the stopgap GMT400: a drivabeater thread

First failure: after 400 miles and many start/shutdowns, the starter has given me the finger this morning.  In the driveway.  No better place, other than on a lift.

New one from Amazon for 4899 is on the way. Same one I used in the El Camino. For now it's working with beating it with a hammer. Time to go put it on the lift.

solfly said:

Dusterbd13 said:

Just fillec up. 20.3 gallons. 300 miles to go.

 

Needs chassis work. And the headlight suck. But its comfortable, ac is cold, stero is good, and has cruise

Look at the "4 hi" mod for the headlights.

I was going to suggest this and some clear headlights. I did that on my 89 and OMG it made a helluva difference. Oh, and you can use high beam bulbs in the low beam slots.

That's where ill probably end up. However, i have some leftover led bulbs from the elky, and a 3m polishing kit that im going to try first. This is a drivabeater after all...

Working on the brakes with dad. Full information and picture dump tonight.  Short version is that jeremy gave me a better deal than he thought.

I am all about this thing going to a good home.  Can't wait to see where it goes.

At my buddy's cabin so no internet or phone reception this weekend.  I am posting this during the 30 minute trip to town for groceries.

Alright. I've slept, eaten, and spent a bit of time with the truck.

Budget first:

previously was 35.99

add in 48.99 fpr the starter I ordered.

Now: 84.98

We already discussed the starter. Mailman will have it here at some point. After its failure this morning, its continued to work without hammer beating it. I also started on the general cleaning this morning. Superclean and a garden hose. This truck is NASTY. But, we can make it better. In the process of cleaning and diagnosing the no start, I cleaned and tightened the battery terminals. Now that gauge reads a solid 14 volts, unlike the 10-12 I saw the whole trip home. I also found the batter hold down and bolt, laying in the tray. Battery wasn't actually fastened. But battery is a duralast gold with 10/16 manufacture date, so good and recent. This led me to hunt and see what all new parts this thing has received recently. (new is determined by eyeball, not by receipts or records.)

the list so far:

drivers door and cabcorner

bed

flip kit

c-notch kit

front and rear shocks

front spindles and springs

both front calipers and pads

both front outer tie rods

plugs and wires

oil and filter

radiator

emergency brake cables

battery

ac compressor, dryer, and switches. Possibly condenser, but not certain

front bumper

master cylinder and booster

stereo (me)

pictures:

20180217_091913 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20180217_091924 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20180217_091853 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20180217_091831 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20180217_091836 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20180217_122238 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20180217_121550 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20180217_121153 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20180216_172304 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

I dind't find rear shock re-locators, so that will need to be fabricated. I also confirmed Jeremy diagnosis of worn pitman and idler arms. The box also has not insignificant play, as does the rag joint. So new parts are in order in the near future.

I also found out why the exhaust got progressively louder and more drone-ey throughout the trip:

20180217_121447 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

got a call out to the my friends to see what they have laying around in 2.5-3 inch mufflers. Bound to be something handy taking up space. Worst case I have to buy one. Id just rather not.

I then went, with dad and his lifts help, to see about making the brakes not scary as berkeley. We started with trying to adjust the drums. Which apparently, you cant do with the wheels on, and the drum on. There is no access hole to the adjuster. Serious party foul on GM's part. But at lease we found no surprises. Shoes are plenty thick, no ridge in the drum, and no leaks. Jeremy never had the drums apart, so they were a total unknown.

20180217_131907 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

after significant bleeding and adjustments, I can conclusively say that the brakes on this are scary as E36 M3. And they're better than when I drove it back from Florida last night. There's at least 3 inches of pedal travel before the truck starts slowing down, no feel, and I cant get the ABS to kick on. Something is very wrong here. Ideas? My only thought is a different master (GMT800 swap is popular per research), new hoses, and make sure all the calipers/wheel cylenders are correct brake system bores.

After brakes, I moved onto lighting. Yesterday, I tried to install the LED bulbs. Backstory in bulbs: drivabeater 2.0 used 1989 bmw 525 projector headlights. Low beam was a 9006. after having far too many HID issues, I ordered all 4 bulbs in LED. The low beam LEDs did not play well with the hella projectors. For whatever reason, the patterns didn't line up and there was very minimal output. However, the high beams were awesome. So I put standard bulbs back in the low beams, and threw the LED 9006 in a box. I grabbed them from the box when packing for Florida, figuring that they would probably be better than whatever was in there. When stampie, asa and I tried to put them in in the parking lot in the hood, they wouldn't light off. Not wanting to waste time, I put the supplied bulbs back in and drove home. Today I figured out that the connectors have the polarity backwards of the GM harness. Dunno why, but they do. So I put them in. shop wall testing says they're a hell of a lot better than what I drove home with.

20180217_155237 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20180217_155111 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20180217_155056 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

last couple if things (no pictures) I did was get the tailgate functional, start scrubbing some corrosion on electrical connectors, and ditch the bed rails. The bed has a full diamond plate liner (except the tailgate) that is pop riveted in. im thinking of trimming the bed rail caps off for when I got with a tonneau cover. It also needs some d-rings installed for hook points. Don't think I have any left from the elky though.

tomorrows goal will be to build a sub box for the downfiring under seat 8 inch polk sub, and figure out what I want to do about the brakes.

Also, start figuring out how to get the plastidip off. My mom said it looks like a fat and irritated salmon due to the color. Cant have that. Maybe clean the interior, or go to the junkyard if the weather clears.

A very long shot but my 1997 Chevy truck had a rusted through rear hard line. Instead of actually repairing that, the crooks I bought it from stuck an 8p nail into the rear lines inside the master cylinder. I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get fluid out of the rear. Finally took it to a shop and they found it. Worth a quick look anyway.

