RENAMED!! The adventures of Chase and his 2006 Yukon XL Denali!! Follow along on my travels!

driving into the port of Long Beach was fun. I love bridges and there’s two… one being the iconic green Vincent Thomas bridge.



And a good view driving back eastbound out of the port across the bridge getting a killer view showing jsut how massive QM2 is. Never had seen her in person before, only in videos online so I was pretty happy I got to see it in real life. Ignore my commentaries….. I tend to think out loud when driving by myself and forgot I was videoing lol.

this last week has been absolutely chaos….. ooi….

Sunday a week ago, I get up and head to 8:45 service at church. All good there. On my way back across town, stop into the grocery store to grab a. Few items, to drop off at home and then head to a detail appointment with a new client that I picked up a couple weeks ago to do a second detail for her husband. Go to shift out of park to reverse out of the parking spot and the shift handle goes limp….. again….. really?!?! So irritated at that point…. So check the cable connection just behind the running board under the drivers side door. Connections looks good. Also the end at the shift linkage on the side of the Trans is still good. Open up the dash bezel and kick panel beneath the column and open up the metal pan to expose the column and where the cable connects the shift lock actuator still connected. Not sure why it’s not got any tension but don’t wanna try and mess with it in the busy parking lot. Call AAA and tell them I need a deck truck to tow me home. AutoZone’s website shows no dorman shift cable in stock. Call NAPA to see if they can get me a replacement and the parts guy proceeds to ask, “do you need the short one or the long one?!” I’m like what?! I had no idea there were two separate length cables…. Apparently the dorman replacement is the shorter of the two. I have him order me that one since it’s what I have, but part is still two days out. I then start looking at all the parts listings for cables and the OEM GM replacement part is longer than the Dorman one and I think “well maybe the Dorman one is snapping because it’s too short and I need the longer one?!” Couldn’t hurt to try. So I order the longer one through AutoZone’s website but it had to get shipped to me, not sure why they can’t get it in store. But whatever. So I get the truck towed home and get the snapped cable out. Tow truck amazingly was able to get my truck dropped off in my secondary parking spot on my lot, because we can’t leave cars parked in the street overnight in our mobile home park. Thankfully that big concrete pad is flat, wide, and fairly deep so I can park the truck there not have to worry about getting in trouble with the park.

NAPA got me the short pioneer branded cable in late Monday afternoon. Had to reschedule mondays detail work for my shop friends to Tuesday so the short cable got me back in business to get to work Tuesday and make some cash. The GM longer cable was supposed to get delivered late in the day Tuesday so I could swap it out, and stupid fedex screwed it all up because apparently they had the wrong address despite AutoZone’s order system giving it to them correctly. They delayed the delivery til Wednesday and also tried to charge me an extra fee to correct the address. I was absolutely livid….. I basically told customer service “I’m not paying another penny, fix the mistake and get it on its way, and if you can’t, put someone on the phone who can….” She sent the correction through without any extra fuss…. BUT… the delayed caused major stress BECAUSE…

Late Tuesday afternoon while I was finishing work, a friend of my moms drove her down to the ER at loma Linda university hospital to see a specialist for a weird health issue she’s been dealing with that our local hospital and her primary care doctor don’t have the right testing and specialists on call to advise on and diagnose. I was counting on the longer cable getting delivered so I could drive down there to be with mom and get her home, and not have to stress about the cable breaking again… needless to say I had to stress the entire way there and back about the cable snapping. Thankfully it didn’t and mom is ok for the time being and not needing emergency surgery as we previously thought. We made it home safe back up the mountain about 1am. The other issu was that Wednesday I had planned to drive down to Ontario airport with mom, to pick up my sister, bro in law and the kids flying in from Tennessee. Needed me there since I’m the only one left of family in cali with a ride big enough to accommodate everyone plus their luggage. Again had to stress all the way there and back about the cable snapping thanks to fedex’s screw up. It held thankfully and mom and I got some very precious and much needed family time with sister and the kids. Still don’t need seven seats all at once very often but when I need it, the Denali comes through. Still can’t believe how much my nephew and nieces are growing up so quickly these last couple years now that I don’t get to see them often like we used to. And crazy that kids are old enough to ride shotgun!

