Grizz’s ‘79 2WD 🇺🇸 Chevy Blazer V8 STRANGER THINGS 16/08/2022

4X4

Naaahhhh.

I like the orange one with the White infill

Don’t you have a set of those lights Rian?

Might have a spare morning Next Saturday if you need help.

P.

After last weekend and the spring replacement, Mate Martin sent this pic today.

Made me smile, because a certain Paul Y has seen this go wrong before.



After last weekends 10 hr session at 5’C in the cutting wind and out on the driveway, we shut shop and I had a hectic week, which meant I never cleaned up, or cleaned the tools that were all covered in 40 year old black grease, as well as all the debris from the days work.

So this morning after going to the Post office at 07.45 and then to Aldi for food as I planned on cooking dinner over at Joys place tonight (she has been ill 10days now, and I refused to go there and get infected) I proceeded to,spend two hours cleaning up.

The brake shoes that came out of the truck were at various levels of wear or destruction.



The top, cracked one had also worn quite thin.



Really pleased and thankful that all these “little jobs” are getting done.

Makes life a lot easier in the long run.

So one of the jobs that we just had to walk away from last weekend after 10 hrs in the cold, was the passenger side lower control arm and its cross shaft, which has locating pins on the cross me,her.

These have to be seated, or else you cannot tighten the U-Bolts.

In the dark at 7pm it was never going to happen.

So today I had to fix it hat as a first priority.

I certainly was not going to disassemble everything, so took a long look, and tried to see in there, but of course there is a lot that goes on there, and even the LED torch could not give me enough of an idea as to where the pins and holes were




So I undid the U-Bolts a bit, lifting the whole assembly gently with the jack from under the spring cup.

No matter what I tried I could not see what needed to be done, did it need to be twisted forward or backward and did I need to attack it with a rubber mallet from the rear or from the front.

So I came up to the house for a coffee, and cookies...... thinking power food.

And thought that the only way to figure out where everything was in relation to everything else, was to poke my finger in there, and then twist and hammer into various directions.

But my thick fingers would not fit in the space I had available.

So I used some wire, sharpened it, created a simple handle to give me leverage.

This way I got to “feel and pick”the invisible space between cross shaft and mounting point and the locating pin and hole.




Trust me, this was a long job, simply because I am not naturally talented like some mechanics.

My neck hurt, and I was hurting because despite,the,carpet on the floor, the cold does come up into my back.



EVENTUALLY I GOT IT ALL SORTED AND BOLTED DOWN.





This job was followed by the steering tie rod ends.

Theoretically a simple take it off and replace it job.


Errrrmmm,mmmmm........?







These old parts really are grubby, rusted and a pain.

34 turns to remove the old unit.




THEN THE FUN STARTED.

I could not for the life of me, get the new part to screw into the jointing section, at least not the way it had come out.

I think in the end I may even have cross threaded it too.

Copper slip added, but all to no avail.



So the question is this: Do these units come in a left hand and a right hand flavour?

The two that I got sent are exactly the same, and an hour later I still had no progress and shut shop as I had a dinner date after showering and feeding Harley.

Packaging.




Both are exactly the same.





Tomorrow morning I will go try to do the drivers side and if it is a simple task, then who knows, it may be that there are Left and Right Toe Rods.


Anyone know?

Bedtime.

Well, there is an ES409RT, for a Chevvy truck of your vintage “usually bought with ES409LT” so that suggests a left and right thread (LT and RT) version.

Hi Grizz,

Great purchase and again a nice write up so far, keep up the good work.





I own a '82 blazer, it has a build sheet sticker on the left inner fender.







As you can see, I don't  have is for the local show and shine contest 


grtz peter

Forgot to add the photo I went and found (not sure if it helps with description)



But from memory the longer tie rod has left hand thread next to the steering box, one tie rod end is left and the other is Trigg hand thread, and the inner tie rod end on the short arm is the same (right handed) as the long tie rod end outer

As I read that, it sounds worse than my original description, sorry


But each rod can be lengthened or shortened by loosening the kick nuts and spinning the coupled bit in the middle.
I imagine if you have a steering box it will be something similar

Hth

Thank you Peter,

I am happy with it, the bits that need fixing are getting shorter and shorter.

MOT soon.



Hi Rob, agreed.



Everything helps, and this forum is awesome for exactly that reason.

It’s why I call up guys like Paul Y at random hours to,discuss cars n stuff.



I use one of my safety boots when I remember, but need something a bit taller and more useable.



Thank you mate, probably not, but I get it.