New to me Truck 2005 GMC Sierra

[nocooler]

Last night my friend Travis and I embarked on a 6 hour round trip to go get this 05 GMC Sierra z71. It's extremely clean, and was owned by another friend but has high miles 234K. It has a blown trans and will need a few things, but overall I felt like I stole this truck.
Should be a good replacement for the regular cab.

[Steve Wood]

That will be very handy!

[daveismissing]

5ft box?

[nocooler]

Yeah it’s got the 5’8” box on it.

[nocooler]

Been busy

[nocooler]

So the outer rocker skins have some rust and somehow the floor has a hole in it.
I'll be patching the floor - don't know about the rockers yet.
Found a local guy who'll build my trans for a reasonable price - hopefully in a couple of weeks it'll be back together

[nocooler]

Picked up the trans yesterday.
Pulled the oil pan and valve covers today. I'm extremely pleased with how everything looks inside, the cylinders still have visible crosshatch.
This engine is an odd ball - it was late enough 05 build that it's still a 24x crank but has the Gen 4 rods in it. I'll take it 

[nocooler]

The one kick in the nuts so far is, the pitman arm won’t come off the steering box.
The pitman arm has to be removed to drop the front diff - I had to pull the steering box.
I broke 2 pitman arm pullers and my big 2 jaw puller doesn’t seem to want to budge it.
I’m thinking a relief cut in the pitman arm might help, here hasn’t done much. It’s moved maybe 1/4”

[Steve Wood]

Cross hatching looks brand new.  Does not look like it was run much lately...I say that because it is a bit rustier inside that I would have guessed.

Have you tried putting some heat to the arm around the shaft and then hitting the puller with an impact?

[nocooler]

It's been setting for about a month so far.
Yeah Steve - that's how I broke the two pullers.
I cut a relief it and split it with a chisel - then it pulled off nicely....

[Steve Wood]

Nice work!

[Forzfed]

I'm sure it will look good once your done.  Can't wait to see the finished product!

[nocooler]

Brake lines would be done if some dumbass didn't kink one of the lines.....
Guess I wait until the new one shows up., at least it was only a $40 mistake

[Steve Wood]

I tried to put one on backwards  a few years back.  I did not notice that the thread sizes were different from front and rear.  I put it on the way that it seemed to fit best.  Then I realized neither end would screw in.  It fit pretty well with a few bend corrections.

Then it got a few more bend corrections when I pulled it off and and re-bent it to best fit the other way around.  Not one of my better days but it still works.

[nocooler]

So here is everything I'm doing:
Driver's side ball joints - I did the passenger last year for my neighbor, he wussed out and didn't want to do the drivers.
Inner/outer tie rods
Pitman arm/idler arm
Sway bar endlinks/frame bushings
New brake lines/hoses. I went with the nickel/copper lines for the hard lines. The rear line and passenger front hardline were about done.
New fuel lines - broke when I removed them
New power steering pressure line
All new coolant hoses
New Radiator/Transcooler - lines were just replaced so I flushed them generously each way with brake clean, then air. When I fire it, I'll leave the return line off and run a few quarts through the system.
Rebuilt trans with new converter. A shift kit, some hard parts, and some other hydraulic tweaks - should make a nice unit.
Engine wise - valve springs, valve seals, timing chain, and cam thrust plate have been replaced, oil pump inspected and shimmed.
I'm re-sealing the entire engine, minus head gaskets. I was able to get 3 of the 4 broken exhaust bolts out with heat/rounded nut extractors, so I lifted the engine to get access to drill/re-tap the 4th hole. The passenger side exhaust manifold was replaced due to the flange studs breaking off.
new engine, trans mounts
I've got 2 new key fobs I need to program for it, a door handle to install, and a floor pan to patch.
Might hack the exhaust up - but down the road