Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

So, I can't leave well enough alone. I decided to ditch the 10-pin connector and order a 12-pin connector so that I have room for the three cruise control wires in the future. This allowed me to add wire labels that I forgot to do before I crimped everything. My OCD is soothed for today...

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

That's smart! I wish I had thought of that when I did mine.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

My problem is trying to remember what I did and why I did it. I have a hard time remembering what I did yesterday, much less several years back. I'm hoping this make it easier to troubleshoot down the road. I saw someone use this method a while back. I am not sure where I saw it, but I thought I'd give it a try. Works really well.

I used an old Brother P-Touch label maker with 1/4" wide tape. Then used clear heat shrink to seal them to the wire.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

I finshed up the interior wiring last night. After many changes of thought I finally got everything lined out. Wires going every which way, but I made heads and tails of it in a logical fashion. Now I'm going to button up the wiring in the engine bay for the fans, fuel pump and head lights and move on to the fuel and trans lines. I spent entirely too much time on the wiring. My anal retentiveness got the best of me. I can't seem to leave well enough alone.

I went through the PSI supplied fuse/relay panel and re-crimped everything. There were some very poor crimps in there. I also abandoned the PSI fuel pump relay and ran the wire back out to the engine bay. I am going to use a heavy duty relay to control that.

I also found these pretty truck splice crimps. A buddy uses them on cars he wires. It make a super compact splice that is extremely strong. These are 1/4" long.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Snuck out to the shop today at lunch to test fit the Dakota Retro VHX guages. I think they are perfect. Looks very much like the stock guages.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Those look sweet! I would have snuck out early too...

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

I love them. I splurged on them. Even the wife approves.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Finnally making some headway on the engine bay wiring. I integrated the hi/low headlight relays into the truck wiring. I started working on the fuel/fan1/fan2 relays but ran out of time. Once it is all wrapped in harness tape it will blend right in. I am not too worried about hiding the wires. I like mechanical things so seeing the wires for everything is fine by me as long as they are neat and orderly.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Wired up the passenger side relays last night. I was 1 terminal short. Had to order some more. Bonehead mistake. Need to sort the wires and route them to where they need to go now.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

I think I may finally have the wiring cracked, sorta... All of the the relays, fuse panel, and fuel tank connections are done. I sill have to run the supply feed for the fuse panel. I need to run the wire from my alternator and figure out how I am going to run it. After staring at it for a while last night, my gut is to put the 200 amp maxi fuse inside the frame rail next to the starter and run the alternator wire to the starter. Much cleaner installation. I'm on the home stretch. Just ran out of time last night. I'm hopeful to have the remaining wiring done this week so I can test out the relays to make sure everything functions as intended before I wrap the harness.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Well, I spent 2 hours going over all of the wiring I have done to make sure it was all correct. Finally, the moment of truth. I hooked up the battery, stood back and crossed my fingers. No smoke. Everything I have wired in seems to work as intended. I didn’t have time to really look in to the Dakota stuff other than it powered on. The trans temp was showing so the BIM module most be talking to the ecm. So that’s good. My main goal was to make sure all of the relays I wired in worked so I can wrap the harness. Mission accomplished.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Testing out the fan relays. These Entropy fans move some air!

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Congrats on the successful wire job. I know how good that feels after months of wiring. Keep it up and soon you'll be driving it!

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Thanks. It put a huge smile on my face. For such a simple wiring job, it took for-e-ver. On the downhill slide now :metal:

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

He enjoyed it so much that he volunteered to do mine :lol::lol::lol:

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

:fry:

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

I wrapped the harness up with nylon tape to clean it up. I think it turned out great. I can finally get back to finishing this thing up. I ran in to a bit of a problem with the fuel pump relay circuit. The relay was clicking on and off randomly. It was really strange. I checked my wiring all the way back to the ECM and found no problems. The ECM was commanding the relay correctly. I thought that I may be a bum ECM. I did some digging and found a thread from 2014sierraAT (Thread Link) and he was having a similar issue. I too have the Dakota Digital BIM module so I enabled boost and it started working correctly. I called Dakota and they told me to disable boost and gear indicator. So a little conflicting information, but it seems to be working now. It has a lifetime warranty so if it kicks the bucket, they will send another one. Part of hot rodding.

I'm still having a strange problem with the throttle pedal. My engine is from a Denali. It had the adjustable pedals. I switched out to a non adjustable pedal. Come to find out, the non adjustable has twice the travel of the adjustable. So I am getting 100% throttle half way through the pedal travel. There are 2 TAC module part numbers for 2003, so I am going to try the other to see if it helps.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Spent some time on the old girl this weekend. Fabbed up a dummy fuel filler for the stock filler location, bracket for the LS fuse center and mocked up an intake. I’m going to cut the intake down and 45 it down below the headlight. Slow progress, but progress is progress.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

I managed to get quite a bit done this past week. Working here and there when I could find time. I tore the stock brake booster bracket down, blasted and painted it. I am fairly confident that this was the first time it had been taken apart. What little grease was mostly sludge. The interior wiring is finally done. I mounted the ECM, Fuse/Relay center and TAC module to the floor. Re-installed all of the carpet and trim. I still need to adjust the brake light switch, but I need the booster installed to do that. I worked a little more on the cold air intake. I like it so far. I was one coupler short. I thought I could get away with a 4" straight coupler on the inlet side of the MAF, but the coupler bunched up really weird so I ordered another 3.75 to 4". I am going to paint it in the same VHT wrinkle paint as the valve covers.

I am going to order the fuel and trans lines this week. It's mostly odds and ends from here on out. So close I can taste it.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

This is great timing, as I will be doing all of this very soon. Gotta watch the videos! Thanks!

