barry G's 1996 gmc 4x4 5spd

barry G · April 11, 2017

those new LED 1157 bulbs..

turned out to be bad.

dash and radio blinked with them.

not grounded proper...bad internals.

Ashame, as they are bright.

I then went and found two bright orange 1157 incandescent from my old subaru, they are low watt.. and teamed it up with the first go at LED, the two bulbs that used nothing for power.

I figured between it all averaged out, it would be 8 watts x4.

same as the modern LED.

this did something interesting..

it looks like an arrow blinker as LED is faster than incandescent, the gmc flicks on the corner bulbs when the parking goes off, alternating.

interesting look.

Back to no load on the switch. Big amp drop. Still a huge improvement over the monsters that were in it.

will try other led as they emerge.. this is an experimental realm.

I also today added a 30A self reset breaker fuse underhood for lighting. Factory called for 50A regular fuse.

I also dropped blower motor to 30, that also called for 50.

total amp drop with fuses and lights thus far..

adds up to 80A.

tried a/c today.. it did kick on, then right back off. I'll be going for another full vacuum flush and fill with the real dupont. The pressure is there, but it is not a happy r134a.

Better off sticking to the original invention by dupont.

plenty of lube and sealer stuff.. just going to give it the real fluid. No extra.

I did not trust the auto store versions. I have the full kit and hoses, vacuum pump..just bought a valve to tap the top of the cans, and going to fill it the eric-the-car-guy way. He does the real version out on you tube. Works every time.

this is getting setup to haul.. a long day. The guts of everything is good to go, just getting details now.

Edited April 11, 2017 by barry G

barry G · April 12, 2017

followup on the bulbs

got a shot of some of the 1157 I use.

the oldest ones were in my 1987 subaru, as experiments.

I stopped at a truck shop today, broadway, bangor maine.

expensive 1157.. but bought a pair to see if the bulbs were bad.

it did the same thing as my newest version from ebay.

Nice and bright.. but making dash blink and radio.

I then verified sockets by making the top side ground better (gm 1157 sockets have an extra tab up top.. this is so you can smother the socket with dielectric grease and still gain a clean ground)

..and with that chore done, grounds strong..

the problem got worse.

Upon the wisdom of the net, I now assume a resistor is needed, and it is trial and error for the right combo of power to ground. 1157 has two live wires.

I will wait for yet another version of LED..there is no excuses for this anomaly. I will not be playing with resistors. Electronic relay should be enough. I have no hyperflash etc.

I found there is a way to make it work, with use of dimmer switch, and/or turning on parking lights. So, it not a fail.

playing with mili-amps. No error of a short circuit. So, I made use of the latest, and the fairly new generation from the truck shop.

my 1157 venture added up to fairly expensive.. I cannot lie. Where my subaru is antique, I throw the leftovers at it. Does not matter if it is perfect.

It would be a shame to have to bump up the watts close to factory to fix it. the whole point is to kill heat and amps with LED...create a direction. Engineers are not thinking of something enough on 1157.

will keep trying.. plug and play only.

..and one more oddity.

the LED festoon for my map lights in this 1996... there is no LED version. I would have to swap out the whole assembly.

not going to happen.

the only two bulbs left..

and one in the dash, the ABS (it has to have a regular bulb)

As of now, it is a claim to be brighter than factory..and am not seeing that exactly, but it is impressive. I can run the blinker in the sun and people will see it. Old factory at 28w x4 is the champ..but burning the front of the truck off to have them is not.

Edited April 12, 2017 by barry G

barry G · April 17, 2017

a/c refilled

Three 12 ounce cans, genuine dupont 134a.

deciphered my errors for refill last year.. in which it kept running, to cool me off all summer anyway. I knew this was a strong system.

ran with my mistakes.

gave it the pro vacuum pull and refill, zero loss.

