Shifter Boot Bezel

While the truck was in the paint shop, I decided to try and tackle the issue of the shifter boot.  The shifter in a stock S10 is much larger than the Hurst shifter used with a T56 and the boot would not look/fit right.  I wanted it look good, so I tried to come up with a simple, but elegant solution.

The pictures below are of the factory boot in the console.  The main problem is that it is a molded rubber and cannot easily be replicated in leather without a big headache.  Actually, I was told that it could not be done and look good.

I had just done some recent work on a BMW I own and I noticed that BMW uses a plastic bezel to hold the boot in place and that gave me an idea.  Why don't I make my own bezel?  Here is what I came up with.

I started out using a piece of paper and tracing out the hole on the console and taking some measurements.  The first thing I noticed was that the hole is not symmetrical.

I then downloaded Sketchup and began a new design.  I copied the measurements and printed out a 2D version of my trace. 

 I glued the printout onto some foam board and began some fine tuning/trimming.

After several iterations or modifying, printing, gluing, and trimming, I felt like I had a good template. I went to work in Sketchup to hammer out the 3D design.  The below pictures are some of the stages I went through.

Lip of the bezel

Adding 3D elements

Completed design

When I was finally happy with the look in SketchUp, I uploaded the design to Shapeways to get it 3D printed.

I got it back and it looked like the pictures below...sorry for the bad quality.  I didn't have good lighting here.

I spoke with an old friend (Chris at International Auto Upholstery in Sarasota) and he made the actual boot and attached it to the bezel. It came out awesome.

You can see how the leather is glued to the bezel in this photo

I had to do some slight trimming of the corners of the console to accommodate the "bunching" of the leather where it was sewn.  Here is the finished product. I think I spent a total of about $200 including the price of Shapeways, the upholstery shop, and the cost of the leather.

 Bonus, I had some leather left over so I had Chris cover the console lid.  That was about another $100.  So, for about $300, I have a pretty cool console now.

DBW issues

After getting the truck back from the body shop, I started hooking things up and I noticed that I have a Drive By Wire issue.  The throttle blade was not moving when the pedal was pressed and it was throwing a P2128 code (P2128 - Throttle/Pedal Position Sensor/Switch E Circuit High Input).

I contacted the folks at Current Performance Wiring (the people that I bought the harness, computer, and pedal from and they nicely sent me a new Trailblazer SS (TBSS) pedal, stating that the corvette pedal I had would not work.

I hooked up the new pedal and no joy.  Actually, it started throwing more codes (P2138 - Throttle/Pedal Position Sensor/Switch D/E Voltage Correlation).  I asked for a pinout diagram and they emailed one to me:

This matched the pinout on the connector.  I checked for continuity to the main harness (in case a connector was loose) and all was well.

I also ensured that the connections to the ECU where correct per instructions:

here is where each one of the pins go to in the computer C1 connector

A- tan   pin 35

B-LtBlue pin 49

C- purple pin 37

D- Brown pin 36

E-Dark Blue pin  47

F-white/black  pin   33

I this point I pulled out the corvette pedal and looked for part numbers.  I found one:  25835421.  The pedal is for a 2005-13 C6.  I needed to find the diagram for the Accelerator Pedal Position (APP) sensor to see if that matched up.  I found one:

This diagram told me that I needed to swap the Tan wire (position A) with the Purple Wire (position C).

Below is the harness after I remove the wires from their original position.

Below is the harness after I moved the wires to their new position.

I hooked up the pedal, turned the key, and I can hear the throttle blade move when I press on the pedal.  I haven't hooked the computer up yet, but I have a good feeling.

Couple of bonus photos...

At the Body Shop

The truck is still at the body shop.  However, we are getting very close.  Some pics below:

Put the door, bed, and some trimwork on today.  Will bring home tomorrow.

Slow Month

This month was a slow month.  August in Florida is just hot and muggy.  Takes all of the fun out of working outside.  However, I did make some progress.

I was able to run most of the wiring to the engine compartment and get it connected.

I connected the new 4AWG wires for the alternator and starter.

I received my driveshaft from Denny's Driveshaft (they do excellent work!).

I also found a body shop that I felt comfortable with for the repair of "the incident".  Here are a few shots of that.  He was able to salvage most of the metal here.  Almost zero filler in this spot.

He pulled out the vent and was able to do some work around that as well.

Some repair work on the passenger side door.

