Growing up doesn't have to suck

[iamdub]

Just my luck... The mirror my neighbor gave me years ago, while not loose at the joint like mine, has a stripped gear as well. So now I get to take it apart and replace the gear with either the metal or plastic one. I'm fine with the plastic one since it should last me a long time. But if I can upgrade to the metal gear easily and cheaply, I will. This will involve comparing the motor to one of the few I have in my hobby box to see what all this "internally grounded" noise is about.

Plans are to repair this motor assembly then swap it into mine to make the repair as fast as possible. Then I'll repair my original and have it as a backup. I think it can be used on either side, might require rotating a part 180°. Gonna have to watch the video again.

Fun fact: The mirror my neighbor gave me was made two months and two days after the one on my Tahoe.

...Seriously? This is all?

 

[iamdub]

I disassembled the drive assembly of the spare mirror my neighbor gave me to extract the motor. The negative terminal had continuity to the body, shaft, worm gear, etc. The positive terminal had intermittent and varied continuity to the body when I spun the shaft. I think this might be normal on a DC motor. I bent the tabs as outlined in that video and no longer have continuity on the negative terminal. Positive terminal still acts the same. Either it is normal or I need to do more bending on the positive terminal. I tried to bend the tabs on the back of the motor to remove the end cap to inspect the brushes to see if I could do any further/better isolating. But I might need to make a tool to pry those tabs. Regardless, I ordered the metal gear, if even just as an experiment cuz it was only $10 from Amazon. The motor itself is a variant of an FC-280. I'm trying to find an exploded diagram of it.

 

[adventurenali92]

I think the GMT800 mirrors do the same thing with gears inside. Years back I had a client with a 2004 SS silvy, that he beat the daylights out of. From the first time I detailed it, which was many years into him owning it, to the last time, his side view mirrors were always floppy and loose. Lol. I’d be curious to know if there’s a metal gear to replace the I'm sure, plastic ones in my mirrors as well.

 

[iamdub]

I think the GMT800 mirrors do the same thing with gears inside. Years back I had a client with a 2004 SS silvy, that he beat the daylights out of. From the first time I detailed it, which was many years into him owning it, to the last time, his side view mirrors were always floppy and loose. Lol. I’d be curious to know if there’s a metal gear to replace the I'm sure, plastic ones in my mirrors as well.

I'd bet that there are. The one I got was applicable to a range of GM vehicles, but I didn't see if it covered older models.

 

[iamdub]

I disassembled the drive assembly of the spare mirror my neighbor gave me to extract the motor. The negative terminal had continuity to the body, shaft, worm gear, etc. The positive terminal had intermittent and varied continuity to the body when I spun the shaft. I think this might be normal on a DC motor. I bent the tabs as outlined in that video and no longer have continuity on the negative terminal. Positive terminal still acts the same. Either it is normal or I need to do more bending on the positive terminal. I tried to bend the tabs on the back of the motor to remove the end cap to inspect the brushes to see if I could do any further/better isolating. But I might need to make a tool to pry those tabs. Regardless, I ordered the metal gear, if even just as an experiment cuz it was only $10 from Amazon. The motor itself is a variant of an FC-280. I'm trying to find an exploded diagram of it.

Correction: The positive terminal does NOT have continuity to the body. Only intermittently to negative when I spin the motor, which is normal.

Also, the metal gear from Amazon seems to be a great match and fit. I'll grease and assemble this drive assembly and test it on the Tahoe before replacing my broken one with it.

 

[89Suburban]

Correction: The positive terminal does NOT have continuity to the body. Only intermittently to negative when I spin the motor, which is normal.

Also, the metal gear from Amazon seems to be a great match and fit. I'll grease and assemble this drive assembly and test it on the Tahoe before replacing my broken one with it.

I love it when you are chill and laid back and in the tinkering mood!!

 

[iamdub]

I love it when you are chill and laid back and in the tinkering mood!!

Things have been poppin off left and right lately. Just trying to maintain my zen with small and easily accomplished but rewarding tasks.

