The 86 K1500 4x4

My first Square

After putting the Ford behind me, I went out shopping for something with some more creature comforts. This is what I found and settled on: My first squarebody truck, an 86 GMC K1500 High Sierra. It came equipped with a 305, 700R4, power steering, power disc brakes, cruise control, delay wipers, AM-FM cassette, twin fuel tanks, and block heater. I don't understand why they didn't order it with power windows and door locks though--that was about all they missed.

I bought it from a small car lot for too much (I can't remember what I paid actually) money. The mileage wasn't reflected much in the body or interior because it was almost all highway miles. It didn't have a lot of the usual wear you see in high milers. Well, the usual visual wear that is. I decided that the bed was nice enough that I didn't want to see it go to hell, so I had a spray-in Rhino Liner applied to the bed. I really had a lot of fun in this truck. The 305 ran good, used no oil and made no noises, but it was a little tired and anemic after I had owned it for a couple years. The transmission was starting to slow, the rear was starting to whine... You know--all the mechanical stuff was starting to die a slow death. But that's not what really made me sell it.

Not long after I bought it, an electronic gremlin appeared. A mysterious, intermittent loss of spark that would leave me stranded occasionally. Bear in mind, this was also the last of the carbureted trucks before they all went EFI, so that year of Quadrajet carburetor was riddled with electronic sensors. Practically everything on the truck seemed to interact with each other, so it was hard to troubleshoot anyway. The starting system was never a problem. The starter always spun nicely. There was always plenty of gas also. What was missing? What else? The spark! I fiddle farted around with everything I could, but never found the culprit. When you'd come out of the store and nary a fart would it utter.  Sometimes there would be weeks between events, sometimes hours. Sometimes it would work after trying it a few times, but more than once it left me stranded until the next day. I'm pretty sure it was the ECM because it was about the only thing left to change, but I'd had it at that point. No more of that ECM crap for me. I started looking for another squarebody, but this time I wanted something more stripped down and easy to troubleshoot.

Funny--when the guy showed up with his trailer to pick it up, he hit the starter before we started pushing 'just to see' and it fired right up.

Of course.