Power Seats - Part 2 (Seat Wiring)

My previous post described what needed to be done to get the power seat wiring connected to the body relay block.  This post describes what needed to be done to get the power to the seats.

First, the seats are out of a 2008 Lexus IS350.  I saw on one of the S10 forums how someone else was able to get them to work in an S10.  I liked the idea so I went with it.

I went to techinfo.toyota.com and created an account so that I could look at the wiring diagram and get the part numbers for the connectors I needed.  I didn't want to use barrel connector to wire up the seats.  I wanted to use the factory connectors.

The wiring diagram showed that a single wire provides power to the seats (good news).  It connects to the connector in position 7. 

 The connector was part number 90980-12374.  I have highlighted position 7.  The diagram also indicated that the part number for the terminal was 82998-74050.

The passenger seat used the same connector and terminal.  Below is a shot of the completed harness.

Driver's Side

Passenger side

Power Seats - Part 1 (Dash Wiring)

I have seen a few write ups on power seat installations, but nothing that I really liked.  I saw a few where people had run wiring from the fuse box in the engine compartment through the firewall and a really didn't want to do that.  I wanted to utilize the factory wiring as much as possible.

The S10 Pickup truck did not come with power seats.  It was not an option.  However, the S10 Blazer did and it shares wiring with the pickup.  So I went to the local junkyard and found a 2003 S10 Blazer that had power seats and went to work trying to figure this out.  I found a wiring diagram online that shows an orange wire in position B1 that provides power from the body relay block to the seats.

I found the body relay block.  It is located about halfway between side of the truck and the steering column.  I took a screwdriver and pried on the clip and pulled down on the block.  This released it from the clip.  The picture below shows an example of the clip along with the correct location of the screwdriver used to unhook the block from the clip.

Once out, I needed to identify the wire I need.  The block is not lettered or numbered, but I figured out the pattern in that Columns A-F are the short side of the block and Rows 1 through 12 are the long side.  The 10 gauge orange wire is found in position B1.

Yes, I completely cut the old harness out of the Blazer. I needed to for the purposes of this document. Note: DON'T CUT YOUR HARNESS IN YOUR TRUCK!!!! you don't need to.  Unbolt the harness from the body relay block using a 7mm socket.

Once removed, use a small screwdriver or pick to remove the blue clip that provides extra support for the wires in the harness.  Remove it completely.

At this point you can use a pick to pry up the terminal lock (circled) to remove the orange wire.

I removed the orange wire and inserted it into my existing connector in position B1, which was obviously empty since I had no power seats to begin with.  I reversed the processes outlined above to insert the wire into the connector.

Now this is the most important part.  I had to use the Blazer body relay block.  The S10 block will NOT work.  Even though there is a provision for the power seat circuit breaker, it is not connected to anything.  This is very noticeable.  The circuit breaker will just fall out of the hole if it is turned upside-down. Below is the S10 pickup body relay block with the power seat circuit breaker provision circled as well as the part number.

I made sure to use part number 15319605 (circled).  This is the correct body relay block for a truck using power seats, power windows, and power mirrors. It already had a 25 amp circuit breaker (circled) in place.

I slid the "new" body relay block onto the clip located behind the dash and bolted my connector to it. I bought some additional wire to use to power the seats and will discuss that in Part 2.

End of June Update

Well, it has been another couple of weeks since my last update.  I got the truck back from Tommy's. He did the fabrication of the seat brackets, throttle pedal bracket, and some other items.  I mounted the core support, radiator, and air conditioning components.  I was going to mount the radiator hoses, but I am still waiting for the right clamps. I installed the passenger side inner fender along.  I mocked up the battery tray so I could determine the right lengths for the 4 AWT wire.

It is starting to get a little tight in there.

I installed the 2010 Camaro starter.  I had to modify the wiring harness to use a connector rather than a ring terminal...didn't get any photo of that.  However the main terminal for the starter is about 5mm from the dipstick.  I am not too concerned, since both of the parts are fixed in place.

I attached the fuel line to the transmission using some clamps I had laying around and it looks pretty good.

The nicely modified crossmember.  I will try to get another picture today.  His notch was 1000 times better than mine.

I started working on the interior.  I put down some vibration dampening material (RAAMmat on the floorpan and back of the cab.

On the back of the cab, I put on some Ensolite along with the factory carpet backing.

Have a little more to do on the driver's side,  You can see the drive-by-wire throttle pedal here.