The Project: Here is my 84 blazer. I had this truck in high school when they were still really popular for kids. I have toyed with it a few times over the years, but now I am ready to get serious.

The Plan: ............Add all the great ideas that I will never get to here........... Realistically, I want to have 1 fix/repair per week and keep moving forward, till its useable and somewhat safe to drive. Then work on big budget fun stuff. Ultimately throwing many thousands of hard earned dollars at an HOS that will be barely worth the weight in scrap steel when done.

The reason: I need a 4 wheeler, and I have another couple projects I want to build that will take some experience and skill. Id rather make my mistakes on this one.

First repairs: Rebuilt T-5 OWC, I did the trans rebuild in 2017 and bought new tires for it in 2018. Used it a few times, but I realized that the sloppy steering, barely adequate power, and horrendous road noise made it pretty unsafe to drive on modern highways, so I abandoned it again in 2019. Got it fired back up over thanksgiving break. I had some time after church on Sunday so I did the AC compressor and smog pump delete. Runs much better, but still wants to cough and stutter under load sometimes.

Up Next: Find a space for the parts I take off, brakes, gauges, and sealing up the cab.

1984 blazer sport trim

AC compressor removed for space

Smog pump removed for science

 

Took a few weeks longer to get back on this, it got cold here. Anyway, my emissions delete program had some bugs that needed to be worked out. these old Rochester carbs are pretty dang complex. I got back in and deleted out the remainder of the vacuum pump circuitry and other odds an ends. Plugged up all the vacuum ports on the carb, which turned out to be a mistake. Apparently the idle circuit needs to be open to the air cleaner, but hell, it looked like a vacuum port to me. I cut off the weird exhaust trees and welded up the open holes in the manifolds. I listened to that silly crackling noise for far too long.

Started to work on the brakes till I found a leaking drum piston. So I grabbed a beer and went to the computer to shop for parts. Not sure if I'm gonna try a bench top rebuild or go ahead and get replacements.

Next I got some cheap weather striping from amazon and Ill be darned it fit and seems to be working. The cross section was similar, but not perfect. After that I took off the air dam, the headliner, and the upper interior covers from the back half of the truck. the paint was faded on those trim sections and ill try to spray them with something that looks close.

Next up: is to finish the brakes and decide whether or not to crack off the heads and see how bad a shape the engine is. It needs all upper seals replaced at a minimum. the oil and coolant has mixed into a pretty thick sludge all over the upper half of the engine. And IM gonna have to rework the battery terminals. I think I'm gonna go top post, I've never liked the gm side post set up.

 

Making slow but steady progress.

Battery Cables: I got some descent cables from an explorer at the junk yard. No more puny side post screws to bugger up and corrode.

Brakes: My passenger caliper was locking up so I ordered a new rubber line for it and (2) new cylinders + a rubber line for the rear. Got all that installed and bled the system. drivers brake was rock hard when bled. took it for a short test drive, the engine was bucking and losing power under load. Got it back home and I could feel the heat from the driver wheel. Parked it till I could get a new rubber line for that side. Finally got all brakes stopping and releasing. success.

Lights and Gauges: I took half the truck apart looking for a shorted light or some other issue before I checked the fuses again. Sure enough, replaced a fuse and now the lights are back on. Still have some problems with the gauges. Speedo isn't working or the cable is slipping at the transmission, tach is out, fuel is suspect, coolant temperature reads about half what it should, but the amps and volts are good. Ill probably save some of this for a winter electronics project.

Hesitation and stumbling: Been doing some testing since getting it road worthy. Engine would bog down and stumble in 3rd and 4th gears. I refilled wit with good fresh gas and it was still doing it. I found the upper carb bolts were loose so I got all those tightened up, didn't fix it. Next I removed the choke heater element that was preventing the carb from settling into its lowest idle detent, mostly just because, Ill probably regret it come winter, but those choke things are $40 each at rock-auto. I dug into the ignition system next. pulled the cap and tried to figure out if timing needed to be adjusted. Whatever kind of distributer I have, there doesn't seem to be a way to adjust timing. I borrowed a timing light and checked it anyway. Seemed to be ok. So finally I resigned myself to pulling the fuel filter at the carb. Biggest pain in the but there is, considering the hard line that snakes around valve covers, egr, temp sensors, and other stuff to run across the intake manifold and enter the back of the carburetor. (Mental Note: Remove and simplify when I do the gasket kit). Anyway checked all that out and couldn't find a problem. Slapped it back together for a test drive. Truck finally would accelerate all the way through the gears, so I ran it around a while and tried some burnouts. Stopped the truck at some point cause i thought it was getting hot. Raised the hood and fuel was pouring out the back of the carb (YIKES).. Ran it home, parked it and let it sit till it cooled off. Had to add some Teflon to the filter housing on the carb. Better now.

Im kind of at a stand still at this point. I need to either rework the interior, find a set of jeep axles for it, get a seal kit on the top half of the engine, start on the glass and seals, or do body work. I suppose ill go fish for a few weeks and decide later.