Rocket Man's 02 Denali Build Thread AKA "THE BEAST"

[Rocket Man]

And the final fix. I rerouted some of the lines during the repair so it stays up off the coils. I used some fabric electrical tape to wrap the wire bundle and then split woven loom over that to protect it.

And as I was walking my dog right afterwards I saw this big weird cloud that I swear looked just like a big ol di*khead and I was left wondering what the hell the message was.

 

[RAMurphy]

Someone did not expect you to figure it out that quickly and gave you the "fu#% you" symbol. Or maybe you are going to get lucky in the very near future.

 

[Rocket Man]

I stopped by my friends body shop and talked about the failing clear coat on my hood. He told me when I had that painted originally he was doing wholesale work only and the paints he was using weren’t real high quality. He is doing private party work now, he laid off his employees and is working by himself now. The clear he will lay on the hood is way better and should last twice as long. And I decided to just have that hood repainted, the search for an HD hood has gone nowhere and I don’t really want to deal with cutting and welding around the headlights.

I had him write up an estimate on painting the rear bumper too and the guy that backed into me met me there. The estimate was over $900 and dude freaked out. I offered to settle for $500 but the guy said he didn’t have that much and would have to turn it in to his insurance so we haggled and I accepted $300. I think I can buff almost all of it out. It’s actually hard to even see after just washing it. There’s another worse mark on the other side of the bumper that was my fault. I’ll put that $300 towards painting my hood.

 

[George B]

Got it. I found a place on the harness under the hood that was laying on a coil so I used a mirror to look up and saw a worn-off spot with exposed wiring. It was hard to see and even harder to access. There were 2 wires worn through- one was black and one was what looked like it might have been yellow at one point. They both tested as connected in the starter relay socket. According to the schematic the black was ground to the solenoid and one was the crank voltage. I have those wires repaired and it starts right up. Now to put everything back together, just taking a break because my back is killing me. I’ll add some extra protection on the harness as well as tie it back away from the coils.

Well done.

 

[Rocket Man]

Buffed out the rear bumper where that douche backed into me. I can’t really see it anymore, there is a small rub that may or may not have already been there. Also washed both trucks today, it’s sunny and warm outside.

 

[Rocket Man]

I wired in the starter relay ground wire interrupt today to a stealth momentary switch in the cab. The under hood wiring is inside the factory loom. The interior wiring is a big fat secret. I just have to remember to hold down the interrupt while I start it. Peace of mind to me. Car thefts in my city are through the roof. I can’t bear the thought of losing The Beast.

 

[RAMurphy]

Nice job Mark. Whatever it takes to protect that beautiful Denali. Will you be doing something similar to the Silverado?

 

[Rocket Man]

Nice job Mark. Whatever it takes to protect that beautiful Denali. Will you be doing something similar to the Silverado?

I might but in all reality I just use it to run for groceries and I’m in the store for a short time plus the dog is in there. He probably wouldn’t bite but just having a big wolf dog scares most people lol.

 

[Tonyrodz]

I wired in the starter relay ground wire interrupt today to a stealth momentary switch in the cab. The under hood wiring is inside the factory loom. The interior wiring is a big fat secret. I just have to remember to hold down the interrupt while I start it. Peace of mind to me. Car thefts in my city are through the roof. I can’t bear the thought of losing The Beast.View attachment 395025

Years ago a guy told me he wired a switch under the driver's seat in his van. To start it you couldn't sit in the seat, if you did it would just crank without starting. You actually had to start it while standing outside, then sit in it. I thought that was stupid--and clever at the same time. Guy was a douchebag tho.

 

[Rocket Man]

I swapped out the brake MC reservoir today. It was fairly easy tbh. I don’t believe I got any air in the lines, I think as long as you don’t move the brake pedal when the reservoir is off you’re ok. There is always a little fluid in the bottom of the bores, a little lake on top of the holes.

I wasn’t able to source a new MC reservoir so I bought an inexpensive complete MC to steal from. First thing was to remove the new reservoir from the new MC which allowed me to see how hard it was going to be to remove the old one while still in the truck. The service manual states to remove the MC to do this. Nah.

It has 2 friction pins that hold it in place. I used a combination of a punch and a torx tip with a small hammer to get the pins almost all the way out, then needle nose vice grips to pull them the last bit. I had to drive them almost all the way out before I could pull them the last bit.