figured i would make 1 thread with a few questions. Back in 2011 i made a hard choice, I sold my 1997 2WD GMC Jimmy with just shy of 170k, it was a car that gave me a lot of great memories and never let me down. I sold it to buy a car that I had wanted since the day they started making them a 2009 Pontiac G8 GT. Well it's been a few years i have built my G8 into a street monster but there was a hole in my heart still. Well after searching for a few months I found a fairly well cared for single owner 2002 4x4 4dr blazer with 146k. With a recent top end rebuild, rear main seal, decent tires and injection replacement i felt pretty good about buying this one despite the miles. It was a well looked after truck and one of the few i looked at that had working 4x4 clean body/interior. The idea for this truck is to drop in a 5.3l eventually hence why i wanted a 2001 + since the ECU is pretty much ready to go. For now i just want to drive it and do some light towing/off-roading. well that was 2 weeks ago so far I have learned that the 4x4 system makes life a lot more difficult than my old 2wd.

i like my cars to be 100% so i dove into this thing pretty deep already. the steering was loose so i:
- Pitman arm, after 9 hours of fighting with it with no air tools (i will never do that again i will pay for the pitman arm) hopefully since i opted for a moog pitman this time is holds up for a long time and i tq'd to the factory spec of 180ft/lbs vs the 129492939492495ft/lbs that those a-holes at pepboys used for the previous owner
- Idler arm - def fixed a lot of the issue
- the tie rod end links look ok so i left them
- im waiting the for upper control arms to get here so i can swap those and the camber bolts
- i slightly tightened 1/4 - 1/2 turn on the steering box

the steering def feels much better (and returns to "center" without issue) but the wheel is still turned about 30 degrees when going straight the passenger wheel looks toe'd in a little bit to me so i assume post alignment i'll be set. while i did the pitman arm i learned a lesson. While fighting to get the intermediate shaft back connected to the steering box I had my girl turning the wheel and so made one full rotation like I told her to do. after a short drive and going lock to lock I realized my mistake when the airbag light turned on. I broke the freaking clock spring. oh well life lesson learned thank goodness it didn't deploy. i sourced a new one at my local pic a part for $7, getting to the clock spring was fairly simple compared to the nightmare i had with the pitman arm. While I had the dash apart I figured i would figure out why the air wouldn't go to the floor. first issue since this 2002 didn't have a vacuum canister on the hood i assumed/hoped it had been deleted in some fashion and that was the explanation as to why the T was capped on the side that would go to the canister. After a short google search and much to my dismay i located the in fender canister, I removed the old dry rotted vacuum lines and replaced and connected the canister. The reason it was capped became clear within seconds of starting the truck. Smoke started pouring out, the transfer case switch had failed and the solution the PO came up with was disconnect the vacuum canister. So I started the nightmare chase:

- replaced the transfer case switch - not fun with big hands
- the vacuum lines that i could do easily
- i blew compressed air through the lines while disconnected at a lower pressure around 30psi
- took the hvac controller apart and cleaned off as much oil as possible sealed it back as best as possible with dielectric grease (it leaks a tiny bit of vacuum)
- purged as much oil as possible from the 3 vacuum actuators.

fired the truck back up and it goes 30% to the floor 70% to the upper vents. getting closer, me and my buddy one by one disconnected the vacuum lines from the actuators to find the issue, the issue ended up being the blend door actuator the bellow inside had a decent tear in it. It made it so there wasn't enough vacuum to pull the vent to the floor closed since it is T'd off the same line. I got the new one in today. while i was at the chevy dealer i decided to get the rubber boot that goes over the column shifter since back when i had my sierra it was torn and drove me nuts.

Got home threw the blend door actuator in issue resolved i have functional HVAC with a slight hiss from the controller.... good enough for now. So now it's time to throw the rubber boot in. cake walk no issues, right? WRONG! The T27 screw that holds the actually shift lever in place was put in with the might of thor! I happened to have a T27 for my impact which broke but i was still able to take it out without much fight after i gave up on my hand tools. The vibration from my impact though also broke the plastic clip that holds the cluster indicator for park switch onto the column. Back to pic a part after slightly bickering that i had to pay to go in again on the same day and getting the guy to laugh i was given the switch for my entrance fee of $1 lol. so i put the entire interior back together today. Replacement keyless entry remotes came in today "programmed" those in 30 seconds or so.

