Dark Seas M1008 Project

[DarkSeas]

Glad I caught my incompetency early - the coolant overflow bottle on the truck is completely shot. (Funny story, I knew the very top and lid were cracked but I threw some coolant in it at the garage right before I finished and 100% of it leaked out onto the floor by my boots. That's how I realized the entire bottle was shot). I didn't really think much of it, didn't fully understand what it did and the radiator only needed half a quart of coolant to top off. I've been reading and starting to realize that coolant overflow jug is actually pretty important.

Does it matter what style I go with? Would any of these work below (provided the size would work), or do I need to go with a direct replacement because of the height of the jug/position of the inlet/outlets relative to the radiator?

 

[adf5565]

Glad I caught my incompetency early - the coolant overflow bottle on the truck is completely shot. (Funny story, I knew the very top and lid were cracked but I threw some coolant in it at the garage right before I finished and 100% of it leaked out onto the floor by my boots. That's how I realized the entire bottle was shot). I didn't really think much of it, didn't fully understand what it did and the radiator only needed half a quart of coolant to top off. I've been reading and starting to realize that coolant overflow jug is actually pretty important.

Does it matter what style I go with? Would any of these work below (provided the size would work), or do I need to go with a direct replacement because of the height of the jug/position of the inlet/outlets relative to the radiator?

View attachment 923953

Any bottle would work to an extent but with the capacity of our coolant systems we need a pretty large expansion bottle to prevent it from being overflowed. So I’d suggest either the oem bottle or pretty large aftermarket one.

 

[DarkSeas]

Any bottle would work to an extent but with the capacity of our coolant systems we need a pretty large expansion bottle to prevent it from being overflowed. So I’d suggest either the oem bottle or pretty large aftermarket one.

Yerp, I looked it up you want like 12% of total coolant capacity plus another 6% to account for any thermal expansion. 25qt coolant system, that'd be a 4.5qt minimum bottle. I'll take some measurements of the real estate tonight to figure out if I need something tall or can use something big and square. I know HBW has one but it's $75.

 

[DarkSeas]

A photo dump from tonight, because why not?

 

[Buck69]

Great to hear you have it mobile again.
If replacing the washer fluid reservoir, you may want to look at one with the built in pump? Pretty easy to extend the wires and hose and it would open up more options for replacing the wiper motor when that time comes.
I would be dropping the pan on the trans as well and doing a service at minimum. Mine engages aggressively when put into gear with what almost feels like no slip starting out. If temp played any influence with that, it lightens up slightly when warm.
Going to replace the torque soon on mine to one with a higher stall speed to help accommodate the 5.7 I installed in it. I also get a pretty good clunk in the driveline when changing directions if I don't let the driveline unload for a second or two in neutral while doing so. Everything is tight, so thinking it is the slop in the no spin causing most of that.

 

[dougco1]

Glad I caught my incompetency early - the coolant overflow bottle on the truck is completely shot. (Funny story, I knew the very top and lid were cracked but I threw some coolant in it at the garage right before I finished and 100% of it leaked out onto the floor by my boots. That's how I realized the entire bottle was shot). I didn't really think much of it, didn't fully understand what it did and the radiator only needed half a quart of coolant to top off. I've been reading and starting to realize that coolant overflow jug is actually pretty important.

Does it matter what style I go with? Would any of these work below (provided the size would work), or do I need to go with a direct replacement because of the height of the jug/position of the inlet/outlets relative to the radiator?

View attachment 923953

$30.00 at Walmart

 

[dougco1]

View attachment 924039 $30.00 at Walmart

They are for the vans but fit the 1008 trucks and 1009 blazers just fine. You may have to drill a new hole for mounting.

 

[DarkSeas]

Great to hear you have it mobile again.
If replacing the washer fluid reservoir, you may want to look at one with the built in pump? Pretty easy to extend the wires and hose and it would open up more options for replacing the wiper motor when that time comes.
I would be dropping the pan on the trans as well and doing a service at minimum. Mine engages aggressively when put into gear with what almost feels like no slip starting out. If temp played any influence with that, it lightens up slightly when warm.
Going to replace the torque soon on mine to one with a higher stall speed to help accommodate the 5.7 I installed in it. I also get a pretty good clunk in the driveline when changing directions if I don't let the driveline unload for a second or two in neutral while doing so. Everything is tight, so thinking it is the slop in the no spin causing most of that.

I will be getting around to replacing the washer fluid res someday, it's pretty nasty, and I like the idea of an upgrade. Will probably do the wiper motor/fluid res and pump all together for a small little weekend win. Right now I'm talking about the coolant overflow jug next to the radiator - mine's busted all to hell and won't hold coolant. Was seeing if I needed to go HBW for $75 or if I could replace with aftermarket for cheaper and possibly sturdier.

