Larry's 1978 K10

[SlowJoe]

Thanks guys. I am running an auto transmission so the clutch pedal assembly is not important. The pedal for the hydro boost is though. I believe the whole pedal assembly with both brake and clutch pedal is one unit, is it not? I will probably need the rods that attach the cylinder to the pedal assembly and the push rod and housing too

The Vanco unit comes with the linkage that hooks to the pedal and everything else you will need. The only thing you need to do is move your existing pin to the upper hole and weld it in place as I mentioned. The pump needs to put out 1200-1500 psi. You can either modify your pump if it is in good shape or replace it with a new one. Here is a link on how to modify it:

http://westtexasoffroad.homestead.com/powersteering.html

They also sell them with the modification done already, but it is easy to do and cheaper to do it yourself. I hate to keep trashing Larry's thread, so maybe it would be best to start another one about this hydroboost modification?

 

[Larry]

Looks like the pedal topic is beaten to death but here are some close up pictures of the hydroboost unit itself. This particular unit is a GM square body specific unit with the correct booster to firewall bracket, pedal to booster rod, and booster to M/C rod. These Bosch hydroboost units where used on just about every brand of truck where the only real differences between the boosters used on Fords, Dodge, GM and various models was the push rod on the back, firewall bracket and pushrod between the booster and master cylinder. Those bits and pieces aren’t available by themselves so do to a clean swap into another square body is to pirate the entire unit from another square body. In my case, I’ll probably use the one below as a core (it’s a leaker) and a get a fresh one but at least it came with all of the impossible to find bits and pieces.

This one is the donor going on to the Suburban.

Just a reference picture of the booster and bracket on the K10

 

[chilliwak]

I am sorry to jack your thread Larry. I will now post a new thread about the hydro boost. Thanks for all the help from all the helpful members here and especially Larry! Everybody is welcome to repost their info there...:wings:

 

[Larry]

I am sorry to jack your thread Larry. I will now post a new thread about the hydro boost. Thanks for all the help from all the helpful members here and especially Larry! Everybody is welcome to repost their info there...:wings:

No worries Chilli! Talking trucks is always a good time

 

[Larry]

My wife drug home one of those card readers the other day that actually reads old 3.5 floppy disks. We found all kinds neat old photos in the lost files. Think about the last time we’ve all owned a computer with had a floppy disk reader? I bet it’s been at least 13 years for me.

Check out these neat old photos of the K10.

This was around 1998 when we lived in the Northern Detroit suburb of Rochester Hills. Old paint but fresh Rhino lining. Only the rockers were Rhino’d at this time. The bed was done about a year later. MI is a one license plate state so I always kept my old CO plate on the front of all our cars.

A buddy and I painted it in a barn in Grand Rapids, MI in the late summer of 1998. If I recall it came under $200 in supplies and lots of beer. We started on it Friday night after driving over from Detroit then drove it back to Detroit Sunday with fresh paint.

After fresh paint in the autumn of 1998

The old carbureted 350. I swapped on 1995 L05 5.7L brackets in late 1996 before I left CO to move to MI in order to use the more efficient new at the time R4 A/C compressor…and serpentine swaps were unheard of in 1996! There were no forums to pursue for info… just went buy trial and error back then

You got to love how sucktastic the early digital cameras were.

Present day. The truck has changed a lot over the years but still looks pretty much the same (even though, pretty much the entire drivetrain has been updated since then). Many people always think the paint is a few years old. Hard to believe it is 17 years old now! The color was not my first choice but glad that is what we used. It’s loaded with desert pinstriping but you can’t see it.

 

[toddz69]

Fantastic. I love to watch a vehicle's evolution through the years.

Todd Z.

 

[snekvasil]

Love these pics...they're an inspiration for me. It's good to see that my truck doesn't have to get done OVERNIGHT; like yours, it's a work in progress that will take place over many, many years. Your truck looks great, Larry. I wish I could see the cab from those early days! Looks like the original bench seat was still in it back then?

 

[Larry]

Love these pics...they're an inspiration for me. It's good to see that my truck doesn't have to get done OVERNIGHT; like yours, it's a work in progress that will take place over many, many years. Your truck looks great, Larry. I wish I could see the cab from those early days! Looks like the original bench seat was still in it back then?

