The GMT400 thread (88-98 GM full-size trucks)

When I first saw GMT400 I thought it meant GM Turbo 400. 
So here is the '64 getting a 454 & a Turbo400.

I'm super tempted to go check this out.  If I get it the challenge car has to sell after the challenge very quickly.  
 

Looks mint

My former "beach wagon" - big block '95 K2500. It was not fond of being used only sparingly in the summer and then sitting all winter outdoors in Maine. I let it go when my beach weekends turned into too many fix-the-truck-so-we-can-drive-to-the-beach weekends.

In reply to solfly :

Yes but like most sellers in CL I'm not sure the seller can form complete sentences. I keep getting two and three letter replies. Maybe a photo of cash will wake them up.....

In reply to AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) :

The cash photo revived the seller.  We shall see.  The truck is 2 hrs away and the family is in town from out of state.

This is tempting as a dedicated tow rig. I am curious what suspension and brake upgrades I could make to something like this into the ultimatetow rig. This ad seems a little sketch though and I'd prefer to purchase from a less rusty place. 

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1546624119066522/

AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) said:

I'm super tempted to go check this out.  If I get it the challenge car has to sell after the challenge very quickly.  
 

It was a truck like that I had for 20 years and 371,000 miles ( except red and 4x4 ) 

frenchyd said:

AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) said:

I'm super tempted to go check this out.  If I get it the challenge car has to sell after the challenge very quickly.  
 

It was a truck like that I had for 20 years and 371,000 miles ( except red and 4x4 ) 

I really want to go get this one next weekend.  My folks are in town this weekend.  I'm afraid if this one slips away, I will regret it.  Even my 8 year old knows daddy wants a "step truck" as she calls them.

Powar said:

Once again, the cheap diesel did great. After getting his truck into the shop and looking it over, he decided it was officially a parts truck and offered it to me and a friend to split for $200, so now I have 3.5 GMT400s, all purchased within the last month. I didn't really even intend to buy the first one. Now I need to swap some parts from the orange one to the other two when the weather improves a bit.

Update on the 400 fleet: I sold the red rotbox after fixing a few issues and spending way too much time cleaning. The new owner really appreciated what an honest, cheap truck it was and I've seen it on the road a couple of times since. Perfect.

The crew cab diesel lives on. The first step was to upgrade the lights and patch up the front end of the truck. Using some pieces from the big orange parts truck, some epoxy, and some new headlights, I can actually see again. If any of you want actually good lighting in a 400, I can't recommend this enough. The W/T front end and some quality LEDs go a long way.

Next up, I did the front main seal, crank pulley, and harmonic balancer because broken diesel cranks and oil leaks are no fun. The truck was then closer to being trusted, so I used it to run to the next town and pick up a few hundred pounds of chicken feed. This was the drive down there on a 2 lane road at 55mph:

On the way home, disaster struck. Front right lower ball joint has left the building. The truck was driving completely normally until it wasn't. It came home like this:

Things snowballed a bit because parts are relatively cheap and it all had to come apart anyway. A replacement front right lower control arm, bushings and ball joints for the others, inner and outer tie rods, end links, sway bar bushings, blah blah. This took way longer than expected for reasons not related to the truck, but it is finally all back together and better than it has been since I've owned it.

Back to doing big dumb truck stuff like towing cars, pulling trees, and hauling brush.

Wow, those LED throw a lot of light!  Tempted to swap my grill to the WT, they make my composite lights look like candles..

06HHR (Forum Supporter) said:

Wow, those LED throw a lot of light!  Tempted to swap my grill to the WT, they make my composite lights look like candles..

They're excellent, and I actually like the purposeful, simple design of the W/T front end. This is my third or fourth set of these exact LEDs, which are a very good copy of the GE Nighthawks that I have in my '85 900S. 

I'm going to get the stepside OBS Saturday.

Any guesses what a 4x2 OBS stepside that runs rough but moves under its own power cost?  It's super clean, 99% stock and a 305 truck.  

If it ran well, it'd probably be a $10K+ truck in Ohio.

In reply to eastsideTim :

Or more in Dallas.  I live in MS though.  It needs attention under hood though.  It's nothing major and it drove into the trailer just fine.  The tranny seems okay too.  The fluids were decent level and looked reasonable.

Hi guys.  Need tie rod ends for my 1991 C1500. Is Moog still any good? Or should I go with AC Delco or Mevotech.  It's not my daily, but sometimes it is if you know what I mean.

I did Moog from Rockauto on mine earlier this summer. All were clearly marked Made in USA.

In reply to Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) :

That works for me. I aspire to get mine as clean as yours is

In reply to 06HHR (Forum Supporter) :

You're very kind. Thank you. I'm sorry to report that it's sitting outside getting rained on currently. 

Once the weather breaks a little this fall I will do some work to do to it. Parts are piling up. Nothing exotic though.

In reply to Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) :

I understand, I've been working around the weather myself. It's either been pouring rain or a hundred degrees out this summer and nothing in between.

Sweet stepside purchase!!

I like Mevotech stuff these days.

In reply to solfly :

I'm going to need a lot of suspension refreshing so I will look at mevotech.  If I want to upgraded to JB5 brakes and drop at the same time what all parts will be needed?  And can anyone point me to quality rotors / hubs?  I'm seeing a lot of unknown quality stuff on eBay.  

The spindles are different between the 1 inch and the 1.25 inch brakes. Belltech 2400 for the smaller brakes, 2500 for the larger ones. Rotors different obviously. Calipers too. And inner wheel bearings.  Spindles interchange onto the balljoints and tie rod ends. It's a straight swap to go to the bigger brakes if you have the needed parts. Also a no brainer if you're buying drop spindles already. 

If you want to drive to Fort Worth I'll give you a pair of good rotors and calipers for the big brakes. They're sitting outside my garage door and headed for scrap if I ever get around to it.