73-87 Chevy _ GMC Trucks > Members Rides

1987 Silverado V10 from the frozen north

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nbarr7:
In inspecting the harmonic balancer, I found my coolant leak. Unfortunately it looks like it's coming from the bottom of the water pump. I'm assuming that's shot then. Makes sense why I'd lose coolant worse after driving (why I was afraid of a head gasket way forever ago).

nbarr7:
Hello all. While this is NOT the end of the story, I wanted to officially post the process of my fighting with the esc bypass so others can see what I was experiencing.

Synopsis for those not wanting to watch:
After timing the truck as documented in this thread, I tried adjusting timing 10 degrees advanced and retarded to account for any slippage in either direction by the harmonic balancer. Truck ran fine with the ecm bypass disconnected but ran like absolute garbage as soon as that wire was plugged back in regardless of advanced or retarded turning of the distributor. Over and over, no matter what I did truck ran fine in base mode, and basically didn't run (backfiring/rough not staying running) as soon as I tried to get the ecm to control advance. I had my wife help me find tdc, and harmonic balancer didn't seem too off. Based on other forum posts here and other places, people describing the ecm bypass wire issue I was having usually traced it back to some portion of the distributor. So... I took mine out to replace the pickup in there. I disassembled it, and cleaned it, and replaced the pickup and the reluctor (since I broke the reluctor getting the stuck parts apart) and then I had a wonky time getting the distributor to clock right when I reinstalled it - even though the truck had not moved, nor had the engine turned. I still don't actually know what was going on there. So, ultimately I decided to get in-person help and a local mechanic took it to his place to get to the bottom of things. Next update will document that progress, but this is the (late) video update for LAST month.

https://youtu.be/NgPv6_qhlVY

*Be aware I'm not asking for advice for this video, since actually most of this is rectified now -not by me - but that update is to come once I get the truck back.

nbarr7:
Well, we have made progress on the ECM issue. I have a video explaining it, and chronicling the current month progress on my truck.

https://youtu.be/TlnykKS6tSY

Note in the video that my local mechanic also had a new bed, so it's now sporting a surface-rust blue box.

Also, it seems like I'm replying to myself mostly on this thread by now, so if this is uninteresting to you all and you have suggestions as to how to make it more engaging, let me know. I don't mean to just take up digital space. Hoping to kind of take you guys with me as I learn, and as this truck gets slowly better and better.


*for the TLDR folks so to speak, to summarize the video, the truck is now home and runs. The ECM issue could have been a few things, but a wire was found to have pulled slightly out of the harness going into the ignition control module. I thought I had checked for shorts in all 4 of those wires but who knows. I very obviously miss things. An entire new distributor was also put in, so that could also have helped as well. Either way, if anyone is having that problem of only running well in base timing mode with the bypass circuit unplugged, it seems to generally be related to the distributor, or wires thereto.

Next up, I'm looking into tires and new springs, and some general bushings and etc to get us riding a little smoother...

nbarr7:
It's been a little bit, but there is progress on the truck. I replaced the water pump (and radiator hoses) and I no longer seem to be losing coolant. I also had a decent fight with one of the rear wheels that was all but welded on with rust/friction, but finally prevailed, and the truck is now sporting some 33" tires I found around here used for cheap. I'd eventually like to re-wrap my rally wheels with beauty rings etc, but for now these work since they came with the rims they're on. So at this point, I believe I have an unequivocally running and driving truck. Which is where I wanted to be a year ago, but I've fixed an awful lot in this past year as well, so I shouldn't complain.

As it's advancing toward winter here in Minnesota, I likely will not do as much on the truck at this point, since I don't plan on driving it winters. That said, one of my next moves is addressing sacked out suspension. I think with these 33s (that somehow don't rub at all currently) I'm going to look at 2" lift springs, and do some shopping for correlating shocks. With this not being a work truck, I wouldn't mind the ride being smooth-ish, and I've heard good things about e-z springs, and I may go that way. 

nbarr7:
It's been a, well, a frozen northern winter. Which I love, but having an unheated shop doesn't lend itself to truck progress. With spring tentatively arriving, however, projects once again are underway on the 87. Most recent is an e-z ride based 2" spring lift (blocks in back) to improve ride and look just slightly better. Shock towers were painted black, since we're keeping things simple on this guy. I've never lifted anything, and had a friend help with front disassembly, but kind of just figured things out as I went (and asked friends a LOT of questions). I still need to buy new rear leaf springs as the kit only came with fronts (why I suspect she's down at the rear slightly) but she's ever so slightly coming along...

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