Chico: 06 frame swap/super-mega rebuild

Your truck is looking really good with those new tires! Made me think a few extra times before going the other direction size wise.

 

Just did my first tire rotation on the new treads at about 5k. I definitely need to get an alignment but they are doing well and I should be able to push that down the road a little... There's always this thought of "when I have time", but that time rarely shows it's face, and there are more things waiting than that time allows.

Anyway, here are some shots of these tires if anyone is interested in going a budget route. They ride great and seem to be wearing normally, sans what's caused by my poor alignment. Good in the snow and ice. We've been getting a decent amount of snow and the roads are never cleared here the morning after, and I feel pretty confident plowing through it.

I do wish I stuck with a 285 now, as my mileage didn't really get any bump from going to a 265. Pickup is a little more responsive though.

 

We have a wood boiler system and are heating primarily with wood. I didn't get any time to get stocked up before winter so I am constantly playing catch up. I could give up and run the LP, but heating with wood is just so much more satisfying for me/us.

As such, the truck has been getting a workout hauling wood as many days as I have extra time to do so.



Hard to see in this image but the suspension was about an inch from the bumps.



I've been mulling around heavier duty spring options, thinking ATS HD was the smart move, then thinking about a bastard pack, then air bags, etc. etc. I've been kicking around some HD leaves that I pulled off a dodge a year or so ago, so when I was rotating the tires the other day, I decided to try to shoehorn them in there. Instead, I found that the u-bolts I installed a year ago seem to be already seized, and knowing this is really a single use item anyway, I decided to stop rather that get myself down a road where the truck was inoperable.

Ever budget oriented, after a few hours of interneting this morning, I decided to pull the trigger on some new u-bolts and spring clamps, and do a semi-good job of installing the extra leaves instead. I cut the longer leaf down to the correct length, and diamond cut the ends (ate up 6.5 cutoff wheels!) on all of them. I also ordered a knockoff set of Timbren SES springs off electronic-bay to replace the bumps. We shall see how it all works out. I may or may not paint them... it's cold af so nothing is going to stick well right now anyway, but I should.





If I'm feeling crazy I may add those flat leaves in this last pic as an extra overload, but probably not. In total that will be 5 leaves plus overload, plus faux timbrens, which I'm hoping will put me where I want to be.

Finally, the bumpy country roads have really accelerated some minor dash and interior creaks and rattles to be crazy-making. I shoved some 1/2" backer rod in front of the dash and behind the rear seat trim in hopes that will help. Haven't driven it yet so idk. Also slapped some grease on the door checks while I was in there.

 

And a full shot of the truck in the garage rn. I'll try to take measurements and pictures as I get the springs slapped together.

 

Awesome work!

 

Well it's been another good chunk of time, and life has been real busy, so I haven't been lurkin as much. Made it through a very cold and long midwestern winter heating with wood only and the truck put in a lot of work for me. Finally got my trailer rewired and all figured out and have been hauling with that as well. Had about a 3500 lb load last week and the truck was sagging hard, figured it was finally time to get my springs together. Had a chance today and got it done in about 4 hours total. The setup is two extra springs per side, and some knockoff ebay timbren ses thangs. Got some clamps, and some new ubolts. Rides good, a little firmer but not as bad as I thought. Need to test it with a load but I can't imagine it won't be better. May have gained a hair height wise, which is nice too.



In other truck news, it's still running great. Just took it on a 1000 mile roadtrip up north and it didn't skip a beat. Still need an alignment, have just been trying to rotate through it, but that's next on the list. And a power steering pump, which I have, to stop the sometimes horrid pulley squeak. We've also got a new family member on the way, so I will be doing the carseat mod in a few months. We've got two, and I will add photos to the 1st gen car seat thread.

 

I've hauled a couple loads with the new rear setup and it seems to be working well, at least a lot better than the old one. It still returns a little sag under load, until it hits the bumps and then it starts to limit out. The ride loaded is much better and more controlled, and the ride unloaded is firmer, but not bad by any means.

First picture is about 700 lbs of woven field fence wire and gravel. You can see it's sitiing down a bit.



A few days later I had some time to kill and went to our dumpsite to get some firewood going. By my green log chart calculations this is somewhere between 1300 and 1700 lbs of black locust (very dense wood). But I could be off on that.








Last image shows the compression of the springs + bumps at that weight. I should have taken measurements uncompressed and compressed, but I didn't think to at the moment. Also, I ran out of cutoff wheels, so ignore my ugly ubolts for the time being...

 

Also, my family is growing, and we are trying out car seats in each car. The width of the truck makes the space feel more useable than in the backseat of my wife's car, to me at least. We have a nuna peepa with base, and a diono radian (I think?) that was given to us. The nuna seems a more appropriate infant seat, and fits the space better overall, but the radian base fits the sit better. Radian is the larger blue, convertible, one.

Nuna peepa:


Diono Radian something

 

Finally, I've been aware for awhile that my bed is rusting out and that the spray in bedliner was the only thing holding it in some places. It finally popped through last week and I impulsively grabbed a knife and started cutting away. Damage is pretty extensive.


