LT1 powered stepper

[1981Stepside]

A few small victories today - reattached my rear view mirror and the temp and compass work like a charm!

I also pulled my instrument cluster for a couple of things - first, I painted the inside frame white to increase the lighting


and added some new bulbs

I mixed and matched some gauges to make up this instrument cluster, and I noticed that some of the needles were faded and didn't match, so I figured that it was a good enough time to do somthing about it. Here's a comparison:

The speedo was the most vibrant of the oranges. I went to the local hobby store and used that to match the closest orange I could find.

[1981Stepside]

This is what I came up with as the closest match:

Here's a comparison of the painted (right) and the old faded needle (left)

I also had been meaning to add a check engine light for some time - I found one out of the clusters used to put together what I have now:

All put back together:

For the check engine light I had to run a separate power lead and the ground was provided on the LT1 harness via the PCM. I soldered two leads on the orignal peanut bulb holder and connected them to the power and ground separate from the cluster. Tested and it's all good!


Now I just have to wait until it's dark to see if painting everything white did any good.

[Skunksmash]

Yeah painting those needles can be a bit of a pain. They're so old and brittle that they're easy to snap.

[1981Stepside]

Yay! Christmas came a little early this year:

I signed my wife's name to the card and I was okay with that. She called me an idiot. She's probably right.

It's a 3-4 drop spindle/shackle kit that I can't wait to bolt up to the truck. Here's how high she sits now:


I bought the kit for the 1 1/4" rotors as I'm going to upgrade to the HD rotors. I was going to wait until I saw the condition of everything behind the wheels before I started buying parts. Boy was I shocked!

Look at that balljoint! - You can't see it under the layer of grease, but it's RIVETED to the control arm! If I'm not mistaken, that means that it's the original factory unit. From 31 friggin' years ago! WTF?
So the teardown began - and stopped quite abruptly. I got as far as stripping the rotors off.



The tie rod and shock came off pretty easy, but the work ended for the day when I ran out of daylight fighting with the lower balljoint on the drivers side. I have always removed ball joints but giving the spindle a couple of good strikes with a hammer and the ball joint has always released. Not this time! After almost mushrooming the side of the spindle with my 4lb sledge, the ball joint was still stuck in the spindle. So off to the outlaws house to borrow the old mans pickle fork. That'll get it loose right? Wrong! That fork went in at every angle and after beating the hell out of it - yup - the ball joint is still stuck.

Tomorrow the big guns are coming out. Unfortunately, I don't have a torch available to me in the condo's carport outside, but I have power there so the trusty zip-cut will make short work of that bastard ball joint!

[1981Stepside]

Wow. That was one tough nut to crack. The grinder wouldn't get all the way through the stem but thankfully it broke once I gave one last swing with the sledge.


I got the front end stripped down (all by hand - @#&%$) I was even able to give the passenger side wheel well a coat of gravel guard.

Tomorrow I'll start on giving the control arms a varsol bath. Once they're clean, I'll get them blasted, primed and painted. Then I'll have the new poly urethane bushings pressed in.

[1981Stepside]

Okay - so I've found my new favorite product! Rustoleum rust paint. This stuff is awesome! I brushed on a coat on my LCAs after I gave it a good go over with my wire wheel -
Stuff goes on so thick it dries with a finish like powdercoating. Also laid a coat on the crossmember with semi-gloss

Here's the new upper arms, belltech spindles and new springs all put together:

and a quick comparison between the stock spindle and the drop spindle (for those who haven't seen them side by side)

Got both sides installed - now I need to get new rotors, pads, calipers (upgrading to the 1.25" rotors) need new tie rods and I'm going to try to track down a one ton swaybar to upgrade

[JMac11]

Driving it with the LT1 yet? Curious on the drivability and power.

[1981Stepside]

I've had it out a few times around town since the swap. I don't quite trust it yet for a long haul, but I've been pleasantly surprised each time I've had it out. The 4L60E has quite a kickdown when you put your foot into it. So far I'm happy with the acceleration and overall power with it (although there's always room for more power - lol) but I still need to chase down a few things, most electrical bugs. There's an annoying parasitic draw somewhere that flattens the battery overnight, but when I did a draw test there was only 20mA coming off the battery. I'm going to have to fully charge the battery again and retest.
Right now it's feeling out the truck and getting used to the new sounds and smells of a different engine, but so far so good. Once the truck is lowered and I can get her rolling again, i'll make a quick vid of it in action.

[77c10]

I have an LT1 in my 77 SWB although it is carbed. I just recently swapped the TH350 to a 700R4. I love it so far. Plenty of power and fair gas mileage. What did you do for a radiator? Mine has one from a 95 Z-28 Camaro in it and is is laid back to wards the motor like they are in the Camaros.

