'93 W/T 1500 (Surprise, surprise, Bucket acquired another truck)

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AuroraGirl

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Taylor
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Engine Size
400(?), 350
No more surface rusted front bumper either. Grille still looks bad though.
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That paint did not look like the color of the can cap at all. It was supposed to be darker like the grille.
Maybe if you painted the bumper black and applied it then it would be like how the cap was? I say that because the far ends of the bumper + a little in the center appears to be closer like you say. Or is the lighter part/dark lighting?

Also, im seeing it now, some rustoleum silver is all you need for that bumper. :)
 

bucket

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Engine Size
350-454
Put about 2k on the truck so far, it's done well, but starting to have clutch issues. It was a minor annoyance at first, but getting progressively worse and it's almost to the point it can't be driven.

When you start it up cold and drive it, you can go into all gears with no fuss and it's buttery smooth. But it quickly gets tight to shift in the lower gears and after a little bit, it won't go into 1st or 2nd when stopped. You can jam it in there, but it makes the truck lurch and it's obviously not happy about it, lol.

The hydraulics seem to work fine. Pumping up the pedal makes no difference and there's no fluid leakage. I had my wife push the pedal while I peeked in the inspection hole, the clutch slave looks to have it's full travel. I'm pretty sure that the pilot bushing is bad and it's always trying to spin the input shaft once it builds up a little heat. So I guess I'll be putting in a clutch kit soon.
 

78C10BigTen

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@bucket your REALLY makin me miss my 90' gmt400 like that!!! Mines a WT with the same grille.
 

AuroraGirl

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Taylor
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K10, K25
Engine Size
400(?), 350
Put about 2k on the truck so far, it's done well, but starting to have clutch issues. It was a minor annoyance at first, but getting progressively worse and it's almost to the point it can't be driven.

When you start it up cold and drive it, you can go into all gears with no fuss and it's buttery smooth. But it quickly gets tight to shift in the lower gears and after a little bit, it won't go into 1st or 2nd when stopped. You can jam it in there, but it makes the truck lurch and it's obviously not happy about it, lol.

The hydraulics seem to work fine. Pumping up the pedal makes no difference and there's no fluid leakage. I had my wife push the pedal while I peeked in the inspection hole, the clutch slave looks to have it's full travel. I'm pretty sure that the pilot bushing is bad and it's always trying to spin the input shaft once it builds up a little heat. So I guess I'll be putting in a clutch kit soon.
Im not expert on how that manual works, but does the fluid cool or lubricate that bushing? If so, you could try AT instead of gear lube maybe or something else that would be allowable in that if it has old fluid or you put something more prefering to a vintage like gear lube idk
 

bucket

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Engine Size
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Im not expert on how that manual works, but does the fluid cool or lubricate that bushing? If so, you could try AT instead of gear lube maybe or something else that would be allowable in that if it has old fluid or you put something more prefering to a vintage like gear lube idk

The pilot bushing inserts into the crankshaft flange. It supports the input shaft. It could be a bronze type bushing or it could be a roller bearing type. My hunch is that it is the roller bearing type and it has seized up.

It could potentially be another issue though. Perhaps a release bearing issue or possibly a wasted pressure plate. But my money is on the pilot bushing. Won't know for sure until I pull it apart.
 

WFO

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The pilot bushing inserts into the crankshaft flange. It supports the input shaft. It could be a bronze type bushing or it could be a roller bearing type. My hunch is that it is the roller bearing type and it has seized up.

It could potentially be another issue though. Perhaps a release bearing issue or possibly a wasted pressure plate. But my money is on the pilot bushing. Won't know for sure until I pull it apart.
I put a new Hays pressure plate, disc, flywheel, through out bearing and bronze bushing in my Chevelle.
It would work fine until it was driven 20-30 minutes, then it was hard shifting. Actually had to kill the engine to get it in reverse.
I remembered that the bushing had been hard to drive in, and thought maybe that caused the bushing ID to be too tight for the pilot shaft.
Tore it back apart and measured the bushing and the crank hole, and ended up taking .0015 off of the OD of a new bushing. Then checked ID of installed bushing against the OD of the pilot shaft and was good to go.
Same thing happened when I drove it.
Tore it apart again, and then noticed one of the tines of the clutch fork was slightly bent back.
Replaced it and everything worked fine.
I reckon the bent fork tine was causing a slight engagement with the throughout and heating everything up, even though the pedal seemed to be adjusted right.
 

bucket

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Engine Size
350-454
A little bit ago, I parked the truck by the garage, in the area that always floods. The ground was completely frozen at that point. Well it thawed and we got a bunch of rain, lol. Yesterday was my only chance to get it out, as it briefly got cold again and the ground kind of, sort of, maybe just a little, froze up again. I had to do some 'yard muddin' to get it out.

That big dent sure collects a lot of debris.
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The Suburban normally goes out and gets muddy. It was just an innocent bystander this time.

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Oh and as can be seen, I installed a toolbox in the bed too. And I'm not sure what's going on with the clutch/trans. Moving it around a bunch, with lots of forward and reverse rocking to get the truck unstuck, it still goes into gear just fine. Maybe the damn thing is just low on fluid... I can't remember if I checked it already.
 

bucket

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Engine Size
350-454
I tried smashing the ruts down with the fat tires on the Suburban, but it's the wrong mix of frozen and swampy. Some stuff doesn't move yet, and some spots just get tore up worse. I'm also growing tired of having to pack stuff up and carry it around in the mud. I'm really looking forward to concrete and gravel.
 

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