After some hard running in the dirt, the Sierra's original tie rods were now worn out. They started wearing down the front tires across the tread, less on the inside and more on the outside.
We installed new OE inner and outer tie rods and had a problem, the new ones could not be made as short as the ones we took off! Huh? Turns out, they both needed to be cut down 1/2" according to the Zone 6.5 Lift instructions. Ohh yeah, now I remember reading that! So we did that and still came up about a 1/16 to 1/8 inch too long.
We left it as is because new tires were on order and we had an appointment at the custom truck shop for installation and an alignment coming up. In that time, the tires wore down evenly rather quickly, so by the time they were replaced, they wore down evenly!
Truck shop called and said the tie rods were no good and wanted to start over and use Moog or some brand called Precision. We said no. Sent them the Zone instructions. The day ended with the new tires installed but the truck spent the night on the alignment rack.
That evening after dinner, I went out into the garage and fired up the propane torch and put a lot of heat on the old, original tie rods that we removed in our driveway. Got them apart and compared the inner tie rods with the spare set for the Yukon, they were not cut down 1/2 inch, they were cut down 3/4 of an inch! I emailed the shop my findings and received a reply in the morning. When my daughter brought the truck home the next night, she relayed to me that the shop replaced the inner tie rods on their dime as they cut down the originals too much and so they replaced them. They were supposed to replace the jam nuts with the Rough Country tie rod sleeves but they cut those down so much as to be worthless.
Seems to me that these experts in installing lift kits, went through a learning curve! Like most women, my daughter is not interested in the details and didn't ask for the alignment sheet but did ask for the old parts back. She's happy with the way it drives, steering wheel is straight, goes down the road straight and tires are properly balanced and rotated.
Went to initiate a TPM learn and the Tech-2 said the CANdi module was not attached, even though it was recognized on the start up screen and the green light was on, flashing. Same thing in the Yukon. Spent an hour passing and failing tests, swapping cards, cables, adapters, etc. and then had to pack it in for the night after injuring my back again. Will test it out tomorrow in the truck. If the problem persists, I guess we'll order up a new CANdi and maybe an ODBII adapter. Started to look at MDI2 adapters in anticipation of a new generation of vehicles coming into the driveway someday. We shall see.
For those reading this who are considering the purchase of a Tech-2, don't let this dissuade you. This machine has seen near continuous use for almost five years, often times for hours at a time. It's been left in the hot truck for weeks at a time, dropped, kicked, stepped on, etc. It's a tough piece of equipment.
