the darn door locks never wanna work right on gen 1's. the 3 ive had always worked off and on. the 92' my dad has only works when you are opening the driver door slowly while pressing the button. windows too. I know theres a short/grounding out somewhere in it. I just dont wanna look lol

 

Yeah it's a pain in the *** chasing wiring in the door. They definitely didn't make that part of the truck "mechanic friendly". I can see right where I cut those speaker wires - thought they were part of the alarm system, but that's how they tied it into the system. I just have to hook them back up again.

Well I couldn't wait for my spacers & went for about a 5 mile run in it after getting the Y-pipe & exhaust all mounted up. Looks like I'm going to have to completely remove the vacuum advance assembly from the distributor so I can get a few extra degrees turn clockwise. I couldn't give it more than 1/4 throttle without some serious pinging going on. If that doesn't work I'll have to hunt down some advance weights for this no-name eBay distributor ..... that should be fun ...

Anyway, just from the very light throttle I gave it I can tell there's quite a bit more torque. It's about 500% smoother too - no joke! Can't hardly feel any vibration. That counter balancer in there really does work!

 

Is it set at 0*? Ive never really messed with distributor weights much before so i cant help you out with that.

 

All fixed now. Had to re-clock the whole setup -- just wasn't going to work in that position. Ended up realizing that if I had removed the vac. advance, the stator assembly would be free to wander around at random, probably within a 50° range with the advance weights! NOT good. So I left it in place & re-clocked the whole assembly.

Now the vac advance is facing the passenger side, & the control wires are facing the carb. Jumped it 3 positions on the cap, so all wires had to be swapped around again, & my magic-marker numbers wiped clean with acetone & re-written. Had to pull it all the way out to turn the oil pump drive to it's new position. At least finding TDCC was easy this time - just watch the rotor. The first time I forgot to check the pushrods when I installed the intake manifold to see whether or not I was going to be on the compression stroke, or overlap stroke. I ended up yanking the #1 plug & installing my leakdown tester, then rotating the engine around. Good thing I did, because that time I was on overlap. But back to now --put it all back together & she runs better than ever! Even better than when it was FI in the Jimmy!

Almost forgot - I found out my eBay dist. setup is a Pro-comp ... probably a 6001-6.

Turns out my static timing was about 20° advanced .. and I couldn't retard it one degree due to the vac. advance hitting the cable mount for the carb. Now I have plenty of adjustability both ways. Might even play around with the vacuum advance at different settings as well. Plus I have ported & direct vacuum fittings on the carb. So many different combos to run, and so little time.

Feels like a new truck now. It's so quiet & smooth. With the new torsion bar mounts, there's no more horrific bar-on-frame, metal-on-metal BANG over big bumps. My driveway has a dip in it that will put any suspension to the test at speed ... and I came into it 30 mph, & she just soaked it all up, quiet as a mouse. VERY HAPPY!

Now I have to start all my other projects that have been on hold for the past 2 weeks. Got to rebuild a front diff in a '05 Polaris Sportsman 500, & replace a valve, rocker arm & adjuster screw in a Honda powered Cub Cadet mower. Busy busy busy!

Here's a vid I shot today after the timing repair, & a pic of the new position before I had it back together:



Blazerproject-reclockingdistributor.jpg picture by jjs05polaris - Photobucket

 

Drove it about 75 miles today round trip. Filled her up, & went shopping for more plumbing supplies to fix an issue that popped up (gotta expect a few of those).

3 issues - the first was that there was insufficient clearance between the upper radiator hose & the alt fan. I don't know how this hose didn't burst - must've been just a mm of material left! Under power, the engine torques toward the passenger side, opposite the direction of rotation of course. When that happened, the clearance went NEGATIVE, & put a nice slice in the hose. So I found a 1.25" 45° copper elbow at the store, & clamped that in place. Not pretty, but issue solved.

