Greetings Mark!



 RW>> So, he traded it for this 2006 Duramax 2500, which even has a better
 RW>> paint job thant the 2009. I thought maybe he wouldn't have to work
 RW>> on it, but, nope. His first order of business was to get under the
 RW>> hood and begin working on it.

 MH> I don't mind doing occasional repairs, but constant ones start to
 MH> wear on you. Also, trying to stay ahead of repairs/issues and not let
 MH> them get to the point where you have too many things wrong.  Those
 MH> are the ones that people end up throwing in the towel.

Well, my friend Harry, who is the service manager at a Chevy dealer about
60 miles south of here tells me that there wasn't anything wrong with any
of those trucks that a competent mechanic couldn't fix. His dealership was
the dealer that R&Red that engine for my neighbor. Apparently the harmonic
balancer came loose and my neighbor was the one who had butchered the
crank to include a bolt to keep it in place. All Chevy engines have press
fit balancers. What he did was drive it too long without the balancer and
destroyed the engine in the process.

 MH> In doing my own weekend repairs, one of my other things that I try
 MH> and do is buy the best part I can.  Nothing more irritating than
 MH> having done a repair, only to have the replaced part fail and have to
 MH> perform the same repair again.

I hear you there. But, when you're on a budget, it helps to have cheap
parts available. Best to replace them at your first opportunity though.

 MH> I had that issue with wheel bearings on my Monte Carlo.  I must have
 MH> replaced 3 or 4 of them before finally getting a decent brand that
 MH> isn't made in China (Timkin).  Had great luck with them so far, which
 MH> put an end to my revolving repairs on the wheel bearings.

I don't know if you're aware, but Chevy started to use sealed spindle
bearings around 2000 and you don't replace them with a new set of
bearings, you replace the entire spindle. It's a bolt on procedure that
only requires disassembly and re-assembly. Best part is the brake rotors
are made seperate from the spindle assembly and they can be worked on
without disturbing the spindle. OTH, every Chevy mechanic's nightmare are
the rear rotors with a parking brake-drum inside of them. My 12yo pickup
just turned over 80k and I'm thinking about doing a front brake job, but
am reluctant to tear into it and have to do spindles in another 40k...

Still, the brakes will have to be done before those spindle bearings reach
the end of their life.


    Have a day!

         R\%/itt - K5RXT

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