rszimm

So if you take the latch off that side there's a nice hole to access the back where the nut should be. I pulled that latch but couldn't find the nut in the tailgate, so I found an M8 nut in the shop, welded it to a fender washer and tack welded that to the opening so it wouldn't spin while torqueing the bolt. Worked great! So now it seems that the 3000 lbs of fiber cement I put on the tailgate while I had that cable disconnected has caused the pivots to bend a bit and the tailgate seems to be slightly racked. Any suggestions for techniques for squaring up and aligning a tailgate?

My 2002 2500HD had the cable fall off. When I went to investigate, the nut inside the tailgate must have fallen out. I'm guessing it's still inside the tailgate, but the tailgate is a welded together assembly. Even if I had the nut out, how would one go about getting it back into the hole that it's supposed to go in? Once I get it there I can probably put a few tack welds in to hold it there for the duration, but getting it there is a problem for sure...

2002 Silverado 2500 HD w/ 6.6L diesel and allision transmission. Whenever I leave the truck idle for a few days and jump in, I'll start it up, shift it into gear, and it won't move. I'll rev a bit and still nothing. I'll then move it to a different gear back and then things work just fine. I thought it was only in reverse (as it's almost always in my driveway when this happens), but today I put in in drive first and it did the same thing...nothing. I revved a bit, shifted to reverse and it went fine. I don't have any other problems with the transmission. Fluid level in the transmission seems fine. Any thoughts?

Burn them out. HMMM That's interesting.

My 2001 2500HD (2WD) is getting a complete overhaul on the front suspension. I'm replacing the pitman arm, the idler arm, the upper control arm, tie rod ends, the stabilizer link, shocks and lower ball joint. So far all of that is complete. I also bought the lower control arm bushings. Given that the steering knuckle is out, I can get the lower control arms out in about 10 minutes (2 bolts and loosen the torsion bar and I'm done). However, I've not seen any youtube videos or anything on replacing these bushings. They seem to be in good shape, but I'm a bit nervous about tearing into them and potentially damaging the control arm or otherwise opening up a can of worms on something that doesn't seem broken (yet). On the other hand, I've got the thing apart, I have the replacement parts, and I'd like to only align this thing once. What do you guys think? Is getting these rubber f-ers out a doable job. (note: I don't have a hydraulic press.. I was able to get the lower ball joints out with a big hammer and a lot of MAP gas. I still have the ball joint install tool if that'll help with the bushings) EDIT: the truck has 190k miles on it. (if that matters). All Arizona miles, so not much rust, but DAMN it was hard getting that knuckle off, the ball joint off, and the pitman arm off)