What did you do to your GMT today? [Part II]

[Mooseman]

Today tackled the brakes on the TB that were vibrating quite a bit. Found that the front left rotor was rusty and the inner pad was worn. Right side found the caliper starting to leak at a piston. Perfect since I have basically a set of almost new brakes and calipers from the Saab when I scrapped it. Also decided to flush out the old brake fluid since I have never done it and the tester said it was full of moisture. Get the caliper and brakes on and flush the fluid, no issues.

When I jacked the rear, I saw a huge puddle. After flushing the rear brakes, I checked and it's smurf blood! The transfer case is leaking at the front drive shaft seal. I'm pretty sure it's not the first time as I faintly remember replacing it early on when I first got the truck. It could have been initiated by my son using 4x4 when he went to the family land lot with his pop-up camper as it was a bit muddy there. By this time, it was too late to go looking for a seal and more smurf blood. I'll also have to check the diffs. The rear looks like it's leaking but it could be rustproofing oil.

I'm getting too old for this "fixing shit in the blazing sun in the driveway" crap. The TB is really trying my patience lately. Maybe I'm spoiled by the new Sierra.

 

[TollKeeper]

I'm getting too old for this "fixing shit in the blazing sun in the driveway" crap. The TB is really trying my patience lately. Maybe I'm spoiled by the new Sierra.

Now you know why I bought a new truck. I get a 8 year break on fixing crap..

 

[Mooseman]

Except that the TB is usually the wife's commuter vehicle and now our son's tow vehicle, at least for the summer. I've also been wanting to replace the front and rear diffs with the ones from the Saab with 3.73 gears. From 3.42, it wouldn't make much difference but it is a 8.5". I just don't have the energy to do mods on it anymore.

 

[xavierny25]

This past weekend I replaced the ac clutch. WTF? Those clips are the absolute worst to get out and in.
Just a heads up the new ac clutch shim/spacer did not work on the shaft (to small) of the compressor. I used the original but the clutch was slipping so I removed it and everything is working great now. Ac is the best it's been in a while. The bearing on the original clutch was completely toast.

 

[Mooseman]

Finished up the TB. What took the longest was the running around in the morning. The parts house I went to didn't have it and had to wait about 45 minutes for it to come in. That was fine since I had to also go to Costco to fill the gas cans with ethanol free 93 octane. Then went to Princess Auto on the way to pick up stuff that was on sale and a marker light for the trailer that I accidentally broke while parking it in Quebec City .

The transfer case seal swap was relatively painless however the old seal was all swelled up and turned to mush. I don't think I put seal conditioner in the transfer case but I didn't trust the fluid that was in there, which was still very blue, and replaced it with new AutoTrak II.



Both diffs were a little low but checking with a zip tie, the fluid didn't look that bad so I just topped them up.

Did a test drive and brakes are back to their smooth self.

 

[Sneakycyber]

Today I retorqued all the suspension nuts and bolts on the front of my Trailblazer while its waiting to be dropped off at the transmission shop on Monday. In June I put on all new Bilstein 4100 shocks, new strut mounts, new driver side lower control arm (I messed up the strut yolk mount removing the yolk), new sway bar link pins, and rear brakes. Two weeks ago, I did the front, rear, and transfer case fluids.

 

[Mike534x]

Those clips are the absolute worst to get out and in.
Just a heads up the new ac clutch shim/spacer did not work on the shaft (to small) of the compressor. I used the original but the clutch was slipping so I removed it and everything is working great now. Ac is the best it's been in a while. The bearing on the original clutch was completely toast.

Wow! You weren't kidding that thing was toast! I'm waiting on my clutch puller to arrive, I'm curious to see what mine looks like off the Trailblazers old compressor.

As far as the shim goes, was that from the Aliexpress kit? Or some other?

I took the Trailblazer for emissions testing yesterday after work, and she failed. Both the EVAP and Oxy systems came up as the reason.....silly me forgot the battery was disconnected while the shop yoinked out the compressor.

Going to try tackling replacing the liftgate latch mechanism this weekend, it's not fully grabbing resulting in a very small amount of play so the whole thing rattles going over bumps.

 

[Mike534x]

Rain started to roll in briefly, so I managed to just get the new fan blade + clutch installed on the TB (old fan had a wobble not caused by the water pump). So the new Hayden Clutch ($50 wholesale unit from RA) is bad, and stays engaged fully after 20 minutes of driving. Of course things are never easy, while getting the water pump pulley wrench in position, the wrench slipped and I whacked the CPS.

No damaged or frayed wires thankfully, just a little bit of plastic around the harness where it attaches at the connector broke. Unfortunately she's now idling rough, so I think I may have internally damaged the CPS, so now I'm waiting on a new one since the part stores want $80 for the in-house brand

 

[TJBaker57]

stays engaged fully after 20 minutes of driving. O

Is this an electro-viscous fan clutch? Did this driving involve keeping the engine rpm greater than 2000 for no less than 2 full minutes? That is how long it can take a functioning electro-viscous fan clutch to begine to disengage.

 

[Mike534x]

Is this an electro-viscous fan clutch? Did this driving involve keeping the engine rpm greater than 2000 for no less than 2 full minutes? That is how long it can take a functioning electro-viscous fan clutch to begine to disengage.

Nope! its a thermal one. TB is an 08 so the very first year they did away with the EV clutches IIRC, the Envoy rocked an EV one until about two years ago when I sent the PCM out to have the codes turned off.

I thought the Hayden (2851) thermal ones were safe, but they may be "iffy" like the EV counter parts. Funny enough, I did buy the same Hayden unit 3 weeks ago for the Envoy, and that too has a ridiculous 3 minute full engagement at startup before it begins to quiet down.

 

[Mike534x]

New CPS sensor arrived, but it didn't fix it.

The culprit....was the new fan blade. Swapped clutches, which made 0 difference. Removed the clutch and fan, back to smooth idling. Put the old clutch + old fan blade in and its back to running smooth.

Makes 0 sense to me, there was 0 play/wobble in the fan, and everything was torqued down. My only conclusion was that the blade must be improperly balanced by a hair. I didn't feel anything different comparing the two, so who knows. I've never seen that happen before....

 

[TJBaker57]

Nope! its a thermal one.

I used a Hayden thermal on my GFs 2008 Ranger and sure enough it also needed an extended high rev run to disengage.

 

[Mike534x]

Damn. I guess all the more reason to stick to OEM, I can live with the noise, just taken aback by how long it takes for it to disengage.

 

[Mooseman]

My Hayden thermals always took a few minutes to disengage when started. Now have a used OEM, no problems.