Thanks! That is for sure….Projects can take years and decades to build. The Polar Bear is coming together more quickly as I am in a different point of life and not the broke kid straight of college like I was when the K10 started.

Yeah, the bench seat was still in it right up until 2009 when a set of Suburban buckets replaced them. The nice bench went into a ’72 C20 I had at the time. This pic was right Zoomad75 and I did the TH350 automatic to SM456 swap. Wish I could find pictures of the interior when it was still an automatic. I can’t remember if the trans swap happened in 1998 or 1999 but I remember this….it was COLD and we were working outside under my carport in a Michigan January! Brrr

Quite a bit different from today and I miss that old bench seat like a flaming pack of rhoids!

 

[98dango]

Larry your truck is an inspiration to all of us. The knowledge and the fact it has taken you close to 20 years to get it where it is now. Most need to remember that if you keep on track with the project it will turn in to some thing wonderful.

 

[Todd McLaughlin]

Agreed with your comment 98dango these projects don't happen overnight for sure. I sure hope mine doesn't take 20 years. LOL

 

[Bojak]

Talk about taking the pressure off, 20 years. I was starting to try and figure out which kid really wouldn't end up in college anyway so I could fund my project faster. Just kidding, I already know its the 4 year old. Really love the progression from clean truck to where it is today. Gives me inspiration and patience. Wish my oldest son hadn't deleted all my b4 pictures. Would love to look back from beginning to end 20 years from now. He really did need the storage space for mindcraft though so that makes it better. Killer rig, and can't wait to see the 8.1 go into the burb as well. Thanks for sharing those.

 

[zoomad75]

Yeah, the bench seat was still in it right up until 2009 when a set of Suburban buckets replaced them. The nice bench went into a ’72 C20 I had at the time. This pic was right Zoomad75 and I did the TH350 automatic to SM456 swap. Wish I could find pictures of the interior when it was still an automatic. I can’t remember if the trans swap happened in 1998 or 1999 but I remember this….it was COLD and we were working outside under my carport in a Michigan January! Brrr

Holy crap. Digging deep in the way back file are we? Great pics. I remember what led up to you painting the truck in the first place. I remember taking the truck to lunch when it was still an automatic when we worked at Chevy customer assistance. It was some crappy mexican joint we could get our mexican food fix in MI when there really wasn't much too choose from. Not like home at least, but we could get Jarritios mexican soda there. The broken pavement really made the truck buck with no load and your original lift spring recipe.

Then there was the 4-speed swap. A weekend in the carport with a couple of floor jacks. As typical of Larry builds go, planning was the key. He had everything prepped so we could spend the weekend installing and not chasing parts, bolts or anything else. I get chills thinking about it because it was friggen COLD! Trans install went something like this... Larry under the truck with the sm-465 balanced on a floor jack. I'm inside the cab with the seat out standing up over the hole in the floor pulling up on the shifter as Larry guides the input shaft into the clutch. Once that was secured it was time to wrestle the 205 into position using both floor jacks, a jenga like stack of lumber and the two of us under the truck. We each are pumping the jack handles with our feet as we continue to balance the lump of iron and guide it onto the trans with our hands. Quite comical looking back on it. Not everything went as planned. Post swap the t-case started puking fluid. Turns out we had nicked a seal on the output side of the trans or in the adapter and trans fluid was pumping into the t-case overfilling it. We ended up pulling the t-case out in my garage a couple of weeks later. I think we must have done it right because the 205 didn't come back out until the first nv4500 went in.

Time flies. My son was 2 or 3 when we did that. He's 18 now. Our time spent in Detroit was fun while we were there, but I'm glad we both go the heck out of there. Michigan is great, but still nothing like Colorado for a two native Colorado boys like us. Boys...Ha we were then, both in our twenties. Now I feel old! Thanks you SOB! LOL.

 

[highlandercj-7]

I so love this truck. Glad you put the 78 OEM grille back it looks so much cleaner. My first truck was a 78 long bed Silverado. One of the best trucks I ever owned.

