Chevy & GMC Vans

http://www.gicp.com
This a local group of guys I have known from sports car days.
I stopped in the other day to ask about fog lights and started looking at the different models.
As you probably know and why you asked,the PIAA 60XT's have been discontinued !! These just were a set they happened to have.

Picked up van from GM dealer(never again) and realised mouse is still there looks like i will be doing those CV's soon

Did a bunch of searching on Amazon and did find a set there too...

http://www.amazon.com/Ion-Crystal-Fog-L ... 7&sr=1-157

I finished building a transmission for the kids van last night. Installing it today. Wish me luck!

At your skill level luck is no longer a factor.

Lockdoc: i hate you (actually i'm just jealous)

Moved van so i could move things around my home then tinkered with shock settings and drove around..... probably faster then i should have.
now i have more questions......

Yeah. Don't be jealous. It didn't work. I'm really, really bummed. No forward gears. Only reverse. Didn't see that coming. Now I just have to figure out why. I know I put the damn thing together right and checked all the valves to make sure none stuck. I don't know. My kids van is cursed. This is the second go around with a trans for it.

On another note. Take pics as your putting stuff back together as well as taking apart. It'll save you tons of grief trying to figure out if you forgot something. I dumped out most of my belongings at the carport trying to see if there were any "extra" parts. Didn't find any.

to save space,i bolted the passenger seat upside down

Been there,,hate extra parts,,hate um. Good luck on your detective work Bill. Pulling a tranny, building it and re-installing and it ain't right is to much,.,more than I could handle at the moment.
Any way,,good luck.

You'll figure it out. It happens to the best of us. I blew up a Turbo 400 four times before I finally found the problem.

I put a Queen sized futon couch/bed in the back. It's now officially the Shaggin' Wagon. I always take my breaks and eat my lunch in the van at work, then take a nap. Now it'll be lunch, "test the suspension" and then a nap!


As I was cleaning out the back of the van today I noted I had the following items, and not much else:

Bolt cutters
Pepper spray
Nylon rope
Duct tape
Plastic sheeting
Nitrile rubber gloves
Drywall saw
Machete


.....and jumper cables. WTF??? The only thing missing is an alibi. I'm screwed!

I knew I couldn't wait a week to find out what was wrong with the tranny so I took off today to find out. Spent hours last night trying to figure out what went wrong. I kept going back to a part that I just couldn't remember putting in. Like I said before I went through EVERYTHING trying to find an extra part that shouldn't be. Even went out in the middle of the night to check again. Looking behind things, in tool boxes etc. Nothing to be found so I must have put it in. So this morning I went underneath the van to take a bath in tranny fluid. While I was at it I swapped out valve bodies. No go. Pulled the trans AGAIN and started to take it apart. Low and behold the part I thought about was not there! I have three extra so it was no biggie to replace but where the hell is the one that was supposed to be there? At least I found the problem and it was not a big deal. Didn't destroy anything in the process. Now I have to wait for a new gasket set. I must admit I was tempted to reuse the gaskets. There are technically "new" you know. But I don't want to do this again. I guess you do learn things as you get older. lol.

The small gear in the middle was the culprit.

lol i like that you KNEW you had missed it but couldn't find it, where did you learn your tranny skillz


the normally daily commute plus a highway drive to movie damn shimmy
The hangover is pretty funny

Drove 500 miles across nebraska yesterday. My first road trip with the van. About 300 miles into the trip there was a huge wall cloud. watched the outside temp drop 20 degrees in about 2 miles. Then severe rain and hail. turned on radio as I was coming up to the storm waiting for a tornado warning... sure enough as soon as I passed through the tail end of it.. tornado warning for exactly where I was at. Wheeww! Got lucky there and I know the awd made a big difference in that heavy rain. Sorry no pics. It was a beautiful storm though.

Yesterday

I re-mounted my transmission cooler. Previously it was installed with the supplied nylon zipthings and directly attached to the condensor.

I went to Menards and bought some bolts and some fence repair brackets to re-mount the cooler to the support frames in the front grill area creating about 1.5" of space between the cooler and the condenser. It was a pretty easy job, one I thought was going to be more difficult.

I kept going back to a part that I just couldn't remember putting in. Like I said before I went through EVERYTHING trying to find an extra part that shouldn't be. Even went out in the middle of the night to check again.

That kind of stuff can drive you nuts. Glad you goterdone Bill.

Reminded me of the time I built the 350 for my van. Had it all together on the motor stand, including the intake and headers. All painted and ready to install. That afternoon I went inside to unwind but there was a little voice telling me there was a problem. Went through the complete build in my head, bolt by bolt,bearing by bearing, rod by rod, everything. I couldn't get it out of my mind. Something wasn't right. The next morning I went out and pulled the pan, started pulling rod caps. 1,2,3,4,5,6 skipped 7 and pulled 8. All good, then decided to pull 7,,radius was wrong, the machine shop had pressed the rod on backwards.

Glad you found the problem Bill.