Looking for information - Buying a truck

[Prowbar]

Congratulations with your new (old) purchase. It being a dump truck, is able to tilt hydraulically and comes with the PTO etc. all hooked up?
You mentioned a 1970 C3500? What engine and trans does it have? How is the condition of the bodywork?

These auto stores guys not knowing about points... Read about the lack of knowledge at auto parts stores in the US all over the internet, unfortunately. In the Netherlands it is about the same, but folks usual don't go into the full denial (idi0t) mode.

[vwgreg]

Sorry another long reply.

Originally Posted by Jim A

Whew! You got it to the OR. Hopefully the oil pressure prevented any damage.
It is a scary story about points.
Keep us informed.

It has great oil pressure, I threw one of my good pressure gauges on it and it idles at 30 psi and goes up from there.

Right now it has a miss, not going to mess with the engine for a couple of weeks, the goal is to get it "road ready" in the sense of yard moves, then I can focus on the engine and trans.

Originally Posted by Prowbar

Congratulations with your new (old) purchase. It being a dump truck, is able to tilt hydraulically and comes with the PTO etc. all hooked up?

Thanks. The dump hydraulics needs to be gone though, it has a cylinder leak and doesn't make any pressure at the pump but that could be several things. The PTO does need work, it is noisy. I've rebuilt a few of them at one of my jobs so that's not going to be an issue. The one thing that it does do is if I increase the speed to 1000 rpm, the pto shaft starts to whip. My biggest issue is to figure out who made the dump lift system, I think it may be a Garwood system but I have found very little on these small dump bodies.

Originally Posted by Prowbar

You mentioned a 1970 C3500? What engine and trans does it have? How is the condition of the bodywork?

The body is in good shape, but it does need doors, I didn't notice but someone welded (badly) the door part of the hinge to the door, so because there are a couple of people in the area (Detroit/Ann Arbor) who have a lot of parts for this series of truck, and one has doors for about $100 each, I am just going to buy two of them and put them on. The floor is surprisingly in good shape, there is rust on the corner where the pan meets the bulkhead and rocker, and the rockers look like they have been replaced or fixed. The fenders are typical for Michigan, rusted but nothing impossible to fix. The biggest issue on the entire truck is the roof interior header where the sun visors are mounted, this has factory clearance lights that leaked and rusted out the header.

Whoever did the paint job painted the entire truck, including the interior, it is Green. The truck was Blue and I like Blue much more than Green.

The engine is an LS9, 350 4bbl. It is a typical grease-caked chevy engine (like the ones I had when I was a kid), and it looks like it is original to the truck, with a date code of October 27, 1969. It has a SM465 trans, which I am very happy to have, and a GM 7200 GVW rear axle.

The really bad thing about the truck is the electrical system, I did not think it was as bad as it turned out but it is a nightmare. Nothing I can't handle. I had no fuel or amp gauge but the temp gauge was working. the lights were all messed up and so on. someone also put in a "signal stat" turn signal that I am going to remove when it stops raining. So I found a lot of missing connections, the amp gauge was completely cut out, there wasn't a ground to the instrument cluster plus no voltage going to it. I have to still clean up the fuse block, it has a lot of rusted fuse contacts, so I cleaned it up as best as I could, got voltage where it is supposed to be, and then created a few grounds. One thing I was getting while the engine was running was 17 to 18 volts at the battery. I knew what this was, there was no ground from the battery to the sheet metal, but only to the engine. I created a ground to the radiator support, made sure the regulator and the alternator had a proper ground and tested it, 14.2v at the battery!!

When I finished up last night, I had lights, instruments, and even a dome light, oh and the heater fan was working. Still on the list is to get the two important things fixed, the turn signals which I will have to take the switch out and replace it and "rewire" the switch into the system, but the more important thing is to get the radio working.

Originally Posted by Prowbar

These auto stores guys not knowing about points... Read about the lack of knowledge at auto parts stores in the US all over the internet, unfortunately. In the Netherlands it is about the same, but folks usual don't go into the full denial (idi0t) mode.

I told the story on another forum and Oh crap, it opened the floodgates about what others go through at parts stores. My case isn't as bad as others. I am going to try Rock Auto, Amazon doesn't have a selection that I thought they would. The really bad thing for me is I used to have tons (literally) of parts for Chevy/GMC vehicles of this era and I sold them all off thinking that I would never need them. I have a few things left over like plugs, caps and rotors. I was thinking that I would stick to my Dodge products ... well I have another GMC.

[Prowbar]

I like the long replies

Seems all these dump truck systems are made by someone in their backyard shed, but that's my very limited take on it.

Nice that you can get replacement parts for cheap over there, I suppose you could use them in the rust belt.

I suspect the 7200 GVW axle is a 14 bolt rear end?

If that truck were mine I'd redo the wiring all over if its all spliced and hacked up like so many of them are. Interesting how such a simple truck can have so many wiring faults
I envy your electrical problem solving skills, though!

For standard small parts, Rockauto is a great website. I use them to get parts over here. What you see on the picture is what you get. If you can find a part in your year/model look in another model of year, most of the times they are there.

