whats next whats next

 

Well yesterday I fought with a rusty exhaust flange nut where the muffler and tail pipe bolt to the rear of the cat for about an hour before I finally got it to snap off, now I'm left with two broken off pressed in studs in the flange... Tried everything at my disposal at home to get them loose and got nowhere, so I'm bringing my big bad drill from work home today and I'll get those suckers out

After that I started swapping some of the interior lights over to LEDs just because I have so many of then laying around... Soldered together a little array that should really brighten things up inside at least up front, need to figure something out for the rear cargo area, that one little light just doesn't suffice... Also need to figure out why my foot well lights suddenly stopped working

 

So after an unsuccessful evening trying to get those stubborn studs out of the flange on the tail pipe, I gave up on it... Tomorrow at work I'm going to try and find one on a 4 door that I can remove and reuse the original nuts and studs on. We have an 04 Blazer and an 02 Bravada that just came in not long ago that I've been pulling little things off of that I'm going to crawl under and have a peak.

Did manage to get some LED's in though.

Dome light









Matches the map lights I put in already







Also this joke of a cargo light in the back... I've got to rig up something brighter than this one little bulb...






Tag lights (old ones were both burnt out anyway lol)






Front marker lights. White for now, at least the lights below them are amber so I don't think it'll be an issue. Actually looks sort of cool






Aaaaaand, gauge cluster

 

well I got EXTREMELY lucky with a 2001 Bravada a little PB blaster and managed to back the nuts off the studs and dropped the entire assembly out!









The donor truck







yeah, can't tell I've been in here at all, lol

 

Got the new muffler and tail pipe bolted in with a new gasket, quiet as a mouse now well, until I turn up the radio

After that I decided to start looking at what might be causing my ABS light to be on. I've tried two different modules on the ABS pump itself, and even discovered the 10 amp ABS fuse was removed from the fuse box in the dash :/ but still the light was one. I decided to start pulling wheels off and checking the sensors and wires, starting with the front right, and low and behold this is what I found...






Looks like it was rubbing on part of the spindle. A quick snip, solder, and heat shrink, and it should suffice for now. I will be replacing it eventually, it is going to need a break job in maybe the next 10k miles or so, and I'll throw one on then.






ABS light is still on, but I haven't bothered trying to reset it yet either, not going to until I check the other three wheel sensors. I want to pull all the wheels off anyway and check all the bearings and joints for play anyhow.


Also the service engine light is staying on, a quick scan revealed code P0452. From what I gather it's the pressure sensor for the fuel tank. I plan on dropping the tank eventually to replace the pump and level sender assembly anyhow since the level gauge is all over the place... Had a code for an oxygen sensor too, but now that I've fixed the exhaust leak and reset the fault code, that seams to have went away and isn't coming back yet. The P0452 code comes on pretty quick after running for a bit, shutting the engine off, then starting it back up again, but it at least seems to be the only fault sticking around now. Tried reseating the gas cap, but of coarse it is never that easy for me :P A little more digging reveals that some people are having issues with the wiring coming loose and hanging down on the driveshaft and wearing into the wires going to the pump, level sensor, and the pressure sensor, so I'm going to check that out too. Would be super convenient if that's all it is, and maybe what's causing my fuel level gauge to be all over the place too. Fingers crossed!

 

dont u just love salvage yards

 

more specifically, I love working in one

 

new weekend project, just pulled the trailer hitch off the same Bravada that I got the muffler and tail pipe from nice to have a recovery point in the back other than a ball on the bumper... I got a receiver with a shackle on it so it'll be useful if I ever have to pull someone out, or get pulled out :P

 

Went ahead and threw the trailer hitch on when I got home while the whole "this comes off first" procedure was fresh in my mind, not that it's hard to install anyway :P





And just to show that everything I find at work isn't so useful, here's a ginormous shell I found in the trunk of a car lol

 

Well this weekend I got the steering wheel controls sorted out. A little deciphering trying to adopt the factory controls to the Pioneer radio using the adapter module; 12 wires coming out of the darn thing and you only use one and then reprogramming it so the "Mode" button changed the audio source and not programmed channels, but it all works seamlessly now

Also hooked up some LED light strips under the rear bumper and hooked them up to the reverse signal, so I'll have a little extra light thrown behind me when backing up at night.