Still got things left to do

- upper control arms/camber bolts - looks fairly simple
- lower ball joints, are these riveted in? do i need to cut them out then bolt the new ones in?
- driver door pins and bushings - seems straight forward as soon as a have piece lumber to support the door, between the door and jack
- front shocks, needs rears too but $$$ for now limits it
- rear rotors, pads, and parking shoes - my dumb *** didn't notice i only ordered one rear rotor until it delivered on saturday so i'm waiting for the other one now
- front brakes i have everything but they have decent life left so i'll just shelf the parts for now
- to me it looks like this truck is missing a skid plate. it has the front plastic oil filter cover. but back where the low hanging fruit is located (Catalytic) it looks like it should have one there original equip or optional not sure. issue is i did take the truck off road for a few hours before I started the repairs. and i hit and put a large dent in the exhaust. my concern is without a skid plate back there it could be a serious issue. is there a model that has one that i can pull from the scrap yard?

the only issue i have that is serious that i have put off is.... the strike plate on the driver side has torn from the thin metal in the pillar. my current idea is to have the tear and hole welded back as best as possible. take out one of the strike shim spacers and weld a plate across all of that area prime and paint it. I haven't searched for it yet but what are people doing to fix this? looking at the thickness of the metal in the pillar i know this has to be a common issue since it looks very under engineered.

The road worthy blazer I bought 2 weeks ago, is actually going to be what i consider road worthy pretty soon and i am very happy to have a blazer back in my life. I honestly love these trucks they hold a special place in my heart. the 4.3 has it's issues but will live forever with proper maintenance. towing 2 jet skis around it has plenty of torque to pull it all and 4x4'ing the desert.

 

It sounds like you tend to maintain your vehicles when need be,That`s a good thing.The more you maintain it the longer it will last.Unlike some people who never maintain their vehicles unless it breaks.Keep it up!

 

Trying to get alot of answers from this thread but it looks like I may need to make individual threads for each. This is my new chase. I have a vacuum leak still I have replaced all the lines except the long line that heads down to the transfer case switch. While I was trying to figure out how to replace it I noticed that the line that is t'd off above the transfer case the line is just hanging there. I believe this is the transfer case vent tube? I can't find a visual of where it is supposed to be connected. Have a picture but dnot see a way to upload it.

 

I'll try to cover the questions that I see as well as offer up any wisdom from my own experiences.

The upper control arms are quite straight forward. I would suggest getting a good, precise measurement to the center of the ball joint before loosening the attaching bolts so that you can get the new ones adjusted in close before you make the trek to the alignment shop. Any competent alignment shop will start by centering the steering wheel, then align to spec with the steering wheel locked in that position.

Concerning the ball joint rivets, you have to cut them and drive them out. It is best to cut them off on the control arm side, not on the ball joint side as the rivets often deform differently between the two pieces and trying to drive them out through both the control arm and the ball joint can be frustrating. I use a cut off wheel to notch the heads of the rivets and then an air chisel to knock the heads off as well as separate the two pieces once all of the heads have been removed from one side.

The door hinges are what caused the door jam at the striker to break free. Welding the piece back in and then overlaying it with another piece of steel is a good plan of attack. Hopefully your hinges haven't been egg shaped due to the neglect. If they have, it can be a real pain to keep bushings in good condition. There are oversized solid brass bushings available (THIS POST by Captain Hook has links to the oversized brass bushings). I have hooks in the ceiling of my garage for installing/removing doors along with many other uses. I just use a ratchet strap through the window to lift the doors slightly. The same can be accomplished with a long 2x4 all the way across the roof, strapped to both open doors. A few other shorter 2x4s can be used to space the longer one up enough to allow the ratchet strap to work and it's a good idea to put a piece of cardboard or old carpeting against the paint to keep from scratching it up.

When you do the front shocks, make sure to tighten the bolts until there is no play in either end. When I replaced the shocks on my old '00 Bravada, the replacement shocks were slightly narrower at the bushing than the original Bilsteins. I torqued the bolts to spec and ended up with a very annoying rattle. Took me forever to figure out what it was. Clamped down on the bolts until the bushing was snugged up and the rattle was gone.

With the rear brakes, do yourself a favor and pick up a new set of caliper brackets. They were cheap and it sure beats trying to clean up the blind slider pin holes in the old ones. Some will tell you that you should replace the calipers as well, but I did not have any problem with them on my old Bravada. I didn't worry about the parking brake as it isn't an inspection item on automatics in NY and I never use it.

