Larry's 1978 K10

[Sooper Camper]

This build is awesome, great stuff going on here.

That's cool you met Fred and Pewe, Fred is a really close friend of one of my best friends. He is an awesome dude, and he LOVES old fullsize trucks.

 

[Larry]

This build is awesome, great stuff going on here.

That's cool you met Fred and Pewe, Fred is a really close friend of one of my best friends. He is an awesome dude, and he LOVES old fullsize trucks.

Thanks! Yeah, Fred is a really funny guy be around. We didn’t get to spend much time with Fred as we did with Rick last year though. We pretty much spent a full day with Rick then he came back to our camp to have dinner with us and hung out for an evening.

You know, it wasn’t many years ago I was really down, as many of us were, on the 4x4 magazines (FOUR WHEELER and Peterson’s 4 Wheel& Off-Road), where I would just thumb through them and toss them in a box because the content seemed to suck. It seems all they really covered were extreme rock crawler buggys, truggies and fuggies or just outlandish 4x4’s nobody could afford to build. Seems mags were just totally sucktastic for a few years. Rick and Fred have done a great job in recent years in restoring reader interest in magazines in my opinion with a little bit of something for everybody. Fred’s writings do a great job of telling it the way it is with tasteful humor without pissing off vendors and advertisers while doing so. His Dirt Everyday series is genius. The guy has done a lot of really great creative things for Source Interlink Media in my opinion. It would be a great time to hang out with those guys more often.

 

[hidesertwheelin]

Larry,

Do you have anymore pictures of your rear winch set up? I'm looking at modifying an existing rear bumper on my burb, but I'm not sure how to add some extra support with the fuel tank in the way. Also, what has your impression of the Smittybuilt winch been? I have a Warn M12000 out front, but was considering going with the Smitty or even a Harbor Freight for the rear.

 

[Larry]

Larry,

Do you have anymore pictures of your rear winch set up? I'm looking at modifying an existing rear bumper on my burb, but I'm not sure how to add some extra support with the fuel tank in the way. Also, what has your impression of the Smittybuilt winch been? I have a Warn M12000 out front, but was considering going with the Smitty or even a Harbor Freight for the rear.

Hey hidesert,

Back on post 230 of this thread shows the only pictures I have of the rear winch set up. As mentioned in that thread, the Smittybilt winch has been perfectly sucktastic. I’ve only been able to use it once because the damn thing never works. It has gone through 3 relay packs since I’ve owned it and this last time I replaced the chittybilt relay pack with a T-Max boomer box instead. Hopefully that will cure the problems with the stupid thing. With that, no I would not recommend Smittybilt plus their customer assistance is as sucktastic as their products. Buy a real winch like a WARN or go straight to a really cheap winch like a Harbor Freight winch that you don’t mind throwing in the trash after a year. Being you already have a good reliable WARN winch on the front a cheap Harbor Freight winch on the back would just be a convenience and wouldn’t be the end of the world if it didn’t work when you needed it. Good thing I have a winch on the front to use when this stupid chittybilt doesn’t work.

 

[chilliwak]

Larry I cant remember, what exactly does your winch set up look like? Are you a fan of the receiver hitch set-ups that you can move around?:ylsmoke:

 

[Larry]

Larry I cant remember, what exactly does your winch set up look like? Are you a fan of the receiver hitch set-ups that you can move around?:ylsmoke:

Hey Chili,

look back at post 230 as those are the only pictures I have of the rear winch setup.

As far as the receiver winch mounts, yeah…..depending on the rig and personal situation they are pretty handy. I personally am not a huge fan of lugging a 100+lb winch from one end of a truck to the other while it is stuck in the quagmire but that is just me. The nice thing about those kind of winches though is the fact you can share 1 winch with all the different vehicle in your stable. A receiver mount winch would be a nice and easy way to invest in one nice quality winch to be shared between your K10 and your Tahoe. I would rather have a dedicated winch on each vehicle because I am too lazy to lug them around :costumed-smiley-007

 

[chilliwak]

Hey Larry, just wanted to know if the info on hydroboost in this thread was what you posted on page 6? As far as I can read from your info you just need the hydroboost master cylinder and the high pressure line that goes down to the power steering pump. Can you elaborate on this and give any more pics or info? Cheers, Chilli...

 

[Larry]

Hey Larry, just wanted to know if the info on hydroboost in this thread was what you posted on page 6? As far as I can read from your info you just need the hydroboost master cylinder and the high pressure line that goes down to the power steering pump. Can you elaborate on this and give any more pics or info? Cheers, Chilli...

