1986 GMC S-15

Hey, I knew you from S10 Forum! I'm glad you came over here and you're building the GMC! I'll keep an eye on this build and I hope you've been doing well.
 

chilliwak

Expedition Leader
Great pics and a good score from the wrecker Andrew. That should be nice to have installed in your truck. Cheers, Chilli...:cool:
 

Andrew_S

Observer
Sorry for the hiatus on this thread. Bit of an update for you gentlemen,

I actually sold that lift the week after I bought it. After a fair bit of thought I think I may just go the route of Dana 44's and SAS the front one day. Until then truck is more then capable enough for us at the moment and when it gets stuck I've got the winch to yank it through.

So a fair bit has happened in the last couple months...

I chipped away at some nice to do things, New door seals were first on the list. This really improved the road noise or lack thereof.
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I found a mint fender at the junkyard and then knocked it over on onto a wheel hub the next day and basically destroyed it... Dented to hell. I returned it to the junkyard shortly after. Soooooo disappointed in my clumsiness.
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Did a ton of ice fishing, got into some really nice brookies this day.
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Bought a spool gun so I can start welding aluminum and get started on something I've been wanting to do for a while. More on that later.
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Here are ton more ice fishing/exploring pics,
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This reservoir is a 30 min walk from our front door,
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Andrew_S

Observer
a few sculpin in the live well, not much else this day
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got out skate skiing a few times,
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We put more then a few miles on the sled this season
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After the door seals it was pretty evident the window seals needed to be done. Conveniently at the same time the passenger window guides broke so those were done as well. What a pain in the ass.
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The return spring on the drivers door also broke while working on it so at-least I was able to kill a few birds in one little job.
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New guides and door seals made such a huge difference in ride quality. The windows aren't just bouncing around on the back roads now and we can actually have a pleasant conversation as we drive.
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Andrew_S

Observer
Took a little bit of initiative and replaced some old parts on the cooling system. New clutch fan, thermostat and some other misc things.
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Next up was a new fuel pump, the old one still worked but it was starting to howl pretty good and I was getting a bad hesitation on acceleration from a stop.
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Bed up and out of the way,
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old
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New pump & strainer. Only hiccup I had was whoever assembled the harness reversed the wires and it was pumping backwards. I pulled it back out and switched them and now it's perfect. Dead quiet pump and no more hesitation.
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All back together and first wash of the season
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Some more ice fishing pics
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Great afternoon of rainbows
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tried making a sacrifice to mother nature for some better fishing luck, pretty cool experience
IMG_0960 by Andrew Schwerdt, on Flickr
This girl checking us out one evening
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Andrew_S

Observer
We checked out the annual snow drags this year, great event
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quick vid -

IMG_0980 by Andrew Schwerdt, on Flickr

Great looking square body
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Tailgate over nicole's heads lol
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I finally found a new grill to replace the old broken one.
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Still lots of snow in the hills.
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Andrew_S

Observer
The truck started getting terrible fuel economy all of a sudden. It took me a few mins to figure it out but one of the rear e brake cables seized and I finally needed to address the rear brakes which I had been dreading for a long time.
Well there's your problem...
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I scored a brand new set of brakes shoes with all the springs and hardware for $7 from the junkyard.
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New drums as well
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Replaced both e-brake cables as well.
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The crappy part was I had to replace bother rear brake lines, the flex line going up and cut off a 16" section of the main front to back frame line and couple onto it. This was twice the job I was hoping for. It's all new now though.
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All said and done I was into it for roughly $140 and a few hours of my time. The truck has way more pep now that rear brakes aren't dragging anymore and it also stops so much better.
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Getting near the end of the ice fishing season and almost caught up on updates.
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Surface ice is melting during the day and then refreezing 3-4" thick over night. Still a good 3'+ of total ice in this pic.
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Andrew_S

Observer
The local junkyard was having a 50% off sale and I decided to grab another engine on a whim?

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This is the same 3.4 block but I pulled the heads, upper and lower intake and fuel injection stuff a newer gen 3 motor. The heads flow almost twice as much air and going full fuel injected would be pretty cool too.
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After a quick pressure wash.
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The internals of the 3.4 were in such great shape. Hone still visible on the block and the crank was mint.
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I don't really have a plan or a timeline at the moment. It was just a spur of the moment I'm not doing anything and this was a smoking deal.
I got the 3.4 lower end and 3400 top end for $106... Honestly this is just something to tinker with and build up and figure out really. Will probably throw it in the '86 eventually but for now the current 3.4 is running great. Pretty tough sell on the wife though, "yeah ummmm it's just a spare engine??"

Lastly I finally finished my canoe cart.

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Effortless to pull, great clearance and folds down to the smallest little package.
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chilliwak

Expedition Leader
I look forward to seeing pics of what you are up to Andrew. Dont let us keep waiting. Cheers, Chilli...?
 

Copperhead14

Observer
Andrew, I will send you my #. You can just text me the pics so I can live vicariously through your adventures.
 
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Andrew_S

Observer
oh shoot I switched over to google photos but I'll have to check my sharing settings,

* edit well I just learned google photos doesn't support image embedding... Here I was thinking this would be a reliable image hosting source but no dice.
I've cycled from photobucket, then to flickr thinking I would never have an issue there. Now to google but to no avail. Will figure something else out shortly. Hesitant to go with imgur as I'm sure they will fall into the same fate as photobucket and flickr.
 
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