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83 K20 “Grandpa Gert”

7K views 39 replies 12 participants last post by  HERD173d 
#1 ·
Picked up this pile in October for $2000 and drove it an hour home with no tail lights, plates and a leaking valve cover. after nothing more than a short test drive, about smoked out my old lady as she followed me down the interstate. Got the truck to use as a daily driver/toy since I’m now letting my girlfriend drive my nice truck around. I’m a Drill Sergeant at Fort Jackson so my time is limited, doesn’t help that I work out of a 1 car garage in an apartment complex but I make do.
Started with the basics, changed all the fluids, fixed the leaky valve cover and a few other odds and ends tune up stuff. Truck has a 350 with 104000 miles on the clock, turbo 400, np208, 14b sf and 10 bolt with 4:10’s. Runs surprisingly good.




Slapped a cheap RC lift on it and OrD shackles flip in the rear. Drove around looking like a roller skate for awhile.

Picked up a Set of 39.5 13.5 15 Iroks mounted for a decent price but didn’t want to put them on till I switch axles. I did throw them on for the hell of it 1 day.

Started searching for a 14bolt and a 60.

Came across a 14b ff for $250, so I snagged it up and managed to grab a set of SBC headers off the guy for $20 also. Tore the 14bolt down and cleaned it up. All new bearings seals disk brake conversion and pinion guard. IMG]https:https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180704/027c21860cbf512e37d75aed3945e7a2.jpg[/IMG]





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#2 ·
Got the axle put under the truck and continued to drive it and search for a 60. Finally came across a 60 for a decent price only problem was its 456 gears. Decided to just go for it and re gear and Detroit the rear later on. Tore the 60 apart, put a spartan locker in it, rebuilt the king pins, new wheel bearings, 3/4 ton brake conversion. Didn’t have the money for new stubs and U joints so I’m waiting on that. Wanted to get it together because the junk 10 bolt had 2 thrashed ball joints and a set of spindle nuts that liked to come loose. Didn’t help that the auto hubs wouldn’t work.


Had to clearance a tooth just slightly for the cross shaft






The calipers with new pads and rotors barely fit over since the ruff stuff brackets are so much thicker than the factory stuff. I basically had to pound them on and I only drove it a few miles at a time to wear the pads down since I was afraid it would catch on fire.

I finally got fed up with the camper special springs in the rear so a buddy of mine came over and we took 2 leafs out of each pack which made a world of difference. My back doesn’t hate me as much now.

I got fed up with the factory trans pan leaking so I ordered up a cast aluminum pan to remedy that. Decided pounding a screw driver through the factory pan was the easiest method to drain the fluid and stay semi clean.


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#4 ·
Put the Iroks on after the 60 swap only for the truck to death wobble like crazy. Front end has all new steering and kingpins so I’m thinking the tires are the issue. Managed to sell the 10 bolt for $200 and found a set of 35” Toyo’s with decent tread for $300 so I snagged those up to replace the mid matched and dry rotted tires the truck came with. Got them mounted up just in time to go back to work.

Ordered a Detroit and a set of 456’s for the rear end and figured I’d give changing gears a try. Slapped them in on a random off day I had. Ended up being a pretty easy ordeal and I hardly notice the locker on the street.

Plans for the near future are, crossover, hydro steer, weld the frame by the steering box (I already put an ORD brace on the truck) Barnes 4wd 14 bolt diff cover(figure I might as well since I have to change the fluid anyways at 500miles) weld the rear axle tubes and put a truss on it(random drunkin purchase) money’s tight at the moment so things are moving a little slow and it’s the summer surge so yelling at this snowflake generation of kids trying to join the Army consumes most of my time.


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#6 ·
Pulled the rear cover after 500 miles to change the oil and check the gears. Not a lot of metal on the magnet and the wear pattern looked good from what I can tell. The drive side had nice tooth engagement all across and I’m not getting any gear wine. Went ahead and threw on a Barnes4wd 13 bolt cover while I was at it. Still have to cut and shave the lip since I didn’t have time that day. Our next cycle of America’s finest starts Monday so not much else will be happening for now. Gonna start piecing together everything to do crossover and hydro assist on the next break I get.


Got bored so decided to paint the grill black and some buddy’s at worked helped me rattle can the bed white during lunch at work one day.

Trying to do any real work in the apartment complex is kinda tough luckily I only have a year left till I go somewhere else and can get some real space to work on this pig.


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#8 ·
Solid work, and fast. Summers around here are brutal, so it takes a special dedication to keep moving like you are, especially with the long days you go through at work.

Wondering if you kept the 3/4 ton centercaps? The K30 3+3 I bought off GSA auctions had them in the photos, but they were gone by the time I picked it up. I've been looking for a nice set to replace them, but they're really hard to find in the 3/4 ton and 1-ton size with the 4WD cutouts on the front pair. I'd love to take them off your hands if you've still got them.
 
