Project "vanity Yukon"

[bufmatmuslepants]

Well I went down to Virginia beach this weekend to help my grandparents move into their new house in my escape with my wife, daughter and dog and my little escape was stuffed with baby stuff. We got there and my grandparents had this beautiful marble double sink vanity that they removed and were going to throw away since they had a wheelchair accessible sink put in. We had been shopping for vanitys like this and needed this exact one, but it wouldn't fit in the escape with all of our stuff, and they needed it gone now since they needed to put their van in the garage.

So I pull up Craigslist, find a 97 Yukon 4 door with 168k that says "needs fuel injector" for a good price. I grab my cousin and go see it. The guy shows me that if you put the key in and immediately start it without dilly dallying and don't let the fuel pump prime, it starts right away. Take it for a ride and it shifts fine through all gears but won't go into overdrive, and I knew from past research this was the 1-2 shift solenoid. We haggle a price and $1100 takes it home. I stopped at advance auto and grabbed a 1-2 shift solenoid, tranny fluid and filter and gasket, 2 bottles of the lethal fuel injector cleaner I used on the last truck, and a bottle of some other stuff they had on sale. I get back, change the 1-2 solenoid, and it still wouldn't go into 4th. I put both bottles of the lethal stuff in the tank at 1/2 full, so 4x more concentrated than recommended. We fit the vanity in and I put the front plate of my escape on it, put it on my insurance, and headed home Sunday. We stopped after 100 miles of 2800rpm 3rd gear cruising to eat and it was a pain to start, had to put be at WOT then it would fire. Left it running while I filled it with 93 and added the last bottle of injector cleaner. As I left the gas station and hit 40mph it hesitated really bad, threw an SES light, then finally went into 4th gear. From there on out it ran on OD fine and shifted through all gears. I stopped a few times on the way on the side of the highway and did WOT runs to 75 to shift hard through all gears and run it hard and it didnt miss a beat.

[bufmatmuslepants]

Here's a picture when I picked it up

[bufmatmuslepants]

And here's when I finally made it home. It has leather, a sunroof, G80 and GT4 3.73s

[bufmatmuslepants]

So the truck has full leather interior but the driver seat is a tanish color and the rest is grey leather. The driver seat bottom is torn, and needs a new cover, but I want to get a grey seat to match. If I can't find one, ill just either get a $200 bottom cover from eBay or see if a local upholstery shop can do it.

The abs is over intrusive, so I need to pull and clean the wheel speed sensors. Anyone have experience with this issue? I read to only use GM approved cleaner, and you have to measure the distance and how flat the surface is.

The truck has an SES light now, so I need to get that read by auto zone, and continue battling the spider injection. I'm starting to think it could be a bad fuel pressure regulator, so I may replace that before doing an MPFI upgrade. I need to measure the fuel pressure and I may just clean the poppet valves instead of spending $338 on an MPFI kit..

The truck has a sunroof that I believe is aftermarket.

The driver seat has heated leather, was that factory? I don't think it works, so while the cover is off being replaced ill fix that.

I've test driven a few vortec 350 tahoes now, and the steering is so much lighter than the 95s I've driven, what changed? It also has a tighter turning radius than the 95 2 door I had.

The goal with this truck is to invest in only what it needs, and sell it for $3500-4000 to buy a 03-06 Tahoe before November 18th when we take our next big trip. My wife doesn't like the fold down tailgate as she can't reach groceries so I need a lift hatch so 00-06 is the way to go, but 00-02 leather is garbage. I really do like this truck, I may buy another later to keep. My wife was very pissed driving home because the baby cries whenever we hit traffic and she couldn't sit in the back to calm her, so she says she's done being involved in my Craigslist adventures, I need to buy a truck and a trailer to be able to do these myself from now on.

