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92 Single Cab - More of The Same...

2K views 27 replies 6 participants last post by  Mad Max 
#1 ·
I have had this rig pictured in a few different threads. It is going through a bunch of mutations, so I figured that I'd put them in a single project...
1992 Single cab short bed 2.5 - 5 speed, 3.73 rear end, A/C, optional interior, originally a bench seat. I bought it with a seriously hatched Duke in it, replaced the bombed power unit with a 1983 Jeep CJ5 GM 2.5 [Old Duke thread] 4 banger with a Ford Thunderbird T5 5 speed behind it.
That lasted about 120 miles when the oil galley plug above the cam gear blew out and made a pretty bad mess of things.
It sat for about a year while I got over the annoyance of wasted labor.
I finally started looking for a drop in power plant, and found one on CL for 400 bux. It was a complete take out, including a T5, new clutch, all accessories as a no work drop in. A 2.5 Duke with little history.


Some pix:
I met the PO at State Capitol Raceway Park in Louisiana. He was interested in the Voodoo truck project that I was running. He told me he had an S10 also, and it had some problem. I asked him how much - he said $500. Sold.
The day I picked it up:



Gotta have the "Ladies", the LSU appliqué, the crap taillights and the chrome pizza oven tailpipe ...



I took it to the shop and gave it a serious clean up. It was a sloppy mess with stick on skulls on the side of the truck, a orange painted frame, and a really poor interior.



It cleaned up ok, but it still was non functional. Here's why...



^^ That is the driver side oil pan. Yes, parts were flying. Even weirder - the PO said he thought the battery was dead and tried to jump it... FTW??? :eek:
In the oil pan... How the HELL do you do this to a low power Duke????



You're now looking at the oil filter mount on the passenger side. Look closely.... Nice crack, eh?



Here's what the original bench looked like: I did have the usual Mexican serape seat cover on it though...



I bought these for $55 at a local upull. Mint...



The floor was almost perfect. It's mainly dirty in this pic. Almost zero rust. I'll be doing the POR 15 and adding some color, then some sound killer mat.



This truck is CLEAN... I really love the painted rear end. :barf:
Underneath:



Since the wheels that came with the truck were from the 10th century, they were jettisoned and replaced with these:
 
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#2 ·
Timed me out...
More.
I HATE sunroofs. They leak - and of course this one does too... Check out the skull mirror....



Ya GOTTA have one of these... I am NOT a fan of these. I don't get it. A pea shooter pipe made to look hefty? Uh, no.



General condition of the interior - skull mirror required...



More carnage:



Anyway, this is the start of this project. I installed the Jeep engine (pix and link to the "Old Duke" thread) coming up. That is the next stage of this project....
 
#5 ·
The blue and orange rear end is a really nice upgrade. The combination of the 2 colors allow it to run cooler due to the air flow provided by the colors. The cooling effect allows you to get at least 3 - 5 extra MPG. Or it is a really hacked paint job with ugly colors. I forget which one it actually is.
 
#7 ·
Second phase...
Since the Duke in this rig was way beyond...
I looked around for a replacement that was cheap. I was going to originally flip this pig.
Ebay - an advert for an 83 Jeep CJ5 Duke. $150 in Niagara falls which is 2 hours from my farm. I drove there and the guy threw in a Hooker header for free.
Anyway, drove back to Baton Rouge with Mr. Duke riding in the fresh air.
I pulled the oil pan, and bought a replacement since the pan was a rust bucket. I also replaced the rod bearings and installed an HV oil pump.
Since I was there, I replaced the cam with a Comp cam unit.




Ah hell, this is mainly a repeat, so read here:
http://www.s10forum.com/forum/f104/old-duke-for-an-s10-653785/
It's pretty long, but it tells you the second phase of this build.
 
#8 ·
Third phase:
As you may have seen, the Jeep engine blew an oil galley plug and ate the cam gear and timing cover.
That was the (temporary) end of that engine.


I was pissed enough to let the truck sit for almost a year.


So, looking on CL, I found a complete 2.5 - with everything still attached. It came with a new clutch and T5 to boot. Pretty much a drop in replacement. $400. He even threw in a drive shaft.


I drove to Central, LA to pick it up, pretty easy. The guy said it ran but smoked a little. He didn't know much more about it.
I pulled the Jeep 2.5 out and installed the replacement in a weekend. This was going to be my DD for a short time.


Here's the engine installed:

It had been sitting under a hood outside for at least a year.... the red circle shows mold!


