1989 Chevy K1500

[AuroraGirl]

When we got the truck, the girl pointed out that there was a random wire that went from under the hood, through the door jamb, then up into the dash somewhere. She didn't know what it did, so she never messed with it. Well today I figured out what it did, and that another previous owner was an idiot. They obviously knew that the cluster had a bad ground, because that janky wire went from a front fender bolt, to the gauge cluster. The only problem was, they had the wire attached to a cluster mounting screw... which is a plastic cluster, mounted to a plastic dash. Idiots, lol.

why go from a fender bolt lol, so far away. Id go to the floor before the fender.

I just ran a ground from the brace near the battery on my gmt800 to run to each sidemarker, because i have ghost voltage on the ground side (the side that the turn signals are supposed to power only for "switchback") , and I thought I was being cringe running from the driver fender to the passenger headlight lol.

 

[bucket]

why go from a fender bolt lol, so far away. Id go to the floor before the fender.

I just ran a ground from the brace near the battery on my gmt800 to run to each sidemarker, because i have ghost voltage on the ground side (the side that the turn signals are supposed to power only for "switchback") , and I thought I was being cringe running from the driver fender to the passenger headlight lol.

Lol, it was even the very front fender bolt.

 

[bucket]

Out of curiosity, I looked up the Ohio title history on the truck. There's no record previous to 2014, which means it came from out of state in 2014, or that's when the original owner finally sold it. There wouldn't have been a record of when the truck was originally titled because Ohio didn't go to electronic records until '91-'92.

It had a reported 240k on it in 2014. It has 323k on it now.

 

[bucket]

The gauge cluster lights up fantastic at night, and no more gauge/indicator gremlins.

You must be registered for see images attach

And now I realize that something is definitely wrong with the cluster in my '90 SS. Because you can't hardly read the gauges at night in that one.

 

[CheemsK1500]

You are making good progress on this one. I too would've totally taken my chances with that particular truck if the price was right. Early GMT400s are a neat in the sense that they still have old school stuff like small block V8s, Saginaw columns and other legacy GM bits and pieces but it is all wrapped in a aerodynamic modern body with what seems to be a very space-age like interior (compared to a square, anyway.)

 

[Camar068]

The gauge cluster issue did indeed turn out to be a ground connection issue. The problem is the gauge cluster itself. I remembered I had a gauge cluster that I had saved from a customer's vehicle about 20 years ago. It was replaced because some of the backlighting bulbs were inop. So anyway, I plugged it into the truck and the problem was gone. However, in the last 20 years, one of the turn indicators had also failed and that's not going to fly with my daughter lol.

So I went to work on the original cluster. Once I removed the tin backer cover, I found the issue:

You must be registered for see images attach

^That's the connector on the back of the cluster. The far left pin is the cluster ground and had a bad solder joint. The two next to it also have failing solder joints, but apparently are still connected.

I'm terrible at soldering and don't have the proper equipment to do a good job, so I improvised. The cluster's tin back cover has a screw that also grounds it to the ground on the circuit board. So I simply hooked a wire to that screw and ran a dedicated ground wire.

I forgot to take pictures of this, so I have the test cluster as an example.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

^The eyelet mounted to that screw, under the tin cover, then the wire came up through that rectangular opening. I stripped the wire back far enough that the bare wire strands could also make contact with the threads of the ground screw. That wasn't needed at all, but I figured it couldn't hurt.

The new ground wire just follows the headlight harness, then grounds out on the steel dash frame.

You must be registered for see images attach

Those are the easiest to fix when it comes to soldering. Put a little flux paste on it, and heat it up with a soldering iron. No additional solder needed, the existing solder will melt and create that "one" connection again. It's cracked from vibration over time. Probably 3 seconds with a soldering iron @ 650° and those COLD SOLDER JOINTS would be fixed. Cold solder joints are those that are cracked/separated like that.

Wish I'd known while you were here last and I'd taught you a few tricks with soldering.

 

[SK 99]

The gauge cluster lights up fantastic at night, and no more gauge/indicator gremlins.

You must be registered for see images attach

And now I realize that something is definitely wrong with the cluster in my '90 SS. Because you can't hardly read the gauges at night in that one.

Very nice! That looks wayyy brighter than my '89

 

[bigcountry78]

Looking good. You’re gonna make me go pull that dunked 98 out of my dad’s field and start working on it….

 

[Old77]

Nice purchase, Andy

 

[bucket]

Looking good. You’re gonna make me go pull that dunked 98 out of my dad’s field and start working on it….

Seems like a good idea to me...

 

[squaredeal91]

Lol, it was even the very front fender bolt.

Close to the battery right? Lol

With all the good steel under the dash?? It's still a heavy Chevy haha

 

[bucket]

The factory cab roof lights did not work, I had assumed there was an electrical problem, but it turned out that all 5 bulbs were bad. One lense is gone, the others are cracked badly, so I need to get a set of new ones.

You must be registered for see images attach

The driver's door was very hard to close, it sagged and it required a very hard slam to get it latched all the way. I installed some new bushings and tweaked the lower hinge a little bit, now it closes like it did when new. And it lines up again too.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

It's still no cream puff, but it's all the little things that make a truck comfortable to use.

 

[CheemsK1500]

A GMT400 with doors that are not about to fall off of it or don’t require insane force to close is getting rare in my neck of the woods. Most people don’t bother fixing them and shrug it off part of the experience of having an old truck. Kudos to you for going the extra mile and restoring some of the little things. Some trucks I’ve had were absolutely hideous on the outside, but I made sure I had cold AC, functional power steering and windows that open and shut. Just because something is ugly does not mean it has to be uncomfortable.

 

[bucket]

A GMT400 with doors that are not about to fall off of it or don’t require insane force to close is getting rare in my neck of the woods. Most people don’t bother fixing them and shrug it off part of the experience of having an old truck. Kudos to you for going the extra mile and restoring some of the little things. Some trucks I’ve had were absolutely hideous on the outside, but I made sure I had cold AC, functional power steering and windows that open and shut. Just because something is ugly does not mean it has to be uncomfortable.

The girl that owned the truck previously had actually done the bushings already, but she did them by herself and had never done anything like that before, so they weren't installed correctly and had fallen out. I certainly won't knock her for it though, she made an honest attempt to learn how to repair stuff on her own truck.

But anyway, it was a simple and cheap fix because the pins were still good and I had bushings in stock. And they are non-power doors too. I've done so many pins and bushings on GM vehicles in the past, it ain't even funny. I probably could have done these ones while blindfolded.

 

[AuroraGirl]

A GMT400 with doors that are not about to fall off of it or don’t require insane force to close is getting rare in my neck of the woods. Most people don’t bother fixing them and shrug it off part of the experience of having an old truck. Kudos to you for going the extra mile and restoring some of the little things. Some trucks I’ve had were absolutely hideous on the outside, but I made sure I had cold AC, functional power steering and windows that open and shut. Just because something is ugly does not mean it has to be uncomfortable.

The doors increased in weight but the hinges are basically like squares, right? so the extra weight and size and larger glass on the same hardware in the same amount of time = sag city? The 1996 i have doesnt have too bad of a drivers door surprisingly, for a silverado trim door.