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Thanks!

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Extremely nice build with a very organized step by step. Thank you Much appreciated.
Bob

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Thank you for the kind words

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

I took the stock booster bracket apart, blasted it, painted, greased and reassembled it. Looks a whole lot better now. Also adjusted my brake light switch. It was a doubled edged sword trying to get the TCC and brake lights to work respectively with pedal travel but I think I’ve got it cracked.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Spent some quality time on the truck this weekend. Wrapped up the alternator wiring as well as the feed wire for my sub fuse panel. Also fabbed up a mounting tab to stabilize the cold air intake setup. Finished up a lot of odds and ends. My to-do list is getting shorter and shorter. I am too the point that I need to roll it over on to the list and start working on everything on the bottom of the truck. Getting closer!

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

I've been following your channel out YouTube, the builds coming along great. I'll have to steal some ideas for when I do mine.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Thanks for watching! Youtube is a great thing. I have found so many ideas from there and from this forum.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

I've been piddling with the truck all week. I took the intake home and body worked it to smooth out the imperfections from mandrel bending. I both sections. The shorter section turned out perfect. The longer section... well, it fell of the table. I had to sand it all back down. Such is life. I mounted up my coolant overflow canister, ran the supply and return fuel lines and started the trans lines. I need to mount my external trans cooler to finish the lines up. I also tidied up the alternator wire and the bulkhead wiring.

The plan is to go get a power steering pressure line made today so that can be checked off the list. My neighbor happened to have a non adjustable pedal TAC module in his stash in the basement so I am going to test that out as soon as my dang battery shows up.

That's about it. I am inching closer to getting it back on the road.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

I’ve been piddling with the truck all week. I was able to get to the hydraulic shop and have a high pressure line made. I set the engine back as far as it would go on the motor adapter plates. This worked out perfect for everything except the high pressure power steering line. No matter how many ways I tried, I could not get the stock line, new ACDelco line or the LS line to git in the space I had. I build conveyor systems and we use a lot of hydraulics on our conveyors so I got to talking to my guy and he said bring it in. This is what we came up with. I left the metric fitting in the pump, adapted to -6, right angle an over to the pump. At the pump, we were able to weld a -6 fitting on the stock hard line. I think it worked out great.

The truck is back on the ground and ready to move to the lift so I can finish up on the bottom.

Really close now!

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Put the hood back on, put it back on the ground and rolled it over to the list to finish up everything on the bottom side. To-Do list is getting shorter and shorter...

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Had some time this weekend to mount up the trans cooler. I ended up mounting it vertically due to clearance issues on the mounting brackets I fabbed up. I think it turned out nice. Finished up the trans cooler lines as well. My battery cables arrived. They are the perfect length. The negative cable was crimped with some of the wire sheathing still attached so I RMA'd it for a new one. I've never had a problem with ACDelco wires, but easy enough to swap out. I'm down to odds and ends to finish up at this point.

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Bought a used drill press yesterday and had to test it out. Added some speed holes to the transmission cooler mount.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

So I been plugging away at the remaining bits on the truck. The fuel tank in installed. The fuel and trans lines are finished. Fuel pump wiring is complete. Brake lines finished up and bleed. The hardest thing to do on this project was cutting a hole in the bed floor. It pained me to do it, but it was a necessary evil. I am going to use the plug to make a door that flips up to tidy it up a bit.

I dropped the drive shaft off at the shop today to have it shortened. All that is left is routing the battery cables, installing the drive shaft, fabbing up an exhaust and filling it with fluids.

I attached a few pictures of my cold air intake tube. I wanted to do something a little different. I have a buddy who owns a sign shop and have his cut me a logo. I put a base coat of low gloss black down, sticker and then wrinkle paint. It has a neat embossed look. It is really hard to photograph. The low gloss paint is backup if the stickers let loose from the heat in the engine bay. I can peal the stickers off.

Oh so close!!

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Well after a Hail Mary last week putting close to 80hrs into wrapping up loose ends, it RUNS!! All of the little details took forever to tidy up. I took the weekend off to try to recoup. I have been spending so much time on the truck, I was afraid I was going to get burned out.

I am going to weld up an exhaust this week so I can get it over to the alignment shop and off to the tuner for a final tune. The base tune is pretty dang close. This thing is loud with open headers.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Very cool that she is alive. You are going to love driving this truck.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

I'm so ready to take her for a drive. It's been way too long.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Congrats! Can't wait to see it on the streets!

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

We will need an HD go pro mounted in various places inside and outside. Perhaps a short walk around after you fire it up, and please make sure to get the exhaust note real clear when you get to the back end. May I also suggest you leave the camera on the ground about 2 feet away from the rear meats while you stomp on it leaving a giant white cloud and 2 black strips as you ride off into the distance... oh... and if you want to add music please select a classic rock song... I'm thinking "Born to be Wild".:burnout:

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Thanks guys! There will definitely be lots of video and burnouts to go around!

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

So I've not done a whole lot more to the truck. I ended up buying a Maganflow exhaust kit for the truck. I am going to end up modifying it quite a bit to make it fit how I like. It puts the x-pipe directly under the trans pan and the over the axle sections do not fit on a lowered truck. I am not a very good welded, so I am going to take it to a local shop to have it re-worked a little. I slammed it on with some dumps for the time being to get it aligned and tuned. I dropped it off at the alignment shop over lunch. The drive over there was really the first time it's been out in over 1.5 years. It was thrilling. It has some bugs to work out and it threw a code on the way to the shop (most likely because it is running pig rich). Anyway, it is getting there!