There was all kinds of additives, way too much. A good slop of pag oil as well. Enough dye to not even need a UV light to look for leaks.

cleaned it right out, 30 inches of vacuum for 20 minutes or so.

ready to go. I got frost on the intake side of pump lines , the vent is at 39.7 on this 60F day.

another mistake was using the auto parts store version of cans with their own gauges. I found on my pro set of gauges.. that 134a was not even aligned right on the auto parts store version of refrigerant. The gauges mathed r12 or r22.

r134 is half pressures to the old versions.

the real a/c manifold gauges aligned it right. Temperature versus pressure.

I figured I bought recycled crap on top of the other problems, there is even some stinks that went with it. Incinerator odor was one.

summary of mistakes recovered..

improper fill, bad refrigerant, too much additives.. and I let air whiff in without the real gauges, and tap.

with all that fixed, it is now colder than 1996 version.

even the hot side of pump is now at luke warm, verifying it is a system that wants to work...without straining.

looking forward to 90F

my exacting refill is from ChrisFix and Eric the car guy, both on you tube.

there is one extra on my behalf...

I use a generator for the vacuum pull.

part of bonds and viscosity is ionization, positives and negatives. My favorite is the cheap bouncy quirky 2 stroke from harbor freight.. 59 bucks.

63cc, 6.5 amp

at ten years old or so.. and older, making a change can be stubborn. Generators do something clever. I learned this working 50 year old planes. It added to the mystery of how long they could fly.

I remember a crazy mechanic (einstein) who said.. "get it out of the telephone poles." I understood.

Edited April 19, 2017 by barry G

barry G · April 20, 2017

door chime

wandering aimlessly trying to find door chime for gmt400.

14101255 - door chime

found this video, and then hunted one down on ebay.

I have no seatbelt light, even with good bulbs.

I did find a chaffed wire, driver side.. it went into the seatbelt latch...but it was the ground side.

must have remained elusive for years.

Taped that up, as it is not cut..just had a touch off the rug.

and weirdness still commenced.

the truck chimes in intervals when hazards are on, parking lights off and door open...

and radio blinks if key is on, radio is on...parking lights off.

and a bleed over, very subtle to dash lights.

working dimmer or parking light switch, I riddled my way around bleeders against this box.

so it is stoppable, the silliness.

all working ingredients are there, just mixed up somehow.

I then found a pinout for the chime box.

this was found at gmt400 forum (great place)

Everything pointed to it as the culprit.

I swapped to LED some time ago..the amp drop on just the interior was HUGE.

the dash is part of it.

dimmer has less response, but it does have a full bright and off.

I bet it killed it.. electrons are funny devils.

will give this a try. Several things leads me to believe it is the chime box itself.

the dimmer, and seatbelt.

the only error left, and it is more a riddle.

Everything works.

Edited April 21, 2017 by barry G

Gmcmainiac · April 24, 2017

Thanks for the post on the AC charge. I need to tackle this soon.

barry G · April 24, 2017

Thanks for the post on the AC charge. I need to tackle this soon.

I made a mistake 3 times, finally watched closely those videos from the net.

the generator stuff is an unnecessary extra..

at 361k miles, and still keeping a pressure. I like the extra thinking anyway.

replacing pump for brand new, not rebuilt, that is a must do. the seals are not the same, and they treated the case.

just today.. 60F, cab is already 105 in the dash.

VERY hot truck I have. The a/c in the long run will rid any sun interacting materials, even a metal powder from other vehicles can catalyze interiors.

A/C does more than cool, it cleans it up to stay cooler by nature in the long run. Reduce moisture.

I could not drive this old one without it. Went all out to get it done.

with my own vac pump and gauges.. 3 refills, drains.

saved $450.. all tools paid for itself already, and I can break it anytime, go right back at it again.

Edited April 24, 2017 by barry G

barry G · April 25, 2017

dinger

replaced dinger. problem is still there.

two ways to add resistance to dimmer..

the chime box or the switch.

common sense tells me to attack chime box.

easier than the switch.

