$800 97 K1500

[HerpDerp1919]

I have not, I've read a few articles that talk about it. But yet to try it, I'll have to find a gravel road around me and give it a go.

 

[Kchevys]

If the gravel road doesn`t work out you should look into a scanner. For $350, maybe cheaper, you can buy a scanner with that function.

 

[frito-bandito]

I have not, I've read a few articles that talk about it. But yet to try it, I'll have to find a gravel road around me and give it a go.

It did wonders for my pedal after I replaced my front calipers and hoses

 

[HerpDerp1919]

So still no update on the ABS module as I'm having trouble finding a mechanic with a scanner that has the ability to initiate the bleed and the nearest dirt road I can find is over an hour away.
However one of the mechanics who thought his scanner could do it re-bled my brakes and I learned that I have been bleeding brakes wrong my whole wrenching life. After a proper bleed I still have an extremely spongy pedal so all that's left is the ABS module. It's supposed to rain on Monday and I have a nice open parking lot next my apartment that I should be able to get the ABS to activate since apparently S. Texas paves literally every single road around me.

Also after doing an oil change to get the last of any residual milk shake oil, I got a nice drip of hot coolant on my face to discover my water pump is trying to call it quits. Huge +1 for Marvel Mystery Oil, threw that in when I changed out the oil after repairing the head gasket and the amount of crap it took out of the engine is insane. When I checked to dipstick to see how milky it was, it had clean oil on it. When I drained it, it was black. So hopefully the engine is nice and cleaned out because this truck runs like a top. Quietest 5.7 out of any of the trucks I've owned.

 

[HerpDerp1919]

Not too much progress lately. Got my water pump replaced and my wife found a video about bleeding the ABS module at a check valve on the side which helped a little. Brakes still have a ton of travel but now grab really good if I stomp on them in an emergency situation. Which I finally felt was safe enough to take for a drive. I get a little smoke on heavy acceleration (3k rpm and above) and an occasional shudder in the 1-2 shift that seemed to clear up as it got driven. For it being the first real drive its had in 14 months, it did pretty dang good. I honestly think this truck rides better than my 2017 Ram. But after the roughly 40 mile I felt a lot of heat coming off the front wheels, which makes me think calipers are dragging. Plan is at some point this week to yank the wheels off and check the operation on the calipers as well as re-grease the slide pins.
I'm also coming to the conclusion that wrenching on a full-size truck in a single car garage is a huge PITA.
Also going to tackle the rear main seal and oil pan gasket after this weekend and hopefully get my oil leaks fixed.

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

Have you changed the front brake hoses? These trucks are old enough for the original ones to be disintegrating internally. That will definitely make the caliper lock up and drag. Been there done that, on my 99 Burb.

 

[HerpDerp1919]

Have you changed the front brake hoses? These trucks are old enough for the original ones to be disintegrating internally. That will definitely make the caliper lock up and drag. Been there done that, on my 99 Burb.

That was a thought I had. I pulled the calipers off and had my wife push the pedal and then put some pressure on the brake pad with my hands to see if they retracted and both calipers were functioning properly. I think the issue was it had ZERO grease on the slide pins so they wouldnt move back and forth at all. Greased em up and now they work great.

However that is when I discovered the previous owner stripped the threads on the knuckle so my passenger caliper was held on by one bolt. Looks like I found the source of the metallic clang on bumps. Thought it was just the sway bar links since those are shot too. Luckily all the trucks down here are easy as pie to work on. Got one off a junkyard truck in like 30 minutes.

But I got bit by the "While I'm in there..." bug and decided this would also be a good time to tackle my leaky oil pan gasket. Which I then thought since I'm gonna go that far it would be a good time to tackle the leaky rear main seal. Spent 12 hours on it yesterday and got the rear main seal replaced. Which turned into a pan service on the trans since a ton of transmission fluid came out when I pulled the dipstick off to slide the trans back so I just dropped the pan so it would quit dumping fluid on the ground anytime I moved it. Then I tried to remove the torque converter to get a little more room to work to get the rear main seal out as it was fighting me pretty good, only to discover I didn't have enough room between trans and block to get the torque converter out. I got the trans bolted back up but was so exhausted I figured that was a good stopping point. Didn't get back out there today to finish it up as we are doing more baby prep. But I'll get everything finished up this week to see if I destroyed the trans pump seal and the trans has to come completely out.

 

[Tommy1234]

Wow wee wowsers... Heck the deal for that truck considering how the prices of those kind of trucks will keep on rising eventually a craziness

 

[HerpDerp1919]

Got back under it tonight and buttoned up a few odds and ends. So far no leaks from the pan gasket, rear main, or trans pump seal! *knocks on wood*
I did however manage to coat the passenger side of the truck in trans fluid or otherwise known rust preventative. Tried the method of putting an adapter on the output line of the trans cooler with a hose going into a bucket only to have the adapter spray fluid everywhere. But that's my sacrifice to the wrenching gods for good seals on the new gaskets so far.
This week is supposed to be relatively cool (high 80s/low 90s) so I'll be trying to tackle the oil pan gasket and also get that knuckle swapped out. After that hopefully should be able to just enjoy the truck assuming I didn't smoke the trans after swapping the fluid and trying to fill it up to the correct level. Didn't drive it at all, just not sure how rough it is on the pump to run it while its low on fluid.

 

[HerpDerp1919]

Tackled my oil pan gasket as well as removing the leaky oil cooler lines and swapping out the oil filter adapter to the Melling MFA350 adapter. So far no leaks on that.
I finally got around to tackling the steering knuckle job. I destroyed the upper and lower ball joints in the process (they were just about dead anyways). Got my lower ball joint replaced and after grinding and attempting to drill out the rivets on the UCA, I said screw it and ordered a new UCA since its $10 more to get a new UCA with a ball joint than what O'Reillys charged for just the upper ball joint and it'll have new bushings so just waiting on that to arrive to finish it up.
Got a nice reality check and my wife reminded me she's about three weeks out from her due date so progress will come to a screeching halt for a good while. Once I wrap this job up I'll be looking at shipping it up to MN instead of trying to drag it home along with everything else we have to move when I separate.

I will say that wrenching on this truck in my single car garage has really made me appreciate the giant one car garage I had up in MN before I joined. I mean this thing just takes up ALL the space.

You must be registered for see images attach

I will miss working on it, but who knows. Maybe this way I can convince the wife to let me snag a singe cab short bed while were down here since I'm pretty positive I can get one of those on a U-Haul trailer lol