Well, I’m back in Arizona but this time I’m in a newer house - 1928 vs 1905! There‘s lots of catch up maintenance to do so I need a pickup truck, nothing fancy, just runs to the dump or for supplies. The prices for used cars, much less trucks, is crazy these days but I got lucky. Got news of a elderly man looking to sell a 1996 chevy half ton extended cab so I went for a look…..
The test drive revealed 242,625 miles on the clock but it ran well enough. 2 Michelin tires up front, 2 destination LE’s on the rear. Brakes were ok and the steering has just a touch of slop but she tracks straight as an arrow. Trans shifts great, no vibrations, rolled it 70 mph and it feels pretty good for a 25 y/o truck. Heater works, A/C doesn’t. Outside pretty beat up, but then I’m going to work it too….$2000 and I drove it home, where it promptly quit running.
An ignition module fixed that.
Flushed PS fluid and set it to the proper level - it had been overfilled.
Changed oil and filter and gave it Maxlife 5w30 and a Fram filter.
It had intermittent codes for mass air flow sensor; the harness plug into it lacked the weather pack gasket so I jerry rigged one and tie wrapped the plug to the sensor - code hasn’t returned in over 200 miles.
Water temp gauge wasn’t working, repaired the wiring in that weather pack plug and now it works.
With the temp gauge now working found out the engine is running cold. I drained the cooling system ( straight water!) and pulled the thermostat neck to find it had no thermostat at all! The neck had silicone sealer as a gasket! Figured out how that came to be, there some pitting on the sealing surface and it probably leaked. Took a triangle file to it and trued the sealing surface up, then put in a 195 t’stat. Filled it with Prestone all vehicle antifreeze and a new radiator cap. She makes hot water now.
Pulled the rear brake drums off to find linings in very good shape; cleaned everything up, adjusted the brakes and good to go. Front disc brakes were good too and while in there found why the anti-lock brake light was on - a severed wire going to the driver side sensor. Mending that put the light out.
Somewhere along the line the battery hold down got lost, autozone had a kit for that.
An under truck inspection revealed a TCI transmission (with clean fluid!) and flowmaster exhaust sans catalytic converter. My county doesn’t require inspections and at 25 years the point may be moot - it’s on the cusp of being a classic car!
A round of tail light bulbs and socket cleaning got the lighting legal; the low beams are xenon’s.
A strong round of Techron in a half filled tank fixed an intermittent miss at idle, idles smooth as silk now. Engine likes the maxlife too, it very quiet, no crazy noises.
The speedo is roughly 7% higher than actual speed according to my GPS. Most of these trucks came with 3:42 gears and if you apply that 7% difference to the diff that just about works out to a 3:73 axle ratio - that’s just me guessing though…
So now that the truck has had some of the important things squared away, how does it drive? Fantastic actually. It pulls strong through the rev range and exhibits no crazy traits at all. It holds 25 psi oil pressure at hot idle. Very pleased with this purchase.
Next up: driver door hinge repair, brake flush and finding all the stuff for the spare tire - the wind up mechanism is there but I lack a spare tire, jack and lug wrench. Lots of wrecking yards here, should be able to fix that. For now a harbor freight scissor jack , 4 way lug wrench and the spare in the bed.
So whatcha y’all think?
The test drive revealed 242,625 miles on the clock but it ran well enough. 2 Michelin tires up front, 2 destination LE’s on the rear. Brakes were ok and the steering has just a touch of slop but she tracks straight as an arrow. Trans shifts great, no vibrations, rolled it 70 mph and it feels pretty good for a 25 y/o truck. Heater works, A/C doesn’t. Outside pretty beat up, but then I’m going to work it too….$2000 and I drove it home, where it promptly quit running.
An ignition module fixed that.
Flushed PS fluid and set it to the proper level - it had been overfilled.
Changed oil and filter and gave it Maxlife 5w30 and a Fram filter.
It had intermittent codes for mass air flow sensor; the harness plug into it lacked the weather pack gasket so I jerry rigged one and tie wrapped the plug to the sensor - code hasn’t returned in over 200 miles.
Water temp gauge wasn’t working, repaired the wiring in that weather pack plug and now it works.
With the temp gauge now working found out the engine is running cold. I drained the cooling system ( straight water!) and pulled the thermostat neck to find it had no thermostat at all! The neck had silicone sealer as a gasket! Figured out how that came to be, there some pitting on the sealing surface and it probably leaked. Took a triangle file to it and trued the sealing surface up, then put in a 195 t’stat. Filled it with Prestone all vehicle antifreeze and a new radiator cap. She makes hot water now.
Pulled the rear brake drums off to find linings in very good shape; cleaned everything up, adjusted the brakes and good to go. Front disc brakes were good too and while in there found why the anti-lock brake light was on - a severed wire going to the driver side sensor. Mending that put the light out.
Somewhere along the line the battery hold down got lost, autozone had a kit for that.
An under truck inspection revealed a TCI transmission (with clean fluid!) and flowmaster exhaust sans catalytic converter. My county doesn’t require inspections and at 25 years the point may be moot - it’s on the cusp of being a classic car!
A round of tail light bulbs and socket cleaning got the lighting legal; the low beams are xenon’s.
A strong round of Techron in a half filled tank fixed an intermittent miss at idle, idles smooth as silk now. Engine likes the maxlife too, it very quiet, no crazy noises.
The speedo is roughly 7% higher than actual speed according to my GPS. Most of these trucks came with 3:42 gears and if you apply that 7% difference to the diff that just about works out to a 3:73 axle ratio - that’s just me guessing though…
So now that the truck has had some of the important things squared away, how does it drive? Fantastic actually. It pulls strong through the rev range and exhibits no crazy traits at all. It holds 25 psi oil pressure at hot idle. Very pleased with this purchase.
Next up: driver door hinge repair, brake flush and finding all the stuff for the spare tire - the wind up mechanism is there but I lack a spare tire, jack and lug wrench. Lots of wrecking yards here, should be able to fix that. For now a harbor freight scissor jack , 4 way lug wrench and the spare in the bed.
So whatcha y’all think?
