Bypass hose, I would replace it with another new one and then double clamp if you have room side by side on each end.

Brakes wearing on inside pad or outside pad is typically because caliper isn't sliding back and forth on the bolts correctly. A caliper is self-centering, but only if it can slide on the bolts.

If brakes are overheating enough to cause brake fade, then put a better pad on. Ceramic is the good stuff these days.

I would just get a stock steering box with a good warranty! Then keep an eye on it!

Hope you have a good trip!

 

Thanks Les, I will order a new bypass hose with the rest on this big rock auto order. I heard of the double clamp when searching about on other forums, I'm just not sure if there will be room, surely you wouldn't be able to have them 180 degrees apart on the waterpump connection because it's so tight in there to even find an orientation that will fit! I have no pliers that can reach that clamp anyway without taking the whole accessory bracket off or water pump off again. I will probably end up taking the bracket off then I'll have all the room I need.

I have heard of this and definitely had a stuck slider pin once, but I have had constant problems with the rear brakes even when everything is greased up it will still wear the inners down way faster than normal. I was even looking for a kinked brake line because I'm not sure what would cause this! Especially on both sides wearing down fast. I have Delco pads on right now so they should be pretty good I would think! But this problem has been ongoing for probably 2 years now it keeps wearing down the rear brakes way faster, I've had to replace the rear pads 4 times and the fronts only once and they still have good pad all around and I originally changed the front and rears at the same time.

About the steering gear, I will have to think about this a little more LOL....

I found the mysterious floorboard clunk at my feet today, I really had to use all my senses to find this one! It took 3 days to find where it was coming from! I kept banging around on the fender and skid plates but nothing was loose, until I moved the front driveshaft..... Turns out it wasn't a loose bolt on the body, unfortunately! Just add that one onto the Rockauto order too.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tQwbRHFrVPo

 

Sounds like a trip through a lot of beautiful nature!

This Friday we are driving to Northern Michigan with our dog (first time for him that long in the vehicle) and have rented a nice cabin on a river for my birthday weekend. This was at my wife's request!
The second week in September, we are going to Copenhagen for a week. Why??? Never been there and it sounds very nice - super clean, low crime, and high standard of living - lots of bicycles - tourist area is centralized and most is walkable. I have zero interest in going back to the usual European cities that American's tend to go to. I visited enough of them to make me puke during one job I used to have with a scientific instrument company. I managed to get round trip non-stop tickets from Chicago for $600 each! Hotel is pretty pricey, though!

 

Indeed it will be a lot of nature and a lot of driving in the middle of nowhere, just need to make sure all systems are a go first! That front drive shaft joint is shaking me down for $180!! Better be the solid gold one. Now the u joint on the other side seems 100% fine and tight but I know from previous work it's missing a needle bearing in one of the caps as it flew off the first time taking the shaft off while dropping the diff to do the lift. So I'm thinking it might be a good time to replace that joint too, but Les you already know the experience I have had replacing these u joints! *Remembers pulling that rear driveshaft from the junkyard*, good times.

I'm glad to hear that it sounds like it will be fun! Especially the cabin, I was looking for a place like that for my trip but all those cabins were booked up. Are you taking the blazer? Either way, I hope you have a good Birthday! I'm sure Copenhagen will be a blast as well, those are cheap tickets considering how long of a flight.

 

Taking the Blazer to the cabin in Michigan. Wife wanted to take the dog with us to swim in the river and it's the dog-mobile! Angus is a big English Lab 102 pounds and we can put the rear seats down for him into a flat place instead of having him puncturing/scratching leather seats trying to sit on them in the other vehicles. This way I don't have to be on him to stay still all the time and worry about damage. Had to fix a rusted front brake line recently for the trip, but knock on wood - still no rust on body. The Krown rustproofing seems to be helping.

 

Looks like a nice dog you have! I hope the trip went well in the Blazer. I wanted to come back here and talk about all the work I have done to prepare for the trip and most importantly that it was ready for the trip. Sadly that is not the case, I have done a good amount of work but my blazer is a gift that never stops giving lol. I will be opening a new thread tonight to get to the bottom of what is going on, in short, I fixed the bypass hose leak and now I have overheating problems. I'm not feeling too good about this as the whole cooling system is brand new pretty much and I can't find anything wrong! We will see.

 

Maybe you just didn't get all the air out? I'll check back.

My Trip went well. But this week both my wife and I have COVID. First time for both of us. I've been sleeping pretty much round the clock, but we both got a Paxlovid prescription to take the edge off of it and reduce symptoms. Funny thing is for me it is not a chest cold except for one night I coughed constantly. Now it's just general pretty severe malise - but barely a sniffle. Wife had horrible sore throat.

 

Wow, I haven't heard of anybody getting Covid in a good while now! Hope you guys get better soon.

The blazer has been really acting up lately, it's time I vent a little. So I posted about the front driveshaft cv joint being loose, thinking that was the problem I took it apart and put a new U joint on the axle side and a new cv joint on the t-case side. After all that work and painting every part separately, it drove the exact same, although the driveshaft is now all tight so I guess that's good. Then I had enough because my blazer sounded like it was falling apart driving down the road and took it up top, I found one of my brake caliper bolts very loose, so I tightened that up and that fixed the metallic clang I had. Then the next day I noticed another horrible clunk and found one of my sway bar link bushings just broke off, so I replaced that and it was a lot better. Then yesterday I noticed the rad support was coming off the mounts and clunking so I welded up some oversized washers and put them in, that has seemed to solve a lot of the noise going over bumps now. However, I'm left with the one clunk I started with that feels like it's in the body right under my feet! It only happens when I turn left pretty much and I have narrowed it down to the fender, when I hit it near the bottom I can hear what sounds like a washer or bolt clanging around in the inside of the fender. I think I will have to take the inner fender off this weekend and investigate further. I have the 1 ton bracket coming on Friday and the 1 ton idler arm is already here so it should be a good weekend! Just have to figure out this cooling problem.

 

What did you do on the CV side? Where you able to get it apart easily and slap new grease? Or was there a part you replaced? Looks good! You do a great job at cleaning up and painting anything you take off.
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keep it up!

 

Thanks Don! I replaced the whole cv joint, its only held in with a snap ring. I ended up cutting the boot and outside part off the old joint so I could get access to the snap ring (old joint pictured above near the top). I solved yet another clunk today, it took a bit of shaking but in the end, I found one of the upper control arm bolts loose and clunking around!! I don't think I'll be going back to that alignment shop as I also found the tie rod adjuster on one side loose too. Now just this "body clunk" that has been plaguing me, it has to be coming from right below my feet and sounds exactly like something moving on a loose bolt. I have been over every bolt it seems, and can't find anything! I hate finding these damn clunks, but I will say I have vastly improved at finding them from when I first got this thing LOL.