I definitely will be doing a trans service - probably not this weekend but the following weekend. I want to drive the rebuilt transfercase some (maybe get 50-100 miles on it) then change out the fluid for new, get out any debris I may have missed in the rebuild. While I'm down there dealing with ATF might as well drain and change the TH400 filter and top that back off with fresh fluid. Trans scare me, sometimes you drain and fill and you're good, sometimes you drain and fill and your trans goes out cause you cleared the only gunk that was keeping it running. I'm hoping like @CARC686 suggested earlier to check the fluid level. It might just be low and not filling the TC.

 

[DarkSeas]

They are for the vans but fit the 1008 trucks and 1009 blazers just fine. You may have to drill a new hole for mounting.

Funny enough this is EXACTLY what I was looking at earlier. It looked to be the most similar shape to the CUCV jug, and I saw it came in the G30 with 6.2 diesels, figured it was close enough. Drilling is fine, glad to know these work I'll pick one up ASAP and get it on.

 

[DarkSeas]

Little bit of an update:
I go into first gear now super smooth and take off easy. Thanks @CARC686 - you were exactly right.

I idled the truck for about 15-20 minutes to get up to temp checked the dipstick running and had nothing on the stick.

Kept her running and added half a quart at a time (pint by pint). First half quart: still nothing. I'm betting the TC was getting her fill. Second half quart: nothing. Third splash because I was starting to get paranoid the dipstick was the wrong size: there was fluid on the tip of the stick. Awesome to see. Added another half quart, still fluid on the stick, didn't seem to move so I let her idle a couple more minutes and hit the throttle a few times to spin her up some (probably should have just shifted from park all the way through the gears...)

Either way my slow efforts paid off. The level was just below the good hot patch on the stick. I added a little less than a half quart checked again and im 80% up the full hot patch. Bingo.

Took her for a drive and she immediately went from park with no hesitation or high revving. I put the old girl through it, out the neighborhood and down the road so she could shift gears, I definitely have 2 but not sure about 3rd, i was only going about 35 though.

Came back through my neighborhood the long way and turned down the back of it, slowing stopping and starting over 5 speed bumps; she started rolling again with 0 hesitation. Super stoked.

Bad news is I think I see why she had no fluid. There's a small leak. Can't tell if it's the pan gasket or up front where the flywheel is. Praying it's the pan gasket, I will be changing the filter and gasket on the TH400 the following weekend.

For now, I'm gonna call this a victory.

 

[CARC686]

Don't know if they salt the roads up in NC, but I expect they probably do. The self-oiling undercarriage isn't a bug. It's a feature. Sounds like the transmission is internally healthy. If as you drive it, you find the shift points getting higher and higher, that'll be your vacuum pump crapping out. Here's what I did:

TH400 Won't Shift

Engine runs fine. First and reverse normal. Intermittently shifted high. Attempted to adjust shift points at IP. No effect. Took it for some hard wheeling for the first time yesterday morning. It stopped shifting into third last night. Wouldn't shift at all this morning. I did not dismantle the...

www.steelsoldiers.com

 

[DarkSeas]

Don't know if they salt the roads up in NC, but I expect they probably do. The self-oiling undercarriage isn't a bug. It's a feature. Sounds like the transmission is internally healthy. If as you drive it, you find the shift points getting higher and higher, that'll be your vacuum pump crapping out. Here's what I did:

TH400 Won't Shift

Engine runs fine. First and reverse normal. Intermittently shifted high. Attempted to adjust shift points at IP. No effect. Took it for some hard wheeling for the first time yesterday morning. It stopped shifting into third last night. Wouldn't shift at all this morning. I did not dismantle the...

www.steelsoldiers.com

I've only seen salt on the roads 2 days in 5 years (I'm down on the SE coast by South Carolina almost). I'm from up north (Maryland) so I definitely know what salt does to vehicles. Honestly the leak seems really small, a drop or two after a drive I'm not too worried bout. If changing the pan gasket when I do a filter change next week fixes it, great.

I won't lie, when I first deconstructed the motor a bit to the valve covers, I found the vacuum regulator in poor shape, and it actually broke when I got the vacuum lines off. I might have that vacuum regulator clocked incorrectly. Honestly it might have third gear and I'm just crazy, or it might take higher speeds than 30-35 to reach. As long as she can go about 45-50 I'm golden, that's most roads around me. She's gonna be a weekend cruiser for me.

 

[tacotruck]

One other place to look for a leak is where the selector shaft goes into the transmission, there is a seal there. The seal kits can be ordered with a little tool to extract it. If the pan gasket is also leaking there it may be hard to spot. Wouldn't think you'd see much from that though.

If you are concerned about vacuum and have a vacuum gauge you can plug it in and check the numbers at the line going into the regulator on the transmission though I can't recall what they should be.

 

[CARC686]

Looking at the vacuum regulator from the passenger fender, clockwise turns your shift points up. Counterclockwise turns them down. The vacuum pump I referred to is this distributor-type device in the engine valley by the firewall.