 

[iamdub]

Made some LED puddle lights.

Got these COB panels off ebay for $6. They're attached to an aluminum plate, which I shaved a little with a flap disc on a grinder so they'd fit the housings:

Spare puddle light housing I used for mock-up. The originals were thoroughly cleaned before I put the LEDs in 'em:

194 incandescent:

COB LED panel:

 

[iamdub]

The Kicker amp I bought in Florida is WAY too much power for that Alpine 10". Like, more than three times the RMS. Tahoe Twin gave me his old sealed dual 12 box he had in his Tahoe so I can finally use those two new Kicker 12s I bought last June. The amp is still almost twice the power these need, even in a sealed box. But that makes it about 2/3 less of a waste, right?

This is temporary until I build the box I want, which will be angled to fit up against the seats, ported and downfire. I just need to look into some of the sciences of it, as I'm considering having the port fire downward as well, with a sloped floor to direct everything outward, like a horn.

 

[tomloans]

The Kicker amp I bought in Florida is WAY too much power for that Alpine 10". Like, more than three times the RMS. Tahoe Twin gave me his old sealed dual 12 box he had in his Tahoe so I can finally use those two new Kicker 12s I bought last June. The amp is still almost twice the power these need, even in a sealed box. But that makes it about 2/3 less of a waste, right?

This is temporary until I build the box I want, which will be angled to fit up against the seats, ported and downfire. I just need to look into some of the sciences of it, as I'm considering having the port fire downward as well, with a sloped floor to direct everything outward, like a horn.

Looking Good IAMDUB! Hope all is well. The truck is running like new and strong since you and others here helped me get those new heads on. I have put roughly 20k miles and all good!

 

[iamdub]

Looking Good IAMDUB! Hope all is well. The truck is running like new and strong since you and others here helped me get those new heads on. I have put roughly 20k miles and all good!

Thanks, Tom! I'm glad to hear it's still doing what the Gen3 LS should be doing.

 

[iamdub]

Putting this here for later reference.

07-14 Chevy Tahoe Custom Black & Clear Projector Retrofit Headlights – BlackFlameCustoms.com

Customer Headlight Build Updates – Customer: TJ D – Vehicle: 07-14 Chevy Tahoe – Projectors: H1 Bi-Xenon – Lens Upgrades: None/Factory Clear – Shrouds: E-46 C

blackflamecustoms.com

 

[Monz11]

How much for these? Just replace the projectors with ones from the Retrofit Source, shake and bake and tint interior. Save ya some $$$

I did my Spyder headlights, with the GTR bulbs (lifetime) and new projectors. Saved and still have the halos

 

[kbuskill]

Putting this here for later reference.

07-14 Chevy Tahoe Custom Black & Clear Projector Retrofit Headlights – BlackFlameCustoms.com

Customer Headlight Build Updates – Customer: TJ D – Vehicle: 07-14 Chevy Tahoe – Projectors: H1 Bi-Xenon – Lens Upgrades: None/Factory Clear – Shrouds: E-46 C

blackflamecustoms.com

View attachment 420257

I think this is the guy I contacted about building me a set of headlights before I decided to just do it myself. He was emailing back and forth with me and then just fell off the face of the earth... lol never did get a response back so I said screw it and jumped in and built my own.

Of course I could be completely wrong and it may have been a different company. I slept a couple times since then. I still have the emails so I'm sure I could figure it out if I cared that much.

 

[iamdub]

How much for these? Just replace the projectors with ones from the Retrofit Source, shake and bake and tint interior. Save ya some $$$

I did my Spyder headlights, with the GTR bulbs (lifetime) and new projectors. Saved and still have the halos

Oh, I'm not buying them! I just saved that pic and the link to have more pics for ideas for inspiration. I already have the black housings with clear reflector. I'm researching retrofitting a small but good projector into them. I don't care much for the look of projectors cuz they look like beady eyeballs- worse than the bubble eyes of the factory Yukon headlights. But the small projectors in a darker housing tone it down to what seems like something I can live with. I'm not sure what brand of headlights I have. They were a resell deal on Marketplace when the guy didn't get what he thought he was getting. But there are a few projectors I'm looking at. The ones from TRS look identical to some others for a fraction of the price. Still researching...

