Like I REALLY need another project right now.... *sigh

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Koots
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Re: Like I REALLY need another project right now.... *sigh

Post by Koots »

Those Venture grilles are big and cheap plastic. I busted up 2 grille shells on my ol' 98 GMC Sierra and they usually cracked into a few pieces that would look horrible still attached.


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DTMAce
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Re: Like I REALLY need another project right now.... *sigh

Post by DTMAce »

LOL

Well, I just plunked down $270 bucks at RockAuto. Bought:

2001 DODGE GRAND CARAVAN 3.3L V6
AIRTEX 4P1336 (JA1474) Blower Motor Control Module / Resistor $ 12.70 $ 0.00 1 $ 12.70
AIRTEX 4P1335 (JA1473) Blower Motor Control Module / Resistor $ 12.09 $ 0.00 1 $ 12.09
DORMAN 84791 Headlamp Socket $ 6.11 $ 0.00 1 $ 6.11
DORMAN 38414 Door Hinge Pin & Bushing Kit $ 5.85 $ 0.00 2 $ 11.70
MONROE BX761 Parking Brake Shoe $ 15.77 $ 0.00 1 $ 15.77
POWER STOP KOE4458 Rotor & Brake Pad Kit $ 150.89 $ 0.00 1 $ 150.89
RAYBESTOS H5025W Caliper Guide Pin $ 2.20 $ 0.00 2 $ 4.40
RAYBESTOS H7304 Parking Brake Hardware Kit $ 15.59 $ 0.00 1 $ 15.59
RAYBESTOS H5671A Disc Brake Hardware Kit $ 8.04 $ 0.00 2 $ 16.08
Discount $ -12.27
Shipping First Class Mail, Priority Mail, Ground $ 36.38
Order Total $ 269.44
MasterCard -$ 269.44

Of course I screwed up and forgot to order 2 additional sets of caliper guide pins, so I need to order those now. Ugh. LOL

For the first day this week, it wasn't raining outside, so I pulled the headlights out of the van. OMG.

That was so...... rednecked rigged, it wasn't even funny. But I do have a question:

What would cause the head light wiring to only put out about 6-7 volts (on a digi volt meter) on both the normal or bright circuit when the lights are turned on? I can flip the brights on and off, even the bright indicator comes on. But the dash reports the headlight bulbs are out, and I don't even see 12+ volts at the wire. Is this normal, (in that it needs to "see" a bulb in order to work) or could this be a different issue which is what led to the headlights being by-pass wired by the previous owner?

It was bad. He had soldered the wiring directly to the BULB on the passenger side, but had clipped and cut the wiring etc, then twisted an taped some of it together, others he used wire nuts. It was ridiculous. I ripped all that mess out, now I have to reattach the one socket I have, plus install a new one that I ordered above. But if I need to replace a relay or something, I just wondered if anyone had an insight on this.. Thanks.

Edit:

I have bought a used battery (I can get exchanges at a local yard for 20 bucks) and that seems to have fixed several issues, for one the passenger window now will roll down, and the radio now works. lol

Already spent money on two jugs of prestone, some cans of engine and brake cleaner. Have to get oil, filter, air filter, spark plugs, and wires yet. OH. And a radiator and some new or nice used headlights. I can get new ones from RA for 40 each, which is cheap. I can get a whole new front bumper for 72 plus shipping. lol


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Rettax3
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Re: Like I REALLY need another project right now.... *sigh

Post by Rettax3 »

Have you also rechecked the headlamp supply-voltage now with the new battery? Honestly, if it was so bad that the radio wouldn't turn on, 6-7 volts sounds like possibly all that was available...

