Howdy from (dang, it's hot outside!)

[Tex99Tahoe]

Hi, all. Enuff lurking, time to post a check-in.

Got a `99 Tahoe LT last year, nothing special, just real clean in and out, but with a handful of neglected maintanance issues. Got the 4-volume factory manuals, and fixing little diddlies.

Mounted a ScanGuage II below the tripmeter, it works fantastic!:waytogo:

Currently swapping-in a low mileage G80 Eaton axle, the old axle whines a bit, and found about a tablespoon of iron powder stuck to the diff cover magnet.

 

[Tex99Tahoe]

Opened up and inspected old GU6 (3.42:1) axle (134k miles), things a bit loose in there, looked like a bit too much ring gear backlash, pinion preload felt light. Opened up and inspected replacement axle (GU6 3.42:1, G80 Eaton locker, 70k miles), things looked much better, less ring gear backlash, better pinion preload, very little looseness in axle bearings. Filled with Lucas 80-90.

This thing was remarkedly easy to swap-out. Hydraulic brakes took only 3 pumps per side using my 1-man brake bleeder. Setting brake shoe clearance and parking brake tension was much easier than I was expecting.

Very happy with the test drive, no more whine from rear end, very quiet.

Next on the list is replacing miniature radio bulbs, found how-to's here and on U-tube...

 

[Tex99Tahoe]

I'm amazed at how easy it is to remove the dash bezel and dash components.

Was expecting to replace a couple of mini-bulbs in the radio head, to fix a couple of dark areas, but found 9 of the 10 bulbs burned-out! Used the last mini-bulb of the 10-bulb kit to fix the 'eject' button in the remote CD. Then replaced bulbs in the climate control panel and instrument clustor.

 

[Tex99Tahoe]

Instrument cluster connector

Cleaning-up connectors in the instrument panel, found an issue I've seen before on an older Blazer. The socket connector that fits in the back of the instrument cluster doesn't fully seat, could lead to bizarre symptoms later on.

Pic #1 shows the male connector pulled out of the panel. Note the tiny dimple on each of the connector fingers

Pics #2 & #3 show the flex circuit connectors on the backside of the instrument cluster. If you zoom in, you'll see the dimple imprints out at the very edge of the entry slot. Not what I'd call a reliable connection.

 

[Tex99Tahoe]

Instrument cluster connector

So, this is my 'bandaid' fix. The male connector is a loose/sloppy fit in the panel recess, and can be spaced-out to improve seating in the instrument cluster socket. Super-glued a pair of .065" thick plastic strips above and below the connector opening, and taped them down as extra insurance. The connector snaps back in, with little sloppyness, spaced out almost .070" (pic #1).

Pic #2 shows a deeper dimpling pattern in the instrument cluster socket, more to my liking...

 

[Tex99Tahoe]

Dash accessories

The unfilled switch panels left and below of the radio were blank and boring. Decided to mount a remote-controlled MP3 player and hands-free bluetooth interface in the upper panels. Mounted a pair of USB power slots in the lower panel.

 

[Tex99Tahoe]

GPS mount

Figured out a way to mount my Garmin Nuvi 1300 GPS. Modified the factory ball-mount to fit solidly to the dash trim bezel.

 

[Tex99Tahoe]

1999 Tahoe LT Dashboard

Dashboard reassembled. 14 year old truck ready for a new life...

 

[20Tahoe12LT]

:welcome:

 

[krazycarl]

doing good work she's turning out nice

 

[Tex99Tahoe]

Thanx, 20Tahoe12LT, krazycarl. Been driving a `90 S10 Blazer Sport 4x4 since like, forever. This Tahoe was the perfect upgrade. I prefer the boxy older body, with the fold-down-flat rear seats, more utilitarian.

Right now, my maddening issue is the clock keeps resetting to 1:00. It's not battery voltage, or fuses, or bad wiring/grounds. Just turning ignition to Accessory will reset it, so the problem occurs when the ignition feed line goes hot on the radio head. So, the problem MUST be in the radio. Plan to either replace it, crack it open again and investigate, or ignore it (*cringe*).

 

[krazycarl]

sounds like you wired the constant hot to the stereo to the ignition instead. cant really tell from this side of the computer lol

 

[Tex99Tahoe]

Oh, been thru all that, connector c1 pin 10 gets constant battery feed thru orange line, ign line to pin 9 switches properly. All other electrical and radio functions are fine, except that the CD head self-calibrates whenever 'recall', 'hr', or 'min' is pressed, like when setting time with ign off. The options chart showed a UP0 radio setup, but when I pulled the radio and remote CD, there was evidence of prior tampering, and the surface dirtyness of the two units is different. Someone's been in there...

 

[krazycarl]

oh man that's no good, i hate when people who dont know what there doing do things like that without consulting or asking people who know first, here pretty soon I'm taking my whole unit out and putting in a doubled in dvd cd mp3 player. but i don't know how soon lol

 

[Tex99Tahoe]

Yeah, that's why I'm goin' thru this thing with a fine-toothed comb. Every used machine I've acquired has some kind of checkered past. I really enjoy finding lost money buried under the seats...

 

[krazycarl]

lol nice

 

[Tex99Tahoe]

Been riding around with a voltmeter plugged into the dash aux pwr socket, continuously shows 13.6v. That's a little low, so decided to go thru and refresh all battery connections and underhood grounds. Also cleaned the alternator grounding mounts.

Found the lower right front ground for the main battery negative cable only finger tight, refreshed and tightened. The upper ground at the thermostat was okay, refreshed anyway. Refreshed the body ground at the fender near the battery negative.

Finally found the engine ground behind the right head, after removing all the intake hose and cleaner. It wasn't very tight, refreshed it. Found the chassis ground below the heater hoses, wasn't bad, refreshed anyway. These two grounds have bare braided cables that go directly down to the frame, screwed to the frame with a self-tapping screw. Now THAT was a mess. Had to grind rust off the frame grounding area and wirewheel corrosion off the ground strap lugs. Reassembled with electronics grease.

Also refreshed the grounds behind the instrument panel, one above the parking brake, the other behind the glovebox.

Amazing, while driving, the battery voltage now shows 14.2v...

 

[Tex99Tahoe]

Just replaced the radio head with a tested/refurbished unit. Dang-it, clock still occasionally resets to 1:00. Suspecting a faulty remote CD now...

 

[Tex99Tahoe]

After doing a lot of searching, found some posts discussing this issue. Long story short, it appears that the problem boils dowm to faulty/failed surface-mounted capacitors in the slave CD circuit board. One outfit offered a rebuild service for $100, but that was 7 years ago. The saga continues...