K5 $150.00
tow $ 45.00
brake line $ 2.80
my very own k5....priceless
cheezy I know but I'm stoked.

After washing off the K5 I realized it was not the original paint. However thats just fine, shows whoever owned it cared about it. Some body work has been done to it and I found some more rust than I thought there was, but noting extreme by K5 standards (a good K5 of this vintage may need a new floor, mine does not).

09/15/03: A friend of mine also recently purchased a Blazer, and as an added bonus got a GMC Jimmy (same truck) as well for free. The Jimmy was in piss poor shape, you can see the ground from the drivers seat. Just a parts truck for sure.

Just a few days ago I spent roughly 7 and 1/2 hours on my back in my dirt driveway removing the following:
Front Drive Shaft
Rear Drive Shaft
Transfer Case
Cross Member
Transmission

Started at 8:00pm was done around 3:00-3:30am
They all came out relatively easy actually! It took a friend and me around 6 hours to do the same to a 1983 GMC Jimmy - thats 12 collective man hours!

My transmission was definitly fried - the bottom of the pan was absolutely covered in fine metal shavings. My tranny was pure junk. I was hoping that it could be one of a few different easy fixes, but it was not.

Last night (09/14/03) I fixed up the transmission I pulled out of the 83' Jimmy by doing the following things:
Salvaging the Transmission Pan off of My Tranny
Salvaging the Governor Cover off of My Tranny
Attaching My Tranny Tail Mount
Installing Drain Plug
Putting this all together

Using a drain plug I got from VIP I added a drain hole to the transmission pan. I put this on the right side (from above the tranny facing the front of the truck) so if I scrape the pan on any rocks it wont get ripped out. Because of the design, the plug wouldn't allow all the fluid to drain out on the bottom, so I decided that the side would be the best place. I put it a little higher in the pan to get further away from those nasty rocks, but putting it further down could get almost all the fluid out and still be away from the rocks. The plug it's self is rather interesting. It is a large steel bolt, with a hole through the axis of the bolt and a smaller one in that hole. So you basically drill a big hole, and put the big bolt in there. Then when you need to drain the pan you open up the little bolt. Here is exactly how I did it. After drilling a hole not quite big enough for the large bolt to go in, but big enough for it to thread through (no point in tapping sheet metal) I put a ring of gasket maker around the outside of the hole (even though the drain plug came with a gasket - which I still used). I ratchted it into place, and put a ring of gasket maker around the back of the hole. Then I tightened down a nut that fit the drian plug so I would sandwich the sheet metal in the middle. If this drain plug were to get ripped out, I would most likely have more to worry about than looseing fluid. I then put a bead of gasket maker along all seams to make sure I would not loose any transmission fluid. Now I wont have to remove my pan to change my tranny fluid, and the fix should be fairly trail proof. Now the next fix was 2 of the 16 bolt holes that hold on the tranny pan were stripped. I found 2 slightly larger bolts that matched each other in the bolt-bucket and a matching tap. Re-tapped the holes and they were good to go. Unfortunately the stock bolts are 1/2" and the bolts I found were 9/16" - but the heads look completely different so the next guy should be able to tell if he looks at them. Then I replaced the tranny filter with a new one. Laid a bead of gasket maker around the top of the pan and attached with 16 bolts. I used gasket maker instead of a true gasket because I shouldn't have to take the pan off agian. The governor cover off the Jimmy transmission, like the tranny pan, was more rusted than the one off my transsmission so I again opted to change it out. No problems there, just scrapped off the old gasket and used gasket maker for a new stylish red-orage gasket. The tail mount for my 85' is 3-4 inches shorter and 2-3 inches wider (in other words completly different) than the one for the 83' so I had to change that as well. However trying to take the tail mount off the 83' tranny was a bitch! One of the 4 bolts got rounded over and I had to beat the head off the bolt with a cold chistel, no fun! When installing the 85' mount on the 83' tranny I also used gasket maker to suppliment the old gasket I reused.

I hope to have the K5 running in DAYS!! I got a floor jack to lift it all up with - I can't wait!

Well things changed a little bit.
I was able to get the above transmission up and in. I however put a torque converter from a 1983 TH700R4 onto a transmission from a 1985 TH700R4. Needless to say this did not work. The TC spun around the input shaft of the '85 tranny. So I got to take it out again!!! I took it out, and cleaned it up. Found out that gasket maker is bad for trannys, so I got the correct filter/gasket setup. Still had to make the tranny to t-case gasket, but I used paper gasket to make it this time. The best story of this is I had left the 1985 TC out and it rained! So I drained that as best I could, and then installed it all. I ran it for about 5 minutes and changed the fluid. Hasn't been changed since. 4,000 hard miles latter and it seams to be doing just fine.

The puddle is quite deep, probably 2 1/2 3 feet at the deepest, and the ice didn't help. I went in, broke some ice. Backed up, charged and broke some more ice. Backed up, and gave it hell. I got in, up a bit, and almost out. Ass-end fell into the puddle and the rear driver's side was up against a wall. No backing up now :0)

The right rear was sunk, and the left front was spinning trying to climb up a small rock. I tried to get some plywood (one time I was happy for litter) underneeth the front wheel but it wasn't enough to pull me out. I tried hooking up my 5,000lb tie down and 17,000lb snatch strap to help pull, but that did nothing but hurt a pine (didn't have a saver and couldn't wrap the strap around multiple times - sorry tree!)
I started walking home, and was going to get my piece of shit, err 1988 2wd S10 and pull myself out. But as I was walking home I made a call and had the 4wd 2000 1500 pull me out. Just hooked up the 17,000lb snatch strap and he gave me a little tug in reverse and I drove right on out.
Needless to say I couldn't let the puddle win. I went back round the Honda Civic way and chose a better line. I drove through it and got through quite a bit further, but I did get stuck on the ice. I had to back up and charge it agian to break it up. But because of the line I chose, I could back up! Much fun, and a learning experience.
The picture of the hole is after I got out the first time, I'm not rightly sure how much more ice I broke up. But you can see the hole the right front was in, the rock the left front was spinning on. The right side of my truck was RIGHT up against the left side "wall" of the hole.