Otherwise, and I apologize as I am just guessing here, but either a short somewhere bleeding current to ground, or just a really badly spliced wire/corrosion on the wires, or potentially a bad headlamp sensor module. I don't know how the headlamp sensor is set up on your van (so this is the guessing part), but I know if the lamp sensor modules go out in my '85 Nissan 300ZX Turbo, the lamps typically won't work at all. Dito for my '82 Honda 750 motorcycle, which has a digital warning system complete with microprocessor-controlled 'brain' that monitors headlight (high and low beams), taillights (two bulbs, tail and brake filaments monitored individually for each), coolant level (yes, it has a liquid-cooled engine, common now but in '82, not so common, even rarer in that it is a 90-degree V-4, not an inline engine), oil-pressure, fuel-level (also has a digital bar-graph fuel gauge, and of course a one-gallon reserve accessible by turning the fuel-selector knob by the rider's left knee leaving little excuse for running out of gas. As a totally unrelated side-note, when I used to tour the country on this bike, I also started carrying around a five-gallon Jerry-can, with a low-pressure GM TBI in-tank fuel-pump, hooked up so I could re-fuel the bike's main tank while riding, at the flick of a switch. Refueling and taking-on ten gallons at a time on a motorcycle was fun, got a few odd looks back then) and battery electrolyte level. It also displays gear position: neutral or first through the Over-Drive sixth gear... Anyway, a bad sensor on the van could be causing you to loose voltage for the lights. When the headlamp sensor died on my Honda, it took me a while to figure out what the problem was. I eventually had to wire past the sensor, because a replacement was something like $150. Likewise, the tail-lamp sensor on my 300ZX (actually, it was my non-turbo 300 that the sensor died on, come to think of it, but it is the same either way) failed, and I had to re-solder some of the internal connections before I had tail lights on the right side without bypassing the sensor module. Dodge/Chrysler might be set up differently, but I doubt it, so a failure in the sensor might cause you to loose all or some (depending on the failure itself) of the voltage to the lights. I'm betting on a bad connection or a short though, if the new battery didn't fix it.


1989 SuperCharged 3800 Srs-II (First)Six-Speed GTU
1990 Turbo 3.4 5-Speed T-Type
1990 4.0L 4-Cam 32-Valve V-8 5-Speed Indy GTi (Project)
1990 Stock(!) 3.1 MPFI Auto Indy
1995 LA1/L82 4T60E Z-26
1995 3.4 DOHC Turbo 5-Speed Z-26
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DTMAce
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Re: Like I REALLY need another project right now.... *sigh

Post by DTMAce »

Updates as of yesterday:

Got the Rock Auto order in. Have also bought oil and filter.
Ordered a new radiator for 73 bucks off of Ebay.
Ordered two new headlights for 80 (for the pair) off of Ebay as well.
Got those in last week.
Also hit the junk yard and pulled:
Rear hatch motor.
In-dash stereo with cassette and optional 4 disk CD changer (Factory)
Driver's side mirror.
Some bolts.
Got all that for 132 bucks.

This past weekend while the kids were here, I pulled the radiator, repaired the transmission cooler, cleaned the entire radiator area (it was bad) installed new radiator, fixed bumper position (it was sagging down) refastened everything. Cleaned entire engine bay, cleaned battery terminals, removed, cleaned and reinstalled headlight module, installed two new headlight sockets, soldered, heat shrinked, etc. Installed the new radio. Found out the old one was out of a jeep and wasn't even bolted in! Idiots. Damn thing didn't work right anyway. New one works perfectly, after I rebuilt the disk changer. Installed the mirror, the fan speed controller for the front, (still have to do the rear one) purged air from the coolant, got heat now in the cabin. Installed new windshield wipers. Actually gave it a bath too.

Still have left to do:

Change oil.
Change plugs (eventually)
Fix all four brake rotors.
Get 4 new tires put on.
Road test and see what else is fucked up. Basically.


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DTMAce
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Re: Like I REALLY need another project right now.... *sigh

Post by DTMAce »

Well, this is now on the road.

Changed the oil. OMFG. It was like kayo syrup. Cept black. And thicker. Took an HOUR to drain to the point where I said hell with it. The filter was unrecognizable, it was so disgusting. But get this. Not a single drip of oil on the bottom anywhere. NOTHING. 208k miles and doesn't even drip fluid. Damn. My 03 isn't that dry by any means. Going to run it for 1 or 2k, pour in some seafoam, run it a tad more then change it again. Even one change to mobile 1 won't fix it. 500 miles now and its still black. Ugh. Bet it starts leaking once I get the sludge out though. Any takers?

Plugs, not yet.
Fixed the brake rotors. But all 4 calipers were screwed. 3 were seized. One had a stripped guide pin. I replaced the 3 seized ones, the other I temp fixed it, till I can squeeze another 50 bucks out of my ass to get the last caliper and replace the whole thing. Then they all will be new. But the brakes now work damn good. plunked 500 into new tires with new lug nuts.
Runs great. Quiet. Smooth. Better than the 03. Have a rattle from the worn sway bar linkage, but that's an easy fix. Needs an O2 sensor, throwing a lean code but running pretty rich. Stinky even. Dealer stated O2 or Cat bad. Problem is, I don't know how many O2's it has yet. LOL

Pretty happy with it though, despite it having a lot of miles, it runs really good. Not bad for 250+parts (around 1300 total).