First thought was that I finally get to do a flatbed. But not sure it's in the cards, time or budget wise right now. Then I was thinking patches and bedslide. All the beds I can find up here are having or close to having the same problem, and 800-1800 bucks. Thought about biting the bullet and buying a 3/4-1 ton rig instead, but anything I can afford is also rusty. SO, probably will just end up with patches and a bed mat to get me by for awhile, then maybe a flatbed down the road if it makes sense. I'll post up when it's fixed.

 

That would be my vote

 

The nuno looks to me the better infant seat. The other seems to be more of child seat more ment for older kids.

 

Yeah it definitely is. The other one is supposed to be like an infitely convertible style, but seems like a compromise to make that work.

 

Ordered a bed mat and got that installed. Still need to weld some patches in but it'll do for now. Almost fits too well. had to trim some corners to get it lay flatter.

 

Also, started the truck up last Wednesday and there was a check engine light for the SAIS system. I couldn't clear it at the time and drove to work. At the end of the day, got it clear the code while running, and headed home. Stayed off until Thursday commute home, when the light came back on and the truck went into limp mode. Codes were po2445 and po0418, which are related and likely point to a failed pump driver/motor. The sticky thread on here was very helpful, as was this one by Hewitt https://www.tundras.com/threads/how-do-you-fix-the-secondary-air-injection-system.113688/.

I decided to order the Hewitt bypass kit. I didn't want to tap into any wires on the ECU, so I got the gen 1 kit as opposed to the gen 2. The difference is that the gen 2 kit can clear electrically caused codes as well as mechanical ones. But you have to route through the firewall, and tap/or solder into the ECU. So I got the gen 2 and a "pump proxy pack" that emulates the pump driver to clear electrical codes as well. Total was $310 plus shipping. The kit came today and I spent a few afternoon hours installing it.

The main components of the kit are very easy to install. The bypass plugs into the MAF sensor on the intake tube. There is double stick tape on the back of the module, and I stuck that to the back of the intake baffle. Then there is a wire that rund from the module to the starter relay, to give signal for when to emulate/bypass the SAIS system.



Plug into MAF and module location


Purple wire here is the wire from the module to the starter relay. It is just wrapped around one of the prongs (not the copper ones) and feeds through a small hole I drilled in the box.

The pump proxy pack attaches to the harness that feeds the pump driver. You have to remove the clip inside the harness and replace the second terminal with the one from the proxy pack. Just tuck the removed terminal out of the way and cover with heat shrink or tape. The other end of the pack just goes to the chassis ground.


Clip and the terminal that you swap to the one from the proxy. The proxy is that black cylinder ziptied in the firewall/fender corner.

 

The blockoff plates were considerably more difficult to install. The plates are supposed to install between the SAIS tube from the pump to the header. This is obviously a rust belt truck, and despite soaking the studs, I promptly broke one of two studs off on each tube. Back to the drawing board. I found a post from @Riverdale21 (here: https://www.tundras.com/threads/how-to-00-04-headers-onto-05-06-motor.97796/page-2) where he highligted that the connection at the pump was the same size and you can block it off there. The only other suggestions I found were to not install them - Hewitt says this will damage the pressure sensors and cause more headache down road.

So I tried to install the plates upstream, at the pumps themselves. They are located right against the firewall, and are a huge pain in the ass to deal with. The plate is just thick enough that you have to remove both bolts and move the tube a bit to get the plate in. When you do this however, it is damn hard to get the tube back in the right location, hold the plate, and line the bolts up to start them threading. On the drivers side, there is slightly better access (sort of) and after a bunch of fiddling with it I got the plate in on that side.


Tube and pump connection point on driver's side

On the passenger side, the connection point is located beneath the main wiring harness running from the cab. To get to the bottom bolt I had to take the wheel off and use a slew of extensions and a swivel socket. After removing the stock gasket, and trying every arrangemnet I could think of, prying from all different angles, changing the order of things, etc., I came to the conclusion that there was no way that plate was fitting in the space I could create with the bolts lined up. I thought that maybe a thinner plate/gasket would work, so I traced the plate onto an aluminum can and cut it out. Much easier to slide in there, and tightened down easily. We'll see how it works out long term, but for now I have no codes after several starts and letting it idle long enough to reset the fuel trims. Have yet to drive it.


My hand is on the connection point on the passenger side.



DIY blockoff


Shot from the wheelwell of the drivers side and gasket installed.



Hope these posts can be helpful to someone else in a similar situation one day.

Next up is to replace my power steering pump. I'd like to get some new headlights/refinish mine as well, they are oxidized as hell.

 

Alternatively, I found you can also reach the SAIS pumps from under the truck. Can't remember if that was mentioned in my original thread.

I had struggled with the driver's side from above, and did the passenger side from below.

I discovered this method after dropping the aluminum plates on top of the transmission several times.

Not being able to fish them out with a telescoping magnet, and laying under the truck blindly feeling atop the transmission case the inspiration struck me... in the face as the block off plate fell again. That's when I tried installing it from under the truck. Because if it fell again, I was already there to get it.