Greetings,
I’m new to here. I am a recent owner of a 1972 K5 Blazer and see that this forum is a good resource.
This is a project rig. It was my father-in-law’s truck, which he bought brand new. He has generally kept everything original and kept everything that came with the truck. I have the original owners manual (with protect-o-plate), rear spare tire holder, rear seat, original purchase agreement and service manual that he gave me with the truck.
It’s a manual 4x4, (originally Medium Red now faded to) orange, black interior, 350 ci V8. The truck is awesome. I have always shared with him that if he ever decided to sell it, to talk to me first. I took delivery of the rig on June 29th and have been cleaning and polishing the surfaces to make it a bit more presentable since then.
The truck was only washed (more sprayed down) once a year and never waxed. It served as a daily driver for a good portion of its life until it migrated to only being used for camping and hunting trips. A few years back it was covered with a tarp and put on the side of the house. It appears to be very mechanically sound, it starts first try every time and while the interior and exterior have had hard years, most everything seems to be in working order.
I drove it a bit over 250 miles from his place to ours and the drive was fine. Two things I noticed during the drive: It has a lot of play in the steering and the driver side hub is stuck in the locked position. I’m going to dig into the hub to see if I can diagnose and correct the issue. This fall, I would like to convert it to Power Steering and at that time hopefully also fix the play in the steering. I checked out the steering this last weekend. I noticed that the steering wheel and steering shaft move (in sync with one another) about 2.5 inches from top/center of steering wheel to left and 2.5 inches from top/center of steering wheel to right (5 inches total) without anything else moving. My dad used to have a 1970 Ford 4x4 with manual steering, it did not have this much play. This bothers me and I want to eliminate or greatly reduce it.
Because I was planning on converting it to power steering I figured that, when I replace the steering box that would address that component. The Tie rod ends look tight although I’m not sure how to determine if the gaskets are worn out (after 40 years, seems like a good idea to replace them). At the same time I am messing with the steering, I thought I would replace the steering column to a tilt type and change the steering wheel to a smaller diameter one. I’m guessing the smaller steering wheel will also make the play seem less noticeable. I have basic mechanic skills and consider myself handy and while I have long term plans to do more extensive work on the truck these are the two tasks at hand. I have done a bit of searching online and this forum but do you have suggestions or comments to help? I believe I'm going to purchase parts from LMC or Classic Industries. Will be making purchase of parts/materials during this month and will try to tackle power steering conversion in October.
Thanks - PDXBlazer
These photos are from when I took delivery of the rig - after a quick wash. I have since spent time on polishing and cleaning/degreasing and it looks much better - will post updates as I go.
IMG_7577 by
Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr
IMG_7578 by
Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr
IMG_7576 by
Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr
IMG_7579 by
Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr
IMG_7585 by
Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr
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Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr
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Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr
IMG_7586 by
Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr
IMG_7588 by
Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr
IMG_7589 by
Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr