'76 GMC G2500 Longbed

[vwnate1]

I just bought another old one owner truck , most here seem to be Hot Rodders and this beast is the exact opposite .

I has a long stroke 292 C.I.D. inLine 6 Banger engine and four speed compound low transmission in it , no frills .

Pretty good shape as the original owner bought it to go back and forth to his ranch in Mexico .

 

[vwnate1]

Question :

Is this thing Metric ? .

I began tinkering on it to-day and found odd ball sized fasteners on the power steering and alternator brackets.....

Also , what yeas does the bench seat fit ? this one is shot and I want one with the movable backrest anyways as I carry junk back there .

TIA ,

 

[Pontiac1976]

Most bolts should be SAE unless some one had work on some stuff used different bolts. Some of the early years bolt had Metric heads but SAE tread. But the mix really did not start untill 80-81 there both on bolts types on Now if there well rusted wore they may be Metric now.
1/2 =13 9/16 =15 . Oh by the way what bolts you haing trouble with?

 

[vwnate1]

Thanx !

I grabbed a box full of 3/8" , 5/16" and 8 & 10 MM bolts , nuts & washers to-day so one way or t'other I hope I'm covered .

The power steering was added to this truck and it has missing & damaged fasteners....

 

[vwnate1]

More Pix

Here's a couple more :

 

[vwnate1]

Lastly

It's ready to work

 

[Pontiac1976]

That one pretty good looking GMC you got. It looks like easy restore or update a bit. It hard to find grills in nice shape like that brakes in it cracks?

 

[vwnate1]

Thanx !

As I jacked it up last night , I was looking at the grille and thinking maybe I can take it aprt and clean it and polish the metal surrounds whilst I'm sanding & re-painting the bumper too .

I began by checking the tranny , it has a full load of oil in it but the rear end was down quite a bit the driceshaft appears to have the original U-Joints (no Zerks) and the center support deflects by 1/4" or so so I'm thinking of dropping it and replacing all three U-Joints , I don't trust them @ nearly 100,000 miles .

I then cleaned all those loverly Zerk fittings and greased a couple before running out of grease in BOTH grease guns . Oh well .

It has thin(ish) front brake pads so those are on the list , I got a new upper radiator hose to replace the current ' universal ' , too long accordion typ one that's rubbing against the power steering pump and is crispy to boot , I hope to get that swapped out soon .

Then I attacked the floppy V-belts , this involved removing both the P.S. Pump and Delcotron Alternator , for some odd reason the DPM had twisted the P.S. hoses and alternator harness up , then mangled the bracket by jambing any old bolt into any old hole , I got out my 3/8" X 16 TPI tap and chased the holes , one was stripped and one of the holes in the cylinder head looked really sketchy but it cleaned up O.K. , I had the presence of mind to assemble a box full of new bolts & hwe. before attacking this mess so I replaced most of it , interestingly , no threads were stripped on the P.S. Pump proper and it's Fractional threads but still has two 15 MM head bolts on it holding the lower bracket , I didn't fool with those as they were all nice and tight...

Re-assembiling I got all the pulleys lined up and added one longer bolt to the stripped 3/8" hole , added a washer and nut to the far side , all the belts are now nice and tight , when I bought this rig they were *so* loose I'd thought they were either the wrong size or totally worn out ~ turns out they're fine .

The alternator's adjusting bolt was just an EYE BOLT so it's a wonder it help atall , lucky for me it was a 3/8 X 16 " threaded one so no damage .

Amazingly , they guy who sold me this truck (for basically scrap value) told me he'd paid $1,500 to have the power steering worked on , only has two new hoses and two shocks , I don't think they even greased the darn thing .

More to come , I need to attack the dashboard and find some carpets , buy a few tubes of grease , find out why they disconnected one of the two saddle tanks as it has the changover relay etc. , etc.

 

[Pontiac1976]

find out why they disconnected one of the two saddle tanks as it has the changover relay etc. , etc.

Mostly bad ground or the switch valve stuck. Unless the relay shorting.
Wow you did a good little bit so far it will be tip top shape soon

 

[vwnate1]

Shoot ~

I'm embarrased by how slowly I have to work now thanx to being a cripple ~ I'm not 60 yet and I'm slow like an 80 year old .

C'est La Vie though , I'm not whining it's *good* to be alive and havine tools in my hands again .

To-day will be install new tires and radiator hose , maybe some dashboard tinkers then hit the bone yards looking for a backlight and carpet/mat , maybe a good seat , pick up some new brake pads , fiddles & tinkers , it's now running very sweetly indeed , just like any old InLiner should ya know....

My son says I should just try hooking up the original fuel tank and seeing if it works as I see no leak damage , they just left the bigger auxilliary tank connected , I can prolly find a switchover valve in the junkyard if it turns out both tanks are O.K. .

Of course , the DPM being an idiot , installed the fuel filter dead centered on the middle cross member behind the tranny where it's impossible to see or access unless I jack it up and scoot underneath...

I guess this rig is too much a real truck , as in work or farming to garner any interest here .

 

[vwnate1]

A Good Day Out

I drove The Beast around to-day , got new tires mounted on the front end and went over to my son's shop & let him drive it to lunch , much to my surprise he likes it in spite of it not being a racer....... .

After lunch I popped into one of my favorite junyards where they had several
'73 ~ '87 trucks and I scored some good stuff , a nice jack and handle with all the hold down hardware for only $8 (the 3/4T jack is different) then a back glass and nearly new grommet (sourced from two different trucks) for $30 and lastly , a cherry light grey right side inner door panel for $17 , when first I entered the yard , this truck has both door panels but I walked the whole yard before getting a shopping cart to haul out all my collected booty in so someone else spotted & grabbed that hard to find , easy to re - dye color driver's side door panel .

Of course I was also able to grab a seriously large amount of correct fasteners and niggley things to make the various jobs I'm doing " Just So ".

I always try to be nice to the yard employees and help them out when I can so they're rather nice about charging me le$$ and giving me wierd stuff like the pair of brandy new GM stamped steel wheel chocks I found in one old truck .

To-morrow I hope to get back there early and grab a '73 seat as it has the tilting backrest that I prefer as I like to keep my lunchbox behind the seat .

 

[Pontiac1976]

Your doing great. You got some good deals, your lucky to have a good yard near you for parts. Keep up the good work. So did you have the slider in the rear and did you pick up the standard or the custom rubber.
you will really like a slider window there nice in that big cab.

 

[vwnate1]

To-Day's Junkyard Fun

Well ;

Please to remember : I'm in Los Angles (land of fruits , nuts & flakes) and we have more cars (and trucks !) than Detroit .

You'd be flabbergasted at all the perfectly good oldies in the junkyards here , shiny paint , NO RUST , few dents , just needing some TLC .

Anyways , I got the stock glass instead of the nice sliders I saw , remember : I live in LOS ANGLES so all but ONE slider had been jimmied open by some crackhead fool or tweaker... .

I did look at the DeLuxe grommets but the chrome piece is plastic and I don't want to have to buy a new one . As soon as I run down an affordable tinter and have that done , I'll re-install the backlight , doing the tint on a bare bit of glass means it'll never wrinkle or peel etc, as the edges are under the grommet's lip .

I decided to grab a folding back bench seat to-day and found a decent one out of an '85 , the cloth cover was dead but the seat proper , adjusters , foam etc. , etc. was all choice , it was lying on the ground between to trucks so I simply loaded it onto my shopping cart & wheeled it away....

As I passed the BIG Crew Cab 3X4 '86 I took the window out of yesterday , I realized the rear seat was in pretty good shape , only had boot prints all over it and junkyard grime from greasy hands , I thought to my self " ? I know Generous Motors Corp. is a cheap bunch , what if the SEAT is the same and only the mounting brackets are different ? " .

In a trice I had the rear bench seat out and upside down on the tailgate , , swapped over the other , adjustable brackets and grabbed some missing trims and screws etc. ~ $32 later I'm a *very* happy camper even if it is blue .

I also took my steering wheel puller in to-day and took a steering column apart and got all the little horn parts and the turn signal switch too , that was $10 well spent .

It heated up so I grabbed a bunch more hardware and so on , headed on home to scrub the new seat and right side door panel , I dyed that , it looks nice but it's too bright a red IMO ~ I'd prefer a burgundy red like original .

I'm sorta punting here , I need to go under the hood and address the leaky exhaust manifold to head gasket , I allready bought the gasket , I'm just dragging my feet thinking of all the pain involved in leaning in that w i d e engine compartment...... a bit worried about snapping off any studs too .

Once I know that's all good and sealed up tight , I can address the dieseling and idle miss issue then get it smogged so I do need to get busy soon.

It's running quite well and I pass a few cars on the freeway , I wonder if the tires are maybe a bit too bog around and the speedo is reading slow ? that'd be a novel experience for me .

I'm only writing a bit of the things that happen as I don't want to bore you all to death but I'm having fun with this BIG old beast .

 

[Zig]

Having FUN???

Let's see~ It's a BIG old 6 banger of the GMC variety.

You're not having fun, sounds like time spent in the yard and on this truck is more like being in heaven!

Great looking truck there, Nate! I love the fact it's that resale red you've mentioned before.

Guys, Nate has a real good reason for being slow, too. (In speed of movement, that is!) Maybe he'll tell you of his motorcycle ride someday.

 

[nerfherder78]

I don't know, sounds like he's getting quite a bit of work done pretty quickly to me.

Personally I like the old workhorse look. I had to clean out my bank account to get mine when I was 16, and it was just a no-options work truck. Keep the updates coming.

 

[vwnate1]

Work / Farm Trucks

Yep , I love 'em too ! .

I grew up on a New England Dairy Farm (Milking Shorthorns) so old trucks with 6 Bangers will be my meat until they pry my cold , dead fingers from the steering wheel .

FWIW , the Thinwall 292 C.I.D. InLine 6 cylinder engine , was GM's very last true InLine truck engine and it's a CHEVROLET engine , not a GMC L o n g Motor .

C'est La Vie .

My brother came over yesterday and we got more done , I of course found out a bunch more I need to do yet , rip the dash binnacle all apart and figure out why the temp. & fuel gauges go crazy when I use the hazard lights , plus no dash illumination and the turn signal indicators work reversed , I'm betting it's a ground fault and current is back flowing through the gauges and dash lights , we'll see .

I found an N.O.S. turn signal cam part in a old FLAPS near me , these were 'A' items back in the 60's through the 80's but are now long forgotten about , I paid $17 (ow) for a bit of plastic but it fit and all , just turned out to point the turn signal lever off at a 45° UP angle so I took it bock out again and installed a passable used one I scored in Pick-A-Part so now the turn signals work again and the fu%&(ing WOOD SCREW the DPM installed in lieu of the hazard button , only mangled the first turn of threads so I was able to carefully thread the ' Just So ' correct original screw back on with the correct button... sheesh .

I also discovered that GM used several different " start "plates under the steering wheel as this steering column was assembled out of God alone knows what junk and was missing parts and the horn contact brush was broken off , I replaced it all with parts from a '74 Chevy P.U. and the steering wheel is now canted three splines to the left... it looks like P-A-P and I will continue our 40 year long partnership a while yet .

I masked off most of the new seats hardware and began dying it red , my brother thinks it looks good , I'm wishing I could find a Saddleman seat cover in red....

I hope to have that finished to-morrow after work so it's dry enough to install the seat Tuesday after work .

The passenger side door trim panel is now red and looking pretty good , I'll install it _after_ I'm done wrestling that big seat in ~ no need to gouge it when my son heaves as I hoe...

