I own a wheeled toilet! Vent about automotive nightmares

GMC 1500 of about the same era. 17 years until the salt got it - no complaints.

coalnewbie wrote:GMC 1500 of about the same era. 17 years until the salt got it - no complaints.

mine is the 2500 turbo diesel 1997

I hear ya. I'm done with all this *censored* coming out of Detroit. Start buying old stuff now ..... because when the rest of the population catches on to what we already know, prices will hit the stratosphere on old vehicles. The ones I really want are already in that category, so all that's left for my budget is mid 70's - 80's stuff. Not the best, but BETTER THAN NOW.

Maybe I missed it...what happened to the fuel problem with the carb-conversion Blazer?

SMITTY wrote:Start buying old stuff now ..... because when the rest of the population catches on to what we already know, prices will hit the stratosphere on old vehicles.

As the price of the old stuff hits the stratosphere, the price PER POUND will approach infinity as RUST reduces the old vehicles to nothingness.

I can tell you this rberq .... my '07 Silverado will be loooooong gone before anything built in the 70's or prior is.

Rob R. wrote:Maybe I missed it...what happened to the fuel problem with the carb-conversion Blazer?

I told my wife to keep her foot out of it ... and I haven't had a problem since! I guess she was trying to drag race everyone with her new-found power!

$280 a ton, remove ALL fluids, mercury switches, etc, scale it, pass go, collect 500 greenbacks.
They are ALL junk, it's our responsibility to pick the flavor of the junk we drive.
American junk has made a resurgence...seems to be inversely proportional to the number of golf memberships purchased, and the consumer reports number of black dots in the annual Auto Issue.
Smitty, hear much about the six speed GM auto? Don't dream of pulling a trailer with the "Latest and Greatest". Check the bulletins. Exhaust manifold studs....electrical gremlins.....horrible fuel economy with the 6.0 liter.....only thing worse is a V-10....

I drive GMC, GM and Ram trucks, so I do support the local parts professionals, and I have NEVER been left beside the road by any American built vehicle. So I believe we fix the problem from within! Ship-can the execs, let the engineers and enthusiasts do their thing. Do it once, do it right and fix things as part of ongoing QA/QC.

The road chemicals we have to endure will ruin anything built today, and if you don't think so, ask any trucker, repair facility, or bean counter. Painful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hear ya Doug. When that 6 speed came out, the very first thing I did was send an email to everyone saying how great that was ...... and, anyone wanna bet how much a rebuild on that will cost!!

Now their talkin' 8 speeds!! Good luck with that. I'll take a TH400 mated to a splitter any day of the week over any computer controlled *censored* coming out of GM, thank you very much!


So much for that idea .... looks like the gov't paid them off to go out of business. Guess the mileage was too competitive ..... http://high-impact.net/transmission_and ... rdrive.htm

whistlenut wrote:Exhaust manifold studs...only thing worse is a V-10....

Gee thanks. You mean 7 MPG with a moderate load is bad? 13 MPH is the best I have ever achieved with the V10, and that was an interstate trip with no load. It managed to lose 3 exhaust manifold studs in the last month...can't wait for that bill.

HAHA just got my Dakota back from the shop. I noticed the front tires were wearing funny so I decided to go have some new tires and an alignment done. Wife calls in a panic. Shop can't do the alignment because the front end is too loose. So, the laundry listed me.

Lower Ball Joints
Inner and Outer Tie Rods
Pitman Arm
Idler Arm

Total not including the tires and alignment.

$1800

It was $620 for tires.
Alignment was $300.

Add to that the $1800 for everything else. Total would've been around $2720.

Needless to say, the only thing that got put on were the tires. Gotta go home now tonight to determine what actually needs replacing. I'm gonna change the ball joints and tie rods this weekend with my buddy. With beer. Freezing our asses off. Then I'll find a new place to do an alignment and pitman and idler arms.

That seems to be standard practice with places that do alignments; find half a dozen things wrong hoping you'll pay their inflated prices to fix it. I've found it to be a mixed bag. Sometimes they're right and the part is bad and sometimes they're just drumming up business.

I'm On Fire wrote:Lower Ball Joints
Inner and Outer Tie Rods
Pitman Arm
Idler Arm

I wouldn't be surprised at all if those components are worn out; especially if the truck has 100k+ on it. I know several poeple with Dakota's that had sloppy steering...in each case nearly everything in the front end had to be replaced.

I'm gonna do the ball joints an tie rods but I'm not so sure I want to get involved with the pitman arms and idler arm, they do not look like they'd be particularly easy to do without a lift and I don't want to pull the steering box.

How'd you make out?

Just wanted to say - I don't own a lift & I do repairs like that all the time. Having the right puller helps a million - it's nearly impossible without one. Just did both in the Blazer this past fall. I just disconnected the steering shaft from the box, but left the lines connected, unbolted the box & shoved it forward enough to get the impact on the nut, and the puller on the arm. Took about an hour. An alignment is mandatory after this, especially if you don't like buying new tires every month.

To check all that stuff ( ball joints, tie-rod ends, pitman, idler, etc..) jack the vehicle up by the lower control arm enough to get the tire a few inches off the ground. YOu want to position the jack as close to the wheel as possible. Then grab a prybar & pry upward on the bottom of the tire & release immediately - do this several times and feel for play. Any play means one or more b/j's are smoked. Then grab wheel (tire) at 3 & 9 and try to wiggle back and forth - any play there will be worn tie-rods or idler or pitman ... or all of it. Watch the steering wheel for movement so you don't mistake that for play. Then grab at 7 & 2 & do same - any play there is smoked bearings.

so just for fun I decided to do a little extra project after the three other projects and talk about wheeled toilets....

first swapped tranny on a 3.5L chrylser LHS ....OMG fun +!!! like old gonorreha treatment with the 2 hammers


my buddy Rob helpin