Smol Truck Lyfe: Homeless Edition
Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2022 1:59 pm
This one probably seems like it comes out of nowhere. I've been looking for a 2nd vehicle for a while, wanting something cheap to tinker with that provided good utility for us. I originally set out to find a Tacoma and put all Murican vehicles in my rear view mirror, but with pricing insanity, I was striking out. We had a vacation to Denver planned to see a concert at Red Rocks, among other things, and I decided to look for trucks there on a whim. Trucks/vehicles don't tend to rust much in Denver due to the dry climate and minimal salt on the roads, so it could make sense to buy and drive home. Shit 20+ year old Tacomas were asking $15k plus, and just didn't make sense...then somehow a 2000 Chevrolet S10 ZR2 popped up in my Tacoma search on Craigslist. It looked impossibly clean with 180k miles and a $6k asking price. With a week before arriving in Denver, I reached out to the poster. Dude was the 3rd owner, the truck was always in the mountains (good for no rust) and always maintained by the dealer. I told him I'd look at the truck and if it was what he claimed, I'd buy it on the spot.
The dude was a horrific communicator, which made me nervous. He did everything via e-mail and text, and would take half a day to respond...including when we arrived in Denver and I asked him where he wanted to meet. I actually wrote the truck off assuming he sold it until he texted me a day later that he was in Denver not far from us and he'd bring the truck to me. No risk, lets check it out.
He arrived, and the thing was clean. There's some tiny surface rust on the lower front passenger fender that I need to clean up and paint, but the rest looks like new. I'm not even sure it's ever been off-road, the underside of the cab is still blue (body) colored, connectors are wire colors are still visible, and all fasteners look new. There's like 2 dents on the entire body, the rest is straight and every removable body panel still has the factory VIN stickers (I didn't even know GM did that). The plastic exterior trim needs to be replaced due to fading and cracking like the wheel flares and front bumper piece, but those parts are cheap and easy to get. The headliner, carpet, seats, and door panels look great, just the dash is cracked, the steering wheel is worn, and the center console is loose (because a mounting point is cracked). I noticed it hesitated a bit in upper RPM, but it idled and ran well, had no lights on, braked really well, clutch felt great, didn't leak, the engine looked like new (no rust/dirt/gunk anywhere), and it was all OEM except for a K&N intake. A small oil leak from the remote oil filter lines was really the only concern. It seemed like a solid gamble for $6k. Not to mention, my first vehicle was a 1995 Sonoma Highrider so I had a major soft spot for the thing. The blue paint looks and the is fun.
So I bought it.
The next day, we headed to the mountains, where it did fine but the hesitation in upper RPM was annoying. It was acting like something in the intake was gunked up (MAF, TB, etc), and since it had the K&N intake, I assumed the bro over-oiled the filter and clogged up the MAF (super common). So I bought a can of MAF cleaner at an OReiley in Leadville, CO (the highest incorporated city in CO), and took apart the intake. The FIRST THING I noticed was the MAF was on backwards. A lot of people don't know they're directional, but this one appeared to be new and had arrows all over it indicating airflow direction, so the dude just ignored it I guess. I cleaned it, installed it the right way, and it immediately ran better. I assumed it was fixed, and it was for 1k miles. We drove all over the Colorado mountains, up through Nebraska and into South Dakota. Drove the mountains around Mt Rushmore, then drove all the way through SD.
Just as we passed Sioux Falls (the end of SD) on Sunday afternoon, the truck lost power on the highway and died. I got it to the side of the road, and looked all over. It wouldn't start, but nothing was obviously wrong. It was Sunday in the middle of nowhere, I assumed I was screwed. It's never fun trying to figure things out on the side of the highway, so I called a towing place that was around the corner and a dude came out and got us. "Nothin's open" he said as we hopped up in the cab, "Watchu wanna do?" I asked if he knew of any garages that knew GM products well to which he said "Thats everywhere, but I know a place next to a nice hotel". Perfect, take us there.
The "nice" hotel was an Econolodge, which ended up being way nicer than we anticipated for some reason. The garage was closed until Monday, and so was everything else in the town. He rolls the truck off and I get in and just attempt to start it, and it starts! Perplexed, I put it in gear to take it around the block, and it died. Weird, but I guess not the worst sign. I ask the tow guy what I owed him and he asked if I had a hundred dollar bill. I did, gave it to him, and that was that.
