Smol Truck Lyfe: Homeless Edition

[ChrisoftheNorth]

So, the S10 has managed to work its way into my heart. In anticipation of needing to spend time sitting at the airport while I'm travelling for the new gig, I gave it a full rust proofing underneath with Fluid Film and a quick spray wax. It really cleaned up nice...



I've been tackling little issues, and ran into the most ridiculous recently.

I fired it up on my way home from the airport, it was cold out, and something was squealing under the hood. Assumed it was the belt being cold, ZFG. The next day, tried again and the same squealing. I wanted to make sure an accessory component wasn't about to seize up, so I pulled the belt and found the alternator bearing toasted. It was screeching and grinding like crazy and felt like a bag of sand, so I knew it was toast, or about to be. The belt was in OK shape, but it was a bit old, and the pulley on the tensioner wobbled a bit, so I figured I'd replace the belt, tensioner, and pulley.

A new AC Delco alternator, belt, pulley, and tensioner was $150 shipped from Amazon. The parts swapped on ZFG, and I went to fire it up and immediately there as a knocking sound it wasn't making before. Sounded like rod knock, which terrified me at first. Pulled the belt, and it was quiet, so thankfully nothing in the engine. The new alternator pulley spun freely and silently, as did every other accessory component. One by one I swapped back on the old parts...tensioner (no change), pulley (no change), then inexplicably, I put the old belt on and it was dead silent. Somehow that brand new AC Delco belt with the exact same size and part number as the old one was creating a knocking sound that resembled rod knock. How in the actual fuck? Returned it and I'll run the old belt a bit longer.

Lesson learned, never assume even the simplest new parts are good

The thing runs like a top now and has surprisingly good power, sounds great, and is way more fun to drive than it should be. homeless lyfe in that thing.

With the manual and 4.3 this is really, really, cool truck. Not too many factory lifted trucks out there and certainly not ones smol enough to do trail work. The "Trail Boss" full size pickups being advertised by Chevrolet now are impossibly huge.

For some reason, the ZR2 has a history of being extremely legit. The S10 was the first one, and the differences between it and a standard S10 are . Different Frame (entirely boxed), Narrowed 1500 8.8 rear end with G80 (not the crappy econo s10 rear end), Bilstein shocks, wider front suspension with beefed control arms, full thick carbon fiber (yes, really) underbody shields (there's 4 or 5 in total). They beat the shit out of the truck testing it in the desert to be a desert runner in the early 90's, when the market didn't even exist for such a thing. It's an incredibly beefy off-road truck when Ford was putting Splash decals on Rangers and Toyota was making 2WD offroad "PreRunners". WHY did the ZR2 exist in such a legit state? Further, they're almost entirely ignored or forgotten about by enthusiasts then and now.

Then the Colorado ZR2 came along and followed the same recipe again. Very little is shared between the standard Colorado and a ZR2. Very intense desert testing, the thing is a legit beast.

The Silverados are an abomination of the ZR2 name, the "trail boss" is a joke. Beside the fact that they're too big to do anything real off-road, they're not that much different from the base trucks. They're just bro'd out money grabs, and it drives me nuts. A "ZR2" Silverado parked next to me at Costco the other day, and I should have taken a photo. It completely dwarfed the 4R. The S10 would have looked like a child's toy next to it.

[ChrisoftheNorth]

I buy very little from amazon because of the risk of fakes. The AC Delco drop-shipping thing is the only reason I consider it, really.

Rock Auto is one of the best because they just drop ship parts from parts warehouses. For AC delco parts, they go through GM warehouses, just like amazon. Little opportunity for fakes. I knew about that from my days working in GM accy's, it's a cool initiative GM took on to increase market share of parts. Also, this is a worthless old GM product, and as such, parts can't be expensive otherwise they won't sell.

It's very possible, though that these cheap parts are cheaper quality from AC Delco to meet a price point. Seriously, why the hell that belt made such a racket still perplexes me. We'll see if I get burned, but so far so good.

The truck might see a few thousand miles a year at most around town. If something breaks, it can sit in the garage until I fix it ZFG. I didn't buy it to be reliable transportation, I bought it to haul stuff around and keep my mind busy tinkering with it. It's really simple thing overall, the only known issue with them are usually auto trans related, so since it's a manuel, there's not much to fail. Even if the alternator did die, I could drive it home from anywhere I'd be on the battery. 4x4 is vacuum actuated and can be finnicky. That's about it.

What about something like this..........

https://www.tucsonalternator.com/high-o ... %20325CID/

I wouldn't go replacing parts that aren't broken, personally. I only replaced my alternator because the bearing clearly was done and I didn't want it to seize up and take out the belt. The alternator was charging fine, I may even try replacing the bearing to keep it as a spare.

Do you have anything on the truck requiring extra power output? If not, just go OEM AC Delco or Napa Gold (I've heard from others including Max that Napa Gold is legit quality).

[Desertbreh]

What about something like this..........

https://www.tucsonalternator.com/high-o ... %20325CID/

I wouldn't go replacing parts that aren't broken, personally. I only replaced my alternator because the bearing clearly was done and I didn't want it to seize up and take out the belt. The alternator was charging fine, I may even try replacing the bearing to keep it as a spare.

Do you have anything on the truck requiring extra power output? If not, just go OEM AC Delco or Napa Gold (I've heard from others including Max that Napa Gold is legit quality).

Just the light bar.

[ChrisoftheNorth]

I wouldn't go replacing parts that aren't broken, personally. I only replaced my alternator because the bearing clearly was done and I didn't want it to seize up and take out the belt. The alternator was charging fine, I may even try replacing the bearing to keep it as a spare.

Do you have anything on the truck requiring extra power output? If not, just go OEM AC Delco or Napa Gold (I've heard from others including Max that Napa Gold is legit quality).

Just the light bar.

I wouldn't worry about that.

I'd just get a 145amp AC Delco or GM Reman and call it.

https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.ph ... 2&jsn=1419
or
https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.ph ... 2&jsn=1426

AC Delco is like GM's "Duralast" or house brand parts. Intended for a cheaper price point vs genuine GM parts. Dealers usually use genuine GM, while AC Delco is sold through 3rd part parts stores, online, etc. I'm honestly not sure there's a difference in the product other than price. The AC Delco alt I put on the truck looked like a factory part.

[Desertbreh]

Just the light bar.

I wouldn't worry about that.

I'd just get a 145amp AC Delco or GM Reman and call it.

https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.ph ... 2&jsn=1419
or
https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.ph ... 2&jsn=1426

AC Delco is like GM's "Duralast" or house brand parts. Intended for a cheaper price point vs genuine GM parts. Dealers usually use genuine GM, while AC Delco is sold through 3rd part parts stores, online, etc. I'm honestly not sure there's a difference in the product other than price. The AC Delco alt I put on the truck looked like a factory part.

Sounds advice.