Monday, March 14, 2016

1999 Sierra K2500 SLT crew cab w/ the 350ci/5.7L

This is my newly acquired truck. More to come...

I picked up this truck from a guy in Fayetteville,NC. It is my favorite era of GM truck. I sold my 2000 Sierra 2500 (2WD SC LB) with the 6.0 to my brother in law. It was a great truck but my wife and I prefer to have 2 four wheel drive vehicles for bad weather and mud.
This new truck runs well but needs work. It has a power steering leak, an inoperable horn, an inaccurate speedometer, a sliding rear window that doesn't close and a few odds and ends that need to be addressed.


I hope to get this replaced with a solid window today.
The latch broken and the window doesn't close properly. Hopefully, the next update will be of the new window.
Mike's Mobile auto glass repair took care of the window. I am very happy with the work.

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Ricky's 1994 Prelude

My friend wanted a few things done on his 1994 Prelude. I finally pulled it into the garage to take a closer look. The muffler is rusted, the radiator fan mounts are broken and the brake lights stay on even when the brake pedal is not pressed. The window tint is also bubbling. I might address that as well.
The axle back replacement exhaust and the radiator arrived. I guess its time to turn some wrenches.
This is a closer look at the radiator fan mounts.
The radiator arrived from Rock Auto. I have had good experience with them for replacement parts.
Experience has taught me to always inspect mounting points when replacing a radiator. For some reason, aftermarket suppliers sometimes provide radiators that are not a perfect match. All the mount points on this one match perfectly.
This is a view of the underside of the old radiator. At first glance, everything seems in place but rusted. In any event, it is coming out.
I drained the coolant, disconnected the fans and removed the radiator. The fan shroud on the right has melted. I don't know what caused it as there was nothing else in the engine bay out of place. After a little searching, I settled on a used replacement shroud from Ebay.. It was the only one (other than a brand new OEM) that I was sure would work. Kudos to the seller for decent photos.
The radiator mounts perfectly but I needed to replace the cap. The existing one did not fit. My guess was  that a local store would have a compatible one in stock.
This is how the axle back exhaust arrived. The packaging seemed a bit odd. But, it was well protected and had no damage.
The old muffler is pretty rusted.
Good old PB blaster applied to the nuts and bolts connecting the axle back to the rest of the exhaust will hopefully minimize the chances of breaking the rusted bolts.
Let it soak for a while...
I found the issue with the brake lightsl. My 1992 Integra GS had the exact same problem. There is switch that closes the brake light circuit when the pedal pressed. The plastic that is mounted on the brake pedal degrades over time and eventually leaves a hole that allows that allows the switch to remain open even when the pedal is pressed. If you look closely at the picture, you can see the hole that allows the switch to go through.
This is the cheap fix.
Plug it in and the lights work properly.
The muffler came off after a little convincing. It looks like the replacement is a close match.
It mounts perfectly.
The old radiator cap didn't fit so I picked this one up and is works. There are two radiators that are available for this car. They used different caps.
Once the new shroud arrives, the Prelude should be ready to roll.
The "new" used radiator fan and shroud arrived. It seems to be as advertised. The true test will occur once it is installed and cycled few times.
It mounted perfectly.
The coolant loop is filled and bled. It's time to fill the tires and take it for a spin.