Builds Gerry's Build thread: "If it happens again I'm buying an Abrams" (1 Viewer)

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Read through this entire thread over the last few days, great inspiration for the LX I picked up recently (only a few thousand miles more than yours, lol). Also good to see someone local - you're in Woodstock too? Would like to pick up one of your rear hatch storage systems after I knock out a couple more items on the to-do list.


That's awesome! Yup, I'm local. In Acworth but just 2 intersections from Woodstock. Hit me up anytime.

Also, what's the Benz connection?
 
That's awesome! Yup, I'm local. In Acworth but just 2 intersections from Woodstock. Hit me up anytime.

Also, what's the Benz connection?

Sweet! Sounds good. I'm just further down 92 near Neese. I'm Ben Z, hence the name - but big into 90s German cars. They're just all Audis lol.
 
Little updates, here are some.

Gerry's been experiencing this roughness/ vibration for a while. It's not so bad that I think anything is being hurt by it, but it's ****ing irritating and I am Captain Obsessive when it comes to this stuff. So as mentioned, I pulled the front shaft and we drove to Galveston (ew) and back with no big issue. The roughness was decreased, but not gone. OK, we'll touch on that more. Trip was great and Edgar loves the beach.

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So we've been driving in RWD for a few weeks now. I don't love it. Due to the roughness I'm avoiding, the idea of a part-time kit makes sense, but honestly, the trucks just don't drive as well in RWD. I miss my front end.

The other day I decided to isolate the diff by pulling off the front hub flanges. @LJE whipped me up a set of hub covers so I could run around like this for a little bit and feel it out.
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I'm happy (happy? Am I?) to report that the truck feels much smoother with the diff isolated. This tells me there's something between the flanges that is causing this roughness, and it's something that spins while the flanges are attached, but not while they're removed. OK, so bearings and the actual gears inside. Cool, other than those being the pricey parts. CVs are relatively new OEM and have pretty much only road mileage on them. Wheel bearings feel very smooth. What does the hivemind think?

While all of my friends are in Colorado at the Cruisers on the Rockies event (which I'm sponsoring this year!) I finally got around to knocking out some little projects that I've been sitting on.

First up, the center console organizer from Alex @LJE . I may have bought the first one, but it's been tucked in a map pocket for a while. Decided to grab a few EDC items that I knew would be handy. Little multi-tool with some drive bits, torch lighter, sharpie, pen, and a flashlight (not pictured). This is a great accessory and if you don't have one, you should.

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Then I did my battery terminals. I've had this on 'the list' for years but was inspired by @LJE's printed terminal cover. The material is soft like rubber, works great here. Terminal is Moreoso brand, #74098.

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What's next? I think a speed sensor is going out. Over harsh bumps at highway speed, it'll make the speedo jump around. My fuel gauge is also starting to slow to react when refueling. Likely the sending unit, easy job. I also need to pull the front diff out and figure out what's not right inside.

Mileage is 359k. She's getting old, but she's still amazing. My Ms drives Gerry almost exclusively, and is just as attached to the truck as I am. Her own car never goes anywhere and takes up my garage space. So, we're selling the 560SEL and the Camino, I'm getting a 570 and she's getting an LS460. Gerry becomes extra car/ camping truck, but not going anywhere for the foreseeable future.
 
Could be the backlash in the diff? Other than that, maybe the bushings
 
I figured it wouldn't be the bushings, I know your reputation for old maintenance items hahah
 
I figured it wouldn't be the bushings, I know your reputation for old maintenance items hahah
20 year old, aggressively wheeled trucks with 360k on them are supposed to be factory perfect, right? 😄
 
Replaced the transmission speed sensor with a new Aisin today. When I pulled the old one, the connector was full of ATF. Cool, that'd throw some issue. I cleaned the harness side with electronics cleaner and installed the new one.

Speedo is still jumpy over harsh bumps. :bang:


Mileage is 359,5xx. We'll cross 360k on a trip this weekend.
 
I NEED that center console organizer! When will those be available?

You can buy those direct from Alex 😎 @LJE
And you definitely should. It's awesome. I even used the Leatherman from mine when I was installing my battery cap.
 
You can buy those direct from Alex 😎 @LJE
And you definitely should. It's awesome. I even used the Leatherman from mine when I was installing my battery cap.
I jokingly put chapstick in mine when I first set it up. Holy crap - the wife and I used that ALL THE TIME out in Colorado. It was so nice for it to have a dedicated home, hahaha.
 
