Texas82GP's GMT900

[Texas82GP]

Today...

Passenger side back together....

New upper and lower control arms with new bushings and balljoints. New outer tierod end. All Moog made in USA. New coilover shock, 2" longer than what it had. New spring. It did have 850 lb. Viking coil springs. This is a 900 lb. Eibach, 2" longer than what it had. This side is greased and the brakes are bled. Long way to go. She's out in the driveway on stands, making a nice spectacle.

 

[DRIVEN]

Worth it.

 

[Streetbu]

Man. You do NOT mess around with your vehicles.... New quality parts all the time

 

[Texas82GP]

Got the driver's side done. No pictures. Sorry guys. It was a thrash. Got the initial settings on the shocks set and the ride height set. When I let it down off the jack it was monster truck stance. A little driving with some hard stops got it to settle quite a bit. I only took it around the block a few times. Initial impression is it is much much tighter as anticipated. Toe is pretty close just putting it back where it was. I'm going to drive it tomorrow to work and back and I'll know more.

 

[Built6spdMCSS]

For any who might be interested, I found time today to put the scanner back on the truck and learned how to use it to test the evap system. What a luxury it is to have a scanner with this much power.

I am able to do all kinds of stuff with my laptop using HP Tuners, it's nice to troubleshoot things and find problems when testing stuff. Definitely know how it is to be able to control things.

Nice looking little truck, the RCSB ones are fun.

 

[Texas82GP]

For those of you interested, sorry for being slow to get back to this. The front end overhaul is a total success. It's like driving a new truck. I think the longer shock and longer, slightly stiffer spring was just what the Doctor ordered. I only have a few hundred miles on it but I'm thrilled. It makes the hard work so worth it. I knew the front end was totally shot but the improvement is still shocking. I hope this buys me at least 35k miles on the coilovers (I'd love to get better service) and 100k on the lower balljoints. The wheel/tire combination (275/55/20), while a stock size, is just too big for this front end. 100k miles is all you can hope for on the lower balljoints.

I didn't take it to work on Monday. Sunday night, while trying to go to sleep, I came to the conclusion that I hadn't torqued the upper control arm bolts on the driver's side and that I hadn't tightened the jam nuts on the outer tierod ends. I worked from home Monday and wrapped up those details and double checked everything else that afternoon. Tuesday I took it to the little shop by work that services/repairs our company trucks and had them do the alignment. The steering wheel was straight and the truck didn't pull before the alignment. That was just from putting everything back where it was. Still, I wanted to know the alignment was right and my home alignment kit doesn't work on 20" wheels. Based on the printout (below), it wasn't far off. Still, for less than $100, I'm glad I did it. I know it is isn't a performance alignment but this thing is a truck, and it's "just a cruiser". 😉 Almost 111k miles on the clock. Now I need to get back on the EVAP leak. I have it isolated to either the top of the tank or the EVAP canister. I guess that's it for now friends.

 

[Supercharged111]

Shoulda had 'em give you a toe and go alignment, camber and caster was better when you got there! Minus the .3 cross caster. They really don't like to party do they? We have a full -1.0 camber on the wife's Envoy and close to 5 degrees positive caster in it and the readout was still in the green.

 

[scoti]

Shoulda had 'em give you a toe and go alignment, camber and caster was better when you got there! Minus the .3 cross caster. They really don't like to party do they? We have a full -1.0 camber on the wife's Envoy and close to 5 degrees positive caster in it and the readout was still in the green.

That's what I was thinking as well.

 

[Texas82GP]

Shoulda had 'em give you a toe and go alignment, camber and caster was better when you got there! Minus the .3 cross caster. They really don't like to party do they? We have a full -1.0 camber on the wife's Envoy and close to 5 degrees positive caster in it and the readout was still in the green.

That's what I was thinking as well.

Guys, I can't even feel the difference from before and after. I just wanted to be sure it was in spec for tire wear purposes. I'm just thrilled it no longer drives like a clapped out POS. Thanks for the replies fellas. Keep them coming.

 

[Texas82GP]

So I've been trying to decide what to do about my cracked dash. If you didn't know, cracked dashes are a thing with GMT900's. I've had a sun shield on the dash since I noticed the first crack, and that was probably over 10 years ago. It had five or six cracks in it now, one of which on the driver's side is pretty long. My passenger air bag needs to have the inflator changed since it is a Takata unit and is part of that huge recall. I've been hesitant to do it since I don't want the dash busted up any worse than it is. I've done a lot of research in the past few weeks. buying a new dash panel is something like a $650 proposition and from what I've read and seen, it isn't an improved design and it will eventually crack. I think I am going to put a cap on it to help hold it together and try to keep it from getting worse.

In the course of researching what to do on the dash, I learned that I could easily add the Driver's Information Center buttons to my truck. My truck, being an SLE, not a SLT didn't come with them. I learned that the wiring harness is there and the module has all the functionality, GM just put a different panel with no buttons in the mid and lower level trim trucks. Thanks GM. Putting in this functionality is something I've long wanted to do, I just didn't realize it was this easy. I put it in today. You can get a cheap aftermarket panel with the buttons but I went ahead and bought the Genuine GM unit.

Before.....

After.....

Almost 6000 hours on the engine. That figures to roughly 7.7 hours a week....

I figured something like 12k-14k gallons of gas burned. It doesn't go that high....

This one surprised me. I didn't think it would be this good....

It shows other things like individual tire pressures and you can adjust entry and exit lighting, chime volume, etc. Not a big deal but it's kinda neat to have this functionality. I wish I had know about it sooner.