I also noticed, this truck has 40 miles less wire than a 97 auto.

No DRL implemented.

I am thinking now, the wait chime, the extra slow one.. not even programmed into it.

the seatbelt light may have been riding a timer off another light bulb.. and everything is now LED.

off it went.

looking at the basic diagrams I have found..

I think I can cheat something in.

For now, the two speed chime as a bell sound is much better than the factory kc135 dead crew chief alarm.

another new thing to notice..tranny is even slippier than last year. the gm fluid must be having its way.

I actually fought for the tractor trailer clunk from the hurst shift getting into first..after an 80mph run up the highway. Got to the end of ramp. First was stubborn.. hurst had its way with a good push. I think I know what killed the plastic base one..this tranny pretends to lose synchro at this certain time of year.

I can count 3 seconds for shaft to stop spinning to grind reverse.

great time to giggle a 13 second quarter with 250hp..transmission loses nothing. It has the type of take off where someone looks at it taking off. Very quick at times, not even manhandling anything...such as redlights in the city.

I cannot wait until summer ground, warm pavement. Now is a time for change. The iron engine, it is just that- stays the same. I love it all year. All aluminum gadgetry, cases, anything.. it has to pussyfoot its way to the moab moron who took over the industry wearing sandals.

I am glad this truck is 90% old school steel.

I am already using a/c.. today was 60F in the sun.

it already gets hot inside in a 60F sun.

Before cold start, cabin can be found at 105F or beyond. Not even a heater error.. like a magnifying glass for a windshield. I am glad the back windows are tinted. that helps.

a/c kicks butt. 42-46F at the vent. A/C is interesting, as that stays a constant, regardless of the air temps. Interesting chemistry.

hottest natural heat gain I have ever encountered.. this 1996 gmc. Gloss black on black. A/C is a must have.

Edited April 25, 2017 by barry G

barry G · April 27, 2017

smacking the electrical around

A number 1 subject I find on these gmt400 is weird stabbing electrical events.. like a fuel dump while everything is working... or spark and fuel, yet no fire etc.

that is the only errors to keep it from going down the road.

I just got my a/c going not long ago, today had a real need.

very swampy in maine, ice fog and tropical will overlap for several weeks to months to come.

I get going down the road, before full warm of course.. the a/c pump kicked on, engine shut off as I went to throttle in second.

a thump, and hard off.

nothing wet, all is working..checked all fuses.

I figured relay for fuel pump, as those old ones can go backwards to a stab.

I then find the DRL relay is the same plugin as the fuel pump relay...it is just smaller.

I swapped it for giggles.. still no start. Creaking exhaust, whiff of fuel. I knew it was firing.

swapped it back to original fuel pump relay and it started.

I then found I had a spare relay anyway.. for fuel.

I then assumed EGR kicked open like a 1984 on the lean band carb...

checked codes, and there it was. It kicked open hard enough to falsely claim it was stuck.

I dropped so many amps in the electrical system.. I have been expecting a lightning bolt to fly off and hit some innocent ricer in it's black hole runtime... this '96, I think it resorts to telephone poles instead.

this is now seated with everything working. The drop down is going smoother than I thought.

60 amps gone.

long story short..

if you suspect fuel as the monster, swap for drl relay under dash and turn it over for some seconds.

swap it back...

simple trick.

the clutch fan is a good item to take on these monsters.. but radiator and condensor have to be super clean.

I have not got in there to clean since last fall.

Where everything is perfect, even on much smaller fuses.. I suspect is a dirty subject (pun) of something between the condensor and radiator. I may take that region apart, radiator right out.

I want to flush coolant to give a time stamp of it being done anyway. It looks healthy now.. but it is the old green stuff. I want to use zerex.

my subaru had these same monsters when I turned it into a little hot rod.

