‘89 RCSB Adventures

[OBSOkie]

Guess I’ll post my adventures about working on my truck here.

As it sits now and what I’ve figured out about it:
1989 Chevy C1500 Silverado
5.7L/700R4 w/ 243k
Lowered 2/4 (best guess)
American Racing 15x8 D windows with 255/70R15 Cooper Cobras
3” Black Widow “Neighbor Hater” exhaust dumped behind cab. Sounds horrible.
Stock other wise.


Immediate plans:
Fix door hinge pins
Fix fuel gauge (bad sending unit, yay.)
New lowering kit (DJM 4/6)
Catch up on maintenance/Tune up.

 

[OBSOkie]

Repaired my drivers door hinge pins and bushings. So much nicer not having to slam my door. Wasnt too bad. Went with dorman pins and Cunningham Machine bushings. Heres my bushing install tool lol.

 

[OBSOkie]

Tonight got some new headlight housings to replace a yellowing one. Looks way better.

One that sucks is tearing into stuff discovering what the PO decided to take shortcuts on. Bleh.

Someone before the PO cared about the truck though. Got under it and it appears to have a new gas tank under it with new fuel filter. Did the trouble shooting and found I had a bad sending unit so Im guessing they may have cheaped out or who knows. Ordered a AC Delco one to hopefully put in tonight.

Also looks like its had a recent tune up. New cap, plug wires look pretty new. Most surprising is it looks to have new (probably refurb) heads on it.

Guess well see what else I find as I dig lol.

Anyways heres a pic of the new headlights! Went with the Spyder Auto ones that’s on Amazon.

 

[OBSOkie]

Woohoo. Got my new sending unit in. Have a functional fuel gauge now so thats fun. Started Saturday night, stopped bc I didnt have a new fuel filter to attach to the pump so I ordered one from O’Reilies and picked it up today (Sun). Finished tonight. Was picking up my trash and guess what I found? A bag of goodies in the sending unit box that included a new filter. Go figure. Lol oh well.

Glad thats done. I was going to lift the bed but decided to just drop the tank and it wasnt really that bad. Used my motorcycle jack and parked the rear on ramps. Had plenty of room. Ended up dropping the tank bc the PO ran the wires for the sending unit under the forward tank bracket so I was worried they would get damaged if I didnt. So fixed that also. Good times.

No to diagnose a misfire, and I feel like I need to check my temp gauge or the thermostate since my temps arent going higher than the 1st mark about. About halway to 210. Cant remember right now if the initial is 100 or whatever.

Adventure continues!

 

[OBSOkie]

Bleh. Turns out the 160 degree thermostat was a non existent thermostat lol. Put a 195 in it and ended up having to add a lot of water as it overheated on my test drive. I’ll finish burping it tonight and hope that problem is solved.

Still chasing the “misfire”. Seems more pronounced on a cold start so going to try and catch that on video as well. Ohm tested my plugs and the longest was 7.5k of resistance and wiggled them around with no issues.

My passenger side exhaust manifold was missing two fasteners on the forward flange so I ordered those and went to put them on and discovered why they weren’t installed, guess these old cast manifolds get a little wonky after a bunch of heat cycles and warp a little. Found out about neat little tool from Lisle that spreads them back out and I got the bolts in. Attached a picture of that. Lisle Tool# LIS 13000 manifold spreader if anyone needs one.

 

[FLGS400]

Found out about neat little tool from Lisle that spreads them back out and I got the bolts in. Attached a picture of that. Lisle Tool# LIS 13000 manifold spreader if anyone needs one.

That is awesome!

 

[OBSOkie]

Painting some interior pieces I got. If you have red the SEM 15063 Bergundy is close. Heres a glove box door I did. Used Dupli Color adhesion promoter.

 

[OBSOkie]

If you don’t have one of no spill radiator funnel things I recommend getting one lol. Got my coolant issue fixed. Now has a 195* thermostat in it. Seems to be working good after I finally got the system all burped up. Goes to about 225* then goes back to 195*. Not sure if the gauge is slow or what.

I put it on ramps to help burp the coolant and with it in an incline I discovered my tail shaft seal is leaking like a sieve lol. So I’ll be doing both the tail shaft seal/bushing and rear pinion seal.

?? Does anyone know the pinion flange nut size? Manual doesn’t seem to say. And do I need the special tool? I plan on just doing it wheels on the ground/chocked.
———
Also added a cheapo Kicker powered 10” just for fun. Figure I would see how that does and how much thump I really want. Got it 99% installed just need to order a RCA to wire thing and I’ll be good to go.
———
Starting to do research. My AC is toast. Not sure if I want to go back stock or do the Sanden upgrade. Not sure what is but the plug on the back of the compressor is busted up bad so I’m guessing the whole system has been vented to atmosphere.