While the genuine GM shift cable and aftermarket cables don’t appear to be any longer externally, I could definitely tell the cable internally is longer. Couldn’t get a good side by side photo of the two parts but once I got the GM cable installed proper, I didn’t have to adjust the middle bits where they connect at all, to allow the shift handle to properly move though all the gears as it should, AND return to park. The short cable took multiple tries adjusting it to get it just right and it would then be really stiff and difficult to shift out of park. The new cable is firm but shifts easily through all the gears. Hopefully I don’t have this problem to deal with again with the GM cable being installed and working well.

You need to re-glue the ps headliner. I've fixed many of those with some 3M spray adhesive.
Spray the board itself, let it get tacky then use a credit card and start rubbing downwards--towards the floor. Just nice and easy, don't do it too hard. Not too much pressure.

Tonyrodz said:

You need to re-glue the ps headliner. I've fixed many of those with some 3M spray adhesive.
Spray the board itself, let it get tacky then use a credit card and start rubbing downwards--towards the floor. Just nice and easy, don't do it too hard. Not too much pressure.

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It’s both driver and passenger side of the headliner at the windshield now. Same as the original headliner that came out a few years back….

adventurenali92 said:

It’s both driver and passenger side of the headliner at the windshield now. Same as the original headliner that came out a few years back….

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They used lousy glue. Also if someone smokes in the vehicle, that eventually eats the foam backing on the headliner causing it to fall.

Tonyrodz said:

They used lousy glue. Also if someone smokes in the vehicle, that eventually eats the foam backing on the headliner causing it to fall.

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Never been smoked in as far as I’m aware, at least from when I bought it there was no evidence of its previous owner smoking in it. And I have never smoked anything ever in life so I certainly haven’t smoked in it lol. And the headliner currently in it got pulled from a ridiculously clean 2005 Escalade ESV I found getting parted out a few years back, and the guy said he’d picked it up from its original owner to use the engine and Trans, and the original owner was an older lady that had kept it absolutely immaculate and there was no evidence of smoking in it. Just crappy glue lol

I really dislike snow….. lol. It causes all sorts of issues. The county doesn’t plow the roads in the park where I live, so the park has a couple maintenance people that handle snow plowing but they’re total idiots. They plow up one side of the street, turn around, plow the other side, and then leave a center divider of a snow berm down the middle. It’s always several feet wide and deep and usually at least two feet tall. I then can’t make the corner to get in or out of the garage and it’s so damn irritating. I had to shovel the freaking street during the last storm just to clear enough snow out of the way to be able to get in and out. the final day after it stopped snowing after dropping off the family back off the mountain, I was clearing the berm when the two plow trucks roll up, and she has the nerve to scold me for clearing the berm….. I went OFF ON HER….. “I’m like well if you did YOUR JOB THAT YOU'RE GETTING PAID FOR PROPERLY… we wouldn’t be here….” And then proceeded to show her this…. She’s like…. “Oh……. I guess you can’t just back over that….” I’m like no ******* Sherlock……” I had to hold back many very mean comments lol. But I guess it’s the only real issue in the park…. For having an HOA I dont have to deal with any of the normal drama and BS that people talk about with HOAs. Lol.

And then the morning of the ski day with my sister and family, after clearing the driveway and being a bit late to the morning from a quick stint of being stuck in said snow berm trying to get out, I headed out from the park and the county plow left a huge pile of snow in the main road that I didn’t see til I put my front bumper cover into…. Bent my Denali down under grill and put a small hole in the bumper cover just under the grill. I was so irritated…. Thankfully it’s a pliable enough piece of metal. I was able to pull the Denali down under grill off, lay it on the hearth in front a super hot and roaring fire I built up in the fireplace and let it get warm. I was able to gently bend it back straight and reform it. So it’s not all jacked up but now I gotta figure out what to do about the bumper cover. My poor truck gets so beat up during winter. Thankfully this winter has been super mellow and pretty much fall all winter long. Im not complaining about the fact that we’ve only had one big storm all winter long. And I’m not complaining that we’re pretty much out of winter. There’s no snow in the forecast for the next couple weeks, ski season looks like it’s coming to an end early. Which I’m not sad about that either because my ski resort job has tuned into such a circus of BS and I’m so done with working there. Multiple days towards the end of the coming week are forecasted to be dang near 80 degrees! I say bring it on I’m ready lol. Then I can just detail for clients and be happy being my own boss lol. Thankfully the mild winter allowed me to detail pretty much all winter long Monday-Friday and I didn’t wait around on the resort so I kept income flowing in, unlike last season.

