Moving on…
Well yesterday me and Giliani went up to my storage unit and pulled out the spare windows I had in a box. A few years ago, a friend of mine who shall go unnamed, was being a jackass and busted out my passenger-side vent window. In his defense, the window was incredibly stiff to move. He exercised poor technique, and yanked the handle through the glass. It took 4 months to find a replacement for a “decent” (read that as “not outrageous”) price. What I eventually found was a complete set of door windows for my truck…all 4 of ‘em for around $30 or so. I used the one I needed and put the rest in storage. Glad I did that too…
The weather wasn’t great, but not terrible. It was warm enough for me not to wear a jacket, although rain was in the air. G did her part to help, and was nice enough to hold the door steady for me on numerous occasions while I wrestled the remnants of the old window out of the door and installed the new one. Given that I wasn’t sure how long the job would take or what all I’d have to remove in order to do it, I’d estimate that it took somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour. Not too bad…
While I was out there, and in the mood, I decided to take a crack at removing the burned wiring harness. Let me tell you, this was no fun. But I did it. Right now, I have the original harness stretched out on the back porch, with the donor harness laid next to it for comparison.
If you don’t recall, a good buddy named Matt up in Iowa donated the harness from an ‘85 Suburban that he’s parting out. It’s not an exact match, but very useable. Mainly when I say “useable” I mean that it has enough of the correct type of wires to remove and splice into my existing damaged harness. In fact I will end up making use of most of it. Thanks again Shades! (Matt)
While I was under the hood, I noticed that the transmission kickdown cable was also damaged in the fire. If you don’t know what this part does, just know that it’s important to have 
But it’s a cheap part, so no biggie. I just hope the install isn’t a bitch.
The only thing that upset me was having to pull the distributor out completely in order to get the harness out. In retrospect, I suppose this is a good thing, as the distributor got pretty nasty inside when the fire melted a hole in it. So a good cleaning is in order. I marked it as best I could to ensure that I reinstall it in the same position.
My biggest concern is hooking everything back up the way the factory did. No small task given my “slash and burn” method of removing the wiring. However, I did make several mental notes and I’m not TOO awfully worried.
To assist me in that task I’ve ordered a factory wiring manual complete with diagrams. It’s the book the folks used on the assembly line to put it together in the first place, so it should be fairly detailed.
As for today, it’s raining and cold…DAMNIT. I can only work on the truck as daylight and weather allows. Daylight means weekend work only. I get home from work around 5:45pm, and of course by that time it’s getting dark. And with 2 wet weekends in a row, this is really starting to piss me off.
So I’m making progress…slowly but surely.
~jp