Overland K1500 Silverado Project "Old Red"

Found a nail in one of the back tires.

Going to be replacing the spark plugs, the engine has a bit of a "wobble" at stop signs and red lights unless i shift to neutral while waiting if there's a long pause before i need to go again, there's a bump or something that i can feel while driving but it isn't sharp like a jolt or anything like that it just "bumps". I'm going to be checking the diff fluid and the transmission fluid to see if i can narrow it down.

I'll be taking some pictures of the spark plugs when i pull them for comparison.

Well the spark plugs weren't as bad as I feared but here was some extra carbon residue and some apparent moisture on them but the overall condition was for the most part not bad but i still replaced them with a higher end OEM spark plug.

It seems like the misfire was solved by removing the battery while i was changing out the plugs, seems that it just needed a reset in order to start working properly again.

It's looking like PB Blaster, a torch, and a large sledge hammer will be the answer to removing and replacing the lower control arms.

Transmission fluid is still OK

Gear oil is overdue, and i need to see if the front 4x4 actuator is actually working correctly.

Driver side window won't roll down now.

Below are the old spark plugs. and you can see a bit of carbon buildup on the outside and the scorch pattern.

pulled the rear diff cover off and found that the fluid was fine, but the gears ate the magnet that was on the cover, thankfully there's no noticeable damage that i can see so i was able to clean the surfaces as well as i could and apply a new gasket.

Had to use RTV because the cover is pitted from rust so I'm probably going to have to replace the cover eventually as well.

I was able to remove as many of the shards of the magnet from the housing as i could find, all while impressed and thankful that there was no real carnage.

(this truck never ceases to amaze me as to how with everything wrong with it, that it keeps working)

Matt Dylan said:

pulled the rear diff cover off and found that the fluid was fine, but the gears ate the magnet that was on the cover, thankfully there's no noticeable damage that i can see so i was able to clean the surfaces as well as i could and apply a new gasket.

Had to use RTV because the cover is pitted from rust so I'm probably going to have to replace the cover eventually as well.

I was able to remove as many of the shards of the magnet from the housing as i could find, all while impressed and thankful that there was no real carnage.

(this truck never ceases to amaze me as to how with everything wrong with it, that it keeps working)

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On the positive side, those little pieces of magnet that you didn't find will have attached themselves to something rather than be circulating in the oil.

GrimsterGMC said:

On the positive side, those little pieces of magnet that you didn't find will have attached themselves to something rather than be circulating in the oil.

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Yup. I feel extremely fortunate for that. now i just have to save up for a new diff cover and bolts since east coast salt has not been kind to the drivetrain.

I made a list of things I'm gonna get soon for the truck including a new diff cover with a magnetic drain plug and a transmission pan that also has a magnetic drain plug, all with proper gaskets. I'm also gonna get valve cover gaskets and intake manifold gaskets. I have a fuel filter on hand but I'm running out of options with regards to trying to remove the old one without damaging the lines.

Drained the front differential, and the fluid was pretty bad. appeared to have some water and metallic residue in it. i added about 2 5/8's quarts of new oil and i troubleshot the 4x4 system, i can say that the transfer case is working, but he front thermal actuator may not be working correctly (bear in mind this is a replacement because the old one was in pretty bad shape).

I am probably going to have to pull the actuator and see if engaging 4x4 makes the component engage. I do intend on replacing the switch and see if that makes a difference.

I have toyed with the idea of converting the truck to a manual 4x4 selector switch but if i can get the push button selector working i probably won't.

I just remembered something I forgot to mention previously.

I redid the wiring on the wiring on the trailer wiring harness, removed the twist-cap style for parallel connectors and heat shrink, made a new ground jumper wire, i also installed the 7-way connector in the bumper which was convenient since there was a good deal of rust in the spot that i cut a hole through so it worked out that i had to remove some rust anyway.



I think the setup works pretty well, but i am definitely going to upgrade the receiver and i am probably going to do the same wiring setup with the new bumper when i get it.

Ok, I've done some troubleshooting and the "bump" while driving at speed and at idle, and the random stalling while had been a combination of a couple of things.

The bumps and rough idle may be transmission/torque converter slippage

The stalling was a bad alternator or a compounded issue of a bad alternator and transmission issue

the stalling was fixed after i replaced the alternator and in fact the worst symptoms actually subsided or just eased off afterwards and are no longer as severe as the were.

I will be doing a fluid change on the transmission and will do it again after about 500 or so miles from the fluid change in order to push more clean fluid through the transmission, cooler, and converter and then I will also be replacing the pan and gasket during the second change and the new pan will be a performance pan with a drain plug while I'm washing out the bad transmission fluid.

While the fluid itself doesn't appear to be burnt or smell off, I'll only really have an idea of the state of the fluid once I take the pan off and see for myself.

thankfully this will be a bit easier to do than when i did a transmission fluid change on a fwd car.

Drained about a gallon of fluid from the transmission, cleaned off a good amount of metallic residue from the magnet, and replaced the filter and gasket, added 5 quarts of ATF to the transmission, checked for leaks and took it for a test drive yesterday.

I went with an ACDelco filter and gasket set and so far the OEM is working well with no leaking.

Checked for leaks after the test drive and while everything looks solid, i noticed what appears to be a leak around the pinion seal on the axle.

There is still some mild shaking here and there but the truck felt much better and even the rpm was slightly lower and smoother than it has been, i added some high mileage seafoam to the crankcase in preparation for the upcoming regular oil change that is going to include replacing the transmission pan with one that has a drain plug.

Rear cab mount is going to have to be welded before I de-lift the truck because it's probably going to collapse from the rust if i don't fix it and try to remove the body lift.