The upside to the storm was that it gave us a super fun day to ski with my sister, bro in law, and the kids. They loved getting fresh tracks in the powder and just enough coverage to play around off the edges of the trails and some little rip runs through some of the trees.

adventurenali92 said:

I really dislike snow….. lol. It causes all sorts of issues. The county doesn’t plow the roads in the park where I live, so the park has a couple maintenance people that handle snow plowing but they’re total idiots. They plow up one side of the street, turn around, plow the other side, and then leave a center divider of a snow berm down the middle. It’s always several feet wide and deep and usually at least two feet tall. I then can’t make the corner to get in or out of the garage and it’s so damn irritating. I had to shovel the freaking street during the last storm just to clear enough snow out of the way to be able to get in and out. the final day after it stopped snowing after dropping off the family back off the mountain, I was clearing the berm when the two plow trucks roll up, and she has the nerve to scold me for clearing the berm….. I went OFF ON HER….. “I’m like well if you did YOUR JOB THAT YOU'RE GETTING PAID FOR PROPERLY… we wouldn’t be here….” And then proceeded to show her this…. She’s like…. “Oh……. I guess you can’t just back over that….” I’m like no ******* Sherlock……” I had to hold back many very mean comments lol. But I guess it’s the only real issue in the park…. For having an HOA I dont have to deal with any of the normal drama and BS that people talk about with HOAs. Lol.

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How could anyone look at that result and think "job well done, time to move on to the next street"

willinnashville said:

How could anyone look at that result and think "job well done, time to move on to the next street"

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I don’t know…. lol

According to the park they come back a a couple days later and clear the center dividers…. They didn’t this time. They cleared from my driveway to corner street cuz I had a corner lot on the intersection when I was out shoveling it but then left the entire rest of the street and just waited for it to melt… Everyone down my street has no long 4x4 vehicles and have the same problem. I texted the board president cuz he’s a friend and client of the detail business and said “clearly it’s time for a better solution when multiple people are telling you that the snow clearing situation isnt working….” The sucky part is the because I’m a renter and not an owner I have no say in anything about how the park gets managed. Which is so stupid in my opinion because they still get an HOA fee from me. It just comes out my landlords bank account to the park because it’s part of my rent instead of me paying it directly to the park. Im just gonna keep pestering the board president about the snow removal picture lol.

Been a hectic month. Been working non stop since the last storm mess on the roads dried out handling detail work for clients. Denali had been running good except for a very annoying squeak coming out of the front drive belt and pulleys/tensioners. Swapped out the idler pulley, the top pulley and tensioner that releases the serpentine belt, and the A/C pulley/tensioner hoping it would solve the squeak one by one over the last month. No changes. Logically went to alternator pulley and power steering pump pulleys. Ugh those are gonna be a pain I’m thinking. Got down to San Bernardino junkyard the last week of March and attempted pulled a power steering pump and pulley from a 2005 Escalade the first day it was available in the yard. Could not for the life of me get the power steering pulley off, even with the correct pulley puller tool. Ran out of time and since I had the alternator already off to get to the power steering pump I grabbed it. Figured it would be a cheap way to see if the alternator pulley was causing the squeak or not. Unknown mileage on the alternator but it’s working perfectly. No change in squeak. So I stopped in a couple weeks ago stopped into the mechanic next door to my gym to ask if I was on the right track. He said that the bearing driving the pulley could be bad but not likely. Especially since I’m not having any power steering issues. He then asked when the last time I replaced the serpentine belt was, to which I answered April last year when I opened up my oil pan for the pickup tube o ring replacement and the oil pump and timing cover seal replacement. Threw a new belt on at reassembly since I was in there. He’s asked “duralast belt from autozone?” And I said yeah…. He said there’s your problem… those belts just are wonky. Suggested picking up a belt from NAPA, taking a pick and cleaning out the grooves on each pulley, and then sticking the NAPA belt on. I was skeptical but I’ll be darned…. It actually worked! Cleaned up the pulley, threw the new NAPA belt on and sure ******* squeak be gone!! So apparent PSA duralast belts suck! lol. Anyways glad the truck is running smooth and no squeaks out of the front end.

