New guy, picking up an 01 Yukon XL

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KillNThrill24

KillNThrill24

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Thanks for the compliments guys! I appreciate it! It really does run well considering it's 15 years old and has just under 300 thousand miles on it.

First day I've had off. I work a 4 on 4 off swing shift schedule (steel mill worker) so I get a good amount of time to work on it on the days off, but the days on I have time for nothing lol.

No pictures to update with today but I unplugged the ABS pump and installed a 60amp fuse in the fuse box under the hood. It got the brake light off but turned the trac off light on instead haha. No worries there, it shouldn't be an issue. I don't think they care much about the ABS during the inspections. I can, and will, unplug the traction control button before I get there.

I also found out that the reason I'm having the turn signal issue isn't flasher relay related, but instead its from a broken hazard button on the steering column. Using a screw driver, I moved the broken half around and at a certain point the contacts lined up right and the turn signals worked as they should. So, I pulled the entire unit off and set it aside. I'll be going to the junkyard tomorrow to find myself a new piece (one that hopefully everything else works on, because I'm not spending $230 on a new unit!), and also a new passenger window switch. I read somewhere that the factory remote responder is located in that unit, which explains why it's so big for a window switch and door lock. Junkyard prices are pretty cheap at the local pull a part so even if it doesn't fix it, I won't be out but a few bucks.

My ordered Viper remote didn't 100% work..... It locks, but that's it. The other 3 buttons (aux (not sure what that does), unlock and alarm) do not work. I initially wondered if it had something to do with the factory remote responder, but now that I think about it, that wouldn't have a damned thing to do with it since the Viper ESP 600 that's on it, comes with a built in door lock relay. And even so, why would only the lock mechanism work?? I'm going to toss in a new piece and see if I can get my ebay remotes to work. If they don't I might have to go get an oem remote.... I'd really like to get the viper to work tho. It's a nice unit, and was installed well.

I also happened to have an alpine radio with a gm wire harness already on it from my old grand am. I tossed it in to see what I had speaker wise. To my total surprise, all of the speakers worked. Even the ones in the rear pillars in the back end. The sub, however, was completely shot and didn't even work. I plugged in one of those SPL's to verify it wasn't a blown factory amp or something, it worked fine. I'm up in the air on if I want to throw a 12 in the back end with an amp or if I want to replace the factory sub. I know the wattage is ridiculously low on the factory unit.

Also need to get a headlight bulb. Might throw some HID's in it. And I need to locate a sunroof unit at a local junkyard too. Then a matching set of wheels and tires. Slowly but surely, I'm getting there!
 

Tonyrodz

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WP_20160425_003.jpg Let me know if you go the factory sub route. I have a factory sub box with sub and amp for sale. Came from an 02 Denali , and sounds amazing.
 
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KillNThrill24

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Hey guys!! Sorry about the delay in response here. It's been a wild number of weeks!

There's a lot of updates to do here, unfortunately I only have 1 picture to post because I'm a bit dumb and forget to take pictures of all the stuff I do LOL.

So to try and pick up where I left off....

Everything works now that needs to work. I took it to get inspected on the 30th and have been driving it for about 3 days now. I do still need to work out a few gremlins, like a loose steering issue. But so far so good! I fixed the exhaust leak it had. I ended up using one of those 3 bolt clamp setups that bolts to the head and clamps the manifold to the head. WHAT A PAIN to get it on lol. My broken bolt was rear most on the driver head. So, the least amount of room to work with haha. But it's on. Then I heard a leak still and hopped under it to see where it was coming from. Turns out it was also leaking where the manifold hooks up to the Y pipe on the driver side as well. So fortunately, I had some of that stick metal or whatever they call it. It's that 2 part putty that you knead with your fingers. I made two lines and put them over the flange where they meet. BAM NO MORE LEAK! It was so damned annoying haha. I'm so happy now that it's gone. Sure, I don't anticipate it lasting forever, but if I have to replace it once a year or even every 6 months, I wont be bothered by that. I could always get a flange gasket and replace it, probably won't be hard to do either. But for now it's fixed and I'm happy.

I also had both o2 sensors go bad on the driver side. First was down stream. Then today the upstream went. Thankfully being a Tennessee vehicle most of its life, neither were too hard to get out from rust and corrosion.

Wheel issue: SOLVED
I got lucky and found a set of 20's off a newer tahoe on the Facebook marketplace. The guy wanted 600 and I got him down to 450. 2 tires have almost full tread and the other 2 have every bit of 75% left. They look AWESOME. And handle so, so well compared to the oem 16's. I've already driven it on snow and ice, and to my surprise, it did pretty well considering it's a 2wd. I've put a lot of time and effort into this thing. Way more than I wanted to. So if I end up keeping it around for awhile, I'll get a set of BFG All Terrain K02's for it. Lots of local guys rant and rave about them. Found them in the 20's size I have too.

Stereo: SOLVED
I went ahead and tossed a system in it. I got my old amp and 15's back from my buddy I sold them to, and tossed them in there. 2 American Bass XD 15's and an RE Audio XT4000DE-V2 amp. Neither are top notch quality, but they work for now. I think I'm gonna go back to a dual 12 setup tho because metal on 15's just... I don't like the way they mesh. 15's nail the lows, all the higher stuff it's just bad. Maybe I need another amp and some solid mids. Who knows. Anyone got some ideas there?

I also put my old Kenwood flipout headunit with external brain in it. Everything tucked nicely in that space under the cupholders. I added an aux cord to it so I can jam to my Pandora if I want to.

Threw some rubber Goodyear floor mats in the front and rear, and a GMC diamond steering wheel cover from Amazon.

We'll see how it is with the next few months to come. I'm picking up a GT500 at the end of the month, so I'll want the Yukon, or "The Beast" as my mom has already started calling it, completely done and daily friendly. I already burned through the first tank of gas too. I drive a LOT. It spent a lot of time idling on this first tank. And short moves in and out of the shop, so I'm not surprised it only pulled 10.6 mpg. The bad o2 sensors and exhaust leak didn't help either. Might need an intake/tune/exhaust soon lolololol.

Anyways... Here's how she sits now. And I LOVE it. Sits up much higher than it used to, and imo, sits pretty damn high for a 2wd lol. Doesn't reflect it much in this pic, but when I walk out to it in a parking lot my first thought is "damn, look at all that ground clearance..." haha. Here's to getting it to 400k!

IMG_3309.JPG
 

05Single

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Lot of work, Coming along nicely. Don't forget to take more pics ;)
 

Miami-Dade

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You are doing a awesome job on your truck Joey!!
 

jesse53

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Looks like on a prior pic you have an Airaid intake tube which is better than stock.
 

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