Well new to me at least!

Some of you helped me out in my other thread when looking for one. Well I finally pulled the trigger and picked one up!

It's a 2002 4x4 QC LB auto. Single owner, garage kept majority of its life, never had a goose neck or 5th wheel (which is harder to find than you'd think up here). Came with a 2in leveling kit and 35's and a hypertech 'tuner' to fix the speedo. Other then that, she's all stock. I crawled under to check for any signs of a 53 and couldn't find anything, so I might have a mexican block, but I'm going to keep checking. I couldn't be happier! I originally wanted a manual, but the wife said, if I'm getting a new truck then she better at least be able to drive it. So rather then argue, I just said 'ok' and got lookin!

Anyways, wanted to start a thread here because, since it is stock and I'm planning on keeping this truck for the long haul, I wanted to do some mini write ups of the mods and what not I get done to her. As of now, here's the order I want to go in:

1. FUEL! and lots of it!

2. Gauges

3. Steering

4. Transmission

5. More power!

3 and 4 may get swapped around depending on what's needed more and my budget but that's the general order.

 

So to start, fuel... The stock injection pump was replaced by the dealer 50-60k miles ago so it should have some decent life left, and it looks like they moved the stock lift pump. I didn't track it down exactly, just looking fairly quickly, and couldn't find it mounted on the frame, did they do in tank LP's for 02's? I'd like to fatten up my fuel lines to 3/8s everywhere possible, also looking to go with the Fuel Boss, but not sure how that works if my LP is mounted in the back in tank if that's even a thing. Any ideas or experience with this? As of now I'm looking at getting the following for step 1.

FUEL BOSS ----- BIG LINE KIT ----- MOD FUEL MODULE

As far as fuel lines, the obvious is the big line kit from Vulcan but I figured I'd talk with Eric about getting lines replace as much stock line as possible. I also threw on the modified fuel module. I saw that as I was browsing their site and hadn't seen it before. Is that necessary at all? Keep in mind I'm just looking to have fuel flow as easily as possible through the truck. When more power rolls around I don't plan on going EXTREME, but would like lack of fuel to never be thought of again after this.

I'll leave at this for now but really looking forward to wrenching on this truck and getting her setup for the long haul!

Yea, that's the only reason I went with this track bar, since it was built specifically for the 2nd gens. Just wish I didn't have drill out the bracket, but in the end, I'll take the 3/4in strength over the stock 5/8ths. I'm gonna have to get the run down from you on steering boxs here soon.

How come I can't see the photos?

@Royal Squire I edited my post and re-upped the photos, hopefully you and any others that couldn't see the photos can now.

Thank you. Looks good. 

Alright everyone, I finally got around to wrenching on the truck some more. Time has bee. A little scarse (imagine that with a 6mo ) but my parents were in town so my dad and I got out and out in the HX and also swapped out the stock battery cables for the ones from custombatterycables.com

 

On to pics!

 

So the batterey cables were straight forward. Just take out old, insert new. It's a little tough bending 2/0 cable to fit and go where you want but with a little muscle it'll listen. You will need to splice into the factory battery mounts on the passenger side negative.

 

 

I had to cut this middle wire (yours may be different.) 

 

 

The plastic 'Y' is what you want to KEEP so don't cut below that. You'll only want to solder one end of wire to another end. Stock battery cable was 8, the new upgraded cable was 6 so plan your splicing accordingly.

 

 

The wire after soldering

 

 

And this is the finished product. All in all I'm really happy with the products fit and finish and the military style terminals. I only wish the PO didn't put such big battery's in, they don't really fit in the batterey trays right now. 

 

The HX swap was really easy and straight forward, I didn't take as many pics as I usually do because I was extra greasy. I can go snap some pics of any extra stuff if you guys want.

Ok so just wanted to put this here so I can have everything I've done on the truck in one spot. 

