Atl-atl
Adventurer
Thanks for the info, I drove it for about 2 hours today, around town and highway driving and its holding up so Im happy with the fix.
Guess who's back!?! Atl-atl's K5 Blazer + Four Wheel Camper "The Crawlin Cabin" documentation thread!
- Thread starter Atl-atl
- Start date
Thanks for the info, I drove it for about 2 hours today, around town and highway driving and its holding up so Im happy with the fix.
Atl-atl
Adventurer
Well I really got to work today. Finished installing the house battery. Its still going through the original relay so we'll see how long that lasts but for now everything works, camper has power, nothing shows any signs of issues; truck still starts, runs and drives. Hopefully it starts tomorrow because Im planning to go camping. I should probably just order a Blue Sea Add-a-battery. I adjusted and tightened the muffler and tailpipe that had rotated to a point it was in contact with the rear driver side shackle hanger, redid a few more wires, cleaned a TON of stuff under the hood, fixed a vacuum leak, deleted the cruise control (which I was wrong about in my original post, it was not working) including the second worm drive cable-thing, deleted wiring for the CB (the red wire that was running over the radiator support,) deleted the mounting brackets for the factory bottle jack, scraped a metric ton of decades-old caked on dirt; cleaned, sanded and repainted the core support and radiator support, cleaned and conditioned the fan shroud and a bunch of rubber hoses, relocated the wiring harness that was running on top of the radiator to underneath the radiator support. Thats all I can remember right now...on to the pictures!
Oh yeah, I also removed the driver side battery tray, folded one lip flat to create room for the Group 75, 90 amp hour, AGM Duracell house battery, sanded and repainted it.
All the gunk you see is gone but I didnt take an after pic.
The dirty looking area under the old sticker is actually rusty/corroded and thats as good as it would clean up.
Does anyone know what this vacuum ball is/does? The line going into the bottom had fallen off and was causing a big vacuum leak. Idle smoothed out significantly once that was back in place but it still has a tiny rubber line coming off the bottom that is also under vacuum. Its incredibly brittle, simply touching it caused a chunk to break off. There is another equally tiny line on the other side of the HVAC box that maybe it was connected to?
Tomorrow I have a huge shipment of stuff showing up from LMC Truck but Im also supposed to go camping. Youll be the first to know what I choose hahaha.
Oh yeah, I also removed the driver side battery tray, folded one lip flat to create room for the Group 75, 90 amp hour, AGM Duracell house battery, sanded and repainted it.
All the gunk you see is gone but I didnt take an after pic.
The dirty looking area under the old sticker is actually rusty/corroded and thats as good as it would clean up.
Does anyone know what this vacuum ball is/does? The line going into the bottom had fallen off and was causing a big vacuum leak. Idle smoothed out significantly once that was back in place but it still has a tiny rubber line coming off the bottom that is also under vacuum. Its incredibly brittle, simply touching it caused a chunk to break off. There is another equally tiny line on the other side of the HVAC box that maybe it was connected to?
Tomorrow I have a huge shipment of stuff showing up from LMC Truck but Im also supposed to go camping. Youll be the first to know what I choose hahaha.
nitro_rat
Lunchbox Lockers
That ball is a vacuum reserve canister. The ac controls, cruise control, power brakes all need vacuum to work properly. It wouldn't be convenient if, say, you nailed it to pass someone and you blend door suddenly went from dash to defrost! Or you were pulling a hill in cruise, the transmission down shifted, secondaries opened, vacuum dropped and suddenly the cruise decelerated because there wasn't enough vacuum to hold the throttle open...
Atl-atl
Adventurer
That makes sense, thanks, vacuum reservoir totally slipped my mind. Time to search for a vacuum line diagram to figure out where the broken lines were supposed to go.
Buddha.
Finally in expo white.
Looks good.Well I spent an entire 8 hours today cleaning up a literal rats nest. My front right turn signal wasnt working even after a new bulb so I pulled the housing out to find this...
A rat had chewed through the wires and there was a nest underneath the battery tray. There were chunks of wood, twigs, thorns, lots of actual ****, fur, dirt, you name it.
After cleaning it up this is what it looked like. I had noticed a damp spot in this area under the coolant overflow. Now Im curious if there is a leak or the nest was holding onto moisture. Obviously the nest was there for a long time because it rotted through the sheet metal which sucks but I guess its not that big of a deal since its not noticeable when everything is put back in place.
These two chunks of wood were inside the fender
Nothing a little solder and shrink wrap cant fix!
Then I went to town on the rest of the wiring, mostly the battery terminals. I had planned to get a little more wiring done but the rats nest delayed my plans. I did manage to replace a few chassis grounds, replace some random ring terminals, degrease and clean the crap out of the terminal ends, battery tray, cables and some other misc. items in the area. The amount of sticky gunk on the terminals was something Ive never seen before. I wonder if it was actually used to keep them from corroding because there isnt any real corrosion, just a lot of gunk. I used some citrus degreaser from my bicycle tool box and it worked like a charm.
The after picture of these terminals is ridiculous. Things were so incredibly dirty. Even if it didnt change how anything works with the electrical system, Im happy because of how much nicer it looks. The white wire you can see is the positive wire going to the relay to charges the house battery for the camper which lives on the other side of the radiator. The small red wire goes across the radiator and then back through the firewall, I have not traced it yet but its definitely not factory, obviously.
My turn signal is now lit up but its constantly on the bright half of the dual filament bulb. I think I crossed two wires. Does anyone have a wiring diagram so I can figure out which ones I crossed. There are three wires going into the bulb; black, brown and blue.
