I noticed right away that it was not that bad. hardly any debris on it. when I went to flush it out, I first just blew through it with a rag covering the other side. nothing but air and a little oil came out which was clean oil!!

Now keep in mind this system has been open to the environment with the dryer missing since 2009. there are photos on the forum showing this.
Next I flushed the evaporator out, then went to clean out the hoses connected to the compressor. This is when I found the show stopper... the high side hose was blown out right behind the compressor!

well in a pinch I decided to run out to the local pick a part yard and see if I could find one still in tact. To my dismay every truck I found, the hoses were all cut with a knife. I soon realized that this JY was slicing the hoses as the vehicles were coming into the yard instead of recovering the refrigerants. I was about to give up when I found myself standing over a burb in the JY that had rear air. I noticed where the hose coming off the compressor manifold going to the rear was cut but the other two for the front unit was still intact.

on a whim I thought to myself, the low side only ever sees about 150 to 175 PSI when the AC is off. and I could easily plug off this extra port on the manifold and possibly use it to see what this trucks AC will do. $25 later I was on my way home with the hose LOL

Got home and got everything cobbled up. ended up using a piece of copper tubing with one end I brazed shut clamped in to plug off that hose that was for the rear air. started vacuuming it down... it held. then I thought pressurize the system with my air compressor just to see if anything leaked before wasting any cans of 134a. I pressurized it up to about 80 psi and let it sit there a while. got a spray bottle with soap and went to town on it, but only found a small leak on the high side service port. I ended up just putting the cap on it and said it's good enough I will know if this thing will work or if it's gonna explode.

added the 8 oz bottle of pag-100 oil in the dryer, some in the hose, and some directly in the compressor while rotating the clutch by hand. closed up the system for the last time and pulled a vacuum. I finished off the night (11PM) with only charging it with about 30 oz of 134a so it's a little low yet but with the blower on high I was seeing a hair under 50 degrees on the thermometer. I let it run for a while and then put the blower on medium. came back and the temp was showing right at 40 degrees!!! The compressor is not making any noise ether.

This thing has not worked in at least 14 years, After seeing the ports on the compressor clean and not full of black chalk like they normally are along with the oil that came out of the condenser clean. I am suspecting this system was working long ago when the high side hose let go and then was never fixed.

I will check it again tomorrow and possibly give it a full charge if it holds over night, but I'm in shock it actually worked!!

 

[dieselolds]

Today the replacement transfer case is back into place on my 96 gmc truck.Everything is done at this point that I could get done but I did see a crack in the extension housing upon the transfer case.It must have took a smack while in transit from Texas.I also dropped the pan on the 4L80 and put in a new filter.

I have a new gm extension housing coming from Amazon so I’ll install it once it arrives.Total cost was $200 delivered.

 

[Paveltolz]

Wimped out and had someone else install the Red Head steering box. BigT already poked me in the eye for not doing it myself so feel free to jump in...whatevs!
Regardless, I'm sure pleased with the product. The before and after results are phenomenal. I need to recalibrate muscle memory though as I was over correcting for wind gusts and road crown drift. I kept thinking I should be getting pulled over for drunk driving. Love it.

 

[MrMarty51]

Wimped out and had someone else install the Red Head steering box. BigT already poked me in the eye for not doing it myself so feel free to jump in...whatevs!
Regardless, I'm sure pleased with the product. The before and after results are phenomenal. I need to recalibrate muscle memory though as I was over correcting for wind gusts and road crown drift. I kept thinking I should be getting pulled over for drunk driving. Love it.
View attachment 88046

Your happy, we’re happy.
I now think if ever I’d replace the steer gear box on My truck, this the one I’ll go to.
Thanks for the feedback.