What did you do to your GMT today?

[carshinebob]

I don't know if you guys are like me in that I've been hearing all the things I need to fix on my Bravada for at least three months and find it hard to make time to fix them. With raising two girls, running a business and remodeling my house there isn't enough time in each day. So I keep on driving while hearing the front wheel bearing and the front diff growling. finally today I scheduled my own bravada. I started by taking the front axles and drive shaft out so it will be 2wd for the rest of the summer. I then replaced the left front wheel bearing with a used one I had and found the sway bar link had come loose again. It sure is nice and quiet driving home from my shop today. ~BOB

 

[TollKeeper]

Filled her up with 88 Octane non-Ethanol gas.. Almost immediately picked up 1.5 MPG. WTF?

 

[Mooseman]

Yep, it's been proven that ethanol is an MPG killer. Leans out the mix so guess what the PCM does? Can't get ethanol free regular here, just premium but the cost negates the savings.

Taking it to the cottage today to bring the genny and carpets we got and open the septic tank covers so the municipality can pump it (but it's empty since we never hooked it up). Quick lunch and then back home. 4 hour round trip.

 

[xavierny25]

Washed it!


Put some fishing gear in it and went fishing with my kids.

 

[TollKeeper]

Took her to the Salvage Yard to get parts for the Mercury. While there I checked for 360's. Found about 10 of them. One of them a 06 TB V8. One Saab 9-7x with the 4.2. All others were 4.2. The amazing thing was that all the trucks with the 4.2 had no engine in them. And the V8 model did. Just weird..

Yep, it's been proven that ethanol is an MPG killer. Leans out the mix so guess what the PCM does? Can't get ethanol free regular here, just premium but the cost negates the savings.

Inbetween the MAF and the Non-Ethanol gas, I have picked up 3.5 MPG now. Sitting at 18.8 MPG

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

Not today but first time online since the weekend. Took a nice ride through the country and got a couple pics out by the MIL's house. then took it out to a buddy's house for some good ole redneck lawnmower racing...

 

[BrianF]

Wife took the 360 to work and I loaded the 400 up with garbage, used oil and some other odds and ends for the dump. Got a buddy with a used oil tank, which I have about 70 litres of oil that has to disappear. Got to keep around 30 so I can paint some fence posts to keep the horses from chewing.

My 400 has been showing low voltage for the past few days. Usually pegged at 14 but lately showing 12-13. It once went to zero until I noticed the single wire to the alt fell off. I tested it while running and my volt meter shows a good 14.5. Guess that will work just fine.

Then suctioned out the PS reservoir and put in some left over Co-op ATF SL group 4 synthetic ATF I had lying around. I had added some various fluids last fall as what ever fluid was in there was brown and burnt smelling.

 

[littleblazer]

Not very chip resistant is it?

 

[Mounce]

Put some green lower ball joints and upper control arms on it... Honestly I'm a fan of the mevotech ttx line, great fit and quality. Also put a steering gear box and inner tie rods in, then had it aligned at work. Inner tie rods are driveworks from advance and had them warrantied due to never taking grease. They gave me one new design and one old design, new design takes grease and old design still doesn't over a year later from original purchase... And all they had left in stock was another one of the old ones so needless to say I'll be back in it after a year or so. Still have a column bearing to put in, unfortunately my popping mostly stopped with the new box but apparently it's a hassle to return stuff to rockauto so I'll go ahead and put it in at some point anyways...





Needless to say, it drives better than it ever has. No more gear box slop, always predictable, know exactly where it's going... And no more back talking from the popping haha.

 

[Blckshdw]

Decided to fill up the tank, instead of waiting until the end of next week when I was expecting to get low. Remerbered some earlier posts from last week about ethanol free gas, I checked the area for some stations, found one not far from the house.

Question for you guys, does the "90" listed here mean only the premium gas is ethanol free? As I was putting the nozzle back in the cradle, I noticed the up to 10% ethanol sticker on the pump



Finally got around to investigating a minor annoyance. In my mirrors, I have 4 banks of switchback LEDs, 2 on front, 2 on the rear. On my passenger side rear, the outside bank will sometimes (most of the time) only come on at half brightness. Rarely, it will match the inside bank at full, sometimes it's really dim, and once or twice it hasn't lit up at all. Last year I went to address this, so disassembled the mirrors, thinking a solder joint on the PCB needed a refresh, but when I put it on the test bench, it was fine.

