I bought this and made big hose clamps to stop the muffler shield from rattling - worked great! Hose Clamp Assortment Kit, Cut-To-Fit 12 FT Strap + 8 Stronger Fasteners, 304 Stainless Steel, Large Long Worm Gear Band Hose Clamps Metal Clamps DIY
I am looking to replace the drip rail wiper seal thing over the slider/passenger front door in my van. I'll probably do the driver's door too. The one I have on there right now has a rip in it. I can't find any info on what this is called or where I could buy it. I took measurements, here...
A few times in 2021 the van would randomly not start when I spun the key, when I tried again it would work though. Last week, it happened a couple of times to my wife, but she figured out just the right way to hold the key when turning it to get it to start. Jiggling it doesn't work, it has to...
We got a fairly good storm a month or so ago, got like 18". I spent a few hours blasting through drifts up to 3 feet high with the van. It was fun. First pic is where I parked when I went to visit my mom, second was in the unplowed cemetery I drove around on the way home.
Only got stuck once for a few minutes when I drove onto my dad's front lawn and parked on the snowbank along the side of the road. Without momentum it needed some shoveling because I was high centered basically.
But overall, the van with these tires is a total snow beast, even with open diffs.
I went to get a real alignment after the new tires in mid January and they said my idlers were shot. I swear they are only like 5k miles old. So I had to redo them and then finally yesterday just got re-aligned. The only issue is I may have not fully cleaned out the upper control arm knockout on the rear mount of the driver's side UCA. This made it so the caster could only be adjusted to +0.8* or so. Spec is like +2.5* or so I think, but it doesn't affect tire wear, so nbd. Everything else was good.
Steering wheel is straight now - which is nice!
I'm going to have to replace the sway bar and links, and do a slight tightening of the steering box this spring to tighten things up a bit before we use the van for summer adventures.
Edit: I installed the idlers in mid-September 2020, and I think I was past 140k at that point. I'm about 146k right now. I think I have it logged when I was at 140k. I'll have to check.
Anyways, they were Mevotech GK6392T from Rockauto, so stay away from those.
The van was throwing a p0446 that I was trying to track down. My scanner can't give me the fuel tank pressure readings or command the purge solenoid to do stuff, so I kind of had to test/throw parts at it.
Vent valve tested good, but I replaced it hoping it wasn't making a complete seal.
Got a new solid swaybar from Dorman and replaced the cracked old one. Also tightened the steering box a bit. Both helped the handling, but it's still not where I want it to be yet.
Also added a little manual rear hatch pop from the inside. Just tied a piece of wire around the mechanism and sent it out a little hole. Give it a hard tug and the hatch pops - no power needed! I wanted it to be something that would work even if the van was dead or something - seems to work great.
One day my wife was driving the van. She went to get breakfast somewhere. When she came out it wouldn't start. I came and checked it out and eventually found the fuel pump wasn't priming, and found out that was because it didn't have ground.
Traced it to the connector forward of the fuel tank, right next to the evap vent valve and fuel filter. Wiggled the connector and it started!
Dumb dumb dumb..... took hours to figure that out - I thought it had ground originally, so I was looking in all sorts of other places to find the problem. Was glad to figure it out though. Especially because the next day we were leaving on a road trip to North Carolina.
So then we went on a road trip to the smokies and got some glamour shots of the van at Clingman's Dome.
The motorcycle photographers took photos of us on the "Tail of the Dragon" road west of Fontana Dam. We drove this up on our way to Cherokee. We got passed by so many speedy motorcycles - it was kind of a zoo.
Overall, the van made it without really any problems. We had an occasional misfire when hot, and the handling isn't great still. But We didn't break down at least! It was also helpful for figuring out things to work on before we take a big trip in it this summer.
Since I couldn't figure out how I'd repair the connector for the fuel pump, and I couldn't find a new one, I got a newer one and some other stuff from the junkyard.
I also replaced the steering shaft with one from a rwd van - supposedly not necessary with only a 2" body lift, but I had wanted to do this just in case for a while. The rwd shaft is like 1.5-2" longer at full extension.
The upper part of the steering shaft boot is also longer on the rwd, so I replaced that too.
Finally, I got some sliding door pieces from a cargo van to make things a little cleaner on the slider. Although it's not really much to look at lol. Oh, I also took the insulation out of the slider and made a large opening on the bottom portion that will be used for storage.
In May I had the van at the mechanics for a while. We are planning a trip out west this summer in the van, so I want to get it in tip-top shape for that.