Always had a good experience with RockAuto. Using FedEx shipping, I can forward the customs duties, avoiding any unnecessary waiting times. My last few packages arrived blazingly fast, like 2-3 workdays. In my opinion I don't mind waiting a little longer but oh well.

If you every get tired of the (tired) 350, swap in the 351 V6 you were able to purchase! You need a manual bellhousing though. If its for an earlier SM420 the retainer ring needs to be bored out to 5.125" (off the top of my head)
Need a different engine crossmember as well, I suspect your truck has 1 tranny mount at the rear of the trans?

Just a random idea

[FetchMeAPepsi]

How did this turn out?

[vwgreg]

Originally Posted by Jim A

Whew! You got it to the OR. Hopefully the oil pressure prevented any damage.
It is a scary story about points.
Keep us informed.

Sorry for the delay in an update, my wife had an accident a few weeks back, she has a TBI and I have been attending to her needs, so it has been slow getting anything done at the homestead.

I love this truck, I will get it done soon to make it a safe drivable vehicle, I have a lot of dirt and stone to get here with it.

I have realized it has a lot more sheet metal issues than I first thought but the cab is good and somewhat solid. A few soft spots on the floor and need to get the doors replaced, and the front sheet metal aligned right. I am not worried about the doors or anything else, with the number of used parts in the area, I won't have any issues finding parts.

It is drivable at this point. The one thing I had to do is work on the brakes, the clevis pins on the brake booster to the pedal were frozen. This prevented the brakes from being applied unless you put both feet on the pedal and it would not return unless you pulled it up. I had everything removed from the pedal forward and it took me three days to get it all loose. I did take it to a machine shop, no fault of theirs but I wasn't going to pay more than $40 for them to just throw it into the press and pop the pins out. Needless to say, I got it all loose and back on the truck. I have to work on the back brakes, which I haven't taken off dualies since 1985. It does stop and stops pretty well.

I am still sorting out the electrical problems, the charging problem (overcharging) has been solved with new grounds and cleaning/adjusting the regulator. the amp gauge works, as does the other two gauges. The other electrical issues have to do with the front-end wiring and turn signals. I am going to build a "bright box" to reduce the current off the headlight switch to preserve the switch. It is going to be plug and play box and I already have the parts (from a "you pull" yard for nothing) and it is simple to do. Amazingly it is a needed thing on Dodge Ram trucks like my 1997.

The problem it had was with the melted wires within the front light harness, most of them are replaced and need to just be wrapped up to make it look good. I have to go through and make sure that all the lights work, I have issues with the turn signal light which I think is a ground issue.

I also have to replace the bearings in the alternator and may just throw in the spare alternator with the transistorized regulator, I had it for 45 years now. The other thing I have to work on is the clearance lights, this is where it leaked, causing header rust so I have to remove them to seal them up. They do work. The rust I am going to hold off on any repairs for a while.

I have realized it has a lot more sheet metal issues than I first thought but the cab is good and somewhat solid. A few soft spots on the floor and need to get the doors replaced, and the front sheet metal aligned right. I am not worried about the doors or anything else, with the number of used parts in the area, I won't have any issues finding parts.

My next step for the engine is to replace the valve cover gaskets, which are leaking oil, and get a power washer to clean the muck off of it (which the local quarter car wash closed so I will use my own). Maybe pull the left manifold, it needs a donut and new studs, but also rebuild the carb or at least convert the divorce choke with an integral electric one (don't feel like removing the intake and cleaning out the heat riser port, not up to it at this point). The other thing is I just need to give it a good tune-up with everything new, I will do this later.

I have cleaned out the fuel system, OMG what crud and crap was in that tank, I put it into a container for my burn barrel, and won't put it into any engine. The tank looks good inside and right now I have three gallons in the tank, going to put in one gallon at a time until it is full so I know what the gauge is at with say 6 gallons.

I've driven it up and down the road a few times and may do that today when I move it to cut the lawn if I get to fixing my lawn tractor carb (it has a stuck float). That said I have to get a 15" (or smaller) steering wheel. I think it has a 17-inch one on it, and it is killing me to get into the truck (I am fat). I missed out on a period 15-inch Pontiac rally wheel for $5 at an estate sale. I have somewhere in my collection a "wood" type wheel from a Corvette that I may put in the truck.

I haven't got to the dump hydraulics yet. I did do some work on the dump box but nothing to cheer about. I need to get the hydraulics done but again I have to figure out where the port is to fill it up with oil, I think it is dry. If it needs seals, I will be pulling it all apart and rebuilding it. with my large tractor down, I can't lift the box up and prop it up to work on it (I have a Ford 3000 industrial tractor with power steering cylinders I can not find the parts for, they are Ford but not anything put on the farm tractors) I've done a lot of lift cylinders so this one will be easy. I can't figure out who made it, I am going to assume that because it is a locally bought, upfitted, and remained a local farm truck, it is a Garwood lift system which I can get some parts but worry about the pump if it needs rebuilding, I may have to get the wear plates (assuming it is a gear pump) made. It looks like it is an integral pump, so I can't use my spares (these were from Greesen).

I'll return to it soon, most of this will be in the morning because I can't take the heat as I could when I was younger.

So that's it right now