Can't say I noticed much of a difference with properly functioning rear brakes and no rear brakes at all. They just generally suck on those trucks.

Dusterbd13 said:

In the process of cleaning and diagnosing the no start, I cleaned and tightened the battery terminals. Now that gauge reads a solid 14 volts, unlike the 10-12 I saw the whole trip home. I also found the batter hold down and bolt, laying in the tray. Battery wasn't actually fastened. But battery is a duralast gold with 10/16 manufacture date, so good and recent.

If we ever write up a "how to fly and drive"... we should probably make sure this is "step 1" on arrival.  Open the hood, check the battery, battery hold downs, and terminal tightness.

always tough to remember that, though, in the excitement of buying a new vehicle

I'm battling the brakes on my '98 K1500 too. I replaced the rear brake lines from below the firewall to the wheel cylinders and can't get the pedal back. Bled them like crazy, no change. So I tossed a master cylinder at it, no change. I'm thinking the ABS module has air in it, I've cycled it a bunch and hopefully I can get some air out, otherwise I'll have to find someone with the right scan tool.

Curious to find what your issue is!

If you find yours first, please share!

I thought about checking some basics before leaving Florida, but just didn't.  That really could have bitten me in the ass, but as i said earlier: unshakable faith in the members of this community.  Jeremy said get in and go home, no problem. So i did.

I'm not sure on the range of years, but to bleed the brakes on my 92 fully requires a Chevy-specific scan tool to force the abs unit to pass fluid through all its cavities - I noticed mine even has 2 bleeder screws on it. 

Well the Phoenix (reverse) brake bleeder gun that currently  resides in the Grosh has proven me well...no scan tool no fuss no muss......oh and bleeding clutch slave cyl's (on the gmt400) are like ....ok,  glad that's done, time to clean up and get a bite to eat

I think, stock, the front brakes on these are responsible for about 85% of the whoa when the pedal gets used.  No idea what upgrades are available but I think that focusing on the front would be where I'd go first.

Is the ABS on these even that effective?  Sounds like a lot of hassle to deal with.

I bet your “bad starter” was loose battery cable.

also, the brakes on these are decent when all good.  I would replace the front rubber lines if original and plumb out the archaic abs system, but that’s just me.  I always ditched the abs on these trucks, except my suburban.  Then one day it tried to kill me pulling a trailer to a stoplight down a hill on a washboarded road.  Truck felt bumps, abs kicked in, i rolled right through the red light.  I pulled the fuse at that point.  

Pete Gossett said:

I'm not sure on the range of years, but to bleed the brakes on my 92 fully requires a Chevy-specific scan tool to force the abs unit to pass fluid through all its cavities - I noticed mine even has 2 bleeder screws on it. 

my 99 was the same way.

Did a bunch of research before falling asleep in the recliner last night. 

Seems that a gmt800 master cylinder swap really helps pedal feel. Theres also a form of abs bleeding without a tech2. Lastly, there were some references to some drop spindles causing calipers to hang up.

So i believe that I'm going nuclear.  Everything is getting gone through, dissassembled, cleaned and lubed. Along with the upgraded master and abs cycling.  

.y fathers saying of "not running is an inconvenience.  Not stopping will kill you."  Keeps running through my head.

If i still can't get good brakes, then ill do all new plumbing and bypass the abs. Id much rather have abs, but ive done hundreds of thousands of miles without so i can deal. 

For adjusting the rear drums, back down a steep hill at about 25 MPH, then get on the brakes hard  (edge of lockup).  Repeat another 2-3 times.  Since your adjusters have been lubed, this should work really well.

Others have noted it but as an owner of multiples of this model GM truck/suv at one point or another I can confirm the pedal feel is utter crap until you get the ABS to fully bleed.  As you noted there are supposed tricks to bleed the ABS without the tech tool.  I never found any of those methods to be effective :(

Does the trick where you lift a front wheel with the key on and spin it by hand work to cycle the ABS pump on these? 

Went to the junk yard.  Scored a gmt800 master. Going full nuclear on the brakes.

Also scored a flowmaster catback, sway bars for the challenge car, an autodim/compass/temp mirror, and an unbroken cluster bezel.

No love on leaf springs due to them putting the stands under the leaves on every truck. 

If that gmt800 master cylinder is a worthwhile upgrade, I'm going to feel real stupid about buying a new stock master.

What style abs does your truck have? Mines the 3 channel type. Kelsey Hayes I think. I've noticed that it does wierd stuff when I drive from outside to inside the shop sometimes. Hit the brakes to line up the truck for the hoist and the abs starts stuttering and the truck doesn't slow down for a second until it stops whatever it's doing and I jerk to a stop since I've upped the pedal pressure as a knee jerk response. 

Good score on the mirror, I did the same. It's a nice upgrade, running the wiring takes longer than expected though.

I have the 3 channel kelsey hayes as well.

Had to order a flare fitting adapter because no one in town stocks one.

According to the internet, the gmt800 master cures a lot of the travel and feel issues. We'll see what happens.  For 17 bucks, im willing to try. 

And i love autodim mirrorors. Put them in everything. 

Still want to find a suburban or Yukon overhead console too. Put one in my last truck and loved it.

Dammit. 

My sub bax is 3/8 off the critical dimensions and wont fit.

This is why i have access to a 6 inch wide jointer, right?

In other news, after spending some time with calipers and various parts, im pretty sure that the jeep grand Cherokee steering box with swap right in.

Isn't the steering shaft from the XJ Cherokees an upgrade for the GMT400's? It's a solid shaft that gets rid of the rag joint.

In reply to untchabl :

Yup. And i have one that i had bought for the elky tilt column conversion. 

That steering shaft, jgc box, new pitman and idler arms should have me some fantastic steering.