I am in the market for a GMT400Single cab, 4x4.What years are goodWhat years to avoid?can I qrd on the tranny?what else should I know? this would be my first 'merican truck, ive been a jdm boi my whole life.im in the shitwest, and I will fly out to socal to buy one if I need to.
>>28196201there are two rules with old silveraydos. don't buy them from the rust belt and don't buy them from minorities. that's it. well what about the transmi- shut the fuck up. doesn't matter. parts are everywhere just follow the two rules
>>28196209This is good advice. Listen to this man.
>>28196201. Never had any transmission problems with it. I drove it for a couple of years before giving it to my slob brothers. I miss that truck sometimes It took 5 years for my brothers to ruin it. Those are solid trucks
Pros: it's already a shitheap so it can't get much worse now Cons: people want $10,000 for them now instead of $1,000 and the transmissions will commit Sudoku if you beat on it. Mine lasted about three years as a work truck before I sold and moved on. I miss it, but wow do they kinda suck in every regard other than being a big rolling steel shithouse.
Just like the 800's you can get a 2500 to avoid the shitty 4L60E. You also get the big boy engines.
>>28196278Is the 4L serviceable? Can you build one up to not sudoku?
>>28196201I recently got a '91 k2500 for cheap that I've been fixing up. Couple things that are good to know- 1500's use the "light duty" 8.5" 6-lug rear end and 4L60/E- there are "light" "medium" and "heavy" duty 2500's. Light duty has the 9.5" six lug semi-floating rear, 4L60 & 7200 gvwr. Heavy duty has the 10.5" 8 lug full floated rear, 4L80E & 8600 gvwr. - '95 was the model refresh with trucks getting an updated interior, full ABS and and driver airbag. So slightly more "modern" but less simple compared to earlier ones.- '96 got the updated vortec engines which all make like 50 more hp than the non-vortec engines.
Electrical demons because GM bean counters.>tall lights plug into a printed circuit board that is bolted to the housing and uses a foam seal.That's the type of 2 cent production savings GM put into every aspect of the GMT400.It will get you where you want to go but you have to crawl out the window when you get there because all 4 door handles broke.
>>28197137is your mom serviceable?
>>28197183thanks for that infodid any of them come in manual?what 4x4 options do they have?are there 2x4 with rear lockers?
>>28197183Not sure when the model break was, but the earlier 2500's use TH400 auto transmissions, and the 1500's might have used 700R4's. My dad has an 89 K2500 and it's one of the light duty models with the semi-floating rear (unless it was swapped) and it has a TH400.Also, they're not that common but don't discount the 6.2L and later 6.5L diesels. They don't make a lot of power but they're simple and reliable and you can feed them pretty much anything that won't fuck up the seals in the injection pump. I'm happy with the 6.2L in my 1986 Chevy.
>>28196209Mexicans are white
>>28196201>boifirst off, kill yourself redditor.anyways,the 4L60 is fine if you never towed with it, no way for someone to guarantee it though.the oil cooler lines leak, they're a bitch to replace with the front driveline in the way so just get rid of the adapter and take the lines out, the oil cooler does almost nothing to cool the engine anyways.>>28197183the 8600 GVWR axle is a 9.5" semi float. I own one and did the gasket and fluid recently.
>>28196201You're 15 years too late to buy a clean 400 for anything approaching a reasonable price.
>>28196201I'd say aim for a Vortec, but the chances of you getting a good one that hasn't been ran into the ground are low.My parent's 97 4x4 Suburban that came under my care after my brother rearend an asshole and totaled their car.
>>28196278People need to stop treating the 4l60 like it's dogshit, I've driven multiple and multiple with 200k+ not one of them has slipped, just don't overload them and they last, chances are if you buy one that shifts fine, it will stay that way for a long time if you're not retarded with it. People act like it's a fucking dodge transmission.
>>28197451I don't know a ton about this stuff but I'll answer what I know. Manual is available for pretty much every engine option. There were a ton of engine/trans/chassis layouts available. The 4.3 v6 was the base model for 1500 & light duty 2500 and not available in the 3500. Light duty 2500's were discontinued in '96. I think 4x4 options are the same for 1500 & 2500's, I don't know much about the 3500's. GMT400's before '96 have the transfer case stick on the floor, after that they changed to push button. Transfer case is the usual 4hi & 4lo (4hi is "shift on the fly", 4lo you have to be in neutral first to engage it). K1500 & "light" K2500 have an 8.25 front diff, the heavy K2500 has a 9.25 front. As far as I know the 1500 & 2500's did not have factory lockers, just optional posi. >>28197481from the gmt400 forums it was around '91 for the 4l60. I think the 4L80 change happened around '93.>>28198248I could have sworn there was a heavy duty 2500 option with the 10.5 rear. Idk it may depend on the engine or something.
>>28200415>I could have sworn there was a heavy duty 2500 option with the 10.5 rearPretty sure you're correct. It seems like GM was trying to play the GVWR game for registration and emissions inspections and had both light and heavy duty 2500's. All the 2500 series Suburbans I've seen have the full floating rear, but I think it's interesting that the previous square-body generation of trucks only offered the semi-floater with the 3/4 tons.
OP here,is something like this a good deal?https://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/ctd/d/puyallup-1989-chevrolet-gmt-400-k2500/7811206532.htmltons of similar priced gmts in the northwest
>>28201019https://boise.craigslist.org/cto/d/boise-1999-chev-pk/7812369816.htmlget this one you can tell its a white guy selling it
>>28196209real ass post right here
Why you would want to buy an automatic GM truck during that period of NOTORIOUS strikes in GM automatic plants?
>>28201119I'd still trust a 4l60 over the 8/10 speed pieces of fucking shit in modern trucks.
>>28201119even parts made during a strike 30 years ago are better than parts made by DEI today.
>>28196209FPBP
