What have you done to your 6.5 today?

Heh… I spoke too soon it seems…
Apparently, when the braided oil cooler lines were installed, one was routed against the steering box arm, and the steering I’ve done over the last 200K has worn a leak through the braid… so… I gotta get a new cooler line… and proper clamps to keep it out of harms way…
After driving to the first rest stop, I noticed a drip of oil in front… looke up and saw the gooey mess…
I grabbed some zip ties and relocated the line, I also put a hose clamp around the worn spot… what… everybody doesn’t carry full oil change kit, tools, zip ties, starter, duct tape, several cans of brake spray and various odds and ends to work on your truck when going on a little vacation?
Sprayed it all clean with brake spray, and drove to the next spot… checked oil, no loss, checked area, and it didn’t have any oil on anything, so, I called it a win and drove home.
still cool at the gas station before my house, so I filled up (dang, under 17MPG this trip…) drove home and put her back in mothballs…
Time to order a new line, and get it swapped…

gypsy_wind said:

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Taking it into work tomorrow to get some new tires mounted onto the H2 rims I picked up over the winter. Going to try a set of 265/70 Continental Terrain Contact A/T’s.

Got a set of GMC center caps from the early 2000’s to go with them. Ground the outer rim of one of the caps down last weekend until it settled nicely into the H2 wheel...

Click to expand...

Successfully got the Conti's mounted on the H2 rims and back home. Put them on Friday night and everything looked good. Took it for a drive and noticed a new noise so crept back home and pulled off the passenger side where the sound seemed to be coming from and here the inside lip of the wheel was rubbing against the outer edge of the control arm! In fact the control arm had rubbed on the spot they mounted the balance weights and knocked a bunch of them off. I had not anticipated any clearance issues with these rims as I've read dozens of accounts of upgrading to them with no mention of spacers or rubbing issues. I'd appreciate anyone else with experience with these rims to chime in. I was already skeptical of my front end suspension because although it was "rebuilt" not long ago according to the previous owner, they had used 12mm shank bolts on the shocks instead of 1/2' which lead to a terrible clacking noise going over bumps because there was so much play of the bolts inside the shock mounting points. Not sure who the owner had rebuild it, but clearly some details were overlooked.

So, I'm not sure if I have an issue with the suspension geometry being off due to a sloppy rebuild or simply an unforeseen issue with the backspacing of the wheels that others have had and dealt with that I just hadn't read any accounts of. Feedback is appreciated.

I looked at the brake and suspension parts sitting in the back of the suburban that are destined for the K3500 and thought long and hard about the gmt800 front brake upgrade. I mean, whose bright idea was it to put the rotors behind the hub? I’m going to plan on 3 days of borrowing my buddy’s truck to get the front end done on my truck. I only have a couple/few hours each day to work on it. I bought new hub bolts because New England salty roads. I’m sure this will be the last time I ever do front suspension and brakes before the truck is in the boneyard or sold to a younger soul with more ambition than I have. I’ve got new hubs, rotors, pads, the aforementioned hub bolts, sway bar end links, ball joints, and new cv axles. I’ll do the tie rod ends and pitman arm etc next week or whatever and then get it a real alignment. And I have new control arm bushing, but they were done recently, so I’ll have a good look at those and decide if they get replaced.
Oh, and it’s not a 6.5, but I bent in new nicopp brake lines in the K2500 plow truck and will bleed the brakes as soon as I can extract the bleeder screws that were rusted tight. Again…New England

Sent from purgatory