Meet Tatanka, my 99 Suburban K1500

[tedly]

By the way, here's Werner's solution for this when he had it: "I just punched the stupid thing until it worked again".

[tedly]

After a lot of digging, I was finally able to find just the fan selector switch. I do mean a LOT of digging. You have to know the right question to ask the inventory computers to get the answer you are looking for, and the way everyone has this piece worded is very odd. Most parts guys don't even know it exists, but it's on the shelf of most stores. I wish I could give a part number or what I specifically searched for to find it, but I don't remember. If I find the box or receipt I'll update this.

The good news? Less than 25 bucks for it, and the blower motor resistor was $20ish.

Here's the back side of the unit with the offending switch circled and the replacement below it. I've gotten pretty good at taking that unit out and can have it out of the dash in about 5 minutes. Drop the steering wheel to the lowest it will go. Key on engine off, pull the gear shift all the way down into 1. Pop instrument panel bezel loose, you should be able to do it with your fingers. Maneuver the top out and clear of the dash. Pull out unit. Disconnect the 3 electrical plugs. Done. The retainer for the switch is held in place by one 5.5mm bolt and 4(?) latches, I can wiggle it out fairly easily once the retainer is removed.

[tedly]

Done with that, now lets look at the blower motor resistor. Pop out the glove box and...

Holy s#*t there's not a lot of room in there. This is going to be fun.

[tedly]

Looks like there's barely enough room for a 1/4 drive ratchet and a shallow socket in there. Well, doesn't really matter because that's a 7mm bolt and I can't find my shallow 7 mil socket anyway. Got a wrench though. It was a pain in the ass, only turning it a little bit at a time. After getting one bolt halfway out I had the bright idea that maybe I should plug everything up and see if changing the switch solved all the problems or not.

It did.

I proceeded to do a happy dance.

And I could return the resistor.

I haven't been able to wipe the grin off my face for the last 2 days. There is something deeply satisfying about having things work the way they are supposed to instead of working just enough to get by. Plus it's saving my hearing, I don't have to have the fan on full blast every time I have the truck started. Plus I can hear the radio better now as well!

Up to $2006 now.

[tedly]

While putting everything back together and buttoning it back up, I did find this:



This is the plug for the switch that was fubar-ed. Think it got a little hot?

I'm going to snag a pigtail from a scrapyard soon and swap them out. Meantime I made sure all the pins were secure with contacts bent down far enough to get good solid contact with the prongs on the switch. The wiring on the back was solid as well. I really don't like having that plug in use, but I got no choice right now. Just gotta keep an eye on things until I can get a new one.

[tedly]

That dizzy gear got me thinking, I need to get a better idea of what's going on internally. 220,000 miles is a lot, and there's a lot of preventative maintenance that gets skipped. Popped open the rear dif last night to look around and do a fluid change. I was expecting to find the spider gears or the ring and pinion chewed up but was pleasantly surprised. They are worn but not excessively. The fluid was sparkly and glittery, but no big chunks. There's a lot of metal on the magnet, but again, all very fine, small pieces. Wear and tear for 200,000 miles, but no damage. Cool.

[tedly]

Now we get to the part that drives people nuts when they work on cars with me. See that glob of dried gasket goop on the end of the bolt? Buildup of that can cause a bolt to bottom out before it is actually tightened down. All that crud on the threads? Makes it more difficult to get in and out.The rust build up on the head? Makes it a pain in the ass to get a socket on there solidly and can lead to rounding off. Normally I like to clean hardware thoroughly with a wire wheel, then run a tap and die through everything to clean the threads. On top of making reassembly easier and more accurate, the next person to work on my cars is probably going to be me, so might as well make things easier on myself then. I wasn't at home, so I didn't have a wire wheel to chuck in a drill, or my tap and die sets. What I did have was a wire brush, a green scrubby pad, and some picks. I got everything cleaned as best as I could, including the mating surfaces, ran a bead of grey RTV around the cover, making sure to get all the way around the bolt holes, and stuck it back on.

I had looked at the cover before, checking the mating surface for flatness and seeing if the bolt holes had been deformed. It wasn't perfect, but the imperfections were small enough that RTV could handle it no problem. I found no leaks after filling the dif back up, so all appears well there.

