Burl -- 2003 GMC Safari soon to be camper

[MechBob]

You may fix your issue with gauge by fixing those wires.But you can buy the sender separate from a pump unit,if you are interested. Defiantly solder the wires.

[pmou]

So I just went through and tested all the wires.. 0ohm on both black to battery neg, 0v/0ohm from one black to the other. grey (power) has 13.8v across either ground reference while running. filled the tank and purple is at 252ohm to either ground. so, it's slightly above "full" which the manual says should be 250ohm but I wouldn't think that would be enough to totally peg the fuel level? also, I then parked on a hill and the fuel sender then measured 246ohm... so should be a little below full by the manual. however my gauge still says over full. so I guess perhaps it's something in the lines further along, before the instrument cluster or PCM? not sure on this one.

[pmou]

ok correction -- the reference voltage (black/white) is about .15-.2v off the neg terminal, about 3ohm. ground to fuel pump is about .02v

[Leeann_93]

Yeah, that gear was toast quite a while ago. Yikes.

[MechBob]

I hate to be captain obvious,but you posted this--"He said he replaced the fuel pump, and after that the fuel gauge reads way above full when filled, and then drops super fast for the last 1/4 or so". Therefore,why waste time,the next step would be to replace the sender,if it bothers you.I can tell you my 96 does almost the same thing,after I replace the pump/sender unit with aftermarket,and it is different than yours,old metal tank.My 94 has been replaced with aftermarket,and works the same as factory.In most GM's,you could go quite a ways with the needle in the red,but not in my 96,now.But,i rarely run my vehicles that low,as I do not like straining fuel pumps.

[pmou]

I've ordered a Delphi fg0288 fuel pump assembly (decided I'm just going for it while we are here), Pcv valve and hose, and the dist.

Also ordered a class 3 hitch. Should have this guy all buttoned up before the end of the weekend, and then will be towing an 85 f-150 for a friend across town. I'm thinking that should provide enough load to re-trigger the misfire. or at the very least be a significant stress test of the whole system. will report back after all that at the latest.

[pmou]

got the dist in this morning. definitely a bit less play -- probably a few mm if measured around the edge of the dist. looks to be a skip white, all brass contacts, and a leading w on the back.

Should have the fuel pump, Pcv hose, and trailer hitch showing up sometime today.

[pmou]

Couple more updates:

Installed the fuel pump, pcv, and new hitch. The previous hitch... was not to be trusted haha. Taking it apart required 3 different sockets as there were various bolts of who knows what grades thrown in there. Including a bolt from my own bumper that was missing and another that was pulled from the bumper and replaced with random hardware. Why.. I don't know.

Fuel pump got the readings correct on the gauge. No misfires as of yet and no SES light! finally had the doghouse back on for over 7 days straight, a good feeling.

This evening i went to look at draining the coolant... on every car i've owned this has been as simple as: There's a very obvious hose on the block that is the lowest hose (usually coming out of water pump) -- remove that. And also the lowest one on the radiator. Done.

Well, silly me. It appears that my 03 doesn't have a rad drain plug? I felt a small smooth surface below the oil line that is below the lower rad hose in the radiator, which from what i gather is where the drain plug is in the earlier models. The hose on the radiator and the water pump is basically impossible to get to. And supposedly there's some block drains? i saw a couple "bolts" going into the block just forward of the oil filter & the starter that it seems like people have identified as the block drains? And somehow in the 2003 service manual I can't find any coolant draining procedure?

Even searching the forum I can't seem to find any real consensus --- maybe except that "pretty much removing everything" works?

[Leeann_93]

Pull the lower hose. The ‘03 to ‘05 stock rad doesn’t have a petcock. Dunno why; every other Astro/Safari I have has at least one petcock and 1 (or two, can’t remember) even has two petcocks.

[pmou]

Pull the lower hose. The ‘03 to ‘05 stock rad doesn’t have a petcock. Dunno why; every other Astro/Safari I have has at least one petcock and 1 (or two, can’t remember) even has two petcocks.

Thanks for the fast reply. Due to the orientation of the hose clamp it seems removing the fan shroud is in order. I was able to get at it quite easily actually by removing the coolant / wiper reservoir.. however the part that needs to clamped to loosen it was not in a great spot from this angle. ugh.

Is there not low spots in the block that will hold coolant?

[pmou]

Oh also another small one -- the swivel seats are going to be shipping earlier that the original estimate, currently says they should be here around sept 8, so after I move i'll start working on that whole thing.

[Leeann_93]

If you can get to the block drains and you can get them loose, then you want to do that. You likely will have to poke something in the holes to loosen the crap and allow coolant to drain. They’re usually pretty crusty.

Yes, I pull the upper fan shroud at a minimum - and usually the lower, too - to drain the rad. While you’re there, unless your hoses look brand new, consider replacing at least the upper and lower rad hoses.

I have remote hose clamp pliers - suckers are worth their weight in platinum. Doesn’t matter where the hose clamps are, they can get to them.

