Useless Information

[swathdiver]

Sell them James.

I keep doing the same thing…. Oh I might need that or there’s a part I might need later on…. 5 years go by and there that item sits, covered in dust, taking up room and useless.

I say sell it now if you can while it’s still fresh in your mind. My opinion

I think about 10-20 years down the road thinking that I'll have the trucks still and want to keep them going. You're right, I'll sell them to someone who can use them right away and let my kids worry about it!

 

[petethepug]

Thoughts on old parts, extra parts and storage. I can chalk up 3-4 times, on a Sunday or holiday Monday weekend, after 4 or 5pm when everything’s closed, that one of my cars takes a dive. Knowing and having that hard to find part in your pile and being able to fix it in under 30 min vs being SOL with no vehicle until the next Buss day rocks.

 

[Marky Dissod]

Thoughts on old parts, extra parts and storage.
I can chalk up 3-4 times, on a Sunday or holiday Monday weekend, after 4 or 5pm when everything’s closed, that one of my cars takes a dive.
Knowing and having that hard to find part in your pile and being able to fix it in under 30 min vs being SOL with no vehicle until the next Buss day rocks.

I know a NYC livery driver whose 2011 Lincoln Town Car is about to hit (and very likely to go well past)
600,000 miles.
Not a single part on her Lincoln Town Car has EVER failed. Not one.
She has replaced every part (except the engine) BEFORE it failed.
She figures out how long parts tend to last in years or miles, multiplies by less than one, and replaces parts in advance before they fail.
Her plan obviously includes a garage with enough storage for a cornucopia of parts, including rebuilt parts from avoided failures.

Those of us who don't want to keep our vehicles for 600,000 miles can still piss off GM by outlasting GM's predictions, using part of her strategy.

I suggest a milk crate, or similarly manageable container. Into that container, put as many small parts as you can fit.
If we all put our heads together, we can start a new thread and come up with a bunch of relatively inexpensive / hard-to-find parts that we'd never want to be waiting for, to put in that milk crate.

 

[swathdiver]

I know a NYC livery driver whose 2011 Lincoln Town Car is about to hit (and very likely to go well past)
600,000 miles.
Not a single part on her Lincoln Town Car has EVER failed. Not one.
She has replaced every part (except the engine) BEFORE it failed.
She figures out how long parts tend to last in years or miles, multiplies by less than one, and replaces parts in advance before they fail.
Her plan obviously includes a garage with enough storage for a cornucopia of parts, including rebuilt parts from avoided failures.

Those of us who don't want to keep our vehicles for 600,000 miles can still piss off GM by outlasting GM's predictions, using part of her strategy.

I suggest a milk crate, or similarly manageable container. Into that container, put as many small parts as you can fit.
If we all put our heads together, we can start a new thread and come up with a bunch of relatively inexpensive / hard-to-find parts that we'd never want to be waiting for, to put in that milk crate.

I have an eight foot long 3 level shelf full of parts and then a couple of bins full of parts and some on the ground (control arms, cv axles, etc.) next to it and one small wire shelf with several sets of brake calipers. Oh, and lest I forget the 32 drawer cabinet with brake lines, oxygen sensors, strut mounts, etc. Then in my office are slips yokes, weld yokes, u-joints, spider gears, ring and pinion sets, another set of brake calipers and pads, etc.

 

[swathdiver]

Yesterday we were able to check off some more things on the "To Do" list for the Yukon. My helper replaced the heater tees and hoses and refilled the cooling system with 1.75 gallons of fresh ACDelco 50/50 Dex-Cool. I had bought one of those fancy tools to disconnect the lines but my helper was able to just use his hands. That went much easier than planned.

While all that was apart we replaced the passenger side clean PCV hose as the gasket was suspect by me, might have been making my fuel trims a little negative. Then my helper pulled the RR bucket seat and placed it on the coffee table and we went to figuring out why the inner finish panels keep getting destroyed whenever my father and oldest daughter sit on them!
Turns out what I thought was a knurled stud that was friction fit (I really need new glasses) was actually threaded for a nut! The nut was missing. So off my helper went to the hardware store to procure another. As we went to install the new nut, something was blocking it, the missing nut! It was turned around and guess he needs glasses too! Anyway, got finish panel number 5 tightened up and hopefully will never have to replace it again!