[1981Stepside]

Originally Posted by 77c10

I have an LT1 in my 77 SWB although it is carbed. I just recently swapped the TH350 to a 700R4. I love it so far. Plenty of power and fair gas mileage. What did you do for a radiator? Mine has one from a 95 Z-28 Camaro in it and is is laid back to wards the motor like they are in the Camaros.

I used a stock replacement c10 rad (original one was leaking pretty bad) and fabbed up some custom rad hoses for the reverse flow system.
Posted via Mobile Device

[77c10]

I guess I need to do that. Mine kinda looks like hammered crap!

[1981Stepside]

Doesn't look bad. Just needs a plate to cover the mounting bracket and you're golden. Hell, I had to fab my rad hoses out of 2 or 3 different stock ones. I used exhaust pipe as a coupler and hose clamped them down.
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[77c10]

Originally Posted by 1981Stepside

Doesn't look bad. Just needs a plate to cover the mounting bracket and you're golden. Hell, I had to fab my rad hoses out of 2 or 3 different stock ones. I used exhaust pipe as a coupler and hose clamped them down.
Posted via Mobile Device

I would love to get a piece of stainless bent up to cover the top and maybe something on the sides as well. Oh well, that is ANOTHER future project that I need to do.

[1981Stepside]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
It was a great Christmas this year - flew my Mom out from the other side of the country to spend Christmas with my wife and I and her side of the family. She had a great time and (not sure if it's a good thing or bad) she and my Mother-in-law got along swimmingly!
Needless to say, not a lot of progress over the Christmas season. I did get the brakes finally assembled:

The final tally for the front end was belltech 3" drop spindles, repainting the lower control arms, new upper control arms, control arm bushings, ball joints, tie rods, I upgraded to the HD brakes, so new rotors, bearings, calipers, pads, and SS hoses. I also scored a 1.25" sway bar from a C30, so new bushings and shackles for that too. While I was under there, I took the opportunity to swap out the intermediate steering shaft with the jeep one I grabbed from the pick-a-part. Once the truck gets an alignment, we'll see if it makes a big improvement with the steering. I noticed a bit of slop in the steering box (not sure how much is normal) so we'll see.

Also installed an amp for the dash and door speakers today. The head unit has no pre-amp so the amp should help things a bit. No pics, because I'm sure everyone and their cousin knows how to install an amp. With a lot of wire tucking, the interior looks just as it did 2 days ago. Just sounds a little louder. In the (hopefully) near future I'll be getting an underseat subwoofer.

My work contract finished a week before Christmas and I go on vacation in the middle of Jan, so I have two weeks of complete free time to try to get some work done. I'm going to start on the rear end tonight. All the bed bolts are rusted solid so they're getting cut off. Tomorrow I'll raise the bed off the frame to get at the shackles and mounts to grind the rivets off. I'm also hoping I have enough time to buy some new wood for the bed floor and get started on sanding/staining. I'm also going to have to replace the front bulkhead on the bed. Theres a huge dent that looks like it was caused by something heavy in the bed sliding when the driver hit the brakes too hard.

[MTCK]

Looks good and glad you had a good holiday! JL audio makes a great little pickup enclosure with an 8w3. I think there are some pics of it in my build thread. Seat goes within a click of all the way back, and with buckets it's a passenger problem anyway... Keep up the good work!
Posted via Mobile Device

[1981Stepside]

Thanks MTCK! I checked out the enclosure you mentioned. Looks like a great unit, but unfortunately I don't have enough room behind the seat with the power window unit back there:

That photo is with the bench as far back as it goes.

*I forgot to post yesterday - When I was converting to the HD brakes I had a heck of a time finding the correct components. The parts guy had no idea which listed parts were assigned to the LD or HD brakes, so here's some part #'s. Most part stores can cross reference them with other manufacturers.

Rotors - no part # but make sure you get the 4.95" overall height or the 1.25" thickness
Calipers - A1 Cardone 18-4126 and 18-4127
Inner wheel bearing - SKF BR5
The other components (outer wheel bearing, dust seal, and hoses) are the same as the LD brakes.

