What did you do to/with your van today?

doyoulikeithere · Post by **doyoulikeithere** » Sun Aug 14, 2011 8:57 pm

Was a warm sunny sunday so my van took me to my favorite beach...
Loved the long drive thru the mountains to get there, and the scenery once I arrived.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV5mHothgtM[/youtube]

leadtrombone · Post by **leadtrombone** » Mon Aug 15, 2011 9:25 am

Had do break out of the van back to replace the door handle that broke. Fixed the driverside handle and now i am working on the lock actuators.

Fun Fun. Time to punch out the rivets and see what size fasteners i need to get to reinstall them...

anyone know....

safari kev · Post by **safari kev** » Mon Aug 15, 2011 7:05 pm

took the van on a road trip to KC and back. van cruised along and got almost 20 mpg. not bad considering it was doing 80+ for most of the trip.
I did run into 1 problem though. after about 100 miles of having the AC running the fan started kicking on and off which was accompanied by a burning smell that seemed to be coming from the passenger side under the dash.
and my rear fan doesnt work at all (checked fuses and tried replacing rear fan switch with rear ac switch (seem to be the same) and still no fan.

Post by **MountainManJoe** » Mon Aug 15, 2011 9:49 pm

Cobra wrote:test drove new Torsen differential and noticed some gear whine might have to go back in there to try and get rid of it

Cool. Can you spill any more info on this?

Derek939 · Post by **Derek939** » Tue Aug 16, 2011 3:12 pm

Just put a new thermostat in the van today. Got to the old one to realize someone either had cut it out or it broke apart. Anyone have any idea of why that may have been cut off or broke apart?

Old Thermostat before I pulled it out

New Thermostat Installed

Old Thermostat I pulled out

Post by **WoodButcher** » Tue Aug 16, 2011 5:05 pm

Derek939 wrote:Just put a new thermostat in the van today. Got to the old one to realize someone either had cut it out or it broke apart. Anyone have any idea of why that may have been cut off or broke apart?

To run with no thermo you still need a gasket. The gutted thermo will hold the gasket. I've been guilty of limping home like that.

markmitchinnh · Post by **markmitchinnh** » Tue Aug 16, 2011 6:14 pm

I welded in the tail
light holes today Friday I am cutting the holes for the 91 caddy tail lights- thinking of putting them upside down just to be different. What do you guys think?

LiftedAWDAstro · Post by **LiftedAWDAstro** » Tue Aug 16, 2011 6:24 pm

Derek939 wrote:Just put a new thermostat in the van today. Got to the old one to realize someone either had cut it out or it broke apart. Anyone have any idea of why that may have been cut off or broke apart?

The previous owner cut it apart because the van was running hot I bet. I also bet you'll need to start looking at new radiators soon.

Post by **MountainManJoe** » Tue Aug 16, 2011 10:12 pm

If the van was running hot the thermostat would just stay open, so wouldn't cutting it up be pointless?

ihatemybike · Post by **ihatemybike** » Wed Aug 17, 2011 3:26 am

Not if the thermostat somehow got stuck in the closed position.

Derek939 · Post by **Derek939** » Wed Aug 17, 2011 10:48 am

So I got out to driving the van around town a little bit this morning. Since I replaced the t-stat the temp gauge warms up to about half way and stays there expect when I am driving over 30mph it was slightly lower due to more air flow I believe?

Anyways I am not 100% sure of the temp on my van because it does not list the degrees like the newer vans, so does anyone know if this is pretty normal for a 1991 rwd astro ext? Does anyone know what each increment is in degrees?

My temp gauge actually stayed around the same area. Before I replaced the T-Stat it would never really have one spot, it just fluctuated if I was going up or down hills.

Thanks for the help,
Derek

Cobra · Post by **Cobra** » Wed Aug 17, 2011 1:13 pm

98:Listened to my poor van cry but man I love the way it drives

timelessbeing wrote:
Cobra wrote:test drove new Torsen differential and noticed some gear whine might have to go back in there to try and get rid of it
Cool. Can you spill any more info on this?

here's everything i can think of right now viewtopic.php?f=59&t=7547

Rileysowner · Post by **Rileysowner** » Wed Aug 17, 2011 4:05 pm

Just an oil and filter change. I was going to fully lube it, but ran out of grease part way through. I guess that will have to wait for the next oil change.

Rileysowner · Post by **Rileysowner** » Thu Aug 18, 2011 7:53 pm

Left this AM and found the AC only blowing to the defrost and floor. I knew what the problem was so when we stopped I had a look at the vac lines. Everything looked fine, and when we started driving all was working as normal again. Then we stopped again, and the next time we started we were back to floor and window. Later I got a chance to look more carefully when the van had cooled down more and I found the break. It was small and if I moved the line right it would sort of self-seal. Thankfully I left a lot of slack when I fixed it last time so I could take out the broken section, and all worked well after that.

SAS H3T · Post by **SAS H3T** » Thu Aug 18, 2011 10:16 pm

After it was stripped of any usable pieces...It went to the crusher this AM....why ?

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