..and of course, maine is silently famous for the radon ghosts.

one of the worst concentrated areas in the lower 48.

my education is going to be useful someday, after I leave here...

maybe not.

EDIT:

a day later, still very swampy.. thick. Must be getting attacked by ground up. Did not start easy.. all was showing to be working.

decided to tackle DRL.. I knew something of a diode was missing.. a big one. Diodes defend cold starts.

Being all on LED headlamps I did not need the giant heatsinked version gm used.

Where did they get that anyway. Some 1950s space program?

I slapped in a 10A diode jumped.

away it went. Does not get too hot.

as a finale, I removed this again, gave it some real plugs, and a wrap.

I also found parking brake light.. being a manual tranny, that light would come in handy. I use parking brake all the time.

it was simply unplugged.

all fixed.

so , to tidy this up to all items working..

back into the dash to reinstall DRL dash light, and the seatbelt light.

errorless at 21 years old...the seatbelt light.. that does have one problem. Will dig into it.

in conclusion, the DRL is not so much for DRL, but setting a direction, and resistance.

cold starts need the direction, the lights are for runtime.

a peculiar addon.. it is indeed for stronger runtime.

Not sure how these faired with 70watts sucking the life out of everything at allt imes.

I am only using this funny stuff with the LED headlamps.

I also tested parking brake on, DRL should go out, and it does.

A longer ride down the road.. it is bigger somehow, like more stroke in the fire.

it is so humid, the outside of the windshield in the sun needs to get wipers on randomly.

the a/c is phenomenal.

one last thing, not sure if it is the way this one is programmed.

engine running, door open..there is no chime.

only works with key on and engine off.

Edited April 29, 2017 by barry G

barry G · April 29, 2017

Also today..

I wanted to remake an older clip with the hurst shifter.

the tranny mount wqas broken for the first clip.

this one does it a little more justice.

that shifter saved this truck.

with a claim of 35% shorter throw.. it is more like 70.

the first clip is from 2015.

shift is still like new.

Edited April 29, 2017 by barry G

barry G · April 30, 2017

a rust hole

this bed has monster cross sills, perfect floor to rhino lining..and once looked beuatiful.

I flopped it off the frame into the yard last year (?) and bashed it all to heck on the left side with a pole sticking out of the yard.

banged it back out, still shines.. just a bit ugly.

I had a spot with a cracked filler acid looking drool spot since I bought it 2.5 years and 16k miles ago..

decided to poke at it today. right side aft wheel arch.

it was a hole after all.

patched with stainless, fiber fill, regular lightweight stuff, lots of sanding, some primer..

not letting go of this incognito mega ton custom bed to one rust hole.

come time for paint, had all the tools,paint gun etc..

I made it look terrible.

will try again sometime soon.

got it all sealed in anyway.

barry G · May 2, 2017

rpo f44

https://maine.craigslist.org/pts/6090769554.html

found this on craigslist, brakes are new.

I did learn how to read ring gear for ratio.. oddly enough they all have 41 teeth.

the pinion has differences for ratio and angle of grind sets 3.73 or whatever.

I emailed owner to see if he knew..

it will say 41/11 for 3.73

I am curious if just a pinion change can mesh to the same ring gear.. it must be a whole set to swap.

my wimpy 305 on the welded chassis.. sure making a wimp out of the axle flange ends. Getting rather tired of it.

I want to go even further..but that old ten bolt. Not trusty. it is nice and quiet on the center, new fluid, recent rebuild...

but the axles themselves. It is as if I have a 1 ton half ton. The poor things are straining.

given my other wimpy half ton events, like raping a transmission mount sideways, cracking a shock mount, tire crossmember, and then doubting a section of frame..

I ponder gm messed up by not giving the 12000 pound worthy nv3500 this rear end.

I enjoy taking these where they need to go.. it has been my fun for decades.