The story of the trailer is kinda funny. My grandparents had 2 4 wheelers that my grandmother used to drive down the mountain at their old house in winter to get medicine and supplies, at 85 years old, for my grandfather. The new house won't have that issue so I was getting one and my dad the other. We were supposed to meet there a month ago to get them so I didn't take my z71, instead took my wife's Tucson and my dad was supposed to come down in my brothers pickup with this trailer for me to tow 1 home with the Tucson and he take the other in the truck, but he bailed on me and I was in WV with no way to get the 4 wheeler home. I went on Craigslist and bought a 5x8 trailer in Kentucky for $460 and towed mine home, then sold the trailer for $550. My dad went this time to help them move in the Tahoe with this trailer, but the quad was too heavy for this trailer so he put the quad in my uncles trailer and my grandfathers bed on this trailer. While my brother was towing this trailer with the bed, a fender flew off on the highway. They left VA yesterday with the quad on my uncles trailer since he didnt trust his bouncing through NYC. I need a trailer to get my Camaro motor home November 18th, so I towed this one. Sure enough when I got 4th gear and was doing 75, the other fender broke off, went under the trailer tire, jumped the trailer up in the air, and I looked back to see the fender flying off through the air, luckily landing safely in the woods.

[bufmatmuslepants]

Got a chance to tinker a little tonight. Summoned all of my 150lbs of bufmatmuslepants and got the 300lb vanity out and into the garage myself, without hurting my back, with a little engineering. Wanted to see if it was a locker or a posi, so drove diagonal up the hill by my house so only 1 rear tire was on the ground, and sure enough it's a LOCKER! Took a while to get it to disengage, but maybe I was doing it wrong. Drove down the street and it unlocked. Started playing with the sunroof and had the key in the "on" position for about 5 minutes, hit the key, and it fired right up. Looks like the PO was right about it being an injector stuck wide open as I think all the fuel injector cleaner may have resolved the carbon, but maybe I'm speaking too soon. The trans shifts smooth through all 4 gears, the truck starts easily hot, cold, long key prime and no key prime. Time to make it pretty.

[bufmatmuslepants]

Rear hatch area

[bufmatmuslepants]

Rear seat leather is perfect, but the mat needs to be deep cleaned.

[bufmatmuslepants]

Driver seat is torn, duct tape holding it together, but the passenger seat is nice, carpet just needs a good cleaning. No odd smells, and even though I saw the guys wife smoking, he didnt smoke in front of me but I feared he smoked and the truck would smell like smoke, but apparently he didnt because it does not smell at all.

When did GM go to a locker? My 95 2 door Tahoe had a posi, can't remember if it had g80 or not tho, my 95 light blue z71 had the f44 package with g80 with a 14 bolt and a locker, my 95 z71 silver and blue had a 10 bolt and g80 but I couldn't get it to lock or act as a posi, but I didn't really try, I know you need 100rpm more from 1 tire to the other to engage and I never tried it like I did with the yukon today. The yukon has a 10 bolt and g80.

The SES light is still on, with it running well, so I need to read that.

[bufmatmuslepants]

Read the code, engine coolant temp sensor high voltage PO118, with the code cleared it hard starts, then throws the SES light while its sputtering after I went WOT to get it to fire, then it runs great. Ill change it when it cools down and see if that fixes ut

[bufmatmuslepants]

Here's the picture of the seat I grabbed from a pick n pull last night for $45. It has one small hole on the side, but I'm going to clean it up and possibly have a local upholstery shop replace that one piece, or if its trashed ill get the $200 bottom cover from eBay. Anyone have tips on cleaning leather? I may put the power track on the passenger side and move the controls to the right, since my passenger seat is mint.

[bufmatmuslepants]

Like a noob I forgot that the block sensor is the guage and the 2 wire t stat sensor is the PCM. I ohmed out the block sensor and got 3.5k ohms, which is accurate to the 60 degrees we had last night, and got 3.5M ohms on the t stat, so that is definitely the bad one. Ill put the correct one in tonight.

[bufmatmuslepants]

Installed the correct coolant temp sensor and the truck runs perfect after I cleared the code. I cleared the code by unhooking the battery, then got distracted and didnt hook it back up until the next day, yet my radio kept all my presets? Never had that happen before.

Bought a bottle of Lexol leather cleaner and a bottle of Lexol leather conditioner at Wally world, way cheaper than everyone describes it, they made it sound like I was going to pay $30 a bottle, but it was $5 a bottle, so not bad at all. Hoping to get a chance to try to salvage that seat from the junkyard, but Im keeping my eye on craigslist for another as Im starting to think it is too far gone.

