GRRRR. So Saphire is my 4th blazer. And now I'm replacing my 5th bearing hub. I've gotten so used to it it's a 10 minute job now. Fortunately my local pic a part lot had a $20 bucket sale. Everything you can carry out in a 5 gal bucket for $20. I got a good hub for the blazer. Got the TCCM and the control module on the front transaxle for the Trailblazer. A driver mirror for the blazer. two windshield sprayer motors for the TB. 4 plastic trim pieces for the TB and a center console cover for the blazer. Along with numerous miscelaneous bolts. now to go out and put that hub on.

 

So I finally got around to replacing my clutch. For the last few years, if I let off too quickly, the trans would make a screeching sound for a second or 2. But recently the clutch started slipping so I replaced the whole enchilada; flywheel, clutch pad, pressure plate and bearings along with the u-joints. I had 7 days saved up an I had to use them before the end of the year. I bought the parts a few years ago (Luk brand) thinking they were going out based on the screech.

We spend about 4 hours a day on this. Day 1; Me and my 2 teen boys pulled the trans an cleaned up everything with brake clean and a pressure washer.

Day 2 we wasted the day searching for replacement exhaust flange nuts and a missing trans bolt along with a pilot bearing puller that would work. Home Depot had the bolts and Lowe's had the exhaust nuts. Three O'Reilly stores later and a trip to Advance Auto finally turned up one that worked with a few modifications. Yes I did call O'Reilly's in advance and each store said they had the puller, I even had the second store call the third and they said they had it but didn't. Anyhow, I had to shove scrap metal into the puller jaws from Advance Auto to keep them from bending inward. Finally the bearing popped out along with a bent tool that I had to beat back into shape. I installed the new pilot bearing, flywheel, pressure plate, clutch and throw out bearing with hydraulics. I also bought the 17mm bit to open the trans and replaced the Sycromesh oil with the Valvoline brand.

Day 3; we can't get the trans to mount. Its a heavy Muncie trans. Worried about somebody getting hurt I purchase a Harbor Freight Trans jack and we get it mounted up. Everything after that goes smooth, I bled the clutch and we are good!

In a side note the clutch feels much softer, I mean it felt like a big truck clutch before, now it feels like a small car clutch. No noise, no pulling, it works like a normal clutch, I have bled it many times and its the same. I miss my old hard pressing clutch but I realize maybe my clutch hadn't been bled properly. I think whoever did the last job just replaced the clutch pad and nothing else. Anyhow its all good and next is dropping the fuel tank to fix the floater so the fuel gauge will work again. I have only done this 4 times now, 1x to replace the pump, 1x to replace the wrong pump gasket and 2x to fix a hole in the tank. Shouldn't be too bad this time.

 

I changed out the idler arm, rotated the tires, and lubed the front end. Unfortunately I got used to the steering and didn't notice the tire wear. Will be buying new tires in the spring but got just over 45k out the BF Goodrich KO2. Probably was gonna happen with wear on tread anyway

 

I might be needing new tires soon too. The ones I have have worn kind of fast; Kumho AT51. I've only gotten about 25K miles so far. For their truck tires, they don't offer a warranty. I'm also looking for a bit more aggressive tread.

Did you like you BF Goodrich KO2 tires? What size are you running?

 

I am running the 31X10.5X15 stock size for the ZR2 and I like them but I drive on the highway alot so I might be skewing the life <G>

 

Finished my repair of my radiator using J B Weld. Using a radiator pressure tester I found that the leak was where two of the flat tubes entered the side tanks.

I'll post more details later on my build thread.


I did the repair woth the radiator in place. If I had had the time to do it properly, I would have removed it.

 

Duct tape, bailing wire and JB Weld and you can fix anything.


George

 

 

Freezing my a$$ off all night getting this dang blower motor out and also the relay and resistor. Luckily I made it to Idaho from West Virginia with it working. Otherwise would've froze to death. Haha

 

I topped off my cooling system to bring it back up to at least a 50/50 mix. It had been at about 40/60 with a freeze point of -10'F which is just at the lowest temperature I think I've seen where I live. To avoid getting messy, instead of draining the radiator from the bottom, I syphoned off the amount I wanted to remove from the top and then refilled it with concentrate. Best part? I got to use my algebra skills to work out the amount of existing mix to remove and replace with concentrate! Whoo Hoo! I'll know if my calculations were correct after it cools off after I do a test drive and let it all circulate and exchange with the overflow tank.