What did you do with your GMT400 today...or yesterday....

[Big T]

On the handles and rods for opening the doors:
We kept the handles in stock in the fleet. Diagnosed properly: the rod unbends itself. Then the handle maxes out. The common action is people pull the handle with fingers and that elbow gets used as a fulcrum to lever the door open. Quickly comes the bent handle.
One of the guys made a set of replacement handles from steel. The rods just kept un-bending and the problem continued. Ever notice on higher mileage the outside handle has to lift more than originally?

So the same guy who wanted something fixed once & never again got into the rods. Took them out after figuring the perfect shape to be in. Heated the bends with a torch and quenched them. Now they will never bend again. So we all watched him do it, then wondering about it… had him do the rod quench to rods on a driver door of a new truck for a rig that had extreme use- about 30,000 miles each a year (60k total), by a pair of hyperactive drivers that who were in and out of that door probably 40 times a day each shift. The handle still bent but it took a lot longer. Those two guys normally Got a new handle once a year. We didn’t have to replace that handle until a few months before selling the truck.

Idk if it’s worth the effort to pull one, quench it, then reinstall it. But if you already have one out…


Doug: just like all gm… get the locations from the manual and hit all the grounds when you get a shot. Put some No-lox on them while you’re at it to help a little bit.

What do you mean “quench”
It? Drop it in water?

 

[dbrannon79]

Quench means heat it red hot then quickly submerge in cool water.

 

[Will L.]

Yuppers. Get it red hot a couple inches past the bend in each direction then dunk in water to cool it superfast. This makes it hard and not bend as easily… or as I called it earlier unbend.

 

[dbrannon79]

Started toying with my 95 again tonight after work. still have the front grille off and the brush guard just hanging from the frame. I started bolting the trans and engine oil coolers back in place along with the brace for the hood latch. then it hit me... my horns sound pitiful! still has the two factory ones under the grille, so I removed them and gave them a good looksee. one was full of dirt and rattled, the other seemed ok. neither one work as they should so I pondered a bit on what I could do to possibly clean them out and give them a fighting chance.

it hit me, why don't I try to drop them into my ultrasonic cleaner and see what happens! figured what's the worst that would happen, they cease to function at all and I have to replace them! so I figured what the heck, it's worth a shot. dropped both into some clean solution and let it rip LOL.

they came out really clean and the one that has something rattling inside I rinsed out with the kitchen faucet and had more muck come out! LOL

I will let them both dry out over night and tomorrow attempt to wake the neighborhood with them HAHA!

Hopefully I can put the front end back together this weekend. while starring at the oil coolers I was also pondering moving the trans cooler behind the condenser to make room for an electric fan but I decided to wait on that. Plan to reroute some wires while the grille is off then put it back together. need to get the wife's trailblazer in to change the oil and some other minor maintenance this weekend.