Today we're going to diagnose the LR bucket seat's heater and change the fuel pump assembly if the weather holds. Ordered a new seat track for the driver's seat and all door gaskets, should have the parts by the end of the week if the GM strike doesn't interfere.

 

[swathdiver]

My helper just finished replacing all 4 door weatherstrip surrounds and the driver's seat actuator. Will take her out later and check everything out.

Took the truck out yesterday to test the Long Term Fuel Pump Trim. It was 1.70 when the truck was fired up, went down to 1.6X and up to 1.74 while driving. Fuel Pressure never dropped below 42 psi whether I was cruising, accelerating from a stop or passing someone at WOT on the highway. Max pressure seen was 45 psi for mere moments. Pump's duty cycle was generally in the 45% range give or take a few and burst into the 50s at WOT.

I can find nothing about what these numbers mean in the shop manual. The Tech-2 when doing a Live Plot set the range from 0 to 4.0 by default. So if 0 is good and 4 is bad, seems good at 1.7. The Sierra's was in the 1.0s last time checked.

 

[swathdiver]

Almost exactly 4 years and 41,000 miles later and she needs a new Trailer Brake Relay again! Code C1114 00 was thrown again last night.

Replaced the Mode Actuator today. It acted up about three years ago for a whole day and never gave us a problem again. However, I don't want any surprises on the trip.

 

[swathdiver]

The SSR quit sending messages to the dash while I was in the hospital but we changed it out today. We also replaced both of the auxiliary HVAC actuators in the rear. This truck has the Delphi system and it looks nothing like the drawings in the shop manual. Took pictures of the stickers but forgot to get an overview picture as we were dodging rain squalls.

We'll do an oil change and tire rotation in a few weeks and that's it, she'll be ready for the trip.

 

[George B]

James,
Haven’t seen you in a while. Are you ok?

 

[iamdub]

James,
Haven’t seen you in a while. Are you ok?

Isn't he on a road trip to TX?

 

[George B]

Isn't he on a road trip to TX?

Maybe so. I just noted he was last on 11/1 and was concerned.

 

[iamdub]

Maybe so. I just noted he was last on 11/1 and was concerned.

I wanted to check in with him cuz he was supposed to hit up the USS Kidd at some point on the trip and I wanted to try to meet up if the stars aligned. Life got hectic and I lost track of time. I shot him a text. Normally, I'd wait til the morning but he's often posting later than this.

 

[Geotrash]

I wanted to check in with him cuz he was supposed to hit up the USS Kidd at some point on the trip and I wanted to try to meet up if the stars aligned. Life got hectic and I lost track of time. I shot him a text. Normally, I'd wait til the morning but he's often posting later than this.

Did you get a response? He usually checks in here even when he's on the road. Starting to worry...

 

[George B]

Did you get a response? He usually checks in here even when he's on the road. Starting to worry...

I haven’t seen James for a long time now.

 

[Tonyrodz]

Did you get a response? He usually checks in here even when he's on the road. Starting to worry...

I haven’t seen James for a long time now.

I hope he's ok.

 

[iamdub]

Did you get a response? He usually checks in here even when he's on the road. Starting to worry...

I did. He had some troubles on the journey and, AFAIK, is home. I thought he'd have checked in and updated by now. Maybe I should bug him again.

 

[Tonyrodz]

I did. He had some troubles on the journey and, AFAIK, is home. I thought he'd have checked in and updated by now. Maybe I should bug him again.

Good to hear. Hoping he's doing well.

 

[swathdiver]

The Yukon took us to Texas and back. 15 days, 3,176 miles, 199.66 gallons of fuel. We spent 70 hours driving.

As noticed previously, the truck gets better gas mileage at 77 mph then she does at 71 or 73 mph. I stopped at the CAT Scales at the beginning of our journey and the truck weighed 7,360 pounds! That's basically max GVW! Boy did we bring a lot of stuff, CPAP machines, cases of water, oxygen bottles, clothes, batteries, etc. So for the truck to get 19-20 mpg at 77 mph weighing 7400 pounds was pretty impressive in my book.

