The GMT400 thread (88-98 GM full-size trucks)

In reply to solfly :

Understand completely. Ive been debating for weeks. 

Its actually her truck. That she wanted lower than her (shes 5'3) and gets her permit in a few weeks. 

New user here but not a new fan of the GMT400. I've had mine for 7 years, now has 248,000 on it. Just got done replacing ball joints/tie rod ends right before our first snow! The thermal actuator is apparently still alive and kicking, but i want to replace it with the electric one soon for peace of mind

1997 K1500, L31/4L60E (with a still functioning G80 believe it or not). It's a heavy half, so it's got the 14BSF with those comically large rear  drums.

Future plans are mostly just maintenance. This is my DD for the half of the year that it's too cold/wet to ride a motorcycle. I would love to put a 5.3 with a small cam in here when the 350 finally kicks the bucket.
 

The other day my driver side door became difficult to open from the inside. That's a cracked door handle of course. Happens to all of them. 
 

I ordered a pair of new metal replacement door handles, a bag of new door panel clips and receivers, and dropped by and visited my buddy at the dealership for a pair of new OEM latches. 
 

Then I dug in. Initial suspicion confirmed. Crack in the lever on the back side of the handle. 
 

Changing the latches was sort of annoying. The window channel is spot welded into the door and it really blocks access. 

I have a pretty good relationship with my parts guy, but still, GM don't give these things away by any stretch of the imagination.

While I was in there working I couldn't help but think about our bretheren in the rust belt. No hint of rust, and nice original paint everywhere. Dudes in Michigan haven't seen that in 25 years at least  

Truck is low mileage at 122k, but the old latches were haggard. They look a million miles old.

And, finally, finish off with new striker bolts and reassemble with all new door panel fasteners. 

When all said and done, both doors now open and close as well as they did brand new. Also I had previously had a hint of rattle coming from the doors when I drove over bumps. All of that is gone now and it's silent over any road surfaces. 

I have pins, bushings and rollers to rebuild the doors on my 96. Also have a window binding. I think i swapped out latches for better used ones at one point but maybe I should look i to those and strikers while they're still available.  Need to get on that.

The new latches really made a drastic difference in how the doors close and not rattle.  They were a bit of money but the originals served for 27 years. I cannot imagine ever having the replace them again in this truck's lifespan.

Hauled a 72 Ventura home from Alabama yesterday. 249,440 on the clock and pulls pretty good still!

What are the chances of a 265/75/15 tire on a 5x5 SS rim fitting a stock ride height 2wd Sierra?  It looks like they should fit, but they are far enough away that if I am going to invest six hours travel I'd like to be sure.

In reply to ZOO (Forum Supporter) :

That tire specs out to 30.5 inches tall. The stock tire size is 29 inches tall. I'd lay money on it fitting just fine. These trucks have miles of fender room at stock height.

I was at a swap meet last weekend and I ran across a great deal on a nice 60/40 seat. It had a dent in the foam on the passenger side back but I used a steamer to pop it back out. The knucklehead had stored it stacked on top of something.
 

But, being an extended cab seat setup, only one of the four brackets would work on my regular cab truck. So I had to go to the getting place...

I wound up figuring out three of the brackets, but the fourth bracket required modification. I also had to drill four more mounting locations in my floor pan. The catalytic converter heat shield made access from underneath a hassle so I elected to just use rivnuts on the four added bolts. 
 

Then I had to build the crossover wires that link the latches together on each individual seat. I used cable and Nicopress type of sleeves to do that. 
 

In the end I wound up with a fantastic improvement in my truck. It's so much better than the work truck bench seat I used to have. The original owner of my truck is a bigger fellow and he spent the first 25 years using his 300 pounds to mash a rut into the original seat. The seats are now 100% manual adjustment. Just push the lever and slide forward and back. My junkyard brackets let me do away with all that power seat foolishness. I will make some cute little aluminum block off plates to screw to the side of each seat where the no-longer-used power controls currently reside. 
 

Then I jumped onto Facebook and sold my original bench seat for enough money to basically zero out the cost of the whole project. 
 

Notice there is no floor covering in my truck currently. I took up and disposed of the original rubbed floor mat when I was adding the seat mount points to the floor pan. I have a new carpet here in the box ready to go into the truck. I like carpet better than work truck rubber floors. 
 

