Project Yukon HD (1996 Yukon c1500)

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dcp1992

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Then I installed the 7" colorwerkz light bar.
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Got a new bluetooth controler in so I can control the light bar and the GMC emblem separately if I wanted to.
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Mounted below my front license plate.
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Never showed the rear of the grille when I installed it or installed the GMC emblem, so here it is. You can see the light mounts and you might be able to see the all thread for the emblem. You can also see how much extra RGB wire the emblem came with.
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All wired up except the actual LED bar itself. I'll be doing that right after I post this.
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'Til next time!
 

dcp1992

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Got the rest of the light bar wired up.
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The wires behind the bumper.
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I also got the latch in for the tire carrier. So I can actually start mocking the carrier on the bumper since I don't have to have the tire mounting plate right away. The latch is from the same people I got the hinge from but it's also a generic latch and not made in house like there hinge and tire plate.
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'Til next time!
 

drewcrew

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Got the rest of the light bar wired up.
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The wires behind the bumper.
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I also got the latch in for the tire carrier. So I can actually start mocking the carrier on the bumper since I don't have to have the tire mounting plate right away. The latch is from the same people I got the hinge from but it's also a generic latch and not made in house like there hinge and tire plate.
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'Til next time!
I really like what you've done to your truck. You've got a lot of knowledge and talent. Thanks for sharing.
 

dcp1992

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Well I do have a little update.

When I did my lift last year I changed ball joints, tie rods, sway bar bushings, and wheel bearings. I also changed the wheel bearing when I did the 6 lug swap. But I didn't changed the sway bar end links, idler arm and mount, or pitman arm. So I went ahead and picked those up so all my steering would be new, especially since I do have quite a bit of slack in the idler arm and pitman arm, hopefully changing that will help.

Would of gotten A/C Delco but it was 30% off weekend at work (couple weeks ago) and why not, lifetime warranty and I've never really had much problems with Duralast suspension parts. Yeah, they go bad, but it's not too often or too much trouble to change them out, and if it's a tie rod, just make sure you mark the threads or measure the length before taking them off.
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It also seems like 20 years has taken it's toll on the brush guard. It's had it's fair share of abuse though, plus all it takes is a little welding and it's good as new.
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Then the big thing I really wanted to post about. Saturday on the way home I noticed a kind of ticking noise coming from the passenger floorboard/firewall area and changed with throttle. When I got home I noticed it was coming the exhaust manifold area and deduced it was the donut gasket since it was coming around the flange area of the downpipe. Didn't think much of it and thought I'd do it sometime next week and keep on driving it.... Well tonight on the way home I went over a bump and the small ticking went to a full blown rumble and changed extremly with the throttle. Got home, since I was just around the corner, and saw that it wasn't a donut gasket, it was actually a crack in the exhaust pipe where it was welded to the 3 bolt flange and going over that bump completely separated the pipe from the flange. So now i'm open headers on the passenger side. Don't worry, I know better then driving open header(s) so I'll be sporting the Jeep (even though I still have to fix the track bar and get a new front drive shaft) until I fix the exhaust.
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The manifold flange, donut gasket, and exhaust side flange are still sealed and intact... only the pipe separated. So, now I might as well get both donut gaskets and the gasket that goes down stream after the cats and just pull the whole exhaust down, weld the flange back to the pipe, and make a better (or multiple) exhaust hanger since that's what ultimately caused the break. I added two 40s and only used the stock mount under the rear door and it wasn't very solid, though it would've been okay but I guessed wrong. I might also add a flex pipe on the passenger pipe just in case to relieve any movement it might get in the future.

If I had the money I'd just use this as an excuse to go ahead and get long tubes and magnaflows and do the exhaust how I want to but I'm still recovering from buying the rims and tires.
 

dcp1992

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I also haven't started on building the tire carrier on the bumper yet. Since the truck is "Down" now, I might start mocking it up later this week or next week.
 

dcp1992

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Yeah, well, I didn't end up working on anything like I would've liked to last week or the end of the week before. I ended up getting a cold or something and I think I finally got rid of it (knock on wood). But I did get the rest of my front end stuff put on Wednesday, so all my front end suspension parts besides lower control arms and LCA bushings, are new and less than a year old.

Here's everything I need to fix the exhaust. Hopefully I can do it this weekend or early next week.

2 donut gaskets, exhaust hanger insulator, and a new hanger to stiffen the exhaust up.
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Flange gasket for after the "cats."
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And the all important new-to-me passenger downpipe from Pull-A-Part.
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Now on to the front end

Here's a steering stabilizer I ordered from Rough Country, the only place I found that makes a kit for the 2wd GMT400 trucks. It might not help but I thought "What the heck", won't hurt anything.
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Idler arm and idler mount off.
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Pitmen arm off.
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Luckily my buddy has a OTC Front End Service Set he got off the tool truck he let me use, made quick work of getting the pitman arm off.
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New sway bar end links
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Idler arm and mount installed
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Pitman arm installed... took a while to get tight with a big crescent wrench and 2.5' to 3' cheater pipe... And yes, I do need power steering hoses since they are leaking.
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Then I started installing the RCX steering stabilizer, and I ran into a problem. It looks like the truck they used for prototyping didn't have airbags since the picture in the instructions didn't have the airbag sensor and the mounting plate hit the sensor mount so I had to do some modding. The mount uses the rear steering box mounting bolt, but I will also be adding some stitch welds to make it stronger.