Checked for voltages before and after my switchback module, and again at the connections inside the mirror. Voltage was fine, but the crimp connector in the mirror was damaged, and barely hanging on, so replaced that. No joy. Hooked up my bench tester at the mirror, and even down the only 7v, everything lit up just fine (again).



Started working my way backwards until I found the issue. When I connected the parking signal and ground from the input side of the switchback module to the bench tester at the same voltage, thet didn't come on at all. Slowly turned it up, and they started to fade in, but when I got up near 14v, they shut off and tripped the circuit breaker on the tester (only 1 amp)

So something isn't up to par with my switchback module on that side. Didn't feel like dealing with it right now, but at least now I know where to go. I'll pull it at some point, and reflow the solder joints on the parking light circuit, see if that fixes it.

 

[$ Khalid ! 9130]

Guess who's back!!!! Back again!



And already back in business

 

[Mike534x]

Replaced the front condenser after the A/C quit working, tore off the grill and found oil everywhere looks like it was leaking for awhile.

Left for work this morning and noticed a puddle under the truck, paid it no mind and on the way to work this morning I kept smelling something "sweet". Pulled over and popped the hood and everything was wet with coolant, while being greeted with the shaft wobbling as the fan was spinning. Awesome. Not to mention the steady little stream of coolant coming out from underneath the pump, so left work earlier to swap into the Avalanche. The box I threw under the truck is already coated in coolant. Must have been a cheap Chinese pump they threw in since it was replaced a few months before I bought the truck. Great start to summer!

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

Drove it for the 2.2 mile commute

 

[BrianF]

I retorqued the swaybar end links and rear shocks last night. Only 3 bolts took a bit more torque bit they were on there. Greased the rear most u joint on the rear driveshaft. Needed a new small zerk fitting for my grease gun as the front most u joint is just to tight a fit. Do that tonight.

 

[Reprise]

Took the Sierra over to Firestone for the $10 inspection special. Figured I'd get a listing of all the stuff needing replacement, while I have the truck apart.

Good news - brake pads / rotors effectively new, as is the fluid. At least I don't have to touch those any time soon (as long as I don't detect any fade, I'll not worry about the pads).

Here's their list of what they recommend (looks like I'm going to have a busy summer ahead of me; I've done a lot of this on the first Sierra, so I know what I'm in for):

Both upper ball joints

(depending on what the bushings look like, I may just get replacement A-arms, although it was murder to get the retaining bolts off on 'Sierra #1', last year - one broke, and I had to sawzall it off, using two cuts)​

​

Both lower joints (although the play is listed as 'slight')

(I noticed the lowers were aftermarket when I bought the truck, so at least no full LCA replacements, this time!)​

​

- Inner & outer tie rods on one side (so, both sides)
- Both the idler arm AND the pitman arm, this time (oh, joy)

(maybe I should just rip everything out, including the centerlinks, and give myself more room with the oil pan, etc. (see below)​

(with all of that above, I may as well do the swaybar links / bushings, as well)

- Shocks front & rear (I noticed porpoising myself on the front when I hooked up the trailer a few weeks back; setting the ride control on 'firm' stopped it). The OEM Delphi shocks (RPO ZX3; precursors to today's 'magnetic ride control', etc.) are $500 EACH, unless I source them from a junkyard. They're not even reflected on the totals below...

Or, I can get two sets of 'magic boxes' from eBay that fool the BCM into thinking the OEM shocks are still installed & connected to the wire harnesses, then install any shock I want (only downside is that I won't have selectable ride control, any longer)
Guess which way I'm going?

- Both rear hubs (thankfully, I'd picked a pair up at Rock a few months ago that were on special / discontinued stock.) Glad I did, now. These are like front hubs, on a 4WD.

- A/C belt is missing, and the tensioner is bad. Hoping against hope that the compressor isn't seized. I'll find out, soon enough.

