adventures with Twuck,,,
Well, the paperwork is complete (enough for now, just title transfer at this point) and the DEED IS DONE,,, Twuck is now ensconced on her temporary throne down at Da’s place while I get the wherewithal and other stuff together to bring her back to her former glory, and potentially NEW glory as MY work truck.
The ADVENTURE was getting her home. Didn’t want to potentially kill Buffalo towing her, so I borrowed the 1ton dually from the J.O.B. and the tow dolly. Wellllsssss,,,,, that didn’t quite work out as planned. BOTH drivers side wheels locked solid. Figured I could deal with the front after the fact, as it would be on the dolly, but that rear,,, Nopes,,, not gonna drag the poor thing 30 miles: it MUST move freely,,, Used a loader to lift Twucks ass end up, and popped the wheel off, figuring hammering (8# sledge) on the drum might bust loose the rust holding it in place. and this is a NO BS brake drum. At least 14″ ID!!! HUGE!!! bang bang bang,,,, NO LOVE,,,, I think the p-brake was engaged and now the cable is froze solid holding that wheel solid.
break down and get a roll back, She’s mine now, and I am not leaving her somewhere I can’t control. Fortunately Proxy has contacts and I get a roll back for $80. And the operator was slick. Managed to get the front tire ‘unstuck’ and tried rocking back and forth a couple of times to loosen that rear,,, still no love and why I believe that cable is the culprit. (note, its broken on the passenger side,,,)
But you can see above, she’s (almost) home; close enough that I can start tearing into things and get-er-agoin’.
Wish me luck on that. The parts aren’t hyper expensive (which is why I like my Chebbies) but they will nickel and dime me to death over the next few months. No short cuts, do it right,,, (and Da isn’t giving me as much grief as I expected. I guess since he can now see it and the capacity of the box-bed, he sees the potential I see in it as well.)
and right now, I’m gonna lift a beer to myself and a new to me TWUCK!!
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Dio's Workshop 
Well alright!! I didn’t realize you were getting yourself an “OBS” Chevrolet Dio. Welcome to the club! Those are my 2nd favorite model of truck of all time!! The first being the ’67-’72 models, but if I’m being honest the 88-98 are superior daily drivers with anti lock brakes, air conditioning and a few other niceties. Well-done good Sir! I wish you many a mile on that beauty!!
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October 31, 2025 at 4:45 pm
The rear end in this thing is MASSIVE!!! I’m in thrall right now. Brake drums the size of a big rigs (or nearly,) They do FILL the entire rim cavity!!! HOLE-eee Chit!!!
and that 8# sledge did nothing to move that drum!!!
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October 31, 2025 at 4:48 pm
The ¾ and 1-ton versions are tanks! My father went through 3 c3500 rigs – one dually, two single rear wheel 1-tons. He clocked over 400k on all 3 of them, hauling big loads and pulling a 16′ flatbed trailer a good amount of the time. Mine is a lowly ½-ton K1500 and I’ve got 325k on it now and it runs great. Parts are plentiful and relatively inexpensive (especially compared to my German imports!) and these trucks are pretty straight forward when it comes to wrenching on ’em. I believe you’ve got a keeper on your hands buddy!
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October 31, 2025 at 4:58 pm
C3500, 2000 model (early so likely off the line in 99) 1 ton single wheel, not dually. BUT,,, Yeah, TANK,,, that rear-end alone prolly weighs as much as Buffalo! LOL NOW, get her runnin!
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October 31, 2025 at 5:01 pm
Woohoo! Good for you. Just curious, is it TBI or does it have that newer spider injector? If it’s the newer style with that spider injector there’s a bolt listed on the back of the upper plenum in EVERY shop manual that ain’t there. Even the GM manual shows it in the torque sequence but it doesn’t exist in this dimension… And if you’ve ever got to change an injector, change the whole assembly. I’ve tried to save customers a few dollars by changing just the leaking injector a few times and it ALWAYS bit me in the butt in the long run. YMMV. Other than that, the only thing I did on those models was run of the mill maintenance and repair work. They’re a pretty durable design.
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October 31, 2025 at 6:45 pm
5.7L Vortec, so its got the spider. Rather familiar with that set up, even if on a 4.3L: very similar. And yah, been bitten by that bolt/no bolt call before. GM has some bats in the attic: Bad grounds are just one of them.LOL
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October 31, 2025 at 6:48 pm
There’s been many a time that I’d been a lot better off with sumthin like Twuck, instead of my ’06 1500 HD. That being said, I’d have a mighty hard time partin with her. Here’s wishin many good miles for the 2 of ya!
Totally off topic, but since Twuck is new to you, this kinda fits: Mikee has got a sweet deal lined up, if’n I can make it happen. A new to me, hand built for vintage sniper rifle competition, with many CMP parts and only 120 down the spout – M1 Garand. It’s one of my Grandsons competition partners irons. Haven’t even seen it yet and I’m bouncin off’n the walls! I’m right there with ya on the kid in a candy store thing!!
Y’all take care,
Mike in FLA.
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November 1, 2025 at 4:59 am