 

[adventurenali92]

Oh, I'm not buying them! I already have the black housings with clear reflector. I'm researching retrofitting a small but good projector into them. I don't care much for the look of projectors cuz they look like beady eyeballs- worse than the bubble eyes of the factory Yukon headlights. But the small projectors in a darker housing tone it down to what seems like something I can live with. I'm not sure what brand of headlights I have. They were a resell deal on Marketplace when the guy didn't get what he thought he was getting. But there are a few projectors I'm looking at. The ones from TRS look identical to some others for a fraction of the price. Still researching...

Not sure what will work on your GMT900 housings. But I have Morimoto mini H1 8.0 projectors that I retroed into anzo denali housings. I’ve been happy with their performance and the projector swap in the housings was stupid simple. Though I’m not sure what your housings entail as to getting a projector in their.

 

[iamdub]

I think this is the guy I contacted about building me a set of headlights before I decided to just do it myself. He was emailing back and forth with me and then just fell off the face of the earth... lol never did get a response back so I said screw it and jumped in and built my own.

Of course I could be completely wrong and it may have been a different company. I slept a couple times since then. I still have the emails so I'm sure I could figure it out if I cared that much.

I was Googling for images and these are the best looking ones I've found. I happen to have these housings already so I saved the link and pic for later reference.

 

[iamdub]

Not sure what will work on your GMT900 housings. But I have Morimoto mini H1 8.0 projectors that I retroed into anzo denali housings. I’ve been happy with their performance and the projector swap in the housings was stupid simple. Though I’m not sure what your housings entail as to getting a projector in their.

I found later that those are the ones kbuskill has. They're not as easy as retrofitting into an already projector housing such as yours. But, they seem to be the easiest option due to their size for retro'ing reflector housings.

 

[89Suburban]

A few shots of the process-

Gutted front:

View attachment 235200

Traced the slot in the Belltech alignment cam with silver Sharpie to mark where the frame slot will be elongated:

View attachment 235201


Used a cheap set of rotary rasps from Harbor Freight. Surprisingly, I did all eight slots with this one bit. It was pretty worn and cut much slower on the last few, but still did it. I also had to switch to a right angle drill because the angle grinder fell apart:

View attachment 235202

Elongated slot:

View attachment 235203

New control arm with factory cams:

View attachment 235204


I wanted to use the factory alignment as a baseline which would be lost with the Belltech cams. So I marked the positions of the original cams before I removed the old control arms. I also kept the original cams in their order after removing them. After elongating the slots, I reassembled everything with the old cams and turned the bolts to position the new arms per the original alignment marks. Then, I carefully removed one bolt at a time to reinstall them with the Belltech cams. The frame mounts were tight enough to keep the arm in position while I removed and replaced the bolts. With the BT cams in place, I marked them so the baseline would be maintained as a reference.

I cut a piece of angle iron to span the lips of the wheels, vertically across the middle, and stuck a magnetic angle finder on it to measure the camber before and after the spindles and control arms were replaced. The McG spindles caused a lot of toe out and about 1/2" total narrower track width. I've got the toe pretty close and it tracks mostly straight. The steering was overly responsive, so I dialed in some positive caster. The steering wheel at first was at about 9 o'clock and is now around 12:15, so I went a hair too far. But, it's completely driveable and the alignmnet will be fine-tuned during and after Phase 2.

Do you have a pic of the cam you alignment cam you used to trace the hole? Or a part number?

 

[iamdub]

Do you have a pic of the cam you alignment cam you used to trace the hole? Or a part number?

I just held the cam in place, pivoted off that nub at the farthest end of the slot, lined it up straight with the factory slot and traced the revealed metal with a silver Sharpie. The cam kit is Belltech #4951