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jseabolt

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About jseabolt

  • Birthday 07/16/1970

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    http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd148/turbofiat/

Profile Information

  • Name
    James
  • Location
    Hawkins County, TN
  • Gender
    Male
  • Drives
    1998 1500 Express 350 ci

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  1. Today I got in my 98 1500 Express 5.7 liter to start it. The last time I drove this van last Saturday and it was running fine that day and up until I shut the ignition off. It was even pouring down rain that day like it has been. The engine turned over but the engine would not start. After several attempts to start the van I gave up. I had to go somewhere so my wife and I went in her car. When I turned the starter over, the engine sounded like it was trying to start but was flooding out. I could smell gas. The one thing I noticed was the entire engine was covered in condensate where it's been raining and extremely humid. My thought was due to this condensate may have been messing with the computer. When I got home 2 hours later, the engine was dry. I go to start the engine and it seemed to struggle a bit at first like it was doing earlier but idled just fine. I plugged my code reader into the port and the only thing it shows is that pesky bank two O2 sensor error code that has been going on for years. Off the subject: The check engine light comes and goes because of that code. Several years ago the engine was dumping fuel into the exhaust because it was misfiring on #7 and #3 cylinders due to a bad rotor button and/or distributor cap. Ever since the ECU is flashing a code telling me the cat converter is bad. Most likely because it was dumping fuel into the exhaust and may have fried the converter. I've tried replacing the O2 sensors and doing the no-foul insert trick. Even a muffler shop checked the converter and said it was working. Gas mileage is still around 9/16 mpg. That's been almost 7 or 8 years ago, The only thing I can think of is the engine compartment was "wet" from condensation and after it evaporated, it's fine. But it's not like it's not humid where I live anyway. I was prepared to disconnect the connectors to the ECU and spray them with WD-40 when I got home but whatever happened must have corrected itself. There is a shield in the engine compartment above the ECU that says "Do not remove" which is suppose to protect the ECU from water getting into the connectors. Any thoughts on this?
  2. Please take a look at this photo: https://drive.google.com/open?id=14jRnrytnWI3Knvfw4soE3_vUnBEB86Ze The lock has moved inwards away from the door handle. The locking mechanism still works but I have to use a ILCO copy of the original key (without the GM black plastic around the base) in order to unlock the door without the key fob if that makes sense. I have only one key fob and my wife has the original key so she complains about having to unlock the van using the side door. Maybe I just need to swap keys with her in the meantime. This is conversion van so there is more to taking this door panel off than just a regular cargo van (like a bunch of screws). I'm just curious if there is a nut behind the lock that has somehow backed itself off from years of slamming the door. The middle and rear door locks are not like this, just the drivers and passenger doors.
  3. After suffering two sidewall failures with Michelin truck tires on my 98 1500 Express conversion van, I decided to go with another brand. The guy at the tire store had no answer as to why the sidewalls were blowing out on these truck tires. They are rated for the weight. Anyway after 20,000 miles these Wild Country tires are about worn out. These are 235/75R15 XRT Radials. I wouldn't call these high performance tires. I did have them on the front for awhile but they are on the rear right now. Due to these Michelin sidewall failures, I can't say these tires are actually rotated as you would expect. I have some unheard of Korean brand on the front that seem to be wearing OK but seems to vibrate at over 70 mph. They may just need to be rebalanced. Not sure which brand I will try next.
  4. I just checked the level in the reservoir. According to the dipstick the level when cold is with the reservoir about half full. When I last checked it, the level was half full, most likely where it needed to be to begin with! There is a short window between the add mark and full when cold. Like 3 or 4 ounces. I siphoned some out of the reservoir down to the add when cold mark and will monitor. I guess I did not take into account that power steering fluid expands as it get's hot. I knew automatic transmission fluid expands but didn't think about the power steering pump generating heat. I'm thinking I may just overfilled the reservoir and it was blowing it out around the cap. Since there was fluid on the reservoir as well as the ECU, frame and steering box. Who knows it could have been leaking from the hose as well as the reservoir cap. It probably wasn't a bad idea to change the hose anyway being the van is 20 years old. I replaced the high pressure hose a couple of years ago because it was blowing fluid all over the engine compartment. Dad just about lost his 76 Chevy pickup one day. He installed an external transmission cooler and one of those hoses busted in 25 years later and the truck suffered an engine fire.
  5. Yeah. Before I left the auto parts store I made sure the new hose had an O-ring with it. The O-ring with the old hose was just like the other one where it was stuck on the fitting. I noticed it was concave shaped. I don't know if the other end was also concave and it just conformed to it's shape over 20 years. One of the biggest issues was trying to compress the ends of that stupid clamp with a pair of pliers. I hate those type clamps and usually replace them use a worm type clamp and a 1/4 socket and ratchet. While I was cleaning up my tools, I decided to clean the old hose up as well just to see if I could tell if there was anything wrong with it. I thought just for kicks I'd cover one end and shoot some compressed air in the other end and stick it in my parts washer to see if any bubbles may form around the hose.
