dkknaebel
Keeping LKQ in business
Well fellas strap in, I'm going to tell you a tale, the tale of the change year model Tahoe that has tried mine and my husband's patience to no end. She has almost ended up in the road, lit on fire without even thinking of putting her out. This truck has tried my patience like no other but the minute I saw her, I had to have her. I should have done so much more research or even chosen a model year different than 95.
So I bought her on April 1st (no lie) 2017. She was black. She was 4x4. She was a 2 door. It was everything I had ever wanted in high school. She smoked, the compression was garbage but my husband is a former mechanic and had a race car. I figured what could go wrong??? We ordered a crate motor from a Chevy dealer that was drop shipped to his work. I thought we'll just swap it out and it will be good to go. However, from the first minute of starting to unbolt stuff and looking at the underside while under the lift, we began to realize just how much red clay mud we were going to deal with as well as how much stuff was just willy-nilly swapped into this ol' girl. We got the motor in, but had a helluva time getting the distributor to seat in this thing. And priming the oil pump? Went on for what seemed like hours.. Nothing anyone had seen before. We also discovered a gouge on the top of my manifold where the TBI sits. Consensus with the race car/fab shop across the way, apply some JB, smooth as much as possible and wait until it breaks. Get everything back together, get her fired up. I was ecstatic. I should have known better. Thankfully the Navykid and his buddy are home on leave and help with the majority of the remove and reinstall. The things we found....a scallop knife, a KFC box, and tons of mud.
We get her back home. I start driving her. She does this weird bucking thing and won't stay in OD. Do the google machine, discover it could be the 3rd to OD solenoid or the VSS. Order both from Rockauto. Hubby puts in the VSS. Boom! Problem solved. I'm happy as a fat kid in a cake store. Drive her for a while. The hubby is keeping an eye on fluids and such and then we discover the tranny leak. Good god, this damn tranny leak. We went through 3 output shaft seals, a t-case seal, we built a new driveshaft because my old one had quite the whammy in it. We finally get everything squared away, it turned out that once we replaced the output shaft seal the 2nd time, the drive shaft was a bit too long and it squashed it and allowed fluid to seep out and spray the underside which soaked into the built up red clay mud and perpetuated a long term leak. Scrub/scrape the mud off and replace the seal, we are good to go.
We replaced the front brakes- rotors (my old ones had mud in all of the vents, that was cute), pad, pins, etc. My master cylinder went out. Replaced that. Replaced all of the front end except for the steering box. Took it to a friends shop, they tried to do an alignment but the tech centered it on the box instead of the tie rods being even. Messed up the alignment. Bought and replaced the steering box. Redid the tie rods to make them a steady 15" instead of 14 and 16. Took it to Firestone for a lifetime alignment, got that squared away or so I thought. Had to have it redone but we seem to be good now.
We have robbed all of the interior trim from a dash, bezel, lower steering wheel closeout, the piece under the ignition, the A pillars, B pillars, the right rear panel, 4 sets of seats, a headliner, a rear seat, manual seat slides, a hood pad, a front grille, taillights, fender flares, a driver door, both fenders, and a console.
We fought through an ignition problem. We replaced the ignition switch, a multi-function signal, a new ICM, a new distributor (again), 2 caps, all of the terminal ends for my sensors, all of the sensors. This made my weird ass two-step thing at stoplights go away.
We replaced my entire a/c system, including the blend door assembly but minus the evaporator. We replaced the dash (again). I'm adding Q Logic kick panels to give me some boom booms. The headlights were replaced. The alternator (from a 94 donor). The intake manifold is going to be replaced and the exhaust manifolds (from the donor). We replaced the rear brake lines as they rusted out. The rear brakes were redone. Oh and I bought 18" take-offs from a Yukon, love those rims. Bought the right center caps for them too.
So here are some pics.
So I bought her on April 1st (no lie) 2017. She was black. She was 4x4. She was a 2 door. It was everything I had ever wanted in high school. She smoked, the compression was garbage but my husband is a former mechanic and had a race car. I figured what could go wrong??? We ordered a crate motor from a Chevy dealer that was drop shipped to his work. I thought we'll just swap it out and it will be good to go. However, from the first minute of starting to unbolt stuff and looking at the underside while under the lift, we began to realize just how much red clay mud we were going to deal with as well as how much stuff was just willy-nilly swapped into this ol' girl. We got the motor in, but had a helluva time getting the distributor to seat in this thing. And priming the oil pump? Went on for what seemed like hours.. Nothing anyone had seen before. We also discovered a gouge on the top of my manifold where the TBI sits. Consensus with the race car/fab shop across the way, apply some JB, smooth as much as possible and wait until it breaks. Get everything back together, get her fired up. I was ecstatic. I should have known better. Thankfully the Navykid and his buddy are home on leave and help with the majority of the remove and reinstall. The things we found....a scallop knife, a KFC box, and tons of mud.
We get her back home. I start driving her. She does this weird bucking thing and won't stay in OD. Do the google machine, discover it could be the 3rd to OD solenoid or the VSS. Order both from Rockauto. Hubby puts in the VSS. Boom! Problem solved. I'm happy as a fat kid in a cake store. Drive her for a while. The hubby is keeping an eye on fluids and such and then we discover the tranny leak. Good god, this damn tranny leak. We went through 3 output shaft seals, a t-case seal, we built a new driveshaft because my old one had quite the whammy in it. We finally get everything squared away, it turned out that once we replaced the output shaft seal the 2nd time, the drive shaft was a bit too long and it squashed it and allowed fluid to seep out and spray the underside which soaked into the built up red clay mud and perpetuated a long term leak. Scrub/scrape the mud off and replace the seal, we are good to go.
We replaced the front brakes- rotors (my old ones had mud in all of the vents, that was cute), pad, pins, etc. My master cylinder went out. Replaced that. Replaced all of the front end except for the steering box. Took it to a friends shop, they tried to do an alignment but the tech centered it on the box instead of the tie rods being even. Messed up the alignment. Bought and replaced the steering box. Redid the tie rods to make them a steady 15" instead of 14 and 16. Took it to Firestone for a lifetime alignment, got that squared away or so I thought. Had to have it redone but we seem to be good now.
We have robbed all of the interior trim from a dash, bezel, lower steering wheel closeout, the piece under the ignition, the A pillars, B pillars, the right rear panel, 4 sets of seats, a headliner, a rear seat, manual seat slides, a hood pad, a front grille, taillights, fender flares, a driver door, both fenders, and a console.
We fought through an ignition problem. We replaced the ignition switch, a multi-function signal, a new ICM, a new distributor (again), 2 caps, all of the terminal ends for my sensors, all of the sensors. This made my weird ass two-step thing at stoplights go away.
We replaced my entire a/c system, including the blend door assembly but minus the evaporator. We replaced the dash (again). I'm adding Q Logic kick panels to give me some boom booms. The headlights were replaced. The alternator (from a 94 donor). The intake manifold is going to be replaced and the exhaust manifolds (from the donor). We replaced the rear brake lines as they rusted out. The rear brakes were redone. Oh and I bought 18" take-offs from a Yukon, love those rims. Bought the right center caps for them too.
So here are some pics.