I had them give me everything that was wrong with it, along with some help figuring out some of the issues I've been having with it.
Turns out the p0446 was due to a fault in the rather new fuel pump! No wonder I couldn't figure it out. I really wanted the light to go away, so I got a new dephi pump and replaced it. So far, so good. Old fuel pump works fine, except for the issue with the evap, so I'll keep it as a spare.
Still no progress on that random misfire - mechanic recommended a tune-up since pretty much everything else checks out and it's been 4-5 years since I did plugs and wires.
So, did a new cap, rotor, plugs, and blue streak fancy 8.5mm wires.
Replaced the air filter and wipers - also unclogged the wiper fluid, so it now flows well to the front and back.
Brakes were pulsing, again. Turns out at least one of the caliper pins was seized. So, new pads, rotors, and a thorough cleaning and re-greasing of the slide pins was in order.
The tailpipe had separated from the muffler, the clamp wasn't cutting it - so I adjusted the exhaust hangers so they weren't pulling the exhaust oddly, and used a new, different clamp. Seems ok so far.
I basically used a bolt to combine my old isolators with my new and it put things in a better spot.
My passenger side front axle seal has been leaking since I did it a few years ago, so it was time to finally do that.
I thought I may have to replace the inner wheel bearing since it seemed not too smooth, but it was ok when I compared it to a new one.
While I had it all apart, I realized how toasted my tie rods and lower ball joints were. Lower ball joints were easy to move with one finger and bushings were crusty. Tie rods were loose too.
So, added new lower control arms and tie rods to the list mid-project
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This is ongoing right now, here are some progress pics, including a crusty lower control arm bushing.
All together - new brakes and tie rods and control arm and more - minus the tie rods at this point.
Next I did the radiator - drained the coolant, figured out how to take the old one off, replaced the thermostat, re-did my brass heater valve delete by removing the rear coolant lines finally and adding ball valves to the heater core doesn't get hot in the summer if I don't want it to. I also did new mounts for the e-fan since the way I mounted it originally didn't work with a 4x as thick radiator, and I replaced the crappy "American Volt" temp sensor from Amazon (2 failed in 3 months) with a temp switch from some VW I think that has the right on and off temps - like 97C on 92C off or something. It worked great! The switch I bought was Beck Arnley 201-1312 Amazon.com: Beck Arnley 201-1312 Thermo Fan Switch : Automotive
Then it was on to the engine. To my joy, I found that removing the oil pan was even harder than I remembered it being. I think I had the transmission out last time, which made it far easier. This time, I had to unbolt the idler arms, all the bolts but one on the diff, and then do a lot of wiggling to get the pan out. This wouldn't have been so annoying if I hadn't just put a lot of that stuff back in after doing the work in the wheel wells - and if I hadn't gone into it thinking it would be as easy as las time. Oh well.
Anyways, got the oil pan off, water pump, timing cover and did a new timing cover, sleeved the harmonic balancer for fun, and then reassembled it all. Cleaning the surfaces of everything was the worst as usual, but it eventually got done.
New timing cover and oil pan gasket, finally got harmonic balancer pressed back on
Next and finally was the power steering stuff - the pump was leaking so I replaced it, along with the high pressure lines. This video by OldSchoolNoe was very helpful -
One thing I did differently is instead of buying that heinously expensive "U" shaped adapter thing to compensate for removing the evo solenoid, I just got a hose from a 2003 van since it accounts for that thing not being there pretty much. I had to do a tiny bit of hand bending but overall it was no big deal.
The big deal was twofold - one was how hard it was to get the PS pump back into it's bracket by myself - geez that was hard! Second, and far worse, was that I somehow cross-threaded the hose into the back of the pump (idiot). When I realized my mistake, I had to take the pump out (undoing my struggle of getting the pump into the bracket by myself), and then figure out what to do next. I needed a new hose since the nut on the end of the hose was toast, but nobody had one so I had to wait a day. Then the threads in the pump were wrecked too, so I had to get a special tap called a "bottoming tap" to fix them since my normal m16 x 1.5 tap didn't get all the way to the bottom. Had to wait three days for that. Basically, what I thought would be a few hours to replace the PS pump and lines turned into DAYS of delays, which was annoying AF since it was the last thing after so many other repairs.
Also, a little side note as well - I spilled so much power steering fluid on myself and the driveway and my car and other people and parts and everything over the course of the power steering work - it was incredible. It was just the most unfortunate thing.
Eventually I got the tap and fixed the threads and replaced the pump and made it all hunky dory, but it was just another reminder of how I hate working on cars.