- Trans cooler lines (to / from trans, as well as aux cooler)
(If I'm doing this, I'll probably just replace / upgrade the cooler, outright)
I also need to see just what's 'bad' about the main lines, as I doubt they're rusted out.

- Power steering return hose.
(if I'm replacing one, I may as well do both. Tricky thing here is that this is a hydroboost truck)
I've also noticed that if I 'stab' the brakes while cruising, the assist seems to be lacking (regular 'modulated' braking is just fine). So maybe I'll need a new HB unit, too - ?


Total estimate (with alignment & a couple of light bulbs added in):
Parts: 2479.77
Labor: 2717.39
Total cost of suggested / attempted rape: 5197.16

And all of the above is before I even crack a bolt for my cam / head / intake swap, with all of those associated goodies I've been planning. New heads will have to sit in the corner for a little while longer.

Finally, since I can barely get gas into the tank w/o it clicking off, I'm guessing I'll need a new evap canister, etc. Since it's going to get a tune with the cam anyway, I could (?) tune out the EVAP system, I suppose (but I want to make sure I can get gas into the tank, too)


Lesson 1: I'm *so* glad I have the tools / knowledge to do this stuff on my own (thanks, guys!)
Lesson 2: NO MORE PROJECT TRUCKS
(Lesson 3: I need to install an A/C unit in the garage)

Off to make a 'cart' at Rock...
(on edit: A cart full of Moog, Mevotech 'Supreme' & Gates is running about $530, shipped.
10% of quoted total (or, 20% of 'parts' total) ? I'll take it... )

 

[Mooseman]

For the gas pump clicking off, it's likely the fuel fill hose. I can't see hoe evap has anything to do with that.

 

[$ Khalid ! 9130]

Well seems like the LED bulbs I ordered were the wrong size . Have sent them back. In the meantime need to look for the door handle garnish as 3 of 4 are broken. The electric seat adjust panel needs to be bolted on now as it's on the verge of falling off. Rear AC vents are not working and the AC is not cooling as well as it used to. More maintenance, less mods it seems this time around.

@Mooseman will get in touch about the "package" soon

 

[Reprise]

For the gas pump clicking off, it's likely the fuel fill hose. I can't see hoe evap has anything to do with that.

I thought I remembered a post here talking about this and blaming the evap canister.

Faulty memory, again. (I seem to say that more and more as I get older... sigh... )

 

[Mike534x]

Replaced the water pump, followed the same procedure here for tearing out the fan + shroud from the I6 guide to get access to everything. Wasn't too bad, took about an hour to swap out the old one. I'm very much contemplating swapping out the clutch for e-fans at some point after realizing how much room there would be underneath without the old one.

Of course, I made a mistake and didn't test the NEW thermostat....uh oh. Followed the troubleshooting steps again from my thread 2 years ago where the same happened with the TB. No biggie, I have second brand new one on hand for when I do the pump on my Avalanche. Tested that one andddd its bad (tested the second with the boiling pot method). Alright so two new A/C Delco thermostats are bad, so time to send those back to Amazon for a refund.

The old one will be going back in when she cools off, not sure what brand it is but still looks fairly new from whenever the pump was replaced.

 

[Redbeard]

Plugged the left front tire. At least the tire was flat in my front yard and not across town This is the second tire (two different vehicles) this week I've had to plug. Both in the left front too. Easy peasy.

 

[xavierny25]

Yesterday. A few things got done to the Voy but spent most of the morning and night working on the tbss over at my brothers shop.

Late night shop pic.

Bermuda trailblazer tail lights got some fresh bulbs.


Sealed them up and got to prepping for night shade.


We also got the avalanche third brake light done.


Then the powder coated calipers, brackets and wheels got put on.

They are 2 tone color matched barrel and gloss black face. Calipers and brackets are also 2 tone black and body color matched.

I didn't get any pics but slapped on some new wheel hubs on the Voy.

 

[littleblazer]

Bath.

 

[Matt]

Did a quick oil change for the rear diff because the truck started making a "scratching" noise when backing up and only when backing up. Took the cover off and all seems normal, no chunks or bits in the oil. My next guess is the rear brakes may be down to the "noise maker".