Alternator that came out of the Escalade is a factory Bosch one same as my factory one that came out of my truck. Currently on a trip helping my uncle sort out life stuff on the east coast and I plan to rebuild my factory alternator for piece of mind while I have it off and then throw it back in. Will get a rebuild kit order when I get home next week.

the husband half of the couple that owns the convention center where I teach line dancing passed a few weeks back from late stage stomach cancer after a very out of the blue diagnosis back in January. Super sad for the wife and their 19 year old daughter whom I’ve gotten close with over the last 13 years of dancing at the convention center. Anthony will be missed for sure. She put together a wonderful celebration of life at the convention center for all the big bear folks that knew him. We attended that Sunday the 12th. A firmly outspoken Christian guy, very kind and compassionate. The band that always plays New Year’s Eve at the convention center were tight with Anthony and they played two 45 minute sets of music during the celebration of life and encouraged us all to dance in Anthony’s honor which was super special. They donated their time either no hesitation. All in all a well spent afternoon with good friends and laughter sharing memories of our friend.

Rained all day Sunday the 12th so got home and steamered down the Denali in the garage, and put him on the trickle charger. mom showed up an hour later, and we packed our suitcases into her jeep and headed for Ontario airport for a midnight flight out to Tennessee. Spent the last week in middle Tennessee with my sister, brother in law, and the kids so that we could see my nieces perform in a production of Aladdin with their theater company. Can’t believe how fast these kids are growing up but so proud of them!

I really do miss having them close by but makes the time I do get to spend in Tennessee with them and the times they get to come back and visit California that much sweeter.

Bro in law bought a 2001 5.3 RWD extended cab sierra from his great aunt that belonged to his great uncle after he passed a handful of years ago. Been a good truck to the family. Runs good. He called a couple weeks ago asking why it might suddenly die on him while driving to work and I suggested alternator or fuel pump. If no electrical or charging issues, then fuel pump. He’s like ok cool I’ll check it out. Sure enough fuel pump was shot. Replaced it and trucks back up and running. He asked if we could check out any pick a part junkyards while I was there. Looked up a locally owned pick a part and an LKQ yard in west Nashville and we hit up the locally owned one, to try and score some parts for the 1990 Jeep wrangler they bought for my nephew who’s driving age now and got his permit. Scored some good condition seats and a few odds and ends of stuff. Bro in laws sierra needed a window regulator, found a 2001 Yukon XL with broth front door regulators intact, and showed my nephew how to disassemble and pull them. He did it perfectly. He also suggested, “well we’re grabbing the driver side and the passenger one seems kinda slow maybe we should grab that one too…” yup good call kiddo! So we did that too. Super fun bonding time with my nephew and bro in law showing them the parts of my life that I enjoy so much and getting to pass along things I’ve learned about getting our hands dirty and getting it done with our skills!. And of course…. Ate at inn n out at the freshly opened Nashville location! Tastes home while in Tennessee haha.

Short little dance night Friday night a few minutes from my sisters house in culleoka with my sister, bro in law, her best friend from high school who drove in from Virginia to see the girls’ play, and my mom. Cool little joint. Not quite the same dance scene as I’m used to. First time this joint was having a live band apparently. And then DJ played afterwards and the local dancers only knew like three of the more new line dances lol. But still fun the boot scoot on a new dance floor. Momma’s country kitchen in lewisburg, TN.