Jan 08 2010
S-10
We headed to Lakewood this morning to pick up a pickup. The previous owner, Bob, gave us great directions to his house and after talking about his nineteen year ownership of the vehicle – evident from the way he spoke about the details of the truck – and having a few laughs, he cranked the engine over to prove it would crank.
As he tells it, the truck started giving him some trouble on the way back from a Christmas trip but he was able to get it home. We he cranked it over for me in his driveway, it would pop and spit through the intake as if out of time and Bob said from the way it was running but now wouldn’t start that he thought the timing chain may have jumped a tooth. It’s all speculation at this point, but we’ll systematically eliminate probable causes one-by-one, as usual, until we get our desired result.
Soon Leigh was behind the wheel and we were pushing the a 4X4 extended cab S-10 out of his driveway to hook it to the back of the Trailblazer. After a few more laughs and a few more “almost forgot” parts, we were on our uneventful trip back home.
Since I’m right in the middle of insulating and sheetrocking the unheated & already over-crowded garage, I had to leave the truck sit in the driveway to clear out enough space to push it into. That’s when I snapped these first photos.
Meanwhile the boys came home from school and Jack yells out “Cool truck!”
I yell back, “Your Mom and I just picked it up.”
“No.” he replies, “Rex.” referring to the ‘58 Chevy I was using as a push vehicle, the only vehicle I own that my wife doesn’t want me to sell. She actually chided me the other day with, “You make money on every vehicle you own” but does not want me to get rid of that one because of the work I have in it. But when someone wants it more than I do I’ll be okay with it. 
So I push the S-10 into the garage, Leigh now officially having driven it more than me, and I start digging into the engine. It’s an ‘85 so it’s got the 2.8 and there really wasn’t much exciting tearing it down except a couple of bolts through the aluminum waterpump that were too tight from the electrolysis between the dissimilar metals. I worked them back and forth enough that they came out, albeit with some of the aluminum from the pump, but it would’ve been quicker and easier to use the torch for a little heat.
I’d also advise anyone who does their own maintenance to coat the contact surfaces between hoses and their connections with a little anti-seize to prevent the hose from baking itself onto the fitting over time. It makes removal much simpler even after long periods and doesn’t affect the seal at all.
You can see the slack on the left side of the chain in the picture above and how much tighter the chain is on the right (since that’s the way I rolled the crank to get it at TDC), but the picture below shows the timing marks between the gears really lined up well. The mark on the crank gear is not at the key way, it is on the face of the tooth that is straight up:
There may have been enough slop in the chain when the engine was cranking to prevent it from running, but I’m not convinced this is the problem. I’ll change it for good measure after the boys’ basketball games tomorrow since it’s obviously stretched and since I’m in here, but won’t be surprised if things still aren’t right when I button them back up.
The red-dyed alcohol in the garage thermometer (government says mercury is bad now unless it’s in light bulbs) was reading 33F when I stopped, so I can’t say it was “freezing” out there, but I thought I’d come inside where it’s warmer to write a little. Besides, the parts places are all closed. 
Stay tooned.
