Twuck adventures

Managed to get some stuff done on Twuck today. nothing great or astounding, but some. Found all the Hot and Ground wires, still need to splice in one that was cut really short. BUT, the mains are there. (the one cut was to the fusebox, so kinda important,,,)

Looking things over even more. Thinking the Odds side of the engine has a cracked exhaust manifold. Certainly looks like a crack, right between the 5-7 ports. Hairline, nothing gaping, no exhaust blowout that I can see, but then, this truck hasn’t ran in 12 or so years. (found an insurance card for 2013) Will know when things get rolling. Started putting things back together, belt back on, which looked brand spanking new, decided to hold off on hoses until I get her running then I’m doing a full flush and hose replacement session. I can put in water for the intitial fire up and make sure I have a runner. Drain immediately since its going into winter and no-want a frozen block and all the fun those can cause.

NOT too shabby for an old girl,,,

The real joy was that lock cylinder. No, I haven’t pulled the original out yet. Its rather banged up, but still in place. I understand the logic, kinda, of needing the key to replace the cylinder. BUT,,, Cripes almighty, not having that key makes things a FRICKIN PITA, lubed with Korean hot sauce and fiberglass shavings. gonna have to pull the steering wheel off to get at the area I need to drill a hole to access the release pin (Sketchy) OR, Hope a GM dealer is able to cut me a copy of the factory key and then I can do the deed normal-like. I’m gonna be calling around tomorrow to find out that last. Hard prayers that its doable. Two fold reasons; make swapping a new cylinder in much easier and the second part, that key will fit the door locks as well. Don’t mind having two keys for a vehicle, won’t be my first, certainly won’t be my last. (My Main use truck at the Job has two keys for much the same reason.)

And to benefit me, I am really learning about Twuck. What she has in her, where things are a little wonky, where someone added wiring for something in the bed (Which I pulled for the nonce,, keeping it as it may come in use laters.) Heavy gauge stuff too. Now out of my way. Swapped out the alternator with a known good unit as the one in Twuck had some bearing noise when spun by hand. Maybe nothing, don’t wanna find out the hard way. Have a good core for if things do need replaced later. New tensioner (bought for Buffalo, never needed. Problem was the idler pulley) Just because.

The joys of having two trucks with the base model engine of a 350. A 4.3 is a 350 with two cylinders cut off, and all the stuff on the front end (for the most part) is easily swapped. (timing chain and gears being the exception I believe.) Even the water pumps are the same.

Or as Frank Docktor once told me: Parts is parts,,, (Frank was my mentor for drivability way back in the stone ages of my life.) I still have the Blazer donor hicle so some of the things I need are already in hand, I only wish that the exhaust manifolds would swap,,,, SIGH,,,, Oh well, it may not be a thing at all yet. (like I said, no gaps, no exhaust burn showing,,,) Example of swappable stuff: I did pull the ignition cylinder from the blazer (after I had ordered new) mostly to learn what the hell I was doing before I dug in deep on Twuck. I can use either the new one (will) or the old one, and hold onto for future repair, or even in case Buff’s goes south on me. (and a part of me thought “swap the blazer cylinder in and then the door locks can be changed over too! One key all around.” Will see how this goes, but either way, I have an extra laying in my box now.) I think thats why GM parts are so cheap: Readily usable across mutliple platforms so supply is on the plentiful side. High supply+lower demand= lower prices.

I’ll know by end of day tomorrow if I have a chance at dodging drilling into that column. Fingers crossed.

As she sits right now. Awaiting a battery, that ignition cylinder swap, and some fuel in the tank: fingers crossed, prayers being sent on high, shamanic smoke rituals being applied, and holy water at the ready for that day when I twist the wick (mash the pedal more like,,, this ain’t a bike.) Made sure I have all my diag tools readily at hand too: spark detection, Vac gauge, fuel pressure gauges, the usual stuff.

Live

Learn

LAUGH

LOVE

LOAD