Irishman's '85 K1500

[Irishman999]

I got this truck for free from my uncle spring of 2010, he bought it off the show room floor in 85 and drove it until 95. It got parked in his yard for the next 15 years until I borrowed my Father in laws pickup and a buddy's trailer. I drove from Las Cruces New Mexico to Apache Junction Az and back in one day to get it.

 

[Bigredmariner]

Those are good trucks, tons of them sold over the years. I had an 85, 87, and I think it was an 82 or 83? been too long ago. Either way they are nice trucks, does it have a 305 or 350 in it?

 

[Irishman999]

I stashed it at a co workers shop since I lived in an apartment at the time so I could try and get it road ready. I had big plans on changing oil, draining the tanks and squirting some marvels mystery oil into the cylinders. Instead we got really drunk and put a battery in it, poured some gasoline down the carb and it started! It idled and ran for hours on 15 year old gas with 15 year old oil in the crank case.

While it was there it got a carb rebuild, old fuel drained out, new water pump and a new power steering pump. Shortly after all this work I tried to drive it to the neighboring town and it broke down.

Once again it was Super Duty to the rescue, this trip was made without a back window in the super duty due to a lawn mower accident.

 

[Irishman999]

Those are good trucks, tons of them sold over the years. I had an 85, 87, and I think it was an 82 or 83? been too long ago. Either way they are nice trucks, does it have a 305 or 350 in it?

Its got a 305 in it.

 

[nubuilder]

Wow, the truck is getting some serious trailer time!

How's it going for you now?

 

[buRRp]

Looks like a good project.

 

[Bigredmariner]

Those 305's could go a million miles if taken care of.

 

[Irishman999]

I finally got the truck to a spot I could work on it and found 3 broken pushrods on one side of the motor and they were all intake valves. The old gas tarnished so bad it caused the valves to stick and break the push rods. I developed a temporary fix for the stuck valves since I was using the truck to move in a month and could not afford any sort of rebuild. I could go into details but it would just be boring. I rebuilt the carb again, it was coated with an ultra sticky tarnish. She ran like brand new.

Since it ran good I went ahead and did a full brake job.

 

[Irishman999]

I drove my 85 from Ruidoso Nm to Reno Nv like this, over 1k miles in the middle of the summer in 2010. First thing to go was my radiator, I put this bad boy in.

The tires started exploding, it was on the bottom of the list of concerns about the truck since it was a new set I got with blue still on the letters, apparently they were really fWONkin old because they started exploding on the interstate so I had to buy a new set half way there.

Other problem was the transmission losing its input shaft bearing, but she made it.

 

[Irishman999]

Once the truck was in Reno we ended up in another temporary apartment and I needed to get a different transmission so I would have something to drive for work on the other side of Nevada.

I changed out an SM465 at night with a flashlight strapped to my head in this parking space.

The reason I had to do it at night is because of HOA rules, I could have got evicted if they caught me. I actually bought 2 SM465's, first one was a ten spline output and mine was 35 or 32 or some shit. So now I have a total of 3 of these boat anchors laying around.