Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong

[bcp]

Maybe fogging oil sprayed in the carb while cranking.

Bruce

 

[BigBlue1]

Check the status of your battery tender to see whether it is actually charging. A battery tender won't recharge a dead battery, usually. You'll need a regular battery charger if it was dead from sitting for 3-5 years. If it still had a decent charge then the tender will do fine.

 

[duramaxsky]

I did not see any chewing under the hood, but there certainly could be some. Owner says the dasboard was intermittent when it last ran so, could very well be. The glovebox did have some papers shredded in it, so I am thinking mice in the HVAC vents. The maintainer has the 10 year old battery at 75%, we will see how far it gets. I could pull a tractor battery to start it if need be. Any GM people recommend an easier way than pulling the plugs so I can crank it over without firing it up to get lubrication (prior to attempt starting)? Air filter was clean on both sides, so no debris ingestion concerns. Look forward to towing something with a 496 cu. in. big block gasser.

The stepper motors on the gauges were bad on those. There are sellers on EbY that sell kits to replace them and the bulbs which were also bad. There are also places on there you can send your dash and they will do it for you. But if you can solder it's not hard. I did mine. I need to replace the bulbs again though. Some guys do LEDs but you need to solder a resistor to each bulb. There is not much room in there for that. There are videos on YouTube on how to fix them. You can't trust any of the gauges if it has not been done. The odometer is stored in the DIC so changing the whole thing will make your mileage wrong.

 

[34Willys]

I did not see any chewing under the hood, but there certainly could be some. Owner says the dasboard was intermittent when it last ran so, could very well be. The glovebox did have some papers shredded in it, so I am thinking mice in the HVAC vents. The maintainer has the 10 year old battery at 75%, we will see how far it gets. I could pull a tractor battery to start it if need be. Any GM people recommend an easier way than pulling the plugs so I can crank it over without firing it up to get lubrication (prior to attempt starting)? Air filter was clean on both sides, so no debris ingestion concerns. Look forward to towing something with a 496 cu. in. big block gasser.

Pull the fuel pump relay.
Patrick

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

Look around, can you form some sort of rudimentary lathe? *


*obscure movie reference

Some of these suggestions are kind of over the top....

 

[deezler]

I did not see any chewing under the hood, but there certainly could be some. Owner says the dasboard was intermittent when it last ran so, could very well be. The glovebox did have some papers shredded in it, so I am thinking mice in the HVAC vents. The maintainer has the 10 year old battery at 75%, we will see how far it gets. I could pull a tractor battery to start it if need be. Any GM people recommend an easier way than pulling the plugs so I can crank it over without firing it up to get lubrication (prior to attempt starting)? Air filter was clean on both sides, so no debris ingestion concerns. Look forward to towing something with a 496 cu. in. big block gasser.

Pull the fuse box apart on the drive side (under the hood) - gotta zip 4x 13mm bolts out that secure the angle brace between fender and firewall, then pop the fuse box apart by hand (easy). GM decided to make a very attractive little rodent house underneath the fuses, with ALLLL of your most important wires running through there. Last winter when my 2003 2500HD 6.0L gas was parked outside, mice made a nest in there and chewed up some wires. There was nothing obvious to see under the hood until I investigated closer. The symptom for me was a dash cluster freaking out. But also the gauge clusters from these generation trucks are flaky and you will likely have some needles not moving correctly. It's only ~$150 to send them out for a complete rebuild.

You got a VERY solid truck for free there, even if it needs all new brake and fuel lines from sitting over wet ground and rusting.

 

[deezler]

Any GM people recommend an easier way than pulling the plugs so I can crank it over without firing it up to get lubrication (prior to attempt starting)? Air filter was clean on both sides, so no debris ingestion concerns. Look forward to towing something with a 496 cu. in. big block gasser.

Just buy 8 new spark plugs, man. Crank for a bit after you get them all out, before the new ones go in. Cheap maintenance and good peace of mind going forward if you end up having and funky running issues.

 

[aeblank]

Just buy 8 new spark plugs, man. Crank for a bit after you get them all out, before the new ones go in. Cheap maintenance and good peace of mind going forward if you end up having and funky running issues.

I'm no expert, but I'd agree. Also toss some oil in there.

Also also - start a thread on this. Everybody loves a free truck "will it run" thread! Then you can compile all the useless advice (mine included) in one place. ;-)

 

[goeduck]

The battery tender does charge, it took the battery from 1V to 12.95V by this morning. However, a load test is showing it as weak, so I need plan B. It is a side post so that limits what battery I can use. I only have 1 car at a remote property with a side post so I will have to grab that sometime. I like all of your ideas, but I do not have the title in hand yet. So I am limiting spending money until I do and (hopefully) I limp the truck onto my property. The last thing I want to do is get it all fixed up and have him renege. I found the fuel pump relay's 20A fuse, that was a good idea. Oil is clean, okay for now anyway. He and his wife are looking for the title.

 

[cqaigy2]

The battery tender does charge, it took the battery from 1V to 12.95V by this morning. However, a load test is showing it as weak, so I need plan B. It is a side post so that limits what battery I can use. I only have 1 car at a remote property with a side post so I will have to grab that sometime. I like all of your ideas, but I do not have the title in hand yet. So I am limiting spending money until I do and (hopefully) I limp the truck onto my property. The last thing I want to do is get it all fixed up and have him renege. I found the fuel pump relay's 20A fuse, that was a good idea. Oil is clean, okay for now anyway. He and his wife are looking for the title.

Man you really need a "rebuild" thread for this. I'm very interested in how it goes.