GrumpyGhost Rusty 1999 GMC Sierra Z71 Ongoing build!

[GrumpyGhost 27]

The plastic cover for the gauges cracked like 8 years ago and I never did anything about it. TILL NOW!

I was debating about a trans temp sensor and I really wanted to see if I could just install a trans temp in the stock location by getting another cluster and just stealing a step motor to put in the spot where the trans temp sensor goes on the stock 2500 diesel trucks or HD trucks.

Anyhow after some research, I had already got a cluster from and 02 suburban before researching, that basically my truck being a 99 model year takes a special cluster because of the airbags. But also I can't just install a stepper motor and the other mods that are needed without sending the cluster off to get reprogrammed.

So then I decided at least I can fix the broken plastic cover and maybe buy a custom back splash to make my cluster look cooler. Us speedo offers a kit for like $200 or so, I immediately said nah!!!

I then decided to take the needles off the extra cluster and figured out a way to paint them blue and I think it turned out great!

I also looked at the cluster and decided that I can add an aftermarket trans temp guage kn the original stock location fairly easily, so when j get some spare funds, I'll be getting a trans temp sensor and modding the cluster to fit and aftermarket sensor.

Again sorry for the paragraph on a simple mod using stock parts!

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[GrumpyGhost 27]

Its been quite awhile since i have updated this thread, Grumpyghost has been doing great. However the original 20 year old balljoints are tired and has caused the front tires to wear pretty badly. I have been slowly buying up all the parts to rebuild the front end.

Of course its all Amazon special parts besides the cv axles. I did not opt for the better moog brand stuff, i really doubt ill have a problem with this kit, even if i have to replace it again in 2 years its still cheaper than buying the moog stuff.

Parts include upper control arms, sway bar links, lower ball joints, new lower control arm bushings, pitman arm, idler arm, and a couple other things i can't recall the name to. While i did rotate the tires i have since stopped because the front end is almost done. Im probably going to finally get different rims and tires so i can upgrade the front brakes to the 05 and newer bigger ones that require at least a 17inch rim size.

Another problem that recently happened is one of my rear calipers is dragging, so in the next week or so i will be ordering (from amazon) ($218 special) the upgraded rear dual piston calipers with new rotors and pads. Currently has original single piston calipers.

For the time being to stay on the road i bought autozone duralast gt brake pads that have a lifetime warranty, so i can swap them out whenever for free! (The gt pads are cheaper and better than the gold set because they are being discontinued by autozone, $23) I didn't catch the problem in time and ended up ruining the rotor from metal on metal contact.

When i originally did the leveling kit about 2 years ago now, (time flies) i always intended to rebuild the front end within 6 months, needless to say ive put it off cause well, im a busy guy. Also ive had to rebuild my tool collection and have finally amassed the tools to do the job without it taking a whole weekend using only basic handtools. (Things like electric impact and similar associated tools to do the job like a real shop mechanic would).

Another reason for the wait is the simple fact that the truck drives perfectly fine and i still don't necessarily feel it needs to be done immediately, but tire wear and the fact i can't get it aligned is reason enough.

I still daily the truck, but i now own a cough cough ford mustang! So i don't daily it like i used to. I think the truck has like 210,000 miles now. Trans is still going strong and i never got around to adding a trans gauge.

Its been hot here in Florida so i may still wait to do this "repair " until its cools down a bit, obviously the rear brakes are an immediate problem but i haven't been towing so imma send it!

Cool tip:

All brake pads at autozone have a lifetime warranty, so when your pads wear out, you take in your old pads and swap them out for free. Just make sure you have the phone number used to register them.

As always sorry for the essay and carpe diem!

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[GrumpyGhost 27]

Bought some new used stock 17" Chevy rims, they have 265/75/r17 tires that are in great shape for a grand total of $350

Eventually ill run 35" tires on grumpy but for now i cant pass up on good tires. I ordered some black bullet lug nuts as ill be Painting the rims black but this time do all the prep work so they last. Also going to run 2" wheel spacers just for sh**ts and gigs!

As you can see my current tires have nails and terrible camber wear on them, they hold air so im still waiting till it cools down to "repair" the front end.

Currently i am dealing with what i hope to be a bad sensor saying i have low oil/check engine oil level. According the the dipstick grumpy has plenty of oil. I need to change the oil pressure sensor to see if it really is plugged up like i think it is and not currently only running 18psi of pressure at idle, i remember it used to be 40 psi at idle. Its been saying 20psi for a couple years now. Well over 50,000 miles, but maybe my oil pump is going bad or my camshaft seal is cooked and i really have crappy oil pressure possibly causing the oil level sensor to go off. Kinda scary but ive been thinking happy thoughts!