Anyway, it started right up and seemed to run ok... until it warmed up. Then it started to rattle. I thought it was bad rod bearings at first. I called the guy who sold it, and he basically blew me off. I said to him right when I handed over the cash... if this POS doesn't work, I expect you to honor your word - that it is a runner.
Well, I guess I would have to make the best of it.


I pulled the oil pan and replaced the rod bearings. They were showing copper, but not spun or compressed. That was a good sign (at least). I cleaned out the pan, it wasn't too bad. I installed fresh oil and filter and started it up. It ran ok - until it warmed up. Then it started the death rattle again. I also checked the mains, they were ok.


WTF??? I got the stethoscope out and started to listen. Noise was from the front cylinder - and would come and go. Yep, major piston slap. So, I figured skrew it, I'll drive it until it pops. That was over 2000 miles ago.
The weird part about this is that it runs super, pulls pretty hard for a weezed out 2.5 and cruises 70 with no effort. Very confusing. It does chow oil though. Oh well.


Next:
The usual mods to the body. Headlights, LEDs, replacement hood, new radio etc.
 
#9 ·
More action:
I installed Euro headlight assemblies and LEDs. Amazing!



The original hood had some minor dents in it. Instead of body work, I bought a Upull hood for $65. I have the paint, just finding time to make it blue...
Check out the mirrors...



Grabbed these at the upull too. $5 each.



I'll be replacing the door, it has dents in it. I'm also going to replace the grille.
Nice wheel mismatch... I have the other ZQs in the shop.



I installed a 2 1/2" cat and 3" exhaust system a while back. It sounds great and provided a slight performance improvement.



One of the ZQs ready to mount...



Up soon: New grille, lower valence, painted hood, new windshield and matching sport style mirrors.


Future: Disc rear and sway bar, front fat sway bar, urethane bushings, new idler arm, paint the frame to get rid of the horrible orange/pink sh*t paint, and front brake conversion with rear and front drop.
 
#12 ·
Tnx... I guess I'll end up painting most of the panels. There is only one side that isn't messed up.


BTW, this truck was repainted a high poly metallic blue close to the original GM color. I had no paint code for it.
I went to one of the local body supply outlets, they have a camera that has software on it to match the paint. They took a picture of the color, connected to the data base and it popped out a really close match.
I'll blend the panels (fogging them) and clear over. You won't be able to tell, unless the truck is under certain types of street lights.


Next is the cowl vent panel.
 
#13 ·
Minor update:
This has been my DD for the past month or so.
I drove to work last week and went to turn the biotch off, and the key wouldn't move. Pisser.


What do you do with a POS that won't kill? :dunno:


Fortunately, this beauty is a 5 speed.
So, I let the clutch out at idle and it stalls. I open the hood, and (again) fortunately, I have a top post battery, and installed marine style battery terminals with threaded posts on the terminals. I didn't want to hack the OEM side post cables, so I removed the threaded bolts on the terminal end and used the hole to attach to the marine terminals that have wing nuts.
Yep, each time I drove the truck, I would have to go through that BS operation. Pop hood, disconnect battery.
The radio lost it's mind each time I did that.


As you can imagine, that got old real quick.


A new lock assembly = $12.


Yesterday, I changed the lock. I should have taken pix of the procedure, but it sux using a camera with dirty hands.


BTW, any of you who have gone into a steering column know about that damn ring clip retainer, This tool is mandatory:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Steerin...964593?hash=item2cae029031:g:HvQAAOSwmtJXYjHJ


It makes the job TOTALLY easy. I bought one a long time ago - best $10 I've spent in a while.
Even if you only do the job one time, it's worth it.
Here's the whole kit:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/19-Pcs-Stee...714296?hash=item282e4129b8:g:QDIAAOSwzgBYx2ZL


I completed the lock replacement in thirty minutes.
My radio is cool again...
 
#14 ·
I've been there a couple times, Max. When I got my Blazer from the yard, the key wouldn't cycle off. Replaced the cylinder when I finally got it roadworthy. A couple months later I tore it even farther apart to do the wiper switch. And I'm about to go back in to replace the cheapest wiper switch I could find at the time, that started acting up after 6 months. That tool was the best $10 I spent too. Made the job so much easier.
 
#15 ·
^^^ Your Blazer was a bonus considering where it came from.


Next rant.... SUNROOFS.
HATES 'EM.


This truck has a sunroof. And what is the weather here today? Rain. Lots of rain.
I can say this much - when it rains in Louisiana, it doesn't skrew around.