 

[Larry]

Holy crap. Digging deep in the way back file are we? Great pics. I remember what led up to you painting the truck in the first place. I remember taking the truck to lunch when it was still an automatic when we worked at Chevy customer assistance. It was some crappy mexican joint we could get our mexican food fix in MI when there really wasn't much too choose from. Not like home at least, but we could get Jarritios mexican soda there. The broken pavement really made the truck buck with no load and your original lift spring recipe.

Then there was the 4-speed swap. A weekend in the carport with a couple of floor jacks. As typical of Larry builds go, planning was the key. He had everything prepped so we could spend the weekend installing and not chasing parts, bolts or anything else. I get chills thinking about it because it was friggen COLD! Trans install went something like this... Larry under the truck with the sm-465 balanced on a floor jack. I'm inside the cab with the seat out standing up over the hole in the floor pulling up on the shifter as Larry guides the input shaft into the clutch. Once that was secured it was time to wrestle the 205 into position using both floor jacks, a jenga like stack of lumber and the two of us under the truck. We each are pumping the jack handles with our feet as we continue to balance the lump of iron and guide it onto the trans with our hands. Quite comical looking back on it. Not everything went as planned. Post swap the t-case started puking fluid. Turns out we had nicked a seal on the output side of the trans or in the adapter and trans fluid was pumping into the t-case overfilling it. We ended up pulling the t-case out in my garage a couple of weeks later. I think we must have done it right because the 205 didn't come back out until the first nv4500 went in.

Time flies. My son was 2 or 3 when we did that. He's 18 now. Our time spent in Detroit was fun while we were there, but I'm glad we both go the heck out of there. Michigan is great, but still nothing like Colorado for a two native Colorado boys like us. Boys...Ha we were then, both in our twenties. Now I feel old! Thanks you SOB! LOL.

Yeah, Michigan Mexican food sucked! Speaking of old pictures and Detroit…I found a bunch of pictures from Dealer Business Center training when Brower and I got moved down to the RenCen. We both look like we are 18 year old kids. The pictures of all the new-at-the-time GM cars in the background really brings reality to how long ago that was. Funny, I wouldn’t have ever remembered half of the people’s names in our DBC training class names but once I saw their pictures again their names rolled off my tongue like I saw them yesterday.

Man, it is hard to believe Zoo Jr is already 18 years old when I still have the smell of burnt spaghetti noodles forever etched into my nose from his 1st Birthday party when Bernice burnt dinner

. It all seems like yesterday but yet so long ago. I’ll tell you this though, I could not do that trans swap job outside in the cold like we did back then again. Michigan was such a great place to LEAVE!

I so love this truck. Glad you put the 78 OEM grille back it looks so much cleaner. My first truck was a 78 long bed Silverado. One of the best trucks I ever owned.

Thanks! Unfortunately, the original grill got broke while I lived out there when I bumped into the back of Dodge Dynasty with a clip on bike rack on the trunk. Luckily for me, many years later my buddy Bill’s dad found a mint 77-78 grill at a garage sale for $10. Glad I kept the cross bars and bowtie from my old uplevel Silverado grill to put on it so it looked like it did before. I was never a big fan of the chrome tube grill but less of a fan of the aftermarket Taiwanese 77-78 grills that don’t even have bowties.

 

[zoomad75]

Yeah, Michigan Mexican food sucked! Speaking of old pictures and Detroit…I found a bunch of pictures from Dealer Business Center training when Brower and I got moved down to the RenCen. We both look like we are 18 year old kids. The pictures of all the new-at-the-time GM cars in the background really brings reality to how long ago that was. Funny, I wouldn’t have ever remembered half of the people’s names in our DBC training class names but once I saw their pictures again their names rolled off my tongue like I saw them yesterday.

Man, it is hard to believe Zoo Jr is already 18 years old when I still have the smell of burnt spaghetti noodles forever etched into my nose from his 1st Birthday party when Bernice burnt dinner

. It all seems like yesterday but yet so long ago. I’ll tell you this though, I could not do that trans swap job outside in the cold like we did back then again. Michigan was such a great place to LEAVE!

A land without green chili is not for me. I agree photos from back then are crazy to look at. I mention the spaghetti around the boy's Birthday and I'm finally getting some chuckles over it. She was HORRIFIED when it happened.

No way I'm doing a trans swap in a carport in freezing weather again. It's been a long road we've been on that's been on. Here's to more miles!