I have a young friend who goes to college in Kansas. He's paying for his education by combing the junkyards up there in rusty Kansas and getting good interior parts for those of us here in Texas. He comes home every month or so and brings his Suburban piled full of good Kansas interior pieces which his dad sells for him here in Texas on Marketplace. 
 

I had asked him to keep an eye out for a nice 95-96 grey dash for me. He sent me a text with pictures. 
 

So I finally have a nice earlier style dash to put into my truck. That is my next project. Dash replacement and HVAC unit refurbish and replace at the same time. Then I'll install the new floor carpet. 
 

A little at a time...

Familiar territory 

solfly said:

Familiar territory 

What are you doing with your truck torn down to that extent ? 

Door pins and bushings

Evap core

Rubber mat

Drivers window

Radiator condenser trans cooler

Etc etc etc

Man look at all those Tahoes at the junkyard. It's going to totally suck when the junkyards are all crossovers. Maybe we'll be able to use some of the engines.

I picked up Betty (white) here as a retired company truck about six years ago. As a C3500 she has to keep pulling and hauling things. I recently decided she needs a new lease on life. Plans include a 2/4 mild drop, fixing all the little interior things like handles and such, and installing the LQ9 in my garage. 

Hi all, interesting thread, thought I'd add to it. 96 K1500 SLT, all original. To make a long weird story very short, I ended up getting this for free 6 or 7 years ago. Had some running issues until I replaced the Vortec's PLASTIC distributor with a billet aluminum one. Almost 185k miles, runs great. Basically just use it for trips to the reno store, moving stuff for friends, towing something, or when I just feel like driving a truck. A guy pulled up next to me at a red light the other day in a brand new Chevy pickup and asked me if it was for sale. Nah, gonna keep it, especially with the deal I got. 

Anyone see the latest Finnegan's garage yet?  He picked up one of the nicest looking GMT400s I've seen in a while, and it's a standard cab short bed, too.  Video is long and has quite a bit of boring filler, but also has some neat footage of a shut down newspaper printing facility being converted into car/bike storage.

I'm rebuilding all of my HVAC doodads and also doing a dash swap at the same time. 
 

What a pain in the keister. 
 

In reply to Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) :

That looks awful. Praying mine doesnt need that

Finished my dash project today. 
 

I had gotten a spare HVAC suitcase and overhauled it beforehand. I used all new doors and actuators, evaporator, heater core, resistor pack,  lower motor, and seals. Basically any possible failure point was addressed. That included a new HVAC controller too. 
 

One of my buddies kids is paying for his college education by scouring the junkyards in the rust belt and collecting good interior parts to bring back to Texas for resale. He grabbed me a real nice dash awhile back. So now I have a much nicer dash that hasn't been baked to death by the Texas sun. 

Once I scrape together a few more bucks I'm going to buy a big box of sound deadening material and install the new carpet I've been sitting on for quite some time now. That's the next phase of interior makeover. 

I guess I have both ends of the spectrum on this thread.  89 Cheyenne 4x4 inherited from Grandfather in law (it was his logging truck).  He bought it new.  His son ran it til it wouldn't start and left it in a field to seize up.  Managed to free the engine after 2 weeks with ATF and mystery oil sitting in the cylinders. It runs to this day.

99 Choo Choo Customs Suburban.  Got this one from my dad.  He had it as a bicycle race officiating vehicle.  Had 260K on the original motor when I got it, but my second decent length road trip in it saw the end of that.  Rod knock started 10 miles after leaving Roebling road.  Oil looked like glitter paint by 40 miles later, eve with babying it much as I could.  Seized up solid on an exit ramp right as a nasty thunderstorm descended on us.  Replacement engine had enough oomph to see off the transfer case and transmission in the next year.  I don't even tow with this thing.  98% of the time it's just hauling me, my wife, and 2 or 3 bicycles...  At this point I should just get Sunk Cost Fallacy in Gothic font across the top of the windshield...

based on my extensive experience, the only thing you can't do with a GMT400 is give it to your son....

Mines gonna be pissed in about ten years then.

In reply to solfly :

My dad had a '99 suburban when i was growing up. I wish I could've gotten that, but it had some kind of engine issue when i was like 14 IIRC and he sold it :(