And where does the roof leak?


Uh huh. Right over the driver seat - spelled wet azz.
So, I put a bucket there. That also gets old real quick.


I don't know what brand the POS roof unit is, so I have no idea where to buy new seals.
I'm almost ready to rip it out and install a piece of smoked plexi in it's place.
I looked on Ebay, and there are all sorts of different seal types.
Next project: Take apart the roof hole and figure out what kinds of seals are required.


End of rant - sorry.
 
#20 ·
Mo, it's one of those cheapy aftermarket pop up POSs.
It has seals around the area that the glass seals to, and the seals are pretty much dried up.
It's 17" by 27".
I am going to remove the glass and see what the seals look like. I have seen many on Ebay, but they are all different designs.
There isn't any manufacturer's name that I can see, but I'll be having a closer look.
\
It's a real PIA getting soaked on the way to work - in a starched dress shirt :tdown


I have been driving the Dakota on rainy days, but once in a while I get caught in the rain.
 
#23 ·
I got tired of looking at a big hole in the dash. I removed the old radio since it was junk.


I did a bunch of research and found a direct fit with lots of features but... The price was a little hefty. $300+
After more research, I found a Pioneer unit that was perfect. It's a "Mechless (??)" unit which means it has no CD or Cassette player. The chassis is very small, so it fits in the dash and the front is flush.



The PO had hacked the crap out of the radio harness, so I bought the factory plugs and soldered/shrink wrapped them back in. It looks semi pro.




Here's a pic of the hole with a Metra radio install kit placed where the radio goes:



Here's the head unit to show how small it is:

My ID just to the right is a little bigger than a credit card.


I bought a radio prior to this for the ******* rig. It was $25 - from where else? CHINA. A word of caution - these Chinese radios are COMPLETE JUNK. No surprise. The auctioner refunded me half of my $$ since the radio still worked. The FM section was so weak, it would drop a station if you were more than 10 miles away. The Pioneer pulls the same station almost all of the way to New Orleans - 60 miles away.


Anyway, this head unit plays from an external memory drive, I have an 8 gig drive that has about 300 tunes on it. It will play for a looooong time.
It also plays from an aux input and is set up for Bluetooth, satellite, GPS and has RCAs for subs or external amps. The blue wire you see in the final install (Bottom of pic) is for a sub and an external amp. I haven't installed them yet, but that's in another later entry.


If you would like any info for this install, I'll try to add all of the items I used for it, or PM me.
 
#24 ·
Boring update:
Installed all of the missing A/C stuff. I'll be vacuuming/charging the system tomorrow and hoping it works. I installed a new OEM Delphi compressor, new receiver/drier, belt and oil. Oh, forgot the orifice Xmas tree. A/C I hope. I'll post pix tomorrow.
Baton Rouge = mandatory A/C.
HOT HOT HOT in summertime.
And of course - bees had built a plug in one of the vacuum ports, so of course I connected the vacuum line for the HVAC to it. After going through the usual checks, (Me idiot) I went from back to front. So, the vacuum port was plugged. CHECK IT FIRST!!!
Cold... I hope.
More paint and replacement parts.
I'm probably selling this rig after all of the $$ spent.
It should be a pretty choice clean rust free example.
 
#25 ·
I am actually looking for a mechless (no mechanical parts) radio for my corolla. My old Sony headunit doesn't work that well anymore and I never listen to CDs anyway. Usually just Sirius or an SD card. Where did you get that one?
 
#26 ·
I shopped on Ebay. There were a lot of different models and prices. I first bought a cheapy, it was junk.
The next one was a Pioneer lower priced model, it worked ok.
I went for a higher priced Pioneer (this one) it works very well. IIRC, it was $75 with free shipping. It also fits and looks great.
 
#27 ·
Well, this project is going on hold for 2 weeks, I'm heading to Ireland then England for a few. Class reunion.


I just bought another 1994 Nissan D21 Hardbody (??) from a guy who claimed he had $7K into it.
BS... or so I thought. He couldn't get it running when it pooped out, got pissed and sold it to me.
When I brought it to the shop and looked it over, it had a fresh rebuilt engine, all new clutch and hydraulics, new radiator, shocks, brakes, radio, tires, tune up stuff and fluids.
It needed a starter motor. I installed one and it started right up and ran perfectly.


Next, I also bought a 1985 TVR 280i. Look it up. I will post pix in another thread. It has 31k original miles on it. I had a TVR Griffith a long time ago.


Cheers!
 
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