Will put up new pics later.

With regards to the question about the headlights, the problem was with the headlight module. On these vans, its a sliver box mounted on the front of the fuse center under the hood, beside the battery. It needed removed, cleaned, the "fingers" slightly twisted, then electro greased and put back together. Boom. Fixed. Headlights work great, cept somehow I friggin got the brights and lows feeds backwards so I have to fix THAT now. But again, that's an easy one.


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Rettax3
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Re: Like I REALLY need another project right now.... *sigh

Post by Rettax3 »

DTMAce wrote:Well, this is now on the road.

Changed the oil. OMFG. It was like kayo syrup. Cept black. And thicker. Took an HOUR to drain to the point where I said hell with it.
Hey, when you are done, I've got a bunch of PM work waiting on my vehicles... You've got time now, right? :crazy:

My "new" '88 Camaro I bought from the junk-yard, it hadn't gotten processed yet, so the fuel-tank hadn't been punctured and the cat hadn't been cut, and the wheels had not been touched. But, it was missing the T-Top glass (I had three or four sets at home and no T-Top car to put them on), and had a blown head-gasket, and empty Pennzoil bottles in the back, poor car!

In case you were wondering why I mention this, after I drove the car home (I didn't really care much about the engine, although years later now it is still running great and has towed other cars, trailers, and motorcycles across country and several states), I went to drain the oil, which was incredibly thick... I eventually moved on and began work on pulling the intake and cylinder heads, finally poured gasoline down the lifter-valley to try to thin the oil-mixture down, finally put new gaskets in place and re-assembled the engine, and then gave up and went to sleep. More than 24 hours later, that muck was still oozing out of the oil-pan! Y-yyuuuuucc-kk-kk!! And it wasn't black, either, that wouldn't have been as disgusting.

Nice work on the van though, I'm glad you found the headlight issue too. Amazing that the brakes were that bad.


1989 SuperCharged 3800 Srs-II (First)Six-Speed GTU
1990 Turbo 3.4 5-Speed T-Type
1990 4.0L 4-Cam 32-Valve V-8 5-Speed Indy GTi (Project)
1990 Stock(!) 3.1 MPFI Auto Indy
1995 LA1/L82 4T60E Z-26
1995 3.4 DOHC Turbo 5-Speed Z-26
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DTMAce
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Re: Like I REALLY need another project right now.... *sigh

Post by DTMAce »

Brakes were awful. Not even sure how I made it home with it the day I bought it. Not to mention the parking brakes. I pulled the rear rotors to discover..... That there was NO parking brake hardware installed at all! So I went to put in the new hardware, well the backing plates are complete crap. So, unfortunately, I have to get replacement backing plates before I can fix the parking brakes properly. Ugh. So for the time being, that is still not setup.

I was trying to compress the brake calipers with a C clamp, right? I BENT one, they were stuck so bad. Could have torn them apart and rebuilt them, but didn't want to fool with that, after discovering this. And after buying all new guide pins and bushings, I didn't need any of that crap since the new calipers came with everything already to go! Arrrrg! And the part that is stripped out on the one I have left to change will come with the new front caliper. Its an assembly, that includes both the caliper and the mounting bracket! We had welded the hole and retapped it, just so I could tighten the pin up proper. But I don't like it, so its got to change. May as well. lol

One wheel was slightly bent, but not bad enough to worry about. And its bent through the center, not at the rim edges. That would have taken a heck of an impact to get that to bend me thinks.

SO yeah, I think I will have around 200 bucks into all 4 calipers when I'm done. 200 into rotors and pads. 200 in other stuff. 500 in tires. It adds up. But I'm still good on overall cost so far. To buy one like this in decent shape could have easily been 500-1500 more, and I wouldn't have new tires and brakes either.


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Re: Like I REALLY need another project right now.... *sigh

Post by DTMAce »

Pics for you all. Sorry, they are links. Took shots of both the 01 and the 03 (red molten pearl)

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This last one was a pic of a blue van across the alley, who blew their engine up after ignoring the fact that it wouldn't hold coolant. Idiots. It would have been an easy save otherwise.
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Edit, fixed some of the links, sorry bout that.


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