As you can imagine the truck weighed even more as the days wore on with the girls shopping in every city and we even picked up our new dog and drove him home.

Meet Levi:

To test the waters of my endurance we drove to Pascagoula, Mississippi the first day and then on to Waco for day 2. Then we spent three days in Waco and four in Fredericksburg. Then two each in San Antonio, Galveston and Baton Rouge. Spent a day with one of my childhood best-friends outside of San Antonio and then an evening with my brother and his family in Houston. Since the ******* met us in Baton Rouge, we nixed the drive down to New Orleans. Surprisingly, I was able to do all of the driving.

I got to visit the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum in Waco, the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg and the USS Cavalla in Galveston. I was too sick to tour the USS Kidd so we'll have to make that a special trip. The girls got to see girly things, shop, swim with otters, swim in a pool on the 22nd floor, ride horses in the Texas hill country, feed wild animals by hand and not have to cook for two whole weeks! The Yukon even went to sea on a Ferry! Who knew walking into a boot shop to pick up boot hooks would cost $500! LOL

A traffic jam prevented us from going to Cooper's Old Time Pit BBQ in New Braunfels (I promised one of my nurses I would try) but we did go to Pinkerton's in San Antonio which was delicious. Had some delicious German food in Fredericksburg at Otto's Bistro. I didn't skimp on good places to eat or sleep while we were in each town. Squeezing my fat behind through a WWII Fleet Boat left me sore for a few days, those water-tight doors seem smaller than I remember! LOL

So to date, I've been lucky to visit the USS Drum SS-228, USS Pampanito SS-383, USS Ling SS-297 and the USS Cavalla SS-244.

Levi is an English Labrador from Hickory Bluff Labradors in Arkansas. They drove him down to Baton Rouge for us, saving me three days of travel.

The truck ran beautifully. Never hooked up an ODBII adapter or took the Tech-2 out of its case. I didn't bother to check the alcohol content of each tank of gas either, just calling it 5% for the books. The tires were down a pound of air at the start of the trip, 29 psi cold, and I didn't touch them either the whole time, not even when it was 40 degrees outside! Still ran great. The pump clicked off early a few times, just pulled it out further and no problems. The airbag light set once and then went away the next key cycle. Eventually I'll get motivated to find out why. Not yet!

I'd post more photos but can't get them off my wife's social media accounts, save for this one of the dog.

I had wanted to meet up with Chris @iamdub but was feeling a little run down and then got food poisoning which delayed our trip home for an extra day and $500 in expenses! I started to feel the abscess forming soon after we got home and then finally had to go in and have it drained again, the 11th time. I reckon the stress of the food poisoning allowed it to get going. This one sure does hurt. Thanks for reaching out fellas. We're going to make a special trip out to Baton Rouge/New Orleans again soon, Chris.

My brother has gotten me Prasek beef jerky several times over the years for Christmas. This trip, we got to go ourselves and buy mountains of jerky and of all things bread and eat it in the car, it was that good!

I've lost about thirty pounds since the Saddle PE, didn't gain any weight on this trip and that was good. Well, this rambling update is over, my behind and eyes need a rest! Have a yourselves a great week!

 

[swathdiver]

Oh, about the CAT Scales. This was at a Love's Travel Stop on Okeechobee Road in Fort Pierce. We went there to top off and buy snacks and weigh the truck. While on the gas side, only one clerk was working behind the counter, the other guy was staring into his phone oblivious to the line of people in front of him and the lady actually working.

When we drove around back, he gets on the speaker at the scales and tells me to get off, that it's for trucks. I tell him, this is a truck! He yells at me again, I reply that I always weigh my trucks there and am using the app so leave me alone. He must've started staring at his phone again as we did not hear from him again. I tried using Love's several more times but they were dirty and seemingly attracting meth heads. Plus, their app didn't work with my phone for paying for gas. Chevron's app worked great, saved a lot of money on fuel, I think! LOL Buc-Ee's was always great too for rest stops.

 

[George B]

Good to hear from you James. Sounds like a fun trip.