Rawhide and The Burb

We got up to, and home from, Austin for the Lone Star Roundup car show and swap meet with no major issues. Truck needed a little bit of transmission fluid on the way home , don't see any major leakage evidence underneath, so maybe the pan bolts need to be retorqued. 97 inch-pounds is the spec according to the '99 shop manual for the 4L80E. I know Dad had an inch-pounds torque wrench, it's in the shop somewhere, just gotta find it....

Not much happening with me and my trucks, other than trying to get the Burb dug out from under that stupid tree. Worked on that some more, the other day, with a buddy who is taller than me and can swing an ax better! Hopefully this week he'll have a battery saw and we can get this project finished and the Burb moved!
On the Rawhide side of things, the battery and alternator are so far holding up well....BUT.....
The voltmeter goes to 12.5/13 instead of straight up 14, when we run the AC, and DRLs run all the time on this truck. Also since he is a pickup he has the smaller alternator. Burb has the 140/145 amp, but no AC or DRLs, so the needle stays on 14 or thereabouts unless the battery terminals are loose.
So I'm thinking maybe the belt is just enough loose from being who knows how old, that it's slipping a little bit? I wanted to replace the belt, tensioner and idler pulley before we went to Austin, but when our jobs evaporated, that kinda scrood that up. Green Stripe HD belt, tensioner and idler pulley is about a Benjamin from Rock Auto or my local O'Reilly's.
I don't want to do away with the DRLs, and I gotta have the AC.....
A good thing we noticed though; I had a bunch of Kroger fuel points to use or lose so last Wednesday I filled the tank. All the talk on various threads about tuning and mileage, someone mentioned running better with mid grade 89 instead of 87. So I thought, I'm getting 90¢ a gallon of, and mid grade is 40¢ more than 87, so it'll still be 50¢ a gallon cheaper....why not take this opportunity to try the 89 mid grade and see how he likes it? Well... Rawhide likes it! He runs smoother and idles with no roughness or attitude. We'll see if I can get any better than 10mpg though, that would be nice.

HotWheelsBurban said:

Not much happening with me and my trucks, other than trying to get the Burb dug out from under that stupid tree. Worked on that some more, the other day, with a buddy who is taller than me and can swing an ax better! Hopefully this week he'll have a battery saw and we can get this project finished and the Burb moved!

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Is the tree actually resting on the Suburban?

HotWheelsBurban said:

On the Rawhide side of things, the battery and alternator are so far holding up well....BUT.....
The voltmeter goes to 12.5/13 instead of straight up 14, when we run the AC, and DRLs run all the time on this truck. Also since he is a pickup he has the smaller alternator. Burb has the 140/145 amp, but no AC or DRLs, so the needle stays on 14 or thereabouts unless the battery terminals are loose.
So I'm thinking maybe the belt is just enough loose from being who knows how old, that it's slipping a little bit? I wanted to replace the belt, tensioner and idler pulley before we went to Austin, but when our jobs evaporated, that kinda scrood that up. Green Stripe HD belt, tensioner and idler pulley is about a Benjamin from Rock Auto or my local O'Reilly's.

Click to expand...

Some trucks got the larger CS144 alternator. It could be had in 120 or 140 amp versions. My truck came with the 120 version, but the replacement part number I bought claims 140.... still takes the smaller belt, Though.

I've had fantastic success with keeping the original tensioner. I finally replaced the pulley on it awhile back. The idler died early, Though. I had to replace that well over a decade ago, but the replacement has lasted and lasted. The original only had a brass bushing, but the dealer purchased replacement is ball bearing, if I recall correctly.

I've been running Dayco belts.

HotWheelsBurban said:

I don't want to do away with the DRLs, and I gotta have the AC.....

Click to expand...

If you'd like to try running without DRL's, just to see if it makes a differance, you can pull the fuse in the side of the dash. I've had mine out for years.

HotWheelsBurban said:

A good thing we noticed though; I had a bunch of Kroger fuel points to use or lose so last Wednesday I filled the tank. All the talk on various threads about tuning and mileage, someone mentioned running better with mid grade 89 instead of 87. So I thought, I'm getting 90¢ a gallon of, and mid grade is 40¢ more than 87, so it'll still be 50¢ a gallon cheaper....why not take this opportunity to try the 89 mid grade and see how he likes it? Well... Rawhide likes it! He runs smoother and idles with no roughness or attitude. We'll see if I can get any better than 10mpg though, that would be nice.

Click to expand...

Very nice. I can only seem to get 5 and 10 cents off a gallon.

454cid said:

Is the tree actually resting on the Suburban?



Some trucks got the larger CS144 alternator. It could be had in 120 or 140 amp versions. My truck came with the 120 version, but the replacement part number I bought claims 140.... still takes the smaller belt, Though.

I've had fantastic success with keeping the original tensioner. I finally replaced the pulley on it awhile back. The idler died early, Though. I had to replace that well over a decade ago, but the replacement has lasted and lasted. The original only had a brass bushing, but the dealer purchased replacement is ball bearing, if I recall correctly.

I've been running Dayco belts.



If you'd like to try running without DRL's, just to see if it makes a differance, you can pull the fuse in the side of the dash. I've had mine out for years.



Very nice. I can only seem to get 5 and 10 cents off a gallon.

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Yes the tree is sort of on the Suburban. I'll post a picture. There's been a lot more trimmed, you can actually see most of the Burb now. But the branch on the hood, did crack the corner of my new windshield....
Kroger was running a promotion in March, April and May, where on Friday you could accrue 4x the points on purchases that day. So I would do most of my shopping on Friday. I knew we'd need to gas up before and after the trip to Austin, and cheaper gas is good anytime. The one good thing about us not working right now, is I'm not filling the truck up every week like I had been before March.
We sold Gates belts and hoses in our parts store,and Dad always had good service from them. So that's what I try to get, when I get those parts.

Oh man, I’m sorry about the ‘burb. If I were local I’d offer to come help get it out.

fancyTBI said:

Oh man, I’m sorry about the ‘burb. If I were local I’d offer to come help get it out.

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I think between a couple of my buddies, I can get it out. The one I worked with Thursday, we got most of the little brush off it, and the medium stuff he could cut with a hand saw. I don't have electricity in the building; if I did, I'd have taken care of it with my sawzall....
Thanks for the offer though!

Burb is finally free! Buddy of mine and I were finally able to get out there and finish trimming the tree. Burb fired right up, once we got the branch off the hood so I could fill up the radiator. Needed a half gallon from the last running, a month or so ago, one of the reasons why it's not currently the DD.

HotWheelsBurban said:

Burb is finally free! Buddy of mine and I were finally able to get out there and finish trimming the tree. Burb fired right up, once we got the branch off the hood so I could fill up the radiator. Needed a half gallon from the last running, a month or so ago, one of the reasons why it's not currently the DD.

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What doesn’t kill’em only makes’em stronger.

Why are you losing so much coolant?

Some of the underhood plumbing for the rear heater is leaking, and I haven't had a chance to get it all apart and see what is leaking. I have an idea what it is, but it's too hot to jack with that anytime soon.