1995 K1500 Cheyenne ECSB

[familytruckster]

Hello all. New member here. As the title says my rig is a 95 Chevy K1500 Cheyenne extended cab short bed with 208,000 on the odometer. The engine is a 5.7 and was rebuilt prior to my purchasing the truck. The tranny is a 4l60E and also has been rebuilt. The truck runs well but was obviously a hard working farm truck in its previous life. We removed the interior and found seed corn and lots of straw lol.

This truck will not be run overly hard. Some mild off-roading will be in its cards but nothing radical or crazy. We will be using it to go camping and geocaching. We will be using a tent to begin with until I find a pop-up camper I like. I also plan on getting a side-by-side and will haul it around as well.

Here are a few things I know I must do before any long trips:
The transfer case is leaking and needs a new seal
I need to replace the tie rod ends, ball joints, idler arm, idler arm bracket, and pitman arm. The front end isn't real bad, banging or, vibrating but does need the aforementioned parts replaced.
New shocks
Change the antifreeze and flush the cooling system
Change the gear oils.
The rear sliding window has a seal jacked up and is leaking. I will include a pic of the leak and would appreciate suggestions on repairing.

Here is what I have done, or am in the process of doing:
New tires. These are just Goodyear Wranglers from wally world and are the stock size
I have pulled the floor interior out. I purchased a new vinyl floor and it will be here tomorrow.
I bought two bucket seats out of a 1995 blazer I am going to put in the truck. The 60/40 seat, specifically the 60 portion, is in bad shape. I like buckets and wanted a console so that leads us to
A center console that was pulled from the same 95 blazer as the seats. I would love to read some ideas on putting this in the truck.

Soon:
New stereo
New speakers
Replace door panels
Fix any odds and ends that I find

This winter:
A new engine. The current engine is a dog. My plan as of now, subject to change, a 355 short block, bigger cam but nothing radical, Vortec heads, Edelbrock intake, 454 tbi, a Jet 6 Pack chip.
New paint
I have some factory alloy wheels I am going to get powder coated

I have yet to decide what adventure mods I will be doing. Mostly we will be geocaching and camping. Trips west will be in the cards for the summer of 2018. By the summer of 2018 I will have some excursions under my belt with the truck and camper and will have an idea of what mods I need to do.

Here is the truck as she sits. It is dirty right now and it is in need of a good wash and wax.


The truck was nasty inside but we are working on this.


Yep. Farm truck.


The only spot of the floor with damage. This channel was full of mud so it is no wonder the floor started rusting.


Any ideas how to fix this window? The orange arrows if I can call them that point to the seals that have come out.


Thanks for looking and I look forward to learning and reading about others adventures.

 

[aardvarcus]

Truck looks good!

I suggest you add to your PM list to gently clean out the radiator and A/C condenser, and if the fins of either are messed up replace it. I had a 1991 K2500LD with the 4L60 and 5.7L, both went out after I bought it and had to be rebuilt, didn't know at the time but later realized someone had pressure washed the front of the truck and messed up the A/C condenser fins, blocking just enough airflow to make things run hot and slowly fail over time, but not enough to blatantly "overheat". Pulled the non-functioning A/C out of the truck and the problem stopped, expensive lesson.

 

[Watt maker]

I had a 1992 ext. cab short bed Z71 that I really liked. Mine had the 5.7 and light duty 5-speed. I owned it for about 10 years and drove it a lot of places also worked on it and it went through different build stages. Some things I would look at if buying another truck like that are:

I would keep an eye on the fan belt tensioner. Mine locked up tight and eventually caused the alternator, water pump, AC compressor, and PS pump bearings to fail. Fortunately, not all at the same time but none of them failed at a convenient time or place.

I would also recommend inspecting the fins on the AC condenser and radiator. Also with the radiator, I would try to swap to metal tank ends. The plastic ones get old, brittle and don't like rough roads at that point.

The TBI 5.7 is a pretty good, simple engine but I do agree they're not very powerful. Having said that, I towed a lot with mine and it actually seemed to tow better than my 5.3 with the 4L60. I went down the same rabbit hole and did the vortec heads, cam and 454 TB which did make a pretty big difference but it just seemed the tuning was always just a little off. At one point I had even installed a Procharger supercharger on it which really woke it up but mpg was absolutely terrible and I had issues with the SC itself and eventually blew that engine. My guess is that it went lean for a second and detonated. I ended up freshening up the original engine and running that.

Getting back on topic, if I were to do it over, I would swap in a 6.0 or 6.2 LS and be done with it. If you're dead set on keeping the TBI motor, I would pick up some extra distributor ignition modules. Carry them with you and familiarize yourself on how to change them out. Those left me walking a couple times. The fuel pump is another item that can bite you but it's not always easy to carry an extra one or change on the road. If you do find your truck in need of a new fuel pump, go for the AC delco replacement.

Some extra power and mpg can be gained by going to electric fans but I would recommend also swapping in a higher output alternator and heavier wiring as those fans pull some serious power.

The 4L60 has some known weak areas so depending on how much you increase the engine output, the trans may have issues. I would look for a 2006-07 vortec max pickup and get the 6.0 and 4L65 or 70 out of that to swap in.

Your truck probably has the NP 241 t-case which is pretty good and is probably the one component that I never had any issues with. An upgrade would be to swap in the 241HD that came in some late 90's Ram 3/4 and 1-ton trucks. Speaking of 4x4, the actuator on the front diff gave me some grief over the years but I eventually swapped it out with a Posi-lock manual cable actuator. This also gave me the ability to have 2wd low range which was a blessing when backing heavy trailers.

Depending on how often and how rough you take them off-road, the front end components do wear out somewhat fast. Buy good name brand replacement parts and you should be ok for a while. I would also closely inspect the front wheel bearings while you're in there. They are a non-serviceable design and do eventually wearout especially with oversized tires/wheels.

I'm not sure which rear axle you have but if it's the 10 bolt, I would start looking for a 14-bolt semi-floating rear axle that also came on these trucks. The 10 bolt rear, especially when paired with the G80 locker, is a time bomb waiting to happen. I went through two before I learned my lesson.

The front diff and CV's aren't known to be the strongest either but I never had any problems with mine. I did have a friend crack the front diff case while crawling on some very rocky terrain though.

Next, the wiper motor circuit board eventually wears out causing the wipers to intermittently stop working or not work at all but it's an easy change out for a new circuit board. The headlight switch was also another thing that eventually goes out, especially with high output headlights but is easy to change out.

All in all, these are good trucks, probably the best in that era, but they do have their quirks and issues. They are simple to work on and are pretty reliable for the most part. They are also easy to break into and steal so I would also recommend getting an alarm or theft deterrent device(s), mine was broken into twice. I had mine from 50k to 200k and drove it everywhere. I finally sold it in 2009 when the gas prices jumped up and I just really didn't drive it anymore due to the fact that I had lifted it high and it was a pain to put a kiddy seat into. I do miss that truck and wish I could find another one as clean as that one was.