Next up was the upper fan shroud. Using the Jimmy fan, the original shroud was too small, & the Jimmy shroud has long since been sold off. So had to do lots of painstaking cutting, trimming, & melting down shavings to repair sections that got too thin. It's better now, but has become so thin that it has no support, & is just lightly contacting the fan under power. I'll shim the shroud up with washers tomorrow. No biggie there.

The final issue was the original TBI air cleaner. Just wasn't going to work no matter how hard I tried. The hood was putting so much pressure on it (zero clearance) that when the engine torqued under load, it would force the air cleaner off the plastic spacer. Had to use the open Edelbrock 14" x 3" filter that came free with the carb. Was going to sell it on eBay, but turns out I need it now. With that setup, I had to use the tallest spacer I had - went from 1" to 1-1/2". But with either setup, the threaded rod that came with the carb was too short - so I extended it by cutting the head off a bolt & welding it. Now everything fits perfectly .... and as an added bonus the hood now opens nice & easy without all that tension on it.

Pretty much all done now. All I have left is pitman & idler arms. I used the 3 year old TRW idler out of the Jimmy last year when I first bought the Blazer. Only had 40k miles on it .... and it's TOTALLY smoked. About 2" of play in it. And I use expensive Amsoil synthetics in all my vehicles. What a junk part that was! Will replace everything with Moog, like I did when I replaced the ball joints & tie-rod ends. Should last a bit longer than 3 years now ... I hope ....

I did end up hooking up the vacuum advance. Runs pretty damn good now! Passed a few cars today. Made it up to 75 MUCH faster than it ever did before. With the old engine, I would never make an attempt to pass anyone. It used to buck & shoot black & blue smoke out so thick it looked as if the street was on fire!

So it starts right up, runs beautifully, is smooth as glass (gotta love that counterbalancer - really makes a difference!), and is now simple to fix with just a flat head screwdriver. VERY happy with the outcome. Just needs a good wash.
PROJECT FINISHED!

 

Nice job. It took a lot of planning to convert from a computer controlled vehical to carburated. The transmission is not computer controlled which made it more feasible. I once converted a Lean Burn Dodge Magnum to standard electronic ignition and carburated. But that was a while ago, and long before electronics being much more integrated. This should be a very reliable DD which is easy to work on. My 89 S15 Jimmy TBI is very easy and very reliable. Is the computer completely non-functional? Is the check engine light on? Did you retain the rear ABS? No O2 Sensor, No Temp Sensor for the computer.

 

Thanks Mr. VLS!

The computer is still there, but it isn't doing much except controlling the TCC lockup, as I haven't touched any wiring for that part, but it's working as it did before. I hooked up the sensor on top of the manifold for that reason. I couldn't find a wiring diagram for the TCC, but I recall reading that it's engagement was based upon engine temperature somehow. Not sure there.

Basically the computer is getting no input whatsoever, except temperature. The TBI wires are cut, and everything else regarding the TBI is just hanging there. The check engine light is on because of this, but I'll just disable the light.

Everything works like before the swap, except the cruise control. Must have something to do with the TPS being inoperable. Might have to mickey mouse a vacuum solenoid to make it a manual setup, if I feel ambitious. After all this I can't even take an hour to install the pitman & idler arms that came in yesterday. Not feeling motivated to continue working on this thing. Maybe next year.

As far as the rear ABS ... I'm not 100% sure it worked before the swap. Never checked.

Not a big fan of ABS anyway. I hated it on the Jimmy. I don't care what the testing says -- my seat-of-the-pants feel of it makes me think I can stop the vehicle quicker manually. I've driven for years before it was mandated on every vehicle, & never had an issue. My first car was an '88 S15 pickup with only 17,000 miles on it. Manual steering, manual brakes, 5-speed -- about as basic as it gets. I beat the bag out of that truck on a daily basis. Redline clutch drops, 2nd & 3rd gear chirps, off roading, jumps - you name it. The only thing I didn't like about it was the weak 2.5 liter Iron Duke. But that truck, according to Carfax, made it until 2001 with 140,000 miles on it. That's impressive!! Wasn't much to break on it.