Anyhow idk if i mentioned that my abs module no longer operates and now i have a permanent abs light on. Not a big deal for me, i priced a remanufactured module at autozone and other stores, its roughly $400 to replace it. Id get one from a junkyard but they are supposedly vin locked or something along the lines of my truck being a half year from 99 and the module is different depending on the vin number ect. I used a scanner to confirm and checked my grounds.

Last but not least the tailgate will no longer latch, i had to take the handle bezel off to gain access to the rods to latch the gate closed. New parts are in my Amazon wish list, i have yet to order them as for now it works kinda sorta, just a pain in you know what.

This stuff literally broke or started acting up about 2 days after i purchased the new wheels and tires, (a week ago from this post) go figure! Oh and i found out i have a cracked washer fluid reservoir cause it wont hold fluid! I poured some in because my low light came on and it literally went straight to the ground as i poured it in. Its not a bad hose either i checked.

Cheers to the trials of a 20 year old truck. Also i have the mustang as a backup vehicle so grumpy will get a good spa treatment as i build up all these parts that has taken up an entire shelving unit and corner of my garage.

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[GrumpyGhost 27]

Grumpyghost update!

I finally started the front end rebuild!
More to come as this is ongoing but i figured id break the ice!

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[GrumpyGhost 27]

Welp, i got the lower ball joint pressed out and while im waiting for the paint to dry i figured i say that this job sucks on the ground.

I miss having a lift!!!!

My back is killing me, yes im in my late 20s and ill be okay but im still going to whine about it!

Ive lost most of my motivation already and im about 2 hours into this. Haven't started the passenger side as ill probably just start fresh tomorrow.

So basically what got all this started is grumpyghost decided to break a ujoint that i had thought was a wheel bearing and just let it ride. Reguardless one wheelbearing is about shot and i broke a wheel stud taking off the tire so its getting a moog replacement anyhow. i needed the balljoint presskit rental from autozone to fix the ujoint and figured i might as well do this job "REAL QUICK LIKE".

I am using a wire wheel on my cordless drill to clean the lower control arm and other parts that stay and are covered in 20 years of dirt grease and mostly rust. Im then doing some "REJUVENATION" with the old rustoleum black rattle can to make it all "NEW" again!

I bought new bushings for the lower control arm but they just look a bit small, they probably fit but the original still look in decent shape and im going to save myself the trouble of trying to push a bushing out without an air compressor and air chisel hammer gun or a nice torch to melt the old one out if they don't budge. Im surprised i got the old balljoint out with just the balljoint press.

Yes i know its designed for that specific purpose but the salt just does numbers on these usually simple jobs and i went into it hoping for the best and so far, probably eat these words tomorrow, its going like it supposed too.

Cheers y'all, hope your not freezing, Florida weather is beautiful right now!

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[GrumpyGhost 27]

Itss done....................And then more stuff broke!!!


After 2 days of nonstop hammering, torching, and angle grinding; the lower passenger ball joint finally released from the knuckle. As seen previously the drive side went smoothly, but it also had lots of residue from the front diff leaking and so everything stayed rust free.

The passenger side was an entirely different story. Anyhow i got it all done and took it to tire kingdom where they charge normally $80ish dollars for an alignment and for tough alignments they charge $124.

The steering wheel was way off when i took it to tire kingdom. But they are only a couple miles down the road so i didn't worry about making it perfect or close. Long story short they had an inner tie rod come loose when adjusting and called and said they wont align the truck without charging 1 man hour to go over all things and make sure they were tight since it was noticeable that i just replaced everything.

So i said fine, 7 hours later and $223 the truck is done. Drive it down the road, its perfect, no weird noises, drive straight, no problems. I decided to drive home for Christmas and loaded the truck up for the 17 hour drive. Get about an hour from home and boom, i lost most of my brake pedal going 75mph on the interstate.



I get stopped at a gas station as i had not lost all braking, go to my brake reservoir and find it almost empty. So i buy lots of dot 3 and limp home at 12am in the morning day before Christmas eve.

Next day i find the passenger front brake caliper leaking from the piston. As youll notice in the pictures from previous posts, i decided not to paint my brake calipers because i told myself that after this trip i was finally going to upgrade to the better calipers, dual piston rear calipers, and the bigger front calipers from the 2005 and newer trucks.


Long story short, parts store wants $70 per side and i knew for a long trip i would need to be safe and replace both, and then i decided to cancel my trip home to Indiana for Christmas.

I still had a good Christmas here in Florida and the truck is sitting in storage until i save enough money to replace all my brakes at once because it just seems dangerous to go at it over time.


Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays and as always, sorry not sorry for the terribly long explanations of my trials with Grumpyghost

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[GrumpyGhost 27]

Grumpyghost is still running really well.

