This truck has fought me every step of the way.

Old engine was locked so I fought with it getting it out, but eventually crushed and cut the oil pan and pulled it out without removing the front axle. Solved that.

Fought to get the new engine lined up with the trans for a month or two. But it worked eventually, so I solved that.

Then once the engine was finally installed and everything hooked up "properly".....

Distributor gave me crud, setting timing was a pain, and the wiring for the crankshaft position sensor and camshaft position sensor were bad, so even fixing the sensors didn't work, and diagnosing that was real fun. Once wiring short found, spliced in new wire, and fixed that.

Then the distributor itself was bad/wrong, 3x later I had one that was good. again fixed that.

Then the wires kept melting to the manifolds, re-routed and carefully zip tied things in place (gently as the zip ties can cut wires too!!!), and solved that.

Next, knock sensors were bad, wiring bad too, replaced wiring and sensors, and back in business.

Then, after doing a little driving, I realized that the steering was REALLY screwed up. Went for a $99.00 allignment, walked out with almost $1000 worth of repairs. All the gaskets, bushings, connecting bolts/nuts were rusted/busted/worn out, and needed replacing. Plus somebody had turned the torq bolts WAY too far, causing toe out, and horrible camber, so now the front of the truck sits 2 or 3 inches lower, back within specs where it belongs!!! Still gotta find out what they did to the rear end... as it should be the same height as the front, but it's about 3 or 4 inches higher... hmm...

Then.... the oil pressure sensor, also a bad location back by the distributor, after replacing that 3 or 4x, the sensor broke, replaced that, also had damaged wiring, replaced that wiring, and working again.

Front bumper, somebody hit a tree, bent to heck, rusty, only rust on the truck. Found a replacement bumper, on the side of the road literally, which was close but not perfect. Ended up figuring out that the bumper fell off a GMC Envoy, late 90's, blazer style body, but had funny bumps at each end, and no similar mounts. So... cut out the bumps to fit my headlights, bolted bumper directly to front quarters and fabbed brackets for front and center of the bumper and bottom sides of bumper(I hate it when I see bumper ends flapping in the wind due to crappy workmanship). Plus the new bumper didn't have holes for lights, so I'm cutting holes and fabbing new semi truck lights into the bumper. Also had to cut the slots out of the bumper so the tow hooks would fit through. Finally have it fit in place, still working on lights, and then paint!!!!

Then... realize wiper fluid is not spraying. Period. Wiring messed up, and one pump is not working. Figured out wiring for rear sprayer works, but front doesn't, and rear sprayer pump is bad, but front is good. So... changed wiring from rear to front, and now I press spray for rear wiper, to spray the front windshield. But... here's the problem. My rear wiper does nothing but click and spasm. So.... eventually I need to re-wire the pumps properly, and then fix the rear wiper so it works... or maybe I'll just rip it out and weld the hole shut, and have a "custom" rear tailgate!!!

And now, EGR valve gives me crud.

Oh and to continue the rest of the SAGA of my blazer, as the engine was running a lil warm (240 ish) on a 105 degree day, I popped the hood, and was driving (slowly) door to door for census work. Wind gusted, and blew the hood into my windshield (crunch). So... now I have a really nice and clear new windshield.

Ongoing plans include...

new leather for the driver seat (or maybe I'll just replace the seat), whichever is cheaper, as the rips are getting bad. (maybe just duct tape and a nice seat cover?)

remove all interior carpets, and grey rhino line floors, black rhino line undercarriage, and then black rhino line the lower panels from the indented beltline down, including the inside of the wheel wells.

repaint upper half of truck gloss red or blue.

wire and mount 5 big rig truck lights over windshield

wire and mount two long distance and two off road lights to upper luggage rack.

wire and mount heavy duty reverse lights to trailer hitch bar.

create push button switch panel for truck lights, long distance lights, and off road lights, in upper console where garage door opener is located currently.

fix 4wd, probably vacuum line, but if not, whatever it takes

Cut hood for full time cold air intake, close to windshield, to avoid water during off roading, perhaps even snorkel.

upgrade tires from 255's to 285's, more aggressive tread.

soda blast and re-clear rims, perhaps re-paint black areas, or maybe leave shiny.

oh, and I'd like to install a quick release setup for all 4 doors, and the tailgate. It'd be nice to drive the summer at the beach with no doors or tailgate, but throw the rears back on to keep the kids and the dog from getting away. I've used a pin setup on stock car doors before, to allow for quick replacement, or driving without them. Plus I figure the lack of weight will make driving on the beach much easier (not so much bogging)

Suggestions welcome, ideas welcome, criticism begged for, and if you'd like to buy this thing from me, and end my saga, that's welcome too!!!

Peace

 

OMG I laughed out loud for real! AWESOME - you're my hero! The world needs more people like you in it.

I like the idea of the pinned doors too! Never thought of it, but now I am....

 

I like the removable doors too! Sounds like it needs a photo writeup when it happens.

 

I believe it or not, I found a bumper on the side of the road too! I didn't put it on though lol

 

now not only do I need to fix the egr valve mess, and the fuel pump issue, but I awoke to find a puddle of nice red trans fluid under the truck Seems the trans dipstick is not attached properly at the trans or to the rear of the block, so it moved and broke the seal, and waddya know... trans fluid alla floor.

(does voice of lady behind desk in monsters inc) "Great"

 

Update on the Green Monster!!!

Wife and friend decided they'd heard enough of me havin this truck sit in a backyard, and it was time to get it moving. They fought with it and won! It needed a new computer, which helped it run, mostly, but wouldn't really run out. Turns out the cat was almost completely blocked. New exhaust opened that up a ton, and it could actually accelerate out of its own way! Now for the EGR issue, turns out all those EGR valves probably worked just fine, it was just that extreme back pressure causing the problem. The last issue I've got is the fuel pump. I really thought it was the ignition switch, and kept fighting with it. I'd heard of replacing the relay, and did that several times too. But that wasn't the problem either. Turns out the relay box is the culprit! The box is so worn out, from multiple replacings, that it wont hold the relay tight enough. So... when it won't start, I wiggle the relay, and it charges the fuel pump, and I'm in business, and when I hit a bump, it stalls out. So, hit the local pick n pull, grabbed a relay box for under 10 bucks, and I've gotta splice it in. That should solve just about all of my problems for now. Still gotta check on the trans leak, as I've got a wierd rpm change issue between 40 and 50 mph. Hoping its solved with the trans leak, instead of a trans rebuild. Anybody have any suggestions on that one?