#10 ·
Added some relays for the headlights. Pulled power from the block on the firewall with 2 inline 30 amp fuzes and mounted the relays on the inner fender. They seem brighter, once it gets dark later tonight I’m going to see how much of a difference it makes. Would have done some more stuff today but it’s my only day off and this heat is brutal.


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#13 ·
Nothing really big to update. Changed out the U joints in the rear driveshaft. For some reason the lugs on the yoke on my 14 bolt seem to be slightly wider than the caps on my u joint. Used a standard spicer 1350 joint and there’s about a 1/16 of an inch gap between the lug and the cap when I push the caps tight onto the cross. Any one ran into this before? I just pushed the caps tight and positioned it where it looked centered and tightened the straps. Took it out and did a little exploring with the old lady and my son. Nothing real crazy, just some mild trails and back roads. Truck ran great for over 2 hours which is the longest I’ve drove it continuously. Ran at 180 degrees the entire time even with it being the dead of summer in SC.



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#17 ·
Finally got fed up with the factory filler neck leaking everytime I fill up the truck. Was wanting to ditch the saddle tank anyways so I can make a set of sliders in the near future so I picked up a fuel cell from summit and got it put in today. I have the sump towards the rear. I’m interested to see if I end up with a fuel starvation problem when it gets low on fuel. Time will tell. If anything I’ll carry and extra Jerry can or 2. Also welded some tabs on for a make shift spare mount.



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#18 ·
Took the truck out for a little exploring with the old lady and my son. Found out my front driveshaft it rubbing the crossmember when the truck gets twisted up. Didn’t do anything to crazy just some mild trail riding. Did play around in a few spots but didn’t want to end up stuck or broke with the old lady and kid with me. Definitely need some people to go with so I can actually give this thing a proper shake down. My buddy has his eye on an old cucv so that could make for some fun times. Had to get the mandatory poser shot.


For some reason when I put the truck in low I can here the planetary in the transfer case whining real bad. I’m hoping it’s just low on fluid. I’ll probably check that out tomorrow. I’m assuming the top bolt is the fill level, I’ve done a little searching and have found mixed feed back on the amount of fluid the 208 takes. I’ve read everything from 3-5 quarts. Anybody have some input on this?


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#21 · (Edited)
Cool build. Any idea how much lift you're running? If you mentioned it, I missed it. I have a rough example of an M1028 that I'm thinking about lifting so it does a little better on the local trails... Your ride height looks about right for what I want.
 
#22 ·
It has 4 on it. With the fenders trimmed I could fit a lot more tire. Christmas and PCSing in July are kinda putting a damper on things at the moment so the truck just gets driven mostly. Have had it out scouting some hunting spots but nothing crazy. I’m hoping to get into a house with some decent garage space once I move so I can really start chopping things up. Apartment people don’t really like the sound of power tools at all hours of the day and my little space I do have sucks to tackle any real big jobs


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#23 ·
Well the whole fuel cell idea worked great till the cap decided to let water in the tank. Put a fuel pump in the truck on a Sunday when I had hardly anytime thinking that was the problem. I lost a good bit of gas because the truck was sitting nose down hill and it just kept gushing. I’m thinking it flushed out most of the water. Truck ran decent for another week or so then quit again after a hard rain. At this point I hadn’t figured out the water problem. Got to digging into it and had fuel going to the carb and spark. Dumped a little gas down the carb and it tried to fire off so figured it was the carb. Rebuilt the Qjet just for it to still not run (the jets were clogged almost shut). At this point I was more than aggravated and decided to call it quits. The following morning figured I’d go out on a limb and drain the tank and put fresh gas in. Sure as shit, out with the old and some fresh 93 octane and she fired right up. Talk about aggravating. Just got orders to Bragg so by the end of the year I should be more than set up to chop it up and get serious.


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#24 ·
Kept hearing a slight sort of popping sound whenever I turned at a stop which sounded like the frame was flexing, got to investigating and found a big crack in the front core support mount/spring hanger. I ordered up some poly cab mounts and replaced them along with welding up the crack. The noise mellowed out but you could still here something flexing. Got looking around and found the culprit, the engine crossmember was cracked pretty good on the passenger side by the fuel pump.



Decided to pick up the ORD BBC crossmember since it gives me options down the road, it was the same price and I’m not stuck with a sbc. Had to chop the old crossmember in half to get it out.





It was a pretty straight forward install. Getting everything to line up was somewhat of an ass pain and a second set of hands would have made tightening all the bolts a hell of a lot easier.


Going to try my hand at tearing apart a 2wd Saginaw box and rebuilding it. Doesn’t seem to difficult. I plan on drilling and tapping it for Hydro Assist and just leaving the ports capped till I have the money for the ram, ect. I understand you tap into the bottom vein for pressure in one direction, and to tap in line with the casting marks on the side of the case for the other direction. Only thing I’m slightly confused about is how far forward down the casting mark do I drill if that makes sense.


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