I'd like to swap this and leave my weird hellwig squishy 1420 spring setup.. re use my monster balkamp ubolts.

awaiting owner reply...

in other boring stuff.. I found some instruction for tougher acrylic autopaint, and wet sanded on good grade 3m 400 grit for a couple of hours.

looks like new. The reason for 400grit, is acrylic climbs back to shine with the ever classic "it'll buff out" finer than 320 grit. Will show and tell.

Edited May 2, 2017 by barry G

barry G · May 4, 2017

playing with an ebay gadget.

the obd2 to bluetooth.

I found a good version of software to put on my old laptop, available in windows store (windows 10)

I found it is very fast to do the same chores s the old thick cable scanner.

I wanted to do this for my aging laptop, as it sits around just for tuning my subaru, and nothing else. Gave it an extra purpose.

Now I can leave the laptop running and look at stuff.

an interesting thing I found was this truck stays open loop until 160F.

this means every start, can learn a new gadget. no need to reset...

although old alternators might need a battery unhooked.

So I am playing with 0 to 60, my locale does not have a .25 mile track.

came back as 16.3 seconds...

no.

that aint right.

I finally figured it out later, the speed I am gaining in functions is the lap top RTC itself, and not the trucks old slow ECM.

1 second is 2 seconds.

8.15 with a start on the muddy shoulder of the road.

it is funny for such an old truck.

anyway, that 7 dollar obd2 gadget others may find on ebay.. it is worth it. Even microsoft is allowing software for it in its own store.

I paid the $2.99 for "pro edition"..to find the timer is double timed, but still understandable.

Edited May 4, 2017 by barry G

BlueSilvyZ71 · May 12, 2017

Awesome thread, build and work put into it!

barry G · May 12, 2017

Awesome thread, build and work put into it!

thanks, the only thing to be considered extreme is the steel.

I am quite accustomed to losing it here. To me, this one had normal chores there too.

I have found this trucks twin, trying to work something out...

3 times less the mileage.

just cruised around with a/c on.. no drag. Just had to look at the thermometer dropping to 41F.

incredible amount of cloud/rain time.. I mean like 40 days of just 7.

anyway, this is a very hot truck to drive. Sun is back out, almost 70f here today. Otherwise very cold into May.

no source of cause other than black on black.

doing awesome otherwise...and the a/c wins.

simple chore list..

modify gas strap to my own weld on the original beam... front shocks, and..

set camber on driver side.

alignment and inspection stuff is excellent.

..and I paid way too much for a duplicolor quart all in one supposed glass black. I'll be darned if I can get a shine out of it.. but it does claim to be real paint. I need to use the paint gun.

That stuff is going on my blistered/peeling roof. It may be the source heat. Offset color does not bother me there.

Edited May 12, 2017 by barry G

barry G · May 14, 2017

bed panel

dents and scratches.. who cares..

but I found the only rust hole in one of the bed panel.

it teased with an acidic looking patina drool out of a crack in the paint, aft part of wheel well, right at the trim.

I finally poked it, knowing there would be something needed. I have stainless sheets for scabbing and the two types of bondo, paint guns, air tools..

simply poked it to find the golf ball sized hole.

there was also a large dimple, like a volleyball had its way with it when I bought the truck.

I shrugged that off.. it is a truck.

in previous posts I reveal how strong this bed is made from the guts outward.

no scrapping it over a rust hole in a bed panel.

fixed it up as best I could. As it turned out, somebody went nuts with a hammer on this truck, I sanded right into someone elses repair. I ponder vandalism, or a temper tantrum. Rather bizarre. Edge of a framing hammer like marks. I went right over it again anyway.

it also explains the only hole.. it was a crease someone man handled to be good again. Must have been some years ago.

it is 21 years old.

I did learn how to replace entire panels.. might do that some day. This passenger side panel has a weird error.. not exact from manufacture as well. I made the best of it. At this pace, it may be up to the next owner. This bed does not rust very fast.. most impressive.

Edited May 14, 2017 by barry G