Topic: 84 takes a dive

[84pickup]

Okay so i'm leaving for college in my 84 Pickup and 175 miles away from home i start hearing this horrible knocking noise. so i'm thinking well crap i'm about to throw a rod. for what ever reason i downshift to 4th gear and th noise goes away. i'm talking to my dad on the phone and as i'm pulling into a gas station, every single gear starts chattering and knocking and you can feel it in the whole truck. i get my friends to come get me and tow me back and tear everything down in the tranny only to find out that the input shaft lost 4-5 complete teeth and chiped a whole bunch of teeth on the corresponding counter gear below it. also a few of my bearings were pretty loose. so eventually i source the parts from a local tranny shop in ft. worth. (don't remember the name but they are a really good parts place and knew a lot about my transmission. would highly recomend them) i got the tranny put all back together and somewhat broken in and left for college again with in 5 days of trying to leave the first time. the following trip was pretty uneventful... until i got to Raton Pass in New Mexico. I could tell that the truck was having a really hard time keeping a steady speed in the mountains but it made it over the pass and all the way to just outside of colorado springs. Oh and i forgot to mention that the engine in it had been hydrolocked twice! both times all we did (my brother hydrolocked  it once when it was in his 92 2wd pickup and i hydrolocked it when it was in my 84.) was get as much of the water out of the cylinders as we could and kept on driving it. although when i did it, it blew the head gasket so in retrospect i should've at least re ringed it and looked at the main bearings. but anyways i was driving along outside of colorado springs and i hear a rattling  and a clank clank and a jumble of noises and the truck shook pretty violently and i pulled of to the side of the road. it was raining so i just stayed in the truck. i thought maybe it was the transmission that blew up but when it stopped raining i got out and looked at the engine because i thought that maybe i threw a rod. well when i finally could see, i had a 4-6 square inch on the drivers side of the block and a 2-3 square inch hole on the passenger side. both on the 4th clinder. so i called my dad and he said to get my stuff and my uncle would come and get me and to just leave the truck. this is the truck i rolled last year so my dad just didn't think it was worth anything and he didn't want me to consantly be working on it at school. so i'm down a truck and i probably won't have another for a while. at least till i can save up. it was just weird because the engine was running okay just before it blew up. and it even still ran with the holes in the block! the whole truck had 213K miles on it but the motor only had 150K on it. i'm gonna miss the old girl but i'll be getting another one eventually!

[Sparkplug]

its just sitting on the side of the road?? at least get it and part it out, or sell it.....

[pumkin toy]

yeah what did you end up doing with the truck?

[84pickup [OP]]

lol sorry i left that part out. a wrecker was driving by and stopped to see if i needed anything and i told him what happened and that my dad just didn't want to deal with it anymore so the guy said that he could take it home or something for free. later when he came back we got to talking and he told me that he had an 88 with the 22RE-t and that right now he's got an 80 with a 350 swap and he seemed to kinda know what he was talking about so i'm glad it at least didn't just go to the junk yard. at least not yet. i hope. i wouldn't have a problem fixing it but my dad just wanted to get rid of it and to stop me from pouring all money into it.

[pumkin toy]

so some lucky guy happened to be driving by with a wrecker and got a free yota?  wow!  what a sweet deal for him

[84pickup [OP]]

yeah pretty much lol. it was in rough shape though because i rolled it going 30 on my way to school one morning and it was just a rough truck. he told me he'd send me some money if he could for it when i sent him the title but i can't remember what i did with his info. and even then i don't think my dad really cares lol i wouldn't mind the extra cash though. i can't wait to get another truck though!

[jonnyrotten]

Sounds to me like you need a bicycle...

[84pickup [OP]]

yep... although i'm at a pretty tiny school so walking isn't a big deal. if i get a job anytime soon though, i'll be getting a bike

[caCrawlin]

sry to hear that, atleast you got to roll it before you blew it up    how did u manage that one on the way to school? Take a side road? lol

[84pickup [OP]]

well it's kind of a funny story lol. i was on a small country road and i had noticed that i was just barely off in the grass. so i started easin back over on the road cause i knew how easily you can loose control in these trucks. or at least i've never had the best luck with not fishtailing in iffy conditions. well just as i started easing over the passenger side rear hit a rut and slipped in and then i over corrected and lost it. i couldn't recover so i just said screw it and left the truck going at a 45 degree angle in the middle of the road slowly going toward the side of the road. there a road that t'd into the road i was on and my side front went into the ditch first and sent me rolling. i was going about 30 or 35 when i rolled but i was probly going 45 or 50 when i was fishtailing. it was 6 in the morning so i think i only rolled once and i landed rubber side down amazingly enough. once i made sure me and my sis were okay i checked on the truck and picked up as much of my stuff off the road as i could and drove it home to asses the damage as quick as i could. then i called my freind and told him what happened and he came and took me to school for band practice. looking back on it and seeing as how me and my sister were all okay and i could still drive the truck, it was really pretty fun lol    

here's some before and after pics just for the hell of it. i had actually gotten close a few times to rolling it on a few trails though so it certainly got it's use out where it belonged.









After we cut the front half of the roof and re-welded it. 










and here it is with me after i did the RE swap and i had it running on the first try! i really liked the swap and i'd suggest to anyone if you're thinking of doing it, do it. it's nice.


i just like this pic