[bufmatmuslepants]

Picked up some good condition sun visors, a rust free bumper, and a non cracked gauge bezel for $90 on Craigslist the other day. Installed the sun visors and gauge bezel, and got working on the junkyard seat. It MAY be too far gone. Haven't given up yet, it will do until I find another, but its good enough to list it. I started with Lexol leather cleaner and then started with the conditioner. I've been globbing and massaging the conditioner in about every hour. I did the rest of the seats, and the back seats are unbelieveably smooth and soft now. The passenger is coming along nice, driver still sucks. Had to rewire the seats because the one I had was different than the 95 I bought from the junkyard.

[bufmatmuslepants]

New sun visors

[bufmatmuslepants]

Passenger seat, still needs to soften up with more conditioner, then clean again, then condition again.

[bufmatmuslepants]

Junkyard driver seat sucks still. Hoping something better shows up on Craigslist soon.

[bufmatmuslepants]

My take on cleaning leather: I did a good amount of research and it the name Lexol leather cleaner and conditioner kept coming up, so I bought a bottle of each, and a set of white cleaning towels. I sprayed the Lexol leather cleaner on the seat, then used a scrub brush and worked it into the leather. It got the majority of the dirt and mold off, but there are still circles from some of the mold in the seats that I cant get out. I tried scrubbing a little harder in spots and took the grey out a little, its now a duller, darker grey in spots. The top of the seat leather piece, below the head rest, and the head rest, are extremely hard from time and sun. I had a 98 Altima that the leather had gotten so hard from a decade of sitting in the sun at Topsail Beach that they felt like sitting on wood. This is what that piece of these seats feel like. The back seats are super soft and supple now after 2 rounds of cleaner and conditioner, I want the fronts to get like that, but I don't think they ever will. The passenger maybe, but the driver is just too far gone from sitting in that junkyard with no window. I may have found another seat with a rip on the inner piece of leather, not the outer that is typical, so I may buy that seat and take the inner, non ripped piece from my moldy seats and either try to sew it on myself, or have an upholstery shop do it, if I get time. The other seat I found is heated, and he has the passenger seat that is also heated and clean too, he wants $40 for each seat, I may just get both. The only options I think this truck DIDNT have are rear AC controls and heated leather.

We leave for CT in 9 days, my plan is still to sell this truck and buy an 00-06 Tahoe by then, then fix up the 00-06 Tahoe before the trip. My wife is already starting to doubt its going to happen, so this truck may need to get the nod. I soaked the rear bumper bolts in PB Blaster last night, so hopefully tonight I can swap the rear bumpers and clean the exterior of the truck, get some pictures, and list it tomorrow. Still need to pull off the ABS sensors and clean them to hopefully fix that issue, if I cant Ill order new sensors, but Id like to save that $60 if I can. So for I am into this truck $1100 for purchase price, $90 for 1-2 shift solenoid, filter, gasket, fuel injector cleaner, and synthetic tranny fluid, $35 for synthetic 10w-30 oil and filter (Advance had a killer deal on Penz Platinum from Natural Gas), $12 for the wrong coolant temp sensor, $15 for the correct coolant temp sensor, $45 for the seat, $90 for the bumper, sun visors, and guage bezel, so $1387. Hoping to list it for $4000, and get $3500.

[bufmatmuslepants]

My new rust free bumper was a little bent, had the typical bend from someone either backing the corner into something or getting rear ended. Used some hillbilly engineering to straighten it out, but it was too dark for pictures. I put my floor jack under the bend, and a 2x4 to distribute the load to the hitch of the truck, then used the jack to push in the dent and lifting the truck. Worked pretty well. Now I just need to wash it.

[bufmatmuslepants]

Washed the truck last night and got it listed. Still looking for a nicer driver seat and need to look at the wheel speed sensors, it sometimes has the abs kick in as you come to a stop, but ill have that fixed before someone comes to see it. Craigslist is trying to stop people from putting in tons of keywords so I had to adjust my listing and casually insert them. Highly doubting ill get it sold and be able to buy another by next friday, so its looking like we will be taking this on the 1000 mile trip next weekend. Ill do $3500 to anyone on this board!

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/n...749470055.html

[Palf70Step]

You did a nice cleanup of her. the 96-99 years are one of the best looking for the Tahoe/Yukon.