They're hard to find and people are charging outrageous amounts of money for them. You can just swap out the vacuum pod from one of these instead:



If they're all original, I'd plan on replacing the vacuum pump pod, lift pump, injector pump, and all the associated hoses. When they go from sitting around for years to being driven regularly, they all begin to leak. The cost on all this stuff is a bit steep, but that's why I'd start planning for it before it starts breaking. The guy I got my CUCV from said it was perfect and he'd drive it anywhere. Turns out that meant he hadn't had a problem in two years and 200 miles. I blew the injector pump within a month, the lift pump within two months, and the vacuum pump within three months. Beyond that, problems seemed to become of a less critical nature.

 

[CARC686]

One other place to look for a leak is where the selector shaft goes into the transmission, there is a seal there. The seal kits can be ordered with a little tool to extract it. If the pan gasket is also leaking there it may be hard to spot. Wouldn't think you'd see much from that though.

If you are concerned about vacuum and have a vacuum gauge you can plug it in and check the numbers at the line going into the regulator on the transmission though I can't recall what they should be.

If you're extra lazy, you can probably get away with just driving a new shift shaft seal in on top of the old one. That's what I did to my '69 C10.

 

[DarkSeas]

Looking at the vacuum regulator from the passenger fender, clockwise turns your shift points up. Counterclockwise turns them down. The vacuum pump I referred to is this distributor-type device in the engine valley by the firewall.

View attachment 924077

They're hard to find and people are charging outrageous amounts of money for them. You can just swap out the vacuum pod from one of these instead:

View attachment 924078

If they're all original, I'd plan on replacing the vacuum pump pod, lift pump, injector pump, and all the associated hoses. When they go from sitting around for years to being driven regularly, they all begin to leak. The cost on all this stuff is a bit steep, but that's why I'd start planning for it before it starts breaking. The guy I got my CUCV from said it was perfect and he'd drive it anywhere. Turns out that meant he hadn't had a problem in two years and 200 miles. I blew the injector pump within a month, the lift pump within two months, and the vacuum pump within three months. Beyond that, problems seemed to become of a less critical nature.

Now that I've got her driving, I'm fixing small stuff and saving up and finding the time to get my IP rebuilt. It's around $600 to get a local guy to fully rebuild the DB2 for me.

Lift pump, is that the mechanical one? That's already swapped to 12V, bleeding the fuel lines was so much nicer that way.

I will definitely look into that pod solution you're talkin about. I did look up those way early in the project and you're right the OEM part are crazy expensive these days, same with the OEM CDR valve.

 

[DarkSeas]

One other place to look for a leak is where the selector shaft goes into the transmission, there is a seal there. The seal kits can be ordered with a little tool to extract it. If the pan gasket is also leaking there it may be hard to spot. Wouldn't think you'd see much from that though.

If you are concerned about vacuum and have a vacuum gauge you can plug it in and check the numbers at the line going into the regulator on the transmission though I can't recall what they should be.

Good call. The bottom of the entire pan is greasy looking, but dead center on the bottom of the inspection plate is where I saw a drop formed. I figure things can only leak from above and blow backwards in the wind driving. I can't really tell where the leak was from. Maybe i need to hit the bottom side with brake clean clean everything off and then idle here again and see what's up

 

[CARC686]

Yeah, the OE mechanical lift pump is under the passenger side generator. If your motor mount bushings are shot, the fuel line coming out of it will be resting against your frame rail. The Energy Suspension part number for poly motor/transmission mount bushings is 3.1124(G for black, R for red). The conventional wisdom on the forum is that nothing else lasts. As for the OEM CDR, I understand you can clean it out with hot water and dish soap. I'm venting my crankcase to a venturi in the exhaust because my modified intake does not generate vacuum.

 

[DarkSeas]

Yeah, the OE mechanical lift pump is under the passenger side generator. If your motor mount bushings are shot, the fuel line coming out of it will be resting against your frame rail. The Energy Suspension part number for poly motor/transmission mount bushings is 3.1124(G for black, R for red). The conventional wisdom on the forum is that nothing else lasts. As for the OEM CDR, I understand you can clean it out with hot water and dish soap. I'm venting my crankcase to a venturi in the exhaust because my modified intake does not generate vacuum.

This is prob the best photo I have of the electric pump that came with the truck. I left it alone cause it worked but I'm pretty sure it's wired kind of sketchy jammed into a fuse box slot that turns on with key in power position.



I will have to look tomorrow see how that fuel line is sitting.

 

[CARC686]

This is prob the best photo I have of the electric pump that came with the truck. I left it alone cause it worked but I'm pretty sure it's wired kind of sketchy jammed into a fuse box slot that turns on with key in power position.

View attachment 924080

I will have to look tomorrow see how that fuel line is sitting.

Yeah, that's a modification. I'd secure the loose wires so they don't find something hot or moving. Are you missing your CDR entirely? I have an extra.