Here's what the mount used to look like, besides the cuts. (just the standard universal mount)
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Where the mount is supposed to go, and the airbag sensor is in the way.
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Here's is what's left of the mount after I cut it to fit around the airbag sensor mounting tab.
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Here is the mount bolted on, again, I will be stitch welding this on to strengthen it up.
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dcp1992

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All mounted.
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And that's it for now. Hopefully I can do some mocking up of the rear bumper tomorrow (today) and get some of the tire carrier stuff tack welded into place so I can finally get that thing together and on the truck. I've had the bumper since October and I'm ready to get it on.

'Til next time!!
 

dcp1992

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Well, I didn't get as much done today as I would've liked but I at least got the bumper on the truck for the first time, got it level, and tacked the hinge for the tire carrier on it.

First some day pictures of the steering stabilizer. (Still need to put some stitch welds on the frame bracket.)
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Now onto the bumper. Here is the stock bumper removed.
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Here is where I would put a picture of the truck with my bumper removed but I guess the picture didn't take... So here is the steel bumper sat on the mounts and kinda put in place but not measured, leveled, or even bolted.
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Then I took a level app and calibrated it to the slant my Yukon was on and bolted the bumper down at that calibrated angle. Then I took a real level and calibrated my app to measure 90° vertical and used that along with the real level and tacked the hinge bracket into place. I also chamfered the edges to get the weld to burn in the mount. I will finish welding everything into place with my buddy's 220 volt welder, just make me feel better using that vs my little 120 volt welder... not to mention cleaner welds since it's gas vs mine which is currently flux core but can do gas. We just don't have a bottle or regulator.
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And that's as far as I was able to get, I ended up doing a little yard work after that point. So I took the bumper back off and set it aside, and since the truck is still out of commission because of the exhaust, I just left the stock bumper off. Hopefully I can start to make the tire swing over the next couple days.

'Til next time!!!
 

dcp1992

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Alright well today (yesterday, the 26th) I finally got around to fixing my exhaust so I can actually drive the Yukon again. Not that I don't like driving my Jeep, but I do have things like the front driveshaft and track bar that need to be fixed/replaced on it... Plus the Yukon is better on the highway since I don't have my Jeep regeared yet.

Anyway, here is the Yukon with the rear bumper off, took them a couple days ago. Hopefully I can work more on the swing arm for the tire carrier tomorrow (later today).
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Here is the passenger manifold with a section of the old downpipe cut off. You can see the flare still on the manifold.
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The original downpipe and flare.
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Don't think I've ever shown our welder that we have in this thread. It's a Clarke 130EN, it a 110v multi use flux core or gas welder. It's pretty decent for what it is and the rear bumper on my Jeep and the rock sliders on my Jeep were both welded with it... including up to 1/4" steel which is really pushing this welder but it welded it (multiple pass) and it's still holding to this day. But I still rather use my buddy's 220v to do the heavy lifting per se, just burns the weld in more and it's also cleaner since I don't have gas yet for ours and flux core is not the prettiest if you are going for looks.
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Rear exhaust section out, after I added a new hanger and changed the original one I had. Seems to have strengthened and also lessened the movement of the exhaust system. Hopefully it helps and this doesn't happen again. Or at least holds out 'til I can get long tubes and get my whole exhaust reone.
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And getting the front section out was a little more complicated that I thought, though I should've expected it. Had to move the crossmember back in order to get the front section out.
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Front section down.
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I guess It's a good thing that had to happen though, this is what my transmission mount looked like. So I ran to the 'Zone and picked one up.
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Here is me welding the new-to-me front downpipe on with a coupler.
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Both pieces out, my work area in front of the Yukon to stay out of the storm outside
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And finally done and everything reinstalled... Took a lot longer than I hoped it would, ended up being midnight before I got done.
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Aaannnnd it's 4AM... I'm not going to want to get up in the morning. Hopefully I can at least get up at a decent time to try and work on the rear bumper/tire carrier tomorrow (today).

'Til next time!!
 

dcp1992

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Alright well I did make some more progress on my rear bumper/tire carrier.

First I'll say I removed the OEM tire winch and bracket from under the truck since I'll never be using it again... not to mention I haven't had a spare under there since before I got my 20's. I took it down to use as a spare for our trailer when my dad went to go pick up my grandfather's tractor to get it fixed. One of the good things about having an older heavy duty trailer, GM 5x5 bolt pattern. The bad thing is since no one uses that pattern anymore for new trailers, you can't find hubs or brakes local, they all have to be ordered.

Plus now that I have that winch out of the way I have room for on board air and/or train horns.... or something.
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I started to make the side support brackets. The bumper came with brackets already made to where all you had to do was drill holes in the frame... BUT they are designed for the trucks and I have no doubt that they would work fine on the trucks. But the SUV's, at least the Tahoe's and Yukon's, the rear body mounts are in the way. So I just made my own.

Here are the ones that came with the bumper, they would go right between the body mount uprights but it hits the rear upright.
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Here's the angle I cut, I drilled a hole in the frame where the empty hole is on the hitch and then took the lower body mount off and drilled the upper hole.
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Here's the straight piece to connect to the angle and then attach to the side brackets.
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Here's the straight piece welded to the angle and seeing where I need to drill.
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Welding a support to the support.
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Mine vs the one that came with it.
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Starting on the passenger side bracket.
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Then I finally started on the swing arm.
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I know I said I was going to finish welding the swing with my buddy's welder but I went ahead and fully welded the bottom and front since I knew it needed to hold some weight while I was making it. And It seemed to actually burn in really well, I can put my whole body weight on it (about 150lbs) and bounce on it and it held with only two sides welded and tacks on the other two sides. Our welder is really good and I never give it the credit it deserves. Plus I will be putting a support underneath hench why I welded it so far up the hinge.
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Then I just mocked up the other part of the swing, of course it will be shorter.
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