  6. Been awhile since I made this post. So today I decided to replace the low pressure hose. I went to another autopart store. Kind of hard to tell but here's what the leak looked like: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1nr2fckW_zTnhivCc9HQNky0tWLg6Dc58 The hose wasn't cracked but could have been a worn O-ring. I de-greased the area and will monitor any fluid leakage. I did have one of those "DUHH" moments. I wonder if I over filled the reservoir and as the fluid got hot it expanded and was leaking from the cap. When I posted this, the reservoir was half full below the dipstick so there must have been a leak.
  7. The guy at the autopart store had me to turn the steering wheel in both directions and said he never saw any fluid coming from the low pressure hose. You made a good point on something I forgot to ask. I don't remember the O-rings until I looked up this photo of a power hose but I'm assuming new hoses came with them. Usually anytime I replace a rubber seal (even brake caliper seals) I give them a good coating with Dow Corning's O-ring and valve lubricant before installing them.
  8. So about a year ago, I started smelling something from the engine compartment while waiting at red lights and what resembled steam. I knew power steering fluid was going somewhere because there was fluid all over the frame below the pump. Initially I thought maybe the pump seal was getting worn so I put a few CCs of that White Shepherd stop leak in the fluid. OK I know what you guys are thinking. This stuff is snake oil but I've used this stuff many times and I've always had good luck with it. It's always stopped the leak and caused no ill effects. Well that didn't fix it. Apparently the high pressure hose was leaking from around the fitting. I was going to replace both hoses but the guy at the auto part insisted that the low pressure hose never goes bad. Really? So I just replaced the high pressure hose at the time. This seemed to slow the leak down. Before heading off to Washington D.C. in November for a car show (yeah in the middle of D.C.) I topped the reservoir off as well as a quart of motor oil every 2000 miles as usual. So when I get back (~800 mile round trip) the reservoir is half full so it's lost that much since. And there is fluid on the frame and both hoses. But just from looking at the pump, I cannot see any fluid around the pump itself. I went back to the auto part store to inquire about a low pressure hose. I asked him to take a look to see if he could tell where the leak was coming from. He looks briefly at it (said it was too cold for him to be outside). He still insists that the low pressure hose cannot possibly leak because there is no pressure on it. He says it's the pump and it's "dripping" onto the frame and hose fittings. So it just looks like it's coming from one of the hoses. Here is what baffles me. If the seal was bad on the pump, wouldn't it be slinging fluid all over the place? On to the belt causing it to squeal? Reason being is I work at a chemical plant and when a pump seal fails, it sprays out in all directions. This guy has been helpful to me in the past so that is why I try to do business with him instead of the chain stores. He has ran the independent auto part store here in town for ages. Unlike those high school drop outs the chain stores hires that knows nothing about cars. The alternator went out on this van and I decided to replace the idler and tensioner pulleys and serpentine belt while I was at it and one of the chain auto part stores kept giving me the wrong parts. He even put a new belt on it in outside the store for me to make sure this one was going to fit. This time it seemed I was taking up his time trying to rush me out of his store. Something about having to put his parts order in before 10:30 or it would be delayed a day. Anyway. I was thinking about replacing the low pressure hose (can't hurt) because it's much easier than replacing the pump to see if this stops the leak. One thing I have not checked is the hose from the reservoir. It could be leaking from this hose. What do you guys think? If the pump seal was bad, wouldn't it be slinging power steering fluid, not dripping it?
  9. So the high side pressure hose on my '98 1500 Express 143,000 miles finally decided to spring a leak. Well it had been leaking for awhile, just got worse all of a sudden. So I get a new hose and before installing it decided to see what line wrenches the fittings take. The small fitting that goes into the steering box (or rack?) was 5/8". Flip the wrench around to 11/16" and it won't fit the larger nut. I get out my digital caliper and measure both nuts. The small nut comes to 15.9 mm, the bigger nut comes to 17.9 mm. I thought perhaps it was just the new hose but the fittings on the factory hose are also 16 and 18mm. HMMMM. I look through my toolbox and I have no 16/18 mm line wrenches. I go down to the autopart stores and they have none. Of course they had nothing as well. Do they even make a 16/18mm line wrench? I go through both sets of my metric wrenches and I don't even have an 18mm wrench ! However I did have an 18mm stubby. I couldn't get enough torque on it so I placed an old jack handle I use as a cheater bar on the closed end and smacked it with a hammer to break it loose. I didn't care if I rounded it off or not. So i resorted to using the 5/8" line wrench at the rack or steering box and the 18mm stubby on the larger nut going into the bottom of the pump. My last resort was to use an adjustable wrench but luckily it didn't come to that. My question is has anyone ever ran into this before? Why would GM use an 18mm fitting when an ordinary 18mm wrench is not even that common.
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