On my ‘84 plow truck the charge wire coming off the alt was a wimpy ten gauge that went to the other side of the engine bay before coming back to the battery. I took some 2 gauge and went right from the alt to the battery. It helps keep the battery charged when using the power hungry snow plow, I think. Maybe I did it for nothing but the stock setup didn’t seem optimal.
Atl-atl
Adventurer
There is a tiny line that comes off the bottom of the reservoir, there is an equally tiny line on the other side of the condenser box. They are both just broken off. My guess is, since they are unusual and similar, they are simply supposed to be connected but I cant find a vacuum diagram accurate enough to tell me.
When the main vacuum line is connected to the bottom of the reservoir, this small line has a little bit of vacuum.
This is the other side, it goes through a factory firewall plug but its high enough that I cant see where it goes behind the dash.
Atl-atl
Adventurer
Kind of, guy I bought it from said it was working and didnt even need a charge, it seems to need a charge though. It blows cool-ish air but definitely not cold enough for Phoenix summer. Currently only works on fan settings 1 and 4. The sensor on top of the condenser box has been replaced and when its plugged it, it runs constantly when the ignition is on.
locrwln
Expedition Leader
![49779519911_48c7e6fbf0_c.jpg[IMG]](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49779519911_48c7e6fbf0_c.jpg[IMG])
Atl-atl
Adventurer
I woke up this morning and it was unseasonably cool and cloudy. I decided it was a day for yardwork and then truck work. I went to town once again cleaning everything up against the firewall, which I hadnt touched so far. Things were going well, the sun came out and it warmed up. I went for a quick dip in the pool to cool off and went back to work. I repaired the tiny vacuum line from my previous post and decided to start the truck to check for more vacuum leaks. After about 5 minutes all vacuum leaks seemed to be gone. I was just about to turn on the AC to see if its functionality changed since repairing that weird line and I notice a weird sound. Yep, radiator sprung a leak. ?♂️
I had a new radiator/hoses/heater hoses on my to-do list but not yet. That changed. Ran to Napa, got all new stuff. Got home and my girlfriend texts me to say she crashed her bicycle, fractured her mandible and broke her right thumb. Shes a musician so thats incredibly crappy. About 3 minutes after that I realize Napa gave me the wrong radiator. Then I get an update from Fedex and my LMC order isnt arriving until tomorrow now. Pretty much everything went bad today. ?♂️
To add to the list of
there is literally everywhere under the hood of this truck. Covering the entire intake manifold, in the 2mm of space under the heater hoses where they go into the firewall! HOW!?!
I removed the air cleaner, vacuumed all the rat poop and scraped a bunch of gunk from the top of the intake manifold. Its blue! Hahaha theres color under there. So are the valve covers. Thats definitely a cleaning job for another day though.
I had a new radiator/hoses/heater hoses on my to-do list but not yet. That changed. Ran to Napa, got all new stuff. Got home and my girlfriend texts me to say she crashed her bicycle, fractured her mandible and broke her right thumb. Shes a musician so thats incredibly crappy. About 3 minutes after that I realize Napa gave me the wrong radiator. Then I get an update from Fedex and my LMC order isnt arriving until tomorrow now. Pretty much everything went bad today. ?♂️
To add to the list of
there is literally everywhere under the hood of this truck. Covering the entire intake manifold, in the 2mm of space under the heater hoses where they go into the firewall! HOW!?!
I removed the air cleaner, vacuumed all the rat poop and scraped a bunch of gunk from the top of the intake manifold. Its blue! Hahaha theres color under there. So are the valve covers. Thats definitely a cleaning job for another day though.
Atl-atl
Adventurer
Went back to Napa when they opened this morning at 9 and picked up a bigger radiator. My truck had the ~20" tall radiator so I swapped the 17" I got yesterday for a 20 7/8" tall one that is supposed to be for the big block trucks. Its the Napa Spectre NR730. All the fittings lined up and the width is the same so I figured Id give it a shot. Fits perfectly and its BEEF!!! Nearly 3 times the thickness of the stock radiator. 3 core, everything lined up exactly. Only modification I had to make was cutting a small chunk out of the upper rubber mounts due to the increased depth. Otherwise it went right in and is working great. Heat and AC work and all seems well after a drive around town and on the highway. This puppy is all set for AZ summer. I do need to recharge the AC I think, it bounces between blowing cold air and warm air as you cruise down the road. Anybody know if that means something specific about the system?
Theres the missing vacuum routing diagram. Big block intake on this truck is interesting.
Yeah she thicc too.
At the top of the picture you can see the chunk I cut out of the upper rubber mounts.
All new everything makes me quite happy.
Theres the missing vacuum routing diagram. Big block intake on this truck is interesting.
Yeah she thicc too.
At the top of the picture you can see the chunk I cut out of the upper rubber mounts.
All new everything makes me quite happy.
nitro_rat
Lunchbox Lockers
And for a little more bad news...
That fan shroud isn't correct either. You need a thinner "big block" shroud. The fan should be about 1/2 in and 1/2 out of the shroud. You may develop a cooling problem on a hot day with the fan "buried" in the shroud like that.
You could cut it on the red line until you get the right one...
Repops are available. Just remember, anything that LMC sells that you can get somewhere else is usually cheaper somewhere else! The diagrams are useful for reference though!
That fan shroud isn't correct either. You need a thinner "big block" shroud. The fan should be about 1/2 in and 1/2 out of the shroud. You may develop a cooling problem on a hot day with the fan "buried" in the shroud like that.
You could cut it on the red line until you get the right one...
Repops are available. Just remember, anything that LMC sells that you can get somewhere else is usually cheaper somewhere else! The diagrams are useful for reference though!