I toyed with the truck a bit trying to diagnose the issue, and when fuel squirted out of the Schrader valve on the fuel rail, I was optimistic that the issue was electrical, which was all on top of the engine and easy to get to. I didn't have anything to diagnose spark condition at the coil or distributor, and being fried, we went for a nice walk along a corn field and turned in for the night. Monday morning, garage opened at 7:30, I was there sitting on the tailgate at 7:15. Owner drives up at 7:20 and greets me with a "uh oh, someone had a bad weekend". I laugh and explain what happened and he says "Well, unfortunately I got 2 mechanics out sick today, so I might not be able to get to it until tomorrow or Wednesday." I negotiate with "do you have anyone that knows these things that can just help me diagnose the problem, I'll fix it myself and I've already done some diagnosis." He just yelled into the garage "Hey Gary", and out emerged an OLD dude in spotless coveralls. They chat together and Gary walks over and says "I'll grab my fuel pressure gauge and spark tester". Excellent start.
He had the fuel pressure gauge on within a minute and cranked it over. 60psi of fuel pressure and it held, fuel pump was good PHEW.
Then he checks spark at the coil, I get in and crank for him, there's spark.
Then he checks spark at the distributor, I get in and crank, weak spark.
"Chinese garbage" he says. I ask him what and he said "I'll bet my week's salary it's the distributor cap, I replace these fuckers all the time. Chinese don't know how to make anything good." "Chinese?" I ask and he starts going on about AC Delco production of parts in China, shit quality, etc.
He takes the cap off, and inspects the distributor. He said "fucker looks new" but starts examining the distributor cap..."THERE!" he exclaims and points to a hairline crack on a mold line with rub marks. Looks under the hood, sees a metal vent tube for the transmission and says watch this. He put the bad cap back on, and called over a buddy to crank the engine over. "Watch where the cap is close to that tube" he said. Dude cranks the truck over, there's visible spark arching from the cap to the tube. He pushes the tube over to the side, dude cranks the truck over and it starts and runs.
It's 8am, we've been at it for 30 mins, and the problem is identified. "Earl just opened up and he has good parts. Go see him, he'll fix you up". "Earl?" I ask and he points to a barn across the street with an auto parts sign. I walk over, and inside the barn is the cleanest nicest organized auto parts store I've seen. Earl's standing there at the counter, and I tell him what I'm looking for. He just rolls his eyes and says the same "chinese garbage" that Gary said earlier, this is clearly something they've dealt with before. "I bought a bunch of these new old stock from the Murica days" Earl explains. "It'll be thirty five bucks". I gladly pay him, and walk back to the truck. Gary was off to work on other things, but graciously left me a ratchet with the right torx bit I needed to swap the cap. I knock that out in 5 minutes, fire up the truck and it purrs. I thank Gary, and go meet with the garage owner. He said it'll be $100 card or $90 cash. I give him $100 bill and tell him to give $10 to Gary for the exceptionally fast effort.
The entire ordeal cost $235 in towing, parts, and service, and $75 for the Econolodge room (a king suite, the nicest they had). All things considered, we got crazy lucky and the truck drove 700 miles yesterday without skipping a beat.
I plan on restoring the truck a bit just because I like it so much and it's so structurally sound. I'm going to hit up some junkyards for a new dash, steering wheel, and center console (if possible), and get the interior fixed up. Then I'll replace the fender flares, and a trim piece on top of the bumper that's borked. The window trim on the rear window is pretty sad, so I may replace that, and there's a seal on the rear driver suicide door that needs to be replaced. The wheels are also pretty toasted from the sun, so I'll try to find some at a junkyard, and the tires on it clearly weren't inflated properly for a while and wore weird, and will need to be replaced eventually (they're only 2 years old, so no rush really). I'll also address the oil filter line leak during the next oil change, then otherwise just drive it. It's just the right amount of tinkering that I'm looking for and it's way more fun than it has any right to be.
^^^Look closely at the rocks on the mountain above the hood^^^