Meet Tatanka, my 99 Suburban K1500

[tedly]

Finally finished running the bottle through and slapped it all together, got rid of the spacers on the back, and put the wheels back on.



Rotated the tires too, and as I was doing that I noticed that 3 of them looked like this:



And the passenger front tire looked like this:



Time to take a look at the suspension and steering to see what's going on. I got a few things planned first, but this will be coming up real soon.

[tedly]

What a damn difference! Stops evenly in a reasonable distance, no pulling to either side, I can actually feel a reduction in heat coming from the footwells. No drama, no fuss, it's even quieter. Just an all around massive improvement. I can't wait to get the rears done and then the lines and hoses.

[tedly]

How in the world have I missed this ?????!!!! Glad to have another suburban owner here . Take my advice and don't put a lift kit on the front .....un-ending problems will ensue ! I replace hubs every 6 months. It does look cool and is fun to drive with the 6 inch lift and the 35-12.50s on it though . So far in the year and a half I've replaced 6 hubs 2 axles and 2 rotors 2 calipers , all the front brake lines , and all 4 ball joints , one spindle that got broken putting it on a roll back after having a complete hub failure , two transmissions, and onetransfer case. I'm going to put a ford super duty axle in it some day and probably a nv4500 manual 5 speed . My engine has 325,000 on it and it runs great . Truck is slow . When the motor goes ill be looking for a 454 that all my friends hear talked me out of getting because of mileage. I get 10mpg . The 7 that the big block gets I really don't think I will feel since work is 12 miles away . I wish you well
Thanks for the story on the fix for the hiccup . I fought that battle on a Tahoe that one of my girls had . Thing ran great for a week then that . Never figured it out and she sold it .

No way I'm lifting it, everyone I know that lifts these Suburbans has nothing but trouble and my wallet just wouldn't be able to keep up. I've got some interesting plans for the old girl and reliability is going to be a large concern.

I do like your truck though, that is a tough looking mother!

[SuperBuickGuy]

Brakes have never really been the big girls strong point. Actually, they could accurately be described as terrifying when you really need them. An elephant on roller skates has more stopping power, and braking distances are comparable to what you'd see in the Navy fleet

Good brakes it is.

.

the best thing you can do for these elephants is lose the ABS controller. Mine introduces air into the system - which is why it has stopping problems. On my list of "around to its" is simply bypass it all. If you unplug the controller, the lights won't come on... ask me how I know...

[tedly]

the best thing you can do for these elephants is lose the ABS controller. Mine introduces air into the system - which is why it has stopping problems. On my list of "around to its" is simply bypass it all. If you unplug the controller, the lights won't come on... ask me how I know...

Probably the same reason I know. Yeah, the pump was unplugged when I got it, asked Werner about it: "I don't know man, it's f@#ked up or something. A new one is $600 so I just unplugged it. Seems to be ok." I I plugged it back in once and almost ran into a building. Immediately jumped out and unplugged it again. Interesting thing is when I flushed the fronts, I plugged it in out of curiosity. It worked perfectly for about a day, then started acting up again, but nowhere near as bad. I think the old fluid really screws it up. When I redo the lines and such, I'll try it again and see what happens.

[SuperBuickGuy]

the sad part about unplugging is you'll need to jumper-wire so that your cruise control works again... at some point I'll post about all of this.... but at the moment, I'm knee deep in other stuff.

[tedly]

Very interested to hear about this. I don't know that I've even tried the cruise yet, but by this fall we are planning on taking some trips in the big girl. Might come in handy to have cruise control then.

[tedly]

Today is Tatankas biggest test yet, a 3 hour one way trip. I'm confident she'll do ok, but still a little nervous. I've put a lot of work into her, and this will be a preview of things to come. Full report when I get back.

[tedly]

6 hour round trip completed, not a hiccup to be found, but quite a few things to investigate further. Most of which I already planned on.

And the cruise works!

[tedly]

Quick shot before hitting the road.



I love this truck, but damn if filling her up doesn't hurt. 40 gallons, so this got me a little over half a tank.