We took the old girl to stay with friends in TN over the weekend. Drive up was relatively uneventful, but I had a number of issues on the way home. An erratic speedometer turned in to loss of throttle. Long story short, my speed calibration unit probably spazzed out after some heavy heavy rain. Disconnected it and the truck is good today.

We also rolled 360k on the way home. She'll get oil, rotation and filters this week. I'm also going to hit it with a fogger bomb after replacing the cabin filters.

Planning to pull my rear diff this weekend to repair the locker wiring.
 
Just little updates. I did an oil and filter change last week. Mileage is 360,1xx right now. Trying to get the tires rotated this week.


Yesterday I went with @Wermz to make a huge mistake sell his 80 to a guy from Alabama. Bittersweet, but the truck is on to an amazing next chapter and even I'm excited for it. On the drive back I let him take the wheel, and his assessment of my roughness/vibration is something in the rear of the truck. Waiting on the state of Utah to open this morning so I can call Kurt and get some parts ordered. Didn't pull the diff this weekend as obviously it would make sense to have parts on hand to rebuild at the time.
 
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We really like the Roadhouse Tarp. We got the one with the bug netting. It’s a pretty great solution for us.

We camped last summer on Ocracoke Island, and the strong winds meant I was frequently bringing it down, then putting it back up.
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Do you have pictures with the big net down? Does it work with the tailgate down for a longer sleeping platform?
 
Updates. Here they are.

@Wermz came by today to help pull the rear diff and rebuild (if necessary). This set up is at 100k miles since install, fwiw. Pattern was not perfect but certainly not bad, backlash was measured at around 0.0085. Bearings felt pretty smooth when turning the pinion flange by hand. By all metrics we could come up with, the diff appears healthy. I've included pics of the pattern and the runout gauge.

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So, diff looks to be in good shape. What else are we dealing with?

The passenger side bearing seemed to be pretty smoked. With the axle stand standing up right, the thing was so tight it wouldn't turn by hand. There was also some suspicious looking oil/grease on the back side of the bearing. Was this the issue?

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Coincidentally my next door neighbor dropped by and took a look. He suggested maybe just the backing plate was rubbing, so we tested the theory and yup, he was right! Bearing spun smooth after giving the dust shield a few whacks with a rubber mallet.

I have these seals on hand, but they're in the diff rebuild kit which I'm thinking I don't want to break open for just those items. I'll buy them individually and try to return the kit or sell it to someone. We would have installed the new pinion flange but I didn't have a new nut or seal on hand, just kind of brain farted on having those available.

But! I was able to repair the wiring to my rear locker, so that's working again. Hooray, this wasn't just a waste of a few hours and $80 in gear oil!

Waiting for the FIPG to dry overnight before filling the diff with oil. Before I cleaned up, I went ahead and reinstalled my front drive shaft and hub flanges. The front diff has been completely isolated for a little while now, safe to say it's not a part of my issue. It'll be nice to get back to AWD again.

Mileage is 360somethingthousand. I was hoping the diff would be an obvious issue and would fix my vibrations, thus saving me about 30 grand for a new daily. But alas, I was not so lucky. Sonuvabitch.
 
Here's some more info:

This morning I filled the rear diff with gear oil and buttoned it all up. I decided to test out FWD to minimize the amount of transmittance from the rear.

Well **** me running, it's perfectly smooth at 80MPH with just FWD. Other than the horrible torque steer that you get from the 4.88s, of course.

So this tells me I'm possibly looking at rear output from the case or still something to the rear diff.

Here's what the rear output flange sounds and feels like with both the trans and case in neutral. It spins pretty freely, there's a little bit of clatter that can be heard towards the end of the video while it's spinning. I'll also reattach my drive shaft and test for lateral play per suggestion from @LJE .

 
Put her all back together yesterday and finally turned off the CDL, back in AWD.

Now there's this stupid rubbing sound from what I think is the front right corner of the truck. Sounds like dragging a flat hand against a window. Pulled the wheels off the front, double checked my flanges, calipers, etc. All seems well. I thought maybe it was my front skid rubbing the bottom of the diff but that wasn't it. Drivability doesn't seem impacted at all.

I've got a few hours of field work today, she'll get some more miles on her 🤷‍♂️
 

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