Popping the dif cover and inspection took me way less than 30 minutes. Cleaning everything up took me over 2 hours. That's what drives people nuts. Maybe it's anal retentive. Maybe it's not necessary. I'm still going to do it though.

3 quarts of 80w90 ran me roughly $30, so total is now up to $2036.

[tedly]

I can feel the difference, the rear axle is quieter and smoother. What's really eye opening is the difference in feel between the rear axle and the front. Lessening the noise and vibration coming from behind me is really making those things stand out when they're coming from in front of me. That's telling me the front dif needs done next. Might take a few days to get to, but not too terribly long.

[tedly]

I was surprised to see that there was no limited slip. I figured being not only a 4x4, but a high end one from the factory, it would make sense to have limited slip. I was wrong. I'll do some research into how common limited slip carriers are, what to look for in junkyards, and if it's even a good idea to have limited slip in a daily driven 4x4. I would guess it wouldn't be a negative thing, but having no experience in the world of 4 wheel drive I could easily be wrong.

[silver_bullet]

The option code is G80 for a posi.... may want to look into an aftermarket one as many refer to the G standing for grenade....

[STINEY]

Your only regret would be not having a locker in the 4x4 world. A limited slip is always welcome off-road.

[tedly]

The option code is G80 for a posi.... may want to look into an aftermarket one as many refer to the G standing for grenade....

Ok.... Good to know that now. Thanks for the heads up!

Your only regret would be not having a locker in the 4x4 world. A limited slip is always welcome off-road.

I thought it would be a good thing, but didn't know enough to know for sure. Closest thing to off roading I'm doing now is driving on snow. When I'm comfortable that Tatanka is healthy enough, I'm probably going to go play in the mud and dirt somewhere.

[STINEY]

Snow is just mud and dirt that cleans itself off. Sand is a close second for self-cleaning.

Sloppy mud means a day spent afterwards changing fluids, greasing, and cleaning. Fun in mud has its price.

[tedly]

A little while ago, the Suburban started doing this weird thing. It was like a catch, or a gear slipping. Again, no rhyme or reason to it other than it got steadily worse. It was almost like a misfire, except it was only one, and it was like the engine shut off and turned back on almost instantly. Weirdest damn thing. I couldn't figure out what it was, and there were no codes setting off a check engine light, so I didn't think it had to do with the engine. That's one of the reasons I cracked open the rear diff, to look around and see if trouble was coming at me fast.

Friday, I had taken my brother in for a doctors appointment. He's been having some pretty serious health stuff going on lately and this has become a regular thing. After driving an hour to his house, we go to the appointments in his car, but I drive. When I got back this time, Tatanka wouldn't start.

Are you f*^king kidding me?! Luckily he has almost every concievable tool known to man. Unluckily it was going to be dark soon, I was in a gravel driveway away from any shelter, and it is Wisconsin in February.

Joyous rapture, this is going to be swell!

Got his scanner and pulled codes. P0339 and P0336. Problems with the crank sensor circuit.

ARE YOU F*^KING KIDDING ME?!?!?!

Go to NAPA and get a different crank sensor for $30 more than the one I originally bought. However this was the second one that was bad, so no way was I going to install the same thing again and be stranded. Again. I'll return the defective and get my money back. Had just enough time to drive a half hour, get the new part, drive a half hour back, and swap them out before the sun set. I'd be crawling around on my back on ice, but not for very long so...

Got finished as the sun was setting, hopped in and cranked it... Nothing.

[tedly]

So the damn thing is stuck in his driveway until I can work on it during daylight hours. Thankfully Bill let me use his winter beater until I could get back out. Finally got to it today. Pulled the harness so I could work on it from topside instead of laying on ice. A chunk of crusty oil goop had gotten in the pigtail where one of the pins goes in. Cleaned that, coaxed the spring back down where it should be with a pick, replaced the splices, inspected the wires again, wrapped them in electrical tape, then stuffed them in conduit.

You know, like they did from the factory to keep the wires from shorting out?

My dumbass had left them out but tucked away in case I had to work on them again, then just never got around to finishing it right. So guess what? I insured I would have to work on them again, apparently. I got no excuse, I knew better and still did the dumb thing.

Started fine right after clearing the codes and hasn't had so much as a hiccup since.

Lesson learned. I shall hang my head in shame now.