Most of these trucks did not come with skid plates. Factory aluminum skid plates can be found if you look hard enough and I think that the RPO code for this was ZM5, but be sure to get the appropriate brackets! Even so, that RPO code was only two plates; on for directly under the front differential and another that replaced the plastic cover directly behind the front bumper that has the oil filter access door.

If I failed to cover something, please do not hesitate to ask again and I'll do my best to get back to you!

 

You covered almost all of it minus my new post about the vacuum line. My guess is it isn't my vacuum issue as from what I can tell it is open air either way I just want to get it connected back where it should be. Thinking about it my vents change from the floor to the upper vents under heavier acceleration it could just be the hvac control still but I want to change the lines anyway that could cause the issue. The long line that goes down behind the bell housing from the vacuum lines near the driver firewall I am aware that goes to the t-case switch. I can see some dry rotting so I am hopeful that's the last vacuum issue I just need to change it out. The vacuum line that goes from the t case switch to the actuator under the battery tray is only active in 4x4 right so as I drive in 2x4 it is a non issue correct?

I actually did the door pins they weren't bad with a spare pair of hands. I 1000% recommend the door spring compressor because it's not fun without one. It fixed the door alignment issue but I haven't fixed the strike yet.

I did the front shock tightened it all to German spec. 30 second drive seemed ok so far.

I ordered a set of upper control arms off eBay from "Detroit axle" they were $78 for both. That being said the ball joint is riveted on I decided to take it to a machine shop for a few reasons. He is going to cut off the ball joint make a spacer weld it to the underside and mount the ball joint through it with grade 8 hardware. Also having him box the arm a bit because like the oem uca it looks a bit thin to me. Then since I have 2" lift shackles the t-bar lift for the front end will be much less load and the ball joint should stay closer to a correct angle.

 

I had to help my son with his homework in the middle of typing out that response and did not see your reply.

The vent on the NP233 transfer case is located just to the driver side of the top. It can be a REAL pain to get. See the attached picture. My advice, unbolt the transmission cross-member and lower the transmission/transfer case being careful to not go so far as to crash the distributor into the firewall.

Yes, the line from the switch to the actuator under the battery only sees vacuum when the system is in 4wd so it shouldn't be a concern when in 2wd.

Vents changing under hard acceleration is either a problem of vacuum supply, a leak that is bleeding off the stored vacuum from the reservoir too quickly, and/or a problem with the check valve in the system not sealing off properly to isolate the rest of the vacuum system from the vacuum pump (aka engine).

 

I don't like the sound of that. I may just have to find some small hand slave labor. That is just a vent the only time it not being connected to the hose would be when the t case is submerged correct? That wouldn't cause a vacuum leak would it? Picture is was helpful thanks

 

Just more and more stuff with this truck lol, oil leaking still. I saw your check list in a few other threads. I pulled the rubber plugs next to the drain plug and looked at the back of the fly wheel. Which is dry but way up in the middle I can see oil sweating which I assume is the actual rear main seal? While I had those rubber ***** plugs out for lack of a better term I tightened the rear pan bolts which were both about a half turn loose without really cranking them down really hard. The other spots where oIL is down the side of the pan from above the remote oil filter adapter. I degreased it so I can nail it down better but I can't tighten the bolts on the pan above the adapter because it is in the way and I just changed the oil. On the passenger side the bottom bolt of the starter has oil on it also but nothing above it so I have no idea how it got there.

 

That is only a vent and is there to keep water from getting into the transfer case. Being submerged without it would be quite bad, but being off when raining could result in water getting into the transfer case fluid. I wouldn't get too concerned about it with the NP233 though. The fluid only lubricates the components. A little bit of water won't kill things. I would be more concerned if it were the 136 or 236 which have a viscous coupling that is more sensitive to fluid condition.

It is quite easy to drop the back of the transmission so long as you are careful.

Another alternative would be long, locking needle nose pliers and a good mechanics mirror. Get the mirror into position so you can see the vent while you manipulate the pliers & line into position.

I haven't personally seen a leak between the oil line adapter and the block, but anything that has a gasket/seal can leak. On the starter bolt, now that is weird. Getting things cleaned up is definitely a good place to start.

 

If I take the line off the vacuum pump and try to blow through it that check valve should prevent that from happening correct? And if I did the same thing through that valve towards the motor it should allow the air through right? I have to go to autozone to get a vacuum gauge. Im reading that at any given point there should be about 20psI vacuum. If I had the guage I could find the leak I would think