[1981Stepside]

Well - my wife will never let me live this one down. The myth of "men never read instructions" has bitten me in the ass. I started stripping down the rear suspension yesterday and had to cut every single bolt holding in the leaf springs. To get to those, I raised the bed of the truck to get some more access - and had to cut all the bolts holding the bed to the chassis. When I saw the factory rivets holding in the rear spring hanger I proceeded to grind the heads off the rivets and punch them out. Feeling very satisfied with myself, I went upstairs to get the new hangers and shackles when I realized that it was the FRONT hangers I should have stripped from the chassis. So embarassing.
So, since I had things mostly apart, I've decided to take it one step further:
I hauled out the leafs today and brought them to a local spring shop and had new bushings pressed in, and grabbed some new u bolts, wear pads and a new center bolt for the leafs. I plan to take the wire brush to them tomorrow and purty them up with a coat of paint. The bed of the truck is going to live at the inlaws for a couple of days (no space at the condo) while I clean the old undercoating and surface rust from the chassis and axle housing and give it the same beauty treatment. Rear brake job probably wouldn't hurt either. Top it all off with new FRONT spring hangers and extended rear shackles, that should complete the rear end work.

Pics to follow tomorrow.

[MTCK]

Nice! It happens! A little grade 8 hardware sized exactly to those rivet holes will fix you right up...
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[wraprail]

What did you do with the accessory brackets on your LT1? Seems I remember something about frame interference when using the Impala and/or Fbody brackets requiring major frame modifications to clear the A/C compressor.
Iirc, accessory brackets off a Corvette were the only ones that cleared the frame on a 73-87.

[sethv]

That is a cool swap! Looking forward to seeing it all done

[1981Stepside]

Originally Posted by wraprail

What did you do with the accessory brackets on your LT1? Seems I remember something about frame interference when using the Impala and/or Fbody brackets requiring major frame modifications to clear the A/C compressor.
Iirc, accessory brackets off a Corvette were the only ones that cleared the frame on a 73-87.

You're right about the frame interference - I ended up buying a a/c relocate kit from Bowers rod shop in OR. The kit relocated the a/c to the upper left side of the motor. Pricey, but good quality. If I were to do it again, I would move the alternator to the left side and relocate the a/c where the alternator is now. It would make it easier to run a/c lines (shorter) and I could get different valve covers if I wanted.
Once the rear end of the truck is finished, the a/c is next on the list.

[1981Stepside]

More progress! Pics from when I was removing the bed from the truck when I started pulling the suspension apart - Pulled the fenders first to make it a little lighter to lift:

After I removed the wrong hangers, I pulled the leaf springs add had new bushings pressed in and grabbed some new u-bolts and hardware to bolt the leafs and shackles back in. Still need to clean up the leafs.

Pulled the rear bumper to start cleaning the rust off the frame:

After I spent a few hours with the wire wheel and hand brush on the frame. Also pulled the axle out and started degreasing.

At my last contract, the painter hooked me up with some industrial epoxy primer and paint. After all the rust removal I mixed up some primer and coated the rear half of the chassis.
Tomorrow I plan to finish degreasing and wire wheel the axle housing and if there's time, clean up the leafs and/or the cross members and brackets I pulled off. Also need to go buy four dozen grade 8 bolts to replace all the rivets I had to remove.

[1981Stepside]

So after a frustrating 3 days, the epoxy primer FINALLY cured. I was afraid that I messed up the mixture, but it was just too darn cold. So the last 2 nights I tarped up the truck and stuck a space heater under there and this morning the primer was rock solid. Meanwhile, I got the leafs back from the spring shop with new bushings and hardware, and I split them up, cleaned the heck out of them, painted and reassembled them.
Before:

After:

While everything was apart, I also scraped the 1/4" of grease and crud off the axle housing and wire wheeled the heck out of that too:

And gave it the same treatment with paint (and yes, I cleaned the brake backing plates before I painted them although I hadn't gotten to them in the first pic)

Finally, once everything was reassembled, I applied the black epoxy topcoat.

Just waiting on some shock extenders to bolt on so I can use the stock sized shocks and the suspension should be complete. Still debating on buying a rear swaybar - we'll see how it handles first.

[1981Stepside]

Since the suspension and chassis are about as far as I can get them for now, I've shifted my attention to the bed and replacing the wood:

I had to cut all the bolts free from the skid strips, but thankfully all the side angle strips unbolted nicely so I don't need to replace them.

So here's my conundrum - I work with steel, not wood. I've searched on the site for some ideas but I haven't found much. I've been to the local lumber yard and they wanted way more than I was expecting for some oak planks - about the same money for a Mar-K kit.
My question to you guys is: what kind of wood should I look for? I want something that will give me good durability, and once stained and varnished will give me a decent life without the need for refinishing each year. Lastly, something that won't break the bank. Otherwise I'll just get the Mar-K oak kit. If there's someone who bought one of these kits and can share and info, it would be appreciated too.

[old yelr]

If you're looking for options to replace the bed wood you might want to check out Ogre's build "58 TRUK intro" somewhere around post #137.