What did you do to/with your van today?

[wkastro]

On Friday the Thirteenth, the left rear brake started growling and the heater blower quit. Yesterday, I replaced the rear pads with Autozone cheapies, and only sanded the rotors. I plan to upgrade all the rotors soon, any ideas? As long as I had my neighbor's floor jack, I did a five-tire rotation, and greased all fourteen Zerks in the front suspension & steering.

The blower motor started when I tapped the housing. I did the carving on the soft HVAC housing that you need to do for the first blower service. I pulled the motor out and removed the motor commutator cover. There was about half a life left in the brushes, but one was held back by a casually routed lead. I cleaned the dust out, relaxed the brush lead, and put it back together. It took less than an hour. It will last a week or a decade, who knows. I put 4000 miles on in the last 12 months.

[astroturf]

I plan to upgrade all the rotors soon, any ideas?

Buy American made Rotors, Hawk Pads, and have the rotors matched to the hubs with a Pro-cut Brake Lathe. It will eliminate any brake pedal pulsation, and they will be more effective too.

Jim

PS Don't forget a Brake Fluid Flush also.

[justice]

Sold the 87.

[wkastro]

Supposedly there are no more one-piece rotors being cast in the USA anymore. Some of the "Made in USA" rotors are cast in China and finish-machined here. Any specific supplier recommendations would be appreciated. Several shops around here have ProCut - thanks for the reminder.

[97CargoCrawler]

Found coolant in my oil and officially put my van in mothball status until I can rebuild the engine and tranny. Yeah, tranny too since it started seriously slipping last week. Not too happy, I love my van.

[astroturf]

Supposedly there are no more one-piece rotors being cast in the USA anymore. Some of the "Made in USA" rotors are cast in China and finish-machined here. Any specific supplier recommendations would be appreciated.

With that in mind. If you did not ruin your rotors and they are original. It might be best just to have them matched to the hubs by a Pro-cut OTC Lathe.

Keep us posted, Jim

[wkastro]

The low price on Brembo replacements suggest that might be made in China, somewhat diluting the Brembo brand...

http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/detai ... 86949.html

I'm thinking drilled only with an e-coat like these:

http://www.autopartsdealer.com/power_pe ... 264-p.html

I don't know what GM SPO stocks these days. I need to see if there is an employee/reitree discount like there used to be.

[astroturf]

Slotted maybe? Cross drilled... No Way. Not even Nascar would waste their money on them.

Are your old rotors toast?

Jim

[wkastro]

Flow Chevrolet, PN 15712800 (superceded) rear $144
Flow Chevrolet, PN 18060214 (superceded) front $57

The trouble with the rear disks on the 2003-2005 Astro & all rear disk brakes on GMT800 full-size-truck is that the inside pad, and therefore the inside of the disk, wears faster. The pins that guide the caliper were free; for some reason, binding perhaps, the piston side wears faster. In my case, the squealers rusted away, guaranteeing maximum life out of the pads, and I replaced the pads the day the growling started. I don't think there is enough material between the surface and vents to regrind the rear rotors.

[wkastro]

As far as street versus track use of slotted versus x-drilled versus solid, is racing any more severe than a descent out of the Smokey Mountains, southbound on US 441, with a fully loaded vehicle? That is a pretty severe case. I would not want to crack x-drilled rotors. The production 2003-2005 Astro/Safari actually has fairly generous brakes.

[safari kev]

went to the junkyard/ got a new steering column cover for the safari. I searched every astrofari in the yard (they got at least 20 of them scattered throughout) as well as every S10 blazer suburban and silverado. none had intact steering column covers. finally took a rest break in a pontiac montana (the fwd minivan that "replaced" the astrofari.) after scouring the yard for a long long time.
first thing I noticed was- man these seats are really nice- they are the same as fancy blazer seats with lumbar (might snag a set for my second row seats).

second thing I noticed was the steering column IS THE EXACT SAME EXTERNALLY as an astrofari with SiR (air bags) same cover- similar wheels (except Montana has radio controls) same stalks for gear select and turn signal/ wipers. thank you GM for being so cheap. $6 later (plus $25 for a set of torx sockets) I have a perfect steering column cover

[safari kev]

totaled my van yesterday.
I was going downhill in the pouring rain and tried to slow down but couldnt. following about 3 car lengths behind a hyundai. light turns yellow and I was about 2 seconds out of the intersection. the hyundai accelerates (was gonna run the light) then hits the brakes hard (decided not to I guess). I punted it like a football about 20 ft. I destroyed the core support, left front fender, hood, grille, and bumper on my van. as for the hyundai- well its a hyundai that got punted by a van doing about 40mph- what do you think happened to it? as luck would have it, there was a cop right behind me. I'm gonna be wrenching on it all next week since my dad has to take it out of town on friday. today I went to the junkyard and got new parts to replace the aforementioned damaged parts. under $200 in parts (less new bumper- thats $50 if I can ever find one thats intact). labor costs alone are $2500. next week I get to intern at an auto body to learn how to fix my totaled van (labors still probably gonna be about 1k).

[astroturf]

Ouch...

Hope all are OK.

Jim

[wkastro]

Sorry to hear about that, Kev. It sounds like you weren't hurt, which is a good thing.

[ihatemybike]

Nothing, cause I spent the day diagnosing a intake valve problem with the Liberty.