One Ton Suburban

[tbucketnut]

Ed, If you are looking for a guy to go through that tach and control box, get a hold of Jerry Valentine up here in the pacific Northwest, believe he is in Kirkland WA. He went through my GMC tach and converted it over to electronic. No more batteries and you can still retain your box for original looks or have the electronics put into the transmitter box. Also it has dipper switches so you can run it with V8 or V6. Ran me a couple hundred.
Contact Jerry at Catclock@msn.com

[Ed Snyder]

Originally Posted by Clarke

Hello Ed,

In ref to the tach transmitter unit:

I’m not sure I have any value added feedback, but I thought I’d share a photo of the guts on my unit, in case there’s something you can compare.
Note: Because I was disappointed in how long the single battery configuration last on the tach, I soldered jumper wires over to the other side of the box, so I could install a second battery. I’m much happier with the life now.

In ref to my soldering job, I know, there are big blobs. But hey, I’m the kinda guy who uses a pound of nails for a pound of wood.

FYI, I believe I did a write up on my installation of the tach system years ago but I couldn’t find it. I’m not very good at searching through the archive threads. Anyway, I got lucky and found period correct components at a swap meet. However, maybe it’s the engineer in me, I like things symmetrical, so I mounted the tach transmitter unit on the driver side inner fender under the hood (opposite side to the battery regulator). Looks like it belongs there and well protected from road grime.

Best of luck!

Looks good with that second battery in there, Dave! I might give that a try. I might relocate the box too, for easier access.

[Ed Snyder]

Originally Posted by tbucketnut

Ed, If you are looking for a guy to go through that tach and control box, get a hold of Jerry Valentine up here in the pacific Northwest, believe he is in Kirkland WA. He went through my GMC tach and converted it over to electronic. No more batteries and you can still retain your box for original looks or have the electronics put into the transmitter box. Also it has dipper switches so you can run it with V8 or V6. Ran me a couple hundred.
Contact Jerry at Catclock@msn.com

Thanks for the tip, Steve! I'll try sending Jerry an email to see what he can do for me.

Ed

[BobBray]

Ed, if you don't have any luck with Jerry Valentine (sounds like he is closer to you), I use these guys. Talk to Shannon:

https://redlinegaugeworks.com/

[Ed Snyder]

Originally Posted by Ed Snyder

Thanks for the tip, Steve! I'll try sending Jerry an email to see what he can do for me.

Ed

Just got a reply from Jerry Valentine. He's having eye trouble, so he can't help me. I'll check out the company Bob Bray recommended instead.

[Ed Snyder]

When Dad bought this one ton panel truck in 1965 which he converted into a Suburban with four rows of seats, he spent a lot of time at the dealership in Wichita, Sauder-Lygrisse. I usually went with him for visits because I liked looking at all the trucks, and listening to the conversations between Dad, Norm Sauder, and Gene Lygrisse. I could tell Norm and Gene were fond of Dad and his plans for the Suburban conversion.

One of the things I found interesting at the dealership was a board on the wall below the parts counter. It was a sheet of plywood painted white with a black line painted down the middle. On the left side were V6 engine parts (piston, con rod, etc.) wired to the board, and on the right side were corresponding small block V8 engine parts for comparison. It was obvious how much bigger and heavier all the V6 parts were.

Occasionally someone would come into the shop there and insist on replacing their V6 with a V8, thinking that two more cylinders had to be better. Dad and I always got a laugh out of that.

So, my question is, does someone out there with time on their hands want to recreate that old sheet of plywood with V6 and V8 parts? Might convince the occasional member here who wants to do the V6 to V8 conversion to stick with the V6 instead.