Good news is, without the brakes dragging, she actually gets close to her rated 13mpg with highway cruising. I never really looked at the mileage before, but it is up noticeably. Heat and noise are reduced as well, but they are still more than I like. Back and forth to work or trips under an hour it's not that bad. After a couple hours solid noise started to get on my nerves pretty bad plus it's difficult to isolate specific noises to pinpoint problems with an elevated baseline of constant squeaks, rattles, and such.

Time to address some of this.

[Beagle]

It sucks, but remember 4.00 a gallon gas? I don't miss having to run the credit card twice to fill my truck (36 gal)

Interior noise or mechanical noise? I drove a bunch of new interior screws into the door panels on the 300k mile F250, helped tremendously. I found the spots where the door panel had rubbed the paint off the door and clamped them down with sheet metal screws through the panel. It's not noticeable unless you are looking for it and there's plenty of other ugly things that get your attention first on my truck. YMMV.

[tedly]

Interior noise or mechanical noise?

Good question, and exactly what I was trying to figure out. My hearing is bad enough that everything just blends together right now, but I'm sure it's both.

I drove a bunch of new interior screws into the door panels on the 300k mile F250, helped tremendously. I found the spots where the door panel had rubbed the paint off the door and clamped them down with sheet metal screws through the panel. It's not noticeable unless you are looking for it and there's plenty of other ugly things that get your attention first on my truck. YMMV.

Very similar idea. Right now I'm just going through and seeing what needs attention and looks like it's making noise. There's a few little things I've been meaning to get to, and now looks like a good time.

First off, Drivers rear window doesn't roll all the way down, it's snagging on something about halfway. Nothing huge, but if something's blocking it, something's probably loose. Plus it irritates me. Time to check it out.

Forgot to snap pics when I first started, but after pulling the panel and nosing around I end up finding the door lock actuator had it's rivets drilled out and was flopping around loose. Everything was still connected to it and it functioned, so why it was broke loose in the first place is beyond me. Someone thought it was a good idea at the time I guess.



The actuator had rolled onto its side, and being taller than it is wide, it was catching the window when it was rolled down. This also explained why the door lock never worked. I could hear it "thunk" when I hit the button, but it wouldn't lock. The rivets I had on hand were just a hair too small, but they'll do for now. Finally remembered to snap pics after I got the first rivet in.




Nothing else jumped out at me while looking around, so I grabbed some duck tape to hold the plastic liner in place, slapped it back together, and tried it out.

Door lock is a little stiff but fully functional, and window goes up and down fully with no issues. One annoyance knocked out plus probable noise reduction.

[tedly]

The window surround trim on the back passenger side door was broken right at one of the screw holes, cracked completely in half. Not a huge deal, but again an annoyance and a noise source. Pulled the panel, inspected it and looked everything else over, wiped it clean, scrounged up some superglue that was laying around and glued it back together. Not the prettiest or most elegant solution I'll admit. There are a few bubbles and a bit of a drip, but it worked and you have to really look at it to see the mess. Tatanka is never going to be a show truck, good enough for me.

[tedly]

Similar thing on the drivers side, same spot even, but not completely broken. Pulling the panel off I found one of the mounting tabs snapped off as well. More glue and an hour to kill while they set.

[tedly]

Pulled the panel off the passenger rear door and found the plastic liner gone and none of the switches connected. Explained a few things, but it confused the hell out of me because the power window worked when I did it from the drivers seat. If the switch is unplugged the window motor won't work at all.



I started to look closer and noticed the switch connector looked weird.



Somehow the top part of the switch with the button on it had been taken off the bottom part with the electronics, then everything was just stuffed back together. Trying to figure out why things were done the way they were by other people can help me understand the problem and how to solve it. Sometimes it just gives me a headache and confuses me though.




The top didn't want to stay snapped into place on the bottom so I ran a bead of superglue around the edge and squished them together long enough for it to set, then checked it still functioned. All was well, so moved on.

The interior door handle assembly was shifting around and closer inspection found that the rivet holding it in place had been taken out. New one put in, and another annoyance and noise source vanquished.