Made sure to get a pic before removing power steering pulley so I could compare when...
Well, after putting things back together and filling up the coolant, oil, power steering fluid and getting ready to bleed the power steering as the last thing - the van wouldn't start! Wow, what a bummer that was.
The fuel pump was working, I had started it after doing the tuneup and before I did the timing cover, so I knew it wasn't my new tuneup parts, it was cranking, just not starting. Starting fluid didn't help either. So, I tried to read the codes and thankfully got a p0336 and p0339 which is crankshaft position sensor stuff. The CKP sensor was taken off and replaced to the the timing cover, so I had no idea how that could have broken it, but after testing the connector and it seeming like everything was good there I coughed up the moolah to get a new one at NAPA.
Read this code after the van wouldn't start upon reassembly - testes the wiring and such and it...
And the van started - wooo! Thank Jesus it wasn't something more complicated, because after all the repairs I was so done. I used a clay trick from a South Main Auto Repair video to gauge the number of shims needed on the CKP sensor, bled the power steering, and finally the mechanical stuff was done!!!!!!
This was supposed to be done well before the end of June, but it finallly wrapped up after the 4th of July.
We were to leave on a roadtrip around mid-July, so we had a few camper upgrade things to do before leaving. I re-mounted the roof fan to make it not rattle on the highway, we got screens we can put on the doors/windows to keep bugs out while camping, we added interior lights finally, added storage in the slider and rear doors, and some other little bits. I just have pics of redoing the fan.
Re-doing the roof fan, it wasn't closing great since it conformed to the curve of the roof when...
We managed to hit the road the night of July 13th - but when we got in the van to leave after packing it, the dash was dark when we started it! I had no idea why. Checked all the fuses, looked on the forum - eventually my wife found someone who made an offhanded comment on someone's thread about checking the dimmer switch by the headlight switch.
AHA!
I hadn't touched the thing in years, but it was rolled down all the way - a flick up and all the lights worked - YES! Felt like an idiot, but thankfully it only cost us 20 minutes instead of much more. Once we had the dash lights back on, we hit the road for Montana.
There was a leak out the rear of the transmission, may be from over filling? (I put in 1/2 quart before we left since it seemed the tranny was reading low on the dipstick). Was pretty drippy at first, but quickly slowed and seemed to stop. Along with this, when we were in the Black Hills in SD it was crazy hot and the tranny started doing this more high-pitched whine when engine braking or geting higher in rpms when manually shifting. It stayed that way the rest of the trip.... not sure what's up with that, I kind of just think maybe it's fine lol. We noticed it right when we noticed the leak, so that's what scared us most about it, but we definitely didn't run low on fluid so idk
The exhaust clamp between the muffler and tailpipe lasted maybe 100 miles lol. We got the exhaust welded in Rapid City SD
The a/c went out after we left Glacier at the end of July! One of the grille lights punctured the a/c condenser and all the refrigerant and some oil leaked out. This ended up being quite the trial for us. It was crazy hot everywhere, so we needed to fix it. There is nowhere that stocks the part, so we ended up finding one in a junkyard in Kalispell, MT. We went there and pulled it in 100* heat. Then we got all the stuff to service an a/c system from an Autozone in Polson, MT. Then the next day an Autozone in Missoula, MT let us use an outlet on the back of their store to fix the a/c in the 100* (again) heat. Well, after pulling the vacuum and everything checking out, I realized that I hadn't added in oil to the new condenser or added new oil to approximate for what had leaked out all over the old condenser. Well, in the video I was using, ChrisFix said to add oil to the line while putting the refrigerant in - ok, seems doable. WRONG ;( Turns out, this made it really hard to get the refrigerant into the system and made us leak it everywhere - then it seems like the oil is clogging the orifice or something because since then the a/c has been working intermittently. Jumping the low pressure switch or the relay doesn't do anything, nor does wiggling the compressor electrical connectors - it's got a full load of refrigerant and the required pressure, but it kind of randomly works now. It's really confusing and weird - basically, I should have disassembled and poured in the oil and then pulled a vacuum again before charging - it would have saved us hours and lots of annoyance and stress. Though it was randomly working and not working for the next week, the a/c worked on the critical part of the journey - for 5 days from Billings, MT all the way to Worcester, MA on our return trip (it finally cut out again in 90* and humid weather, but we were so close to home at that point it was ok. The temp the previous days was like 90+ everywhere so we were really glad to have had it then!
Now home, I did an oil changed and we'll see what's next. I'm hoping to not do van work for a while though.
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