There are just some days I wish I didn't turn wrenches

[OR VietVet]

Speaking of government bail outs, I just got notice that my VA, as of Oct.1, will be charging a co pay for all meds.

 

[tom3]

And once they start they will increase it every year, just like the Medicare deductible and premiums.

 

[OR VietVet]

This is about my 05 Z71 but not really a "Build Thread" situation. Very intermittently, when using my left turn signal, the cluster indicator arrow will come on solid and not blink or will come on and not blink but will flutter rapidly. 99% of the time, I turn the left t/s off and then on again and it will act normally. I have never looked at the outside lights because it happens when driving and cannot duplicate when parked. Research points to a turn signal/hazard flasher/module and is a common failure. According to more research and looking up at RA, if I have either a GM #10383320 flasher if I have RPO code VR4, which I do have, or #10383321 without VR4 RPO code. I am going to replace flasher/module before it goes completely out and have reached out to @915_Tahoe to be sure. Looks really easy to install it. The weird thing is that the part I would need at RA is $56.79, plus shipping, and the same GM part at AZ is $52.49. I have a store credit at RA of $44.45 that I could use but may save it for something else and just get at AZ and use my military discount of 10% off.

Any other GMT800 owners ever come across this or does the same flasher/module fit 2007+ trucks?

 

[OR VietVet]

Waiting on 2 inner door handles for a 1998 Suzuki Sidekick for the front doors on a 4 door vehicle. Looks like I can replace both of them without removing the door cards, is that correct? I don't really want to remove the cards as they are old and clips may break. One you tube video shows them being done without removing the cards. Any insight?

 

[OR VietVet]

Thanks to @915_Tahoe, I got the turn signal flasher/module figured and ordered from RA. My problem with it actually happened 2 times yesterday. Anyway, I parked in the end of my driveway and removed the dash cluster surround trim and under the steering column. I could look at the end of the old flasher and get the correct GM number to allow for me and @915_Tahoe to cross and get the correct part ordered. Then I left the windows down and helped my girl glue some patches on an RV cover she is taking up to Port Susan, Wa. and put on one of her trailers at her site up there. Going to glue patches on both sides of the 4 holes, so we did all of one side and needed to wait 2 hours before flipping over to glue the other patches. I needed to go run a quick errand. I got in and noticed a stain at the top of my inner door cover and then noticed the same stain down the bezel where the seat memory is and ended at the p/s rear window switch. It was all dried and chipped off easily and all switches still work.

IT WAS DRIED BIRD POOP!!!!!!!!! SUM *B*I*T*C*H* EFFING BIRD POOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[OR VietVet]

Removed and replaced both of the inner door handles on the 98 Sidekick today. Easy as all get out. Took about 12 minutes to do both. Still gonna charge 1/2 hour. P/S release handle was broken and the driver's side handle return spring was broken/gone. The d/s one had been replaced before with a salvage yard part. You can see the yard writing on it.

Done and gone.

 

[B-train]

Well, I did not think the day would come but I cannot even get the caliper mounting bracket bolts loose. I had a 3+ foot breaker bar on a 21mm 6 point shallow impact socket and all it did was flex about 8" to 10". I am not set up to apply heat and here in Oregon, this is the first time I have ran in to frozen bolts like this. I told the customer no charge for the work yesterday and today and I am calling a trusted shop I know that will allow customer parts and they will take on the job.

This really pisses me off that I could not break the bolts/pins loose. If I had heat, I figure, no problem.

Plus, my 3 ton hydraulic floor jack lifted at the rear diff to set on 3 ton stands on the axle, on each side of the big diff. Then when I went to take them down, the floor jack gave up the ghost and was bypassing and could not lift the rear off the stands. Thankfully is a 4x4 truck. I put it in 4x4 and idled in gear forward and very slowly rolled forward and laid the stands down on their sides. No damage at all, except to the floor jack.

Welcome to the rust belt mechanic life! LOL

GM uses some god awful loctite on the caliper mounting bolts for sure. It's blue and wicked......I never reapply any sort of loctite....ever, there's enough left on the threads for another 150k.

A MAPP gass torch might have been enough if you heated the head and let it permeate in. Usually takes a few tries, but I've also seem many times that you need Acetylene torch power to make a difference.

Was it the 1st brake job ever on the truck? Or did some dingbat just run it home with a 1/2 impact prior?

 

[OR VietVet]

Welcome to the rust belt mechanic life! LOL

GM uses some god awful loctite on the caliper mounting bolts for sure. It's blue and wicked......I never reapply any sort of loctite....ever, there's enough left on the threads for another 150k.

A MAPP gass torch might have been enough if you heated the head and let it permeate in. Usually takes a few tries, but I've also seem many times that you need Acetylene torch power to make a difference.

Was it the 1st brake job ever on the truck? Or did some dingbat just run it home with a 1/2 impact prior?

Not the rust belt in this area but I have no idea where it spent it's whole life. Did not even have surface rust in that area. Had about 160k miles and do not know if the calipers brackets had ever been off. I would assume, at that mileage, that pads had at least been done before.

 

[OR VietVet]

Today was blower motor replacement for my landlord on his 2018 Suburban LT. Removed the p/s under dash cover for the blower motor and HVAC box. Way easier to remove than to replace it. The carpet gets in the way of the p/s firewall location of the 1 or 4 retaining screws. 7mm heads. Removed kick panel and peeled the carpet back and then could get closer to getting a 1/4" drive socket and a wobble extension. Right under the screw location, the firewall is at an angle. Anyway, got all 4 screw out and cover drops out easily. There are three #20 torx head screws that hold the blower in place. Easy to remove connector and tuck out of way. Blower drops right out.

