Re: One Ton Suburban
 

Ed, I just finished this thread and learned that your dad passed away on my Mom's birthday, October 24. My prayers and condolences to you and the rest of your family. May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, fill the hearts and minds of you and each of your family members.

your friend in Christ,

Lewis Ellis Matkin, Jr.
Ridge Manor, Fla.
1965 1002 305E (soon to be 401M)

Re: One Ton Suburban
 

Don't know how I missed this when you first posted it, Lewis, but I wanted to thank you for your kind words. Coincidentally, just since my Dad died in October, my mother-in-law died in November and my Dad's sister died in January. All three were in their 90s. For anyone interested, Google "Margaret Snyder" to learn about the founder of UNIFEM. She owned an apartment across the street from her long-time employer, the United Nations. Aunt Margaret took my wife and me on a tour of the UN building in 2000 where we got to see Nelson Mandela speaking to the Security Council.

Re: One Ton Suburban
 

Ed I did look her up and "Peg" had quite the life!
Talk about living your life to the fullest as an author, educator, scholar, traveler/explorer and being a pioneer in Women's economic equality; She was way ahead of the curve.

Re: One Ton Suburban
 

Thanks, Henry. Aunt Peg's resume really puts mine to shame. She certainly fit a lot of accomplishments into her life. Up until a couple of months ago she still walked everywhere in NYC. She had just moved into an assisted living facility back "home" in East Syracuse to be near her brother and other family members when her health took a nosedive. She passed away less than a week short of her 92nd birthday.

Seeing the Henry J photo on your post reminded me of a friend from my freshman year in college. He had a Henry J that he was working on to turn it into a drag strip special.

Re: One Ton Suburban
 

Some of you may be familiar with the Bring a Trailer website. Beware though -- it can suck you end and you can spend way too many hours on it! The youngest of my eight siblings, known as Auto Traitor on BaT, scored today by being selected for "Comment of the Day". See https://bringatrailer.com/todayonbat/2022-02-19/ You'll have to scroll way down past all the photos of vehicles for sale first, then click on "No Reserve: 1959 Plymouth Sport Suburban Project" to read Pete's whole comment. Since Pete was born in 1965, he can be excused for mis-remembering the Plymouth as a '59 when it was actually a '57.

Re: One Ton Suburban
 

Very cool Ed!
That was a monster of a wagon with those big rear fins out back.

Re: One Ton Suburban
 

Thanks, Funky! Here are a couple of photos of what the '57 Plymouth Suburban looked like. Ours was the gold color.

Re: One Ton Suburban
 

The Sun tachometer in Dad's old one ton Suburban stopped working many years ago. I finally got motivated enough to troubleshoot it, and learned why Dad never bothered with it. First I had to lie under the front end to scrape undercoating off the bolt heads holding the grille on. After removing the grille, I had to remove the "wings" on either side of the core support too. The Sun tach was a dealer-installed option, so I don't know why they decided to hide the sending unit behind the grille.

After removing the sending unit and opening it up, I saw just what I was expecting -- lots of corrosion at both ends of the original mercury battery. After scraping off as much as I could, I installed a new AA battery as was suggested in an old post to the forum. However, after reinstalling the sending unit and starting the engine, I found that the tach still doesn't work.

So now I'm asking for suggestions on what to try next. I know replacing the Sun tach with a new one from Datcon or Isspro would be the easiest fix, but I'd like to preserve the original installation if possible. I seem to remember posts to the forum about converting the Sun tach to eliminate the remote sending unit, but haven't tried finding that yet.

See attached photos.

Re: One Ton Suburban
 

Hi Ed; I found this article about a work around solution.

https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1166337

Has battery number alternatives I was not able to find on the net.


And of course eBay Transmitter unit

https://www.ebay.com/itm/28546839840...mis&media=COPY

Re: One Ton Suburban
 

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!

Re: One Ton Suburban
 

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

Re: One Ton Suburban
 

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

Re: One Ton Suburban
 

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

Ed

Re: One Ton Suburban
 

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/

Re: One Ton Suburban
 

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.

Re: One Ton Suburban
 

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.

Re: One Ton Suburban
 

After giving it a lot of thought over the last few months, I've decided to pass the one ton Suburban on to the next owner. See it on BaT here --- https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1965-gmc-suburban/
Feel free to bid on it!

:biggringmc:

Re: One Ton Suburban
 

:ahhhh:

Re: One Ton Suburban
 

A Great Story...History and listing Ed! :thumbsup:


I'm sure it was not an easy decision to sell. Best wishes on the sale and I do like your listing name. :goodluck::toofunny:

Re: One Ton Suburban
 

The one ton Suburban drove off into the sunset this afternoon. The new owners are Bob and Tammy Pitcher of Billings, Montana. Bob and his son are driving it back to Billings.

Re: One Ton Suburban
 

Congratulations Ed!

I watched and it was a great auction till the very end.

That's a nice photo of the new owners and looks to be going to a good home.

Re: One Ton Suburban
 

This makes me sad. I know it's going to a great new home but dang. The history!
I guess you can't drive three trucks though.