I also replaced the comically wrong accorion typ upper radiatorhose that was crispy and rubbing against the P.S. resivoir ~ this guy was going to let his 16 year old DAUGHTER drive it it was a death trap , now it's just a great old work / Farm truck again .

The regular old Delcotron alternator is a recent rebuild and it charges a nice , even 14.5 VDC even at idle speeds , as the headlights are kinda yellowy I'm thinking they're the originals and maybe I'll replace with some Halogen ones or maybe a pair of # 6015 truck sealbeams , these are great but few know about them , I've been buying them for $1 Ea. at closeouts for years...

.

 

[Zig]

My bad!

FWIW , the Thinwall 292 C.I.D. InLine 6 cylinder engine , was GM's very last true InLine truck engine and it's a CHEVROLET engine , not a GMC L o n g Motor .

Sorry to have typed without thinking. At least the tailgate says
GMC
That's close~

 

[vwnate1]

No Worries !

It's still a darn good truck , not like the new Cadillac pickups I see with rhinestones on them , all over L.A..... sheesh .

SWMBO has been making it impossible to work on it so to-night I hope to drive it home and yank the entire driveshaft for service and maybe the leaky exhaust manifold too , plus some other fiddles , as it'll be dead in my drive a few days until I get the driveline done , I may rip into the dash board as it's wonky in a new & strange way , I hate having non working things , no illumination etc. .

I'm thinking of re-connecting the original fuel tank again too as the cap on the added on 2nd tank seems to leak upon takeoff from a dead stop .

I have to wait for my son to get some time to help me load the new seat in , I've dyed it red as best I can , I hope it looks O.K. , it should be clean & comfy , that's the most important part to me .

I got a strange call from an old freind Tuesday night , I think they're angling to ride along with me... might be fun but I'm still trying to get SWMBO to go .

 

[vwnate1]

Once In A While....

Finding DPO mistakes and broken things is good

Last night I discovered the carby is a recent rebuilt (good) & they neglected to use any lockwashers in mounting it so it was loose and wobbling back & forth (more good as now I've found the wierd idle problem I'm sure .

I also found two blown out exhaust header to head gaskets , that's a plus too as each of these little niggly things I find & fix , means it'll run better when I button it back up .

This time , NO stripped / crossthreaded holes although a few missing or wrong hardware issues and some old stiff , cracked and leaky hoses .

It's a 6 cylinder and has twice that many hoses under the hood . Once I stop all those vacuum leaks , it'll run tops again , doesn't run bad now but idles too fast and misses at idle occasionally .

The bi-mettalic choke spring thingie was of course, assembles bass-ackwards plus the snap on cover was 180° out , that's a common thing and easily rectified .

I really need to find a service book on the Rochester MonoJet single barrel carby ~ it has an electric anti-diesel / idle speed control solenoid that needs adjusting , on the back of it is a big nut with an allen screw in the middle , I *think* I'm to loosen the nut and turn the allen screw to adjust the idle but I'd rather know for sure before I wreck a $75 parts I'm not going to find in the junkyard .

I'm confident this thing will whizz though the SMOG test once I get all this done .

I dropped the driveshaft , only the front U-Joint was notchy although all were dry and stiff being the originals . It's supposed to be picked up to-day for rebuilding , the center support cusion is shot too .

# 1 son says he'll come over Sunday morning and help me load in the new seat .

 

[vwnate1]

1976 GMC C2500 Update

Bummer ~ it was a nice old truck , I put well over $3,700 worth or parts into it and then had to give it away as NO ONE wanted to give me $1,500 for it , I just got an impound notice from a local city , it seems someone went to jail or whatever so the Impound Yard wants rid of it but I have no place to store it....

End of the road for this fine old truck methinks , Pick-A-Part usually buys these for $200 as no one ever wants (or is able) to pay the $500 impound & release fees , that's why I was able to find all those cherry original and new parts...

Sigh