First, the cover had a bunch of debris. Second, the blower motor wheel had a bunch of debris. The problem was noise and air volume. I reached in and found the blower cavity clear and cabin air filter like new because I replaced that about 3 months ago. Cleaned out the blower wheel debris and plugged it in and the noise was gone. he decided to reuse the oe blower. Reinstalled all of it and fought getting the close to firewall screw back in but finally got it. PITFA!

Turned blower on again and was quiet and volume was great. Boxed up the new one and did aa return back to RA and shipped back via Fed Ex. Total job time 1.5 hours.

Almost forgot, I popped hood and looked for debris field and found 3 twist off beer bottle caps up under where the hood hinge hides. You can see 3 of them. I showed him before getting them out of there and he laughed his ass off. All 3 were for 3 different kinds of beer.

 

[justchecking]

Today was blower motor replacement for my landlord on his 2018 Suburban LT. Removed the p/s under dash cover for the blower motor and HVAC box. Way easier to remove than to replace it. The carpet gets in the way of the p/s firewall location of the 1 or 4 retaining screws. 7mm heads. Removed kick panel and peeled the carpet back and then could get closer to getting a 1/4" drive socket and a wobble extension. Right under the screw location, the firewall is at an angle. Anyway, got all 4 screw out and cover drops out easily. There are three #20 torx head screws that hold the blower in place. Easy to remove connector and tuck out of way. Blower drops right out.

First, the cover had a bunch of debris. Second, the blower motor wheel had a bunch of debris. The problem was noise and air volume. I reached in and found the blower cavity clear and cabin air filter like new because I replaced that about 3 months ago. Cleaned out the blower wheel debris and plugged it in and the noise was gone. he decided to reuse the oe blower. Reinstalled all of it and fought getting the close to firewall screw back in but finally got it. PITFA!

Turned blower on again and was quiet and volume was great. Boxed up the new one and did aa return back to RA and shipped back via Fed Ex. Total job time 1.5 hours.

Almost forgot, I popped hood and looked for debris field and found 3 twist off beer bottle caps up under where the hood hinge hides. You can see 3 of them. I showed him before getting them out of there and he laughed his ass off. All 3 were for 3 different kinds of beer.

View attachment 440278View attachment 440279View attachment 440280View attachment 440281

Did GM put a bottle top opener under there somewhere we can use? Asking for a friend.

 

[OR VietVet]

Did GM put a bottle top opener under there somewhere we can use? Asking for a friend.

When I called the landlord over to see what I found, the caps, I saw him take his hand and act like he had a bottle in it and held it like he would be opening a bottle cap, against the back of hood edge.

 

[justchecking]

Speaking of government bail outs, I just got notice that my VA, as of Oct.1, will be charging a co pay for all meds.

I did not get that notice. I have Medicare and tricare for life. Are you in a different category since you are a Vietnam veteran?

 

[OR VietVet]

Could be but am unsure. I was promised, when I got out in December of 1975, that in the future, my medical and prescriptions were covered. Lie lie lie....


I have even went in to the VA when I did not have an appointment, because of a medical problem or needed to just ask a question of a nurse practitioner and I get billed a co pay for that.

Government is full of liars that constantly lie to veterans.

 

[homesick]

Could be but am unsure. I was promised, when I got out in December of 1975, that in the future, my medical and prescriptions were covered. Lie lie lie....


I have even went in to the VA when I did not have an appointment, because of a medical problem or needed to just ask a question of a nurse practitioner and I get billed a co pay for that.

Government is full of liars that constantly lie to veterans.

I read about the co-pays, a week or so ago. I have little enough faith in politicians and bureaucrats that I never applied for federal health benefits. I won't either, unless and until finances absolutely force me to. I carried on my ATT insurance to back-up my [forced] Medicare coverage. It works fine.

Long ago, maybe even 30 years or more, my retired dad's Navy pension got garnished for VA services. They also killed him by misdiagnosing a brain tumor as a hangnail. [Obviously not true, but they were about that wrong.]

joe

 

[Tahoe14]

Does this go along with the fact that the lying government has dipped into our social security in the past and now all of a sudden we are going to be short around 2030-2035. The ones in the know have said if the government had left if alone they could have given each American on social security at this time one million dollars each.

 

[Fless]

Does this go along with the fact that the lying government has dipped into our social security in the past and now all of a sudden we are going to be short around 2030-2035. The ones in the know have said if the government had left if alone they could have given each American on social security at this time one million dollars each.

Social Security is like a ponzi scheme. There is no trust fund, but there should have been. So far it's been fully funded by the workers paying in, but with us boomers retiring like rabbits procreate, the funding will soon be upside-down. Then the payments will need to be subsidized by other tax money from the General Fund.

 

[OR VietVet]

Every politician makes and breaks promises because they have security to protect them. I cannot stand liars and thieves and the government is full of them. Given half a chance, I would walk up and slap the crap out of some of them. Someone lying to me and smirking like they do, sets me off. I have been lied to so many times by the government.

 

[89Suburban]

 

[homesick]

Every politician makes and breaks promises because they have security to protect them. I cannot stand liars and thieves and the government is full of them. Given half a chance, I would walk up and slap the crap out of some of them. Someone lying to me and smirking like they do, sets me off. I have been lied to so many times by the government.

It seems to me that the combination of power and money that big-time politics provides is the ultimate catnip for sociopaths and criminals.

joe

 

[homesick]

Social Security is like a ponzi scheme. There is no trust fund, but there should have been. So far it's been fully funded by the workers paying in, but with us boomers retiring like rabbits procreate, the funding will soon be upside-down. Then the payments will need to be subsidized by other tax money from the General Fund.

As I understand it, Social Security was originally marketed as being voluntary, in order to get people to go along.

When Galveston opted out, the rules were changed to prevent any more opt-outs.

joe