 

I wanted to copied Mikes idea of putting lights up under the axle because I couldn't see anything when backing up 

 

Anyways, using a couple different diagrams from people on here and on CF I was able to piece together a setup. 

 

I mainly used this diagram, just because it was the easiest for me to read. I'm not very electronically inclined

 

 

I used these 35w lights with rubber housings that I got for like $15  a piece at my local tractor supply store. I spliced the existing wire from the light into a two prong waterproof plug

 

 

You can see where I soldered and put shrink wrap where the wires change color. 

 

Then I shoved the the wiring into the rubber housing so that my solder was no longer exposed and put some rtv on the hole to keep water out.

 

 

I then wired together the two lights and ran the rest of the wiring down the truck and up through the firewall into the cab. 

 

I ran a second single wire from the  trailer hitch wiring up to the cab as well. It was the purple with black striped wire. 

 

Once in the cab I connected two seperate inline fuses. One for the switch, one for the relay.

 

 

I tapped into keyed on power where the red arrow shows. You can see my in line fuses to the left a bit. I really need to go back and clean up the wiring under my kick panel! 

 

 

Currently how I have the relay positioned.

 

 

For now the switch is just hanging out under the steering wheel. I'll more then likely put it to the left of the steering wheel at the very top of the kick panel. I want to be able flip the switch without having to be all the way in the truck so that's why I'm thinking there. 

 

 

And how things ended up looking in back. 

 

Overall I'm really happy with it! Got a little more in depth then I planned and had to make more trips to ACE then I would've liked but all in all a nice mod. The lights definitely aren't blinding but they illuminate plenty enough so you can see backing up or hitching a trailer. 

 

Thanks for inspiration on this mod Mike! 

That looks really good.

Looking good. Here's another idea for mounting a switch. I just made a bracket but you could probably buy something similar. I also didn't feel bad about drilling holes since the PO already added vent holes...

Edited June 13, 20168 yr by Buzzinhalfdozen

Guess that takes away my fears of the sump being venerable. Wow, video is awesome. 

Is there a real advantage to the sump? If low on fuel and going uphill, seems like you'll only see maybe a cup of reserve in the sump?

Another solution for reverse light switch location....

 

Left - Fog lamp switch

Center - Back up or rear flood lights

Right - Emergency red flashing light

you're switches aren't straight

Picky... Geez...

Thanks for suggestions for switch placement! I'm still trying to decide on the best spot to put them but this doesn't make it easier!

Like the idea of having a pilot lite so you don't accidentally leave backup kites on while driving 

Yea, not sure if I mentioned that or not but the switch I used illuminates red on the tip of the switch when powered on so it helps remind you. Which is why I'd like to put it in a fairly noticeable spot.

Well still haven't picked a spot for my backup light switch. But I did finally get around to putting my trailer brake in this truck. I wanted to put it somewhere easy enough to reach so uncoils activate the brake override if needed but somewhere it was still out of the way a bit. I finally settled on just using the ash tray as my mounting location. Definitely nothing original here but it worked out well for me. I'm running a tekonsha p3 and it fit perfectly. I did trim the plastic holder a bit though. 

 

 

I removed the entire ash tray cover and the 'metal' cover on top. Got a good idea of how I wanted my trailer brake holder mounted. Drilled holes and that was that. There are two plastic pieces that stick out that hold the tray cover in place and you can use these to mount your trailer brake on top giving it a slightly lower angle or below making it gave up more. You can as see (if you look hard enough) that I cut the tabs on the from outside portion of the plastic. This was so I could take the controller out without having to remove everything else just to take that out.

 

Here's a better shot of what I was talking about.

 

Final install

 

 

 

I really like how it's tucked up in the panels without looking too weird that one of the panels is missing. I was even thinking of trying to take apart the front plastic section of the ash tray to try and put a bit of a cover back on it to make it look more natural but we'll see.

 

Interesting place to stuff the brake controller. 

Yea I figured if I'm not going to use the ash tray might as well put it to good use!