IMHO, electronics are a weak link. Cars ran fine for 100 years without them. I'd rather have a choice, but these days the government tells you what your car is going to have for control systems. For this reason, I'll never buy new again. Just hope my Silverado makes it until it's old enough to be exempt .... then I can carb that one too.

 

Just digging this one up to post about some fuel delivery problems I've been having with this thing.

What's happening is, on heavy throttle / high load conditions, the carb is draining the float bowls and the pump is not able to keep up. At idle it supplies the correct fuel pressure, but as soon as I put a load on it, pressure drops to between zero & 2 psi. If I stay on it, it runs out of fuel - BOOOOOOOG! Until I let up on the throttle, and the bowls refill.

The new plan is to just leave the pump in the tank & install an inline pump. Shopping for one now. I can then sell my pressure regulator, as it should not be needed with the pumps I'm looking at. Then I'll just cap off the return line & leave that in place as well.

1,000 miles so far since the build.

Updates to follow ....

EDIT 11/18: Just ordered a Walboro FRB-13 fuel pump. Less money than a Holley or Edelbrock, plus will handle many salty winters under the truck without failing in 1 year. Has 1,000 hr. salt spray rating, and 18,000 hour lifespan - that's what I'm talkin' about! Plus it's internally regulated, has internal filters, comes with the fittings, AND was $20 cheaper shipped to my door. Can't beat that! http://wem.walbro.com/distributors/FR/FRB-13.htm

We'll see how lucky I get trying to suck fuel through the old pump ..... Stay tuned .....

 

Just a couple updates.

I've had that pump here for a week, but haven't had a minute to install it due to the Marquis being down for heater hoses & a busted MAP sensor (always something around here). Seems the problem with fuel delivery is intermittent. Could be that pump, or the wiring. But the wife has been commuting back and forth to work for a few weeks now. A few times she had to pull over on a hill because it drained the float bowl & died. I told her to keep her foot out of it. Seems to be better, but still intermittent - some days it does it, others it runs perfect. Coming up on 2,000 miles since the swap. I'll post an update whenever I get a minute to install that pump.

Also had an issue where the wipers quit working except on high, and would stop anywhere you stopped them without parking. Ended up swapping out the whole multifunction switch with a spare one I had in the old steering column out of our '91 that's since been sold off. Now we have wipers again ... and as an added bonus, the cruise control works again! SWEEEET!

Been getting an average of about 16 mpg. Worst was 15.5, best was almost 17. I just hooked up the vacuum advance again just to see if the mileage changes at all. But for a carbed vehicle with dedicated snow tires, I'm not complaining with those numbers. Didn't do all that much tuning either. Just the fuel screws (for idle, & just off idle) and timing. Aside from the occasional stall due to the fuel problem, she hasn't broke down yet! A HUGE improvement over the '00 Jimmy.

 

Another update here.

Ran great all winter long. Got about 8k miles on it since the swap. As soon as the warm weather came back last week, we started having problems again on hills, bogging, & stalling occasionally. So Wednesday I finally installed that Walbro FRB-13 pump. Put it right where the stock fuel filter was (have a glass filter up by the fender in engine compartment), drawing through the in-tank pump. Wired it to the existing in-tank pump's wiring. Wife took it to work yesterday. Ran great most of the way there, then she started having issues again.

So this morning I rewired the pump to the fuse block directly. We'll see how that works out on the 80 mile round trip commute. IF this doesn't work, then the next step is to drop the tank & clean the sock. While I'm in there I'll probably build a pickup tube out of 3/8" brake line & eliminate the electric pump altogether. Now if that doesn't work, this means I've been chasing a fuel problem when it was an electrical problem.

We shall see ....