 

[BrianF]

Matt, check your u joints. Mine made low speed, directional noises when they went out.

 

[northcreek]

Took my wife's Nox in for annual inspection and new tires, it has the optional 19" wheels and it's riding nice and "cushy" again....

 

[Mike534x]

Got the Envoy back earlier. I threw in the towel and had the shop that installed my lower control arms take a look at it.

Spent most of Saturday and Sunday trying to bleed the system, despite my best efforts of going back and re-reading my old thread and the one AWD V8 posted years before. I had the bleeder valve on the head open, radiator cap was off, had the front raised up to "help" get the air worked out of the system and still nothing. I guess there must have been a bad air pocket somewhere. So the shop took a look at it this morning, and drained the system and did that vacuum filler method. I guess it worked because now the temps hover between 188-195 degrees. I'll be keeping an eye out for any weird fluctuations. So far so good and nice to have it running after a week of downtime.

 

[Sparky]

Replaced the zerk on my lower ball joint. No dice, still will not take grease.

Amazon will not take the part back. Can only "exception" it within a year. So, back to calling Moog. Sigh. I need it replaced before end of month.

 

[Mektek]

Brake job on the back wheels. New pads and rotors and flush the old brake fluid out.

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

Ha. I am just about to do rotors and pads on my rear brakes since it is metal on metal.

 

[xavierny25]

Yesterday. A few things got done to the Voy but spent most of the morning and night working on the tbss over at my brothers shop.
View attachment 89202
Late night shop pic.

Bermuda trailblazer tail lights got some fresh bulbs.View attachment 89203

View attachment 89205
Sealed them up and got to prepping for night shade.
View attachment 89206
View attachment 89207
We also got the avalanche third brake light done.
View attachment 89208
View attachment 89209
Then the powder coated calipers, brackets and wheels got put on.
View attachment 89210
They are 2 tone color matched barrel and gloss black face. Calipers and brackets are also 2 tone black and body color matched.

I didn't get any pics but slapped on some new wheel hubs on the Voy.

I wanted to follow up my post with better pics of the work done on the SS last Saturday I hope you guys enjoy this.









Reminder to the masses if you didn't take a pic it didn't happen in this thread.

 

[Blckshdw]

I like the red inside the rims, subtle touch

 

[northcreek]

One bitchin' ride ...

 

[Sparky]

Talked to Moog again yesterday. They have someone who is an "Amazon Expert" who took the info and sent it to some contact at Amazon. Got an email from Amazon last night asking for my shipping info via chat or phone. Chatted with them this mor ing and the person I got insisted that she can't do anything and the supervisor likely could jot either. Argued with her for a bit until she finally got a supdrvisor who after reviewing the info handled it with no issues at all. Got the new one arriving tomorrow and a shipping label in my box.

Ok this shouldn't be so hard but it looks to be resolved now.

If anyone runs into similar, call Moog and ask to talk to Cheryl, their Amazon warranty expert!

 

[littleblazer]

Mother nature bathed her.

 

[Blckshdw]

Ok this shouldn't be so hard but it looks to be resolved now.

What a royal pain, glad that's done with...

 

[Mooseman]

Amazon don't have any concept or don't want to deal with lifetime warranty. They're gonna have to.suck.it up as it's probably one of tue stipulations for selling Moog products is to honour their warranty. In stores, there's no shipping but Amazon will have to absorb the shipping back to them as that is their business model.

 

[Sparky]

Amazon just needs to revamp their system so that with moog parts (and others similar) it lets regular Sally CS handle it and not require someone special to do it.

 

[xavierny25]

Rotors and pads on the Voy.

Old

New

Oh yeah! I got the rotors and brakes on the SS done too.

 

[Sparky]

Installed the new lower control arm. Old ball joint was loosey goosey fo sho. Just gotta box it up and fire it back to Amazon.

Next on the list is tire rotation, new TPMS install, and oil change.

 

[Sparky]

Drove it to the grocery store for a shakedown. So nice to be rid of the creaking and squeaking like an old jalopy. Definitely needs an aligment though, steering wheel is kicked slightly left now.