However!!!!

I'm still running the hobbled together brakes. Its definitely safe to drive, but I am experienceing brake fade and one of the front calipers makes a nice clunky sound when you release the brakes occasionally.

I finally have the 17" rims so its time to overhaul the brakes completely. I believe I have mentioned it before but I have a set of rear dual piston calipers I got from the junkyard to upgrade my current rear single pistons calipers.

I am also ordering a new rebuilt set of the bigger front brake calipers that came on the trucks from 05-07 with drum rear brakes. They are also on the new body style trucks up until like 2015 or something but im not sure and didn't do the research.

Im not replacing my master cylinder or vacuum booster. There is a hyro assisted booster and master cylinder upgrade that I don't see as necessary for better braking.

Basically im going from 12" rotors to 13" rotors in the front and rear and bigger calipers all around amd it only works with 17" or bigger rims.

I haven't decided if im going to order a new ABS module and fix everything or just do the caliper upgrade and call it a day.

So the rear calipers I picked up at the junkyard, one has a remanufactured stamp and the other does not. I have decided to rebuild and paint them to match the black front calipers I ordered.

Finding a rebuild kit to rebuild these was a nightmare but after literal hours and having to bust out my laptop instead of using my phone I still don't know if I ordered the correct kit. (^,^) I am getting rotors and pads from autozone as they honestly have the best prices. Ill probably get new emergency brakes shoes and parts while I'm at it.

And the front rotors and pads come with the pre painted black rebuilt calipers I ordered.

I included a current photo of Grumpyghost and as you can see my spray paint job on the front bumper is coming off from the bug guts. The roof has lost most of its clear coat and is starting to come off on the hood as well. I have a few ideas to fix this, but its not a top priority right now.

I sold my mustang and now Grumpyghost is my only means of transport again. 21 years old and I would drive Grumpy across the country, but id probably do this next project first.

That being said I will hopefully be tackling this project next weekend and I plan to do it similarly to when I did the rust repair years ago, take lots of pictures and show yall on here how I did it along with pages of useless information on why and how and where and probably go off on tangets of other stuff and things and stories that have nothing to do with brakes. (^_^)

Also since I'm upgrading the brakes to stop better, that means this fall/winter its time to do some performance upgrades. transmission is starting to show its age. I will be changing the filter and fluid again while I'm working on the brakes.

I need to start looking for a 6.0l and 4l80e trans to swap into grumpyghost.

Anyhow more to come, cheers!

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[GrumpyGhost 27]

After much deliberation I decided to disassemble the caliper that doesn't have a remanufactured stamp on it and found that the pistons and seals are in great shape.

I then found the bleeder screw on the remanufactured side was cross threaded and I stripped the threads removing the bleeder, the non-remanufactured caliper bleeder was perfectly fine. So I need to get new bleeders and a tread repair kit for the one caliper.

I am not going to take apart the remanufactured caliper and im not replacing the seals on the other caliper as I feel its all in good shape.

Front calipers are ordered along with the rotors and pads.

I got the cheapest parts i could at autozone, duralast rotors with a 2 year warranty and duralast gt brake pads which are on sale because they don't make them anymore, but they are carbon fiber pads.

Also bought new emergency brake shoes and the hardware to replace my original 20 year old emergency brakes which don't work and new guide pin and bolts and seals for the rear calipers. I replaced the emergency brake lines when I rebuilt grumpy a few years ago so this should fix the emergency brake.

In other news I made a color change to Red for the calipers because I can and I already had the paint, its for engines but its the same stuff they use for painting calipers.

As always, cheers and hopefully next weekend I can give yall an update on my progress!

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[GrumpyGhost 27]

Its all assembly and ready to go.
The original bleeder thread pitch is m10 1.0, I was able to retap to m10 1.5 and found a bleeder screw to match. I ordered new banjo bolts and copper washers which will arrive tomorrow.

In case yall are wondering I used vaseline to lubricate the pistons and square cut rubber rings before I reinstalled them in the caliper. I don't know for sure but I doubt just dot 3 brake fluid would have been sufficient to lubricate the rings and not tear them before installing the pistons which is not easy for most people unless you've done it before. Its all petroleum based fluids so itll be fine.

I put antizeese on the new pin boots and pins before installing, I will aslo add some to the contact points of the brake pads on the caliper but am waiting until installation on my truck.

Im considering doing the rear brakes after work one evening this week, we shall see what the hot humid Florida weather does.


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[GrumpyGhost 27]

It went pretty easy!
Channel lock on rubber brake line, loosen bolts holding brake caliper, brake free the brake line. Remove old caliper!