Hey Chili,

Well, the easiest method of doing a hydroboost swap is to find a 73-91 square body donor truck at the salvage yard and scavenge as many bits and pieces as you can get. There are two pieces to the hydroboost system that are nonexistent other than salvage yards and that is the bracket that goes between the booster and firewall as well as the pushrod between the master cylinder and hydrobooster. The firewall bracket is unique to square body trucks and is not included if you buy a reman booster. There is also a round keeper in the bore of the booster that you would need as well as the nice little standoff brackets at the booster you would want to grab. The master cylinder is also different from vacuum to hydroboost but I've seen people reuse vacuum master cylinders on hydroboost. I wouldn't personally do that myself, but some people do.

The main thing to keep in mind is GM changed the hydraulic line fittings from standard to metric threads in 1980 so finding a 1979 or older truck in the salvage yard with a standard thread hydroboost unit to swap onto your truck will be near impossible. That said, you would either need to also replace the steering gear box to a later unit with metric fittings or have the hoses custom made with standard threads at the steering gear and pump and metric threads at the hydrobooster. This also means the pressure valve in the older ps pump would also need to be removed and replaced with one with metric threads if you chose to replace the steering gear with a metric piece…or just install a metric power steering pump. Against my better judgement I chose to have a custom hose made which I am sure I will regret someday if I blow a hose out on trip where I won’t be able to just walk into Napa and buy one off the shelf. I’ll have to have another made. If I ever replace the steering gear again I will go to a metric one and get off the shelf line.

I’ve also read where the brake pedal itself is different due to the pivot pin location between vacuum and hydroboost systems so keep that in mind. I did not have to worry about the brake pedal differences at the time of the hydroboost swap as I swapped in a new clutch/brake pedal box at the same time to gain hydraulic clutch for the NV4500. It just so happened the truck I robbed the pedals from was also the same truck I got the hydroboost pieces. I wish I would have studied the pedal differences when I had them next to each other so I would know exactly what is different because I would love to do hydroboost on the Polar Bear while it is down for the engine swap.

There are lots of good write ups on hydroboost swaps on coloradok5. You would be surprised the difference in braking power hydroboost makes. Hydroboost is a much more worthwhile swap over rear disks ANYDAY! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

 

[toddz69]

The main thing to keep in mind is GM changed the hydraulic line fittings from standard to metric threads in 1980 so finding a 1979 or older truck in the salvage yard with a standard thread hydroboost unit to swap onto your truck will be near impossible. That said, you would either need to also replace the steering gear box to a later unit with metric fittings or have the hoses custom made with standard threads at the steering gear and pump and metric threads at the hydrobooster. This also means the pressure valve in the older ps pump would also need to be removed and replaced with one with metric threads if you chose to replace the steering gear with a metric piece…or just install a metric power steering pump. Against my better judgement I chose to have a custom hose made which I am sure I will regret someday if I blow a hose out on trip where I won’t be able to just walk into Napa and buy one off the shelf. I’ll have to have another made. If I ever replace the steering gear again I will go to a metric one and get off the shelf line.

Another option to consider are the adapters to convert the metric o-ring fittings to standard thread fittings. They would negate the need for a custom hose and still allow you to use a later model booster.

Todd Z.

 

[Larry]

Another option to consider are the adapters to convert the metric o-ring fittings to standard thread fittings. They would negate the need for a custom hose and still allow you to use a later model booster.

Todd Z.

That is a good thought too. I looked into that and came up empty handed for a source. Know of any sources for hydraulic line adapters like that?

 

[toddz69]

That is a good thought too. I looked into that and came up empty handed for a source. Know of any sources for hydraulic line adapters like that?

There are several sources out there but I highly recommend Hydratech and their products.

Scroll down to PN HBS9106 on this page:

http://www.hydratechbraking.com/hose_fittings.html

Todd Z.

 

[Larry]

Hmm, I guess I am not following how the HBS9106 convert hydraulic line fittings from standard to metric threads or visa versa

When I was looking for some kind of adapter back in 2010 when I did my swap I couldn’t come up with anything but I may not have looked hard enough. Would be good info to have for the future though

 

[toddz69]

Hmm, I guess I am not following how the HBS9106 convert hydraulic line fittings from standard to metric threads or visa versa

When I was looking for some kind of adapter back in 2010 when I did my swap I couldn’t come up with anything but I may not have looked hard enough. Would be good info to have for the future though

Duh - my bad. Those just convert from the o-ring p/s fittings to inverted flare. Sorry about that!

Todd Z.

 

[Larry]

Duh - my bad. Those just convert from the o-ring p/s fittings to inverted flare. Sorry about that!

Todd Z.

Damit Todd! I was hoping you knew the secret for an adapter

Thanks for the link to Hydratech though. It looks like they have a lot of good stuff!

 

[toddz69]

In hopes of redeeming myself, I happened to be browsing through a CPP catalog last night and happened across these pieces:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/clp-605sol

I called CPP today and they are apparently what I thought I was looking at a few posts ago - 16mm and 18mm metric o-ring to SAE inverted thread adapters. Hopefully they'll be of use to someone.

Todd Z.