New to forum, years of GM truck ownership

[sobitthen]

Was in a rush to buy a plow truck end of fall due to township refusing to plow me out after over 30 years...

Picked up a nightmare of a truck, a 77 K20 with an 86 shell on top. It didn't have any brakes on testdrive so couldn't really try it out, Western plow went up down, left to right and motor sounded tight so bit the bullet and had it delivered.

Decided to go through everything that was neglected, ended up installing new SS headers and 2.5" exhaust with Thrush welded turbos, new rear wheel bearings, wheel cylinders and brakes, dude had packed rear bearings by hand with grease and inside of one drum, no clue there, mess to clean up.

Installed high flow water pump and noticed balancer was about to let go, installed new balancer and thought some chrome would be nice to add to the SS headers, so bought Holley valve covers, a 120A chromed alternator off eBay.
Then bought reservoir for power steering and a pulley in chrome, a new pump, and some aluminum alternator-PS brackets. Added a new HD clutched fan to replace the bent one, have a performer intake to complete the look, not installed yet.

All new steering linkages and sway bar bushing kit, oil change with a 2 QT Wix oil filter, then decided to change the trany fluid and filter and add a trany cooler, there was the problem, the intermediate sprag was laying in the bottom of the pan when I pulled it off...

So I ended up rebuilding the transmission, my first, put in an Alto complete kit, new Boss Hog converter, race sprag, spring kit, Transgo kit, and that trany cooler. The springs I added to the governor worked great but governor would rattle if I got on her, was 1st to 10, the drive at 25, replaced with new governor, now in drive my 20, don't like, but the whimpy springs needed to change it via governor make it rattle so may try using the adjustable vacuum modulator or removing the Transgo spring the kit had me install on that plunger.

Ok trany set, shifts good, had decent 10 ply tires that had weather checks on sidewalls, so new set of 265/75-16s.
Take her out to the woods, put in 4 wheel, no 4 wheel, heard a pop and some clicks going up a hill, my bud thinks lock-outs, pulled side off where noise, the Spicer on the Dana 44 front was rusty and gritty so bought a set of Warn HD lock-outs, put in 4 wheel, nothing but clicking sounds...
Pulled front cover, spider gears sheared, so that turned into all 4 new ball joints, repacking fronts, new calipers and brake pads, and of course new spider gears.

She was loading up a bit so rebuilt the Carter Quadrajet that was on her, purrs now, bought new distributor with clear cap off eBay for cheap, still in box.

Added some gauges and a stereo, bought a yellow flashing light, changed a few fittings and hoses on plow that were questionable, and ready to watch the gas gauge plummet ...

I hope it ends all the mechanical adventures as snow is on the ground and single digits when swapping those gears...

Not afraid to toss a wrench when needed, but this truck took an extra $2000 I wasn't expecting already...

Look forward to any help required and since 30+ years with a wrench, any help I can offer...

Pontiacs were my forte...Owned many a GTO in the day, if this truck had a stick, it would have inherited my RAIII 400 that sits patiently on the stand...

 

[350runner]

Welcome from Texas! Sounds like you put a lot of work into that truck. What drive train is in it?

Sent from the dust in front of you!

 

[77 K20]

Wow- you've done a lot to that truck. Hopefully now you will have many years of use and enjoyment out of it. Welcome to the forum! Feel free to post some pics of your truck

 

[Dadof2]

Wow- you've done a lot to that truck. Hopefully now you will have many years of use and enjoyment out of it. Welcome to the forum! Feel free to post some pics of your truck

This ^.

If you don't post pics we won't believe you did all of this. J/K.

Another "Howdy" from Texas.

 

[bucket]

Howdy! Sounds like a cool truck, it's not very often you see a plow truck with chrome bits either.

 

[sobitthen]

Put one of the wedge style toppers on her today.
Bought for $50 with clamps, sides open, other side has built in storage, all frosted up, should have parked her towards the sun so could see out rear window tomorrow, hopefully sun in the AM to clear that out, 30's projected for weekend hunting opener...
Had a toolbox across the back, but taking her out hunting tomorrow and wanted a way to bring gear along and not just leave it loose in the box... I wish my GMC van was a 4x4, would take her out and camp in it...
There is a GMC 4x4 in town, a late 70's, she looks tough, 1 ton and all...
Anyhow, if I knew how to post some pics of this beater truck I would, every forum is a tad different, haven't looked into it here yet, only saw posting via a URL, and since Facebook is only place I had some online and privacy settings may stop them from being posted, I can only try

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...

 

[sobitthen]

Ooh, copying image url off Facebook does work, won't overwhelm, here is one of the trany almost completed.

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[sobitthen]

Pic of engine prior to new intake, rebuilding of carb, and new billet distributor...
Not very clean, and wiring was just for testing at this point...
Installed a 175A fuse on far firewall, recommendation to any with older vehicle...
Dude went crazy and painted the whole truck white, everything, fenderwells-frame-differentials-chrome rims, 10 years ago without prepping it, was a TX box and cab that he let go to crap, reason keeping as a plow truck, chrome added just to clean it up under hood, had to enjoy something on the truck other than interior..lol

Those are the cheap $150 shipped stainless headers off eBay, wish I flipped for the $25 more to get ceramic coating, didn't see them until after I clicked buy now..

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[bucket]

I like it!

 

[Mr Clean]

from N.E.

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[sobitthen]

Since last post tossed in a set of 4 leaf springs in the front to beef it up for the plow.

Then noticed a little vibration at highway speeds and discovered it was the transfer case, found a deal, 150 miles away, for 2 transfer cases and a blown TH350 for $20, 1 case had the kit the other did not.
I swapped the case with the one with the kit in it, 10F outdoors, damn kid was helping me, we dropped it down onto me 3 times off the jacks, he can push a mouse around pretty well but anything mechanical, he was supposed to watch the case and help keep it on the jacks, used 2 jacks, the higher you get it up there the further apart the jacks end up and he pumped a few too many pumps when I said 1 at a time, in a hurry, then let it go onto me, my fingernail just started to grow back, after 3rd time I wrapped a chain around her and put pipe in shifter hole, of course that must have scared that t-case as it went right in after that... Had it all cleaned off and 5 coats of paint on her.

Thought since have so much into her now, might as well keep rolling, and decided to pull off the Vette heads that were on this vortec block and buy actual vortec heads.
Found a set off a boat, they ran the 906 heads up to 2011 on the 350s in Mercruisers, bought whole top end along with the 395 cam, came with stock 2bbl dual-jet and intake but I got him to toss in a Edelbrock EPS Performer 4BBL intake that was brand new and deliver the pile to me for $500.

1 issue there is they didn't incorporate any exhaust crossover on those 906s since they were fuel injected and this EPS intake wasn't plumbed for coolant to heat the carb, so I found a 1965 T-Bird carb spacer plate with plumbing and going to mount that under the carb with a vacuum operated diverter valve to shut off coolant flow in summertime...

Bought a Holley 670 avenger carb for $50 to toss on top of the new induction system and am awaiting warmer weather to rip her apart.
Think may as well toss rings-bearings-oil pump in her since have her tore down so far, bought Cloyes true roller timing set and a kit from Summit to put the roller cam back in and full gasket set, might hunt for chrome valve covers but he included the stock black ones from the boat.

This far into her, will repair all the metal and hope to toss some paint onto her this year too, then it will look like I have that much cash into her, now I see better looking trucks for sale for $2500 and almost get sad, but know what I have under that shell, and likely theirs does not compare...

So theres the update for now... caio...