The emergency brakes were a little bit to figure out how to remove the shoe, but after some finesse it was and easy swap with new parts, then I fit the rotor and adjusted accordly.

I was also working on this in between rain storms as we had a tropical storm go right by us. But ultimately it was a pretty straightforward swap of parts, everything fit well, and i used a hand vacuum pump to bleed the brakes by myself.

In the photos you can see how much bigger the new rotors are and i can definitely tell a difference in braking. Big improvement!

Still waiting for the front calipers to come in the mail, I will document that swap as well!

Until then, peace!

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[GrumpyGhost 27]

Grumpy got a new set of shoes.
265/70r12 Atlas crosswind ALL Terrains

Not the big 33s I wanted but these were $427 delivered to my door and I got them balanced and mounted for $40. I'm going to save for new rims and tires. I thought these stock ones would grow on me but I don't want to paint the nice chrome black.

I might try and do a trade on Facebook marketplace for someone who is looking to go back to stock rims and I pay cash or idk yet, but I needed tires and I don't want drop $2000 on a set up right now.

Also last week my water pump blew a seal and was spitting water all over the engine bay on my 40 min commute to work one morning, I made it to work but the temps sky rocketed to 230°F. Anyhow I replaced that as well but its so hot here in Florida I didn't document it.

Still haven't done the front brakes yet, I'll get to it eventually! Cheers!


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[GrumpyGhost 27]

First off Happy New Years!!

Grumpy has developed the typical ticking/knocking sound at idle, I have 20 psi oil pressure which grumpyghost has been that way for the past 2 years or so. Tomorrow i will be dropping the oil pan and replacing the oil pickup up tube o ring and leaking oil pan gasket. This is a 4x4 unit and its been leaking oil for years and years and years.....i have watched YouTube videos of how guys sneak the oil pan just under the diff. But something tells me it would just be easier to take the extra 20 bolts off the cv axles and disconnect the electrical and drop it out of the way. We shall see though!

It will also let me look at the condition of the 220,000 mile 4.8l engine and determine if it will be okay for heads cam package in the very near future. Since this is a gen III 4.8l early rendition it has heads with the smaller intake valves and a complete head swap is really the way im looking at going as long as the bottom end looks alright.

The Florida sun has wore down my clear coat and i didn't put in the time to wax my truck so the paint has gotten ugly! Also my original grill broke the rest of the way and i had to source a "new used" one so it has a chrome grill again. I also decided I don't like my 17" rims and tires and bought a set of stock 20" rims that are pitting and need sanding and i won't feel bad about painting them. Still looking for a deal on a 2001-2002 chevy Silverado HD hood for grumpy.


BASICALLY ILL BE BACK TOMORROW WITH MORE PHOTOS AND HOPEFULLY NOT BAD NEWS!

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[GrumpyGhost 27]

Its a cloudy hot humid day here in Florida. Pretty much spot on with the work I've been doing to this truck. Almost ominous/foreshadowing that im going to lower the oil pan and see something i don't like.

Anyhow I Got the front differential lowered, about to start taking off oil pan bolts. Started at about 9:30a.m., currently 1pm. Ive also been taking my time and not rushing. I went and picked up a harbor freight electric wrench because why not. I don't do this enough to warrant buying the Milwaukee one and it was cheaper still with the warranty and one extra battery.

I went ahead and got a new oil pressure sensor from autozone because its under a lifetime warranty and might as well have all new fresh parts so i don't ever have to touch this again hopefully!

My oil leak is evident by the crazy oil caked crossmember and skid plate. Time for lunch! Cheers to 2021!

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[GrumpyGhost 27]

The cylinder walls look good and still have crosshatching, but SLUDGE MONSTER!

I am going to clean everything as best i can without a parts cleaner on hand so just some brake clean. The sludge is everywhere! Im going to be running seafoam in the oil to try and clean out the engine a bit after this.

Basically i didn't see excessive wear on the cam and really saw nothing besides sludge. Im going to send it, i don't have a check engine light, no codes or anything other than the oil pressure being low. Im going to slap it all back together and call it good as long as the oil pressure comes back, otherwise off comes the front end for a new oil pump.

I didn't take a photo of the windage tray side facing the crank, but it had very little sludge compared to the bottom you see in the photos. Just remember 220,000 miles, about half its life on dinosaur and the other half on synthetic oil

Did i mention my rear main seal is completely dry! Some good news lol

New nick name: GRUMPY THE SLUDGE BOY!

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[Grumpy Bear 3,743]

Do you mind my asking how often you change oil? You mentioned about half and half dino v synthetic, right? so about a 100 each plus minus? Also since it's been on synthetic...which one? OCI is most important of the three to me if you please. 

 

Thanks!!