[bufmatmuslepants]

So I took the ad down after a couple days when I realized I wouldn't be able to find another before the trips started. We took it to CT for its first big trip and let me tell you, it is SO NICE not having to play Tetris packing our stuff like with the Tucson, escape, or an ext cab pickup. I loaded the stroller, pack n play, all my daughters crap, my wife's crap, and my crap plus the dog and still had perfect view out the back window. Pulled a 5x10 trailer up empty and came back with my lt1 shortblock, a plow for my quad, and loaded the rest with black walnut firewood, about 3000lbs total and drove home in 32 degree freezing rain without a hiccup. It does have 1 issue that I found, cold air comes through the cup holder and the glove box, so our feet and faces were hot, but our bodies had a cold breeze, kinda annoying because my wife got most of the cold air through the glove box so we kept fighting over the heat settings. Then for thanksgiving we went to va beach and took a trip to Corrolla to drive on the beach and dunes looking for wild horses. The locker made easy work of the softest sandy hills and I never felt like I was going to get stuck. Found a pack? herd? flock? of wild horses after we started following one of the hummer tour vehicles down trails normally reserved for hummers or rubicons or big tire trucks. 3000 miles in 1 month and my only complaint was 14-16mpg average, but I never got an unloaded tank to calculate, it always had traffic or a trailer or a lot of beach time to hurt my mpg, but I was hoping for 18. Also noticed the speedo is 10% off, just like my 95 with stock tires was. The tahoe and other 95 had 33s and read accurate to the GPS, so I don't know if this is common.

[bufmatmuslepants]

Here's a pic of the horses after we followed them out of the bush towards the beach. Corrolla is beautiful, the road ends at the beach, you throw it in 4x4 and head out. My wife and I had spent a bit of time there before so we knew what to expect. When we were about to enter the beach I had a NBS Z71 in front of me and a Sheriff in a Titan with oversized aired down tires behind me, the Z71 got stuck within 50 feet, but I dont think his 4wd activated, I couldnt stop or Id risk getting stuck too and I was in his (the main) rut, so I had to gun it and turn the wheel and was able to scoot around him and get down to the packed sand that gets wet with high tide. I stopped to check on the Z71 since I brought 2 straps, but the Sheriff behind me stopped to help him also so I proceeded. The first 2 miles your not allowed to stop, then after that you can park and fish or party, and then there are access trails through the dunes to huge beach houses with zero paved or gravel roads, just deep never gets wet sand paths/trails, my brother got a kick out of seeing old ladies in tahoes and jeeps filled with groceries hammering through the sand to their beach houses as it was his first time out to Corrolla. We used to get a beachhouse every thanksgiving in Nags Head and drive on the beach at Oregon Inlet to fish, but my grandparents health has stopped that in the past few years. Oregon Inlet now requires you to purchase a beach pass to drive on the beach $50 a weekend or $150 a year (last I checked 2 years ago), such a ripoff, plus you need the $10 or so fishing license, so only locals really use Oregon Inlet beach anymore where the good fishing is, Corrolla is still free since it is technically still a road to the beachhouses. We brought our rods but saw no bluefish or striper blitzes so we didnt put a line in.

I posted it back up for sale yesterday and have 2 people coming to see it this week so far, need to fix the abs sensitivity issue by cleaning the mounting surface and replace the squeaky serp belt then hopefully I sell it and move on to the next.

[bufmatmuslepants]

Heres a pic of the family minus the baby at the beach. Baby stayed with Mimi and Granddad to give them baby time since they dont get to see her often. Charlie the lab/border collie mix didnt really like the bouncing Yukon on the beach, and the waves kept him on the sand, but he did find a big pile of horse crap that I had to keep him from rolling in. When we stopped he jumped out the back window of the Yukon to try to herd the horses with his border collie instincts. We live hear a bunch of horse farms and he made friends with one of the horses on the farm behind us, but these were wild and I didnt know how they would react, and luckily he listens to me very well and as soon as I said stop he stopped in his tracks and got back in the truck.

The questions/issues I have for anyone reading this are:

1. Is it common for OBS 95-98 trucks that the speedometer is 10% off? My 95 and this 97 Yukon, both with 265/70 tires read almost exactly 10% off the GPS.

2. What would cause cold air to come through the dash?

[killthewabbit]

Looks like it was a fun trip.

Sorry man, I have no answers for you on the speedo or the cold air.

[Palf70Step]

Nice pictures.

I am betting your air leak/draft issue deals with the heater core seals (Where it goes thru firewall).