[pmou]

hah ok you convinced me, I just ordered a set of those. I have always drooled over them while memories of me swearing with my wrists nearly broken, up to my shoulders in an engine bay float through my mind.

And I guess this task has officially been upgraded from "afternoon with no planning" to "hopefully done in one shot."

The hoses looked good I thought and felt nice and firm to a squeeze. I'll give them a second look before I decide for certain that I'm gonna leave them.

[Leeann_93]

I bought them after the nightmare of replacing the heater core on my ‘92 Lumina. The hose clamps were on the bottom (and standard GM spring clamps) and you couldn’t get to them from underneath. My now-husband, then-boyfriend, spent 2 hours laying across the engine and reaching down with various pliers to get them into a position to be able to remove them.

That was after the whole 5-min job of removing the cover and screws from the inside of the car and the further 5 mins of unbolting the dog bones (torque struts) at the front of the car and ratchet-strapping the engine forward to give enough room to get an arm down there.

We were cussing about that job at Thanksgiving dinner a week later and his stepbrother told us about the remote pliers - I bought them the next Monday after work and have never regretted the purchase.

If they don’t feel crunchy or smooshy and the ends aren’t chewed up, they’re probably okay.

[pmou]

OK well a few condensed updates. Been busy tearing my hair out on this lift. Got the lift done, along with leaf spring bushings. Ended up buying a new set of wheels that came off a Sierra. Buyer also had tires (265/70 16) that were a little bigger that I wanted, but he was asking $500 wheels and tires.. which would mean my car didn't need to be sitting on blocks while I had the current wheels mounted up so I pulled the trigger. Center caps are pretty dinged up by some fool he had remove them with idk what.. a clawfoot hammer or something.

The lift went a bit slow due to the leaf spring bushings I ordered not being the right size. Tried to follow the thread started by cargo crawler, however it appears that the gen 3s may have a different ID than other years. Not sure honestly. Ended up finding some from Offroad designs out of carbondale, CO. I think they are intended for a Jimmy or something like that

Back to the P0101 again. I updated the thread I started specifically about that.. If anyone wants to take another look and share their thoughts, it's here: https://www.astrosafari.com/viewtopic.p ... 4&start=40

I've started to wonder if it could possibly be the lower intake manifold gasket, especially given that it seems to be all sorts of codes alongside it at various points in time...

Have a few pics of the lift and finished product here in a minute..

[pmou]

Some lift pics...

before...

after...

ended up using a lot of sawzall and grinder

also torch. apparently, the best way to remove rubber bushings

Lifted rear to install shackles and hangers

[pmou]

Only did 2" spacers in the front, and shortest holes on the back (in hanger & shackle). Pinion angle seems good, got no vibration on the first big drive. May add a little to the torsion bars in the front to get it level, currently back sits maybe 3/4 in higher or so

[pmou]

What's been happening here? nothing too exciting. Finding issues and slowly working through them -- a lot of things in the mail right now.

- Idler arms need to be replaced, should be here soon
- This morning noticed the sway bar bushings are toast, and the DS is rattling where it connects to the control arm, doesn't seem to be tightened down at all. going to do bushings and links. Plan to replace these when i finally get around to doing the torsion adjust for the lift, haven't felt like throwing the alignment way off yet. Ordered proforged 113-10546 links that say they are 1" longer for "trucks with torsion lift".. I'll take some pics about how it all works out.
- Engine mounts are sagging bad, oil pan is pretty much resting on the CV "shell" that extends the PS CV. I ordered some of the prothane inserts, from what I've gathered my car will probably be incapacitated and in a lot of pieces for this process.. Seems like a decent amount of work to get those swapped and setup correctly (from what i read the inserts need to be shifted towards the back for AWD models). No damage or holes in the pan yet but this is a priority obviously.
- Got some L-track to make a roof rack, got this idea from someone on the forum here. More to come soon on that.
- found a ding to the rocker-panel like area that runs under the sliding door. The cladding conveniently covers it right now. Looks like it lost some paint though, and is starting to rust. Planning to delete all the cladding, re-paint, fill in the dent, etc. Want to source some of the little flares that go behind the wheels from a cargo model to keep it clean-ish looking. Haven't decided what i want to do with the bumper, planning to just paint the cladding area black.. maybe the stock bumper cover painted black?

[sixsix]

... Ordered proforged 113-10546 links that say they are 1" longer for "trucks with torsion lift".. I'll take some pics about how it all works out.

Does the "Crossmember" that holds the back end and the adjusters get moved back or will they extend past further in the Lower Arm ?
You can easily see I have no physical AWD mech. parts experience.
I do have a set of 4X4 stands like you have - only difference was I used c'sinks & lags - since I had the time and parts.
And like yours, can be disassembled - if need be.

Nice work on the Lift - cool ( some HOT! ) pics.

[pmou]

Does the "Crossmember" that holds the back end and the adjusters get moved back or will they extend past further in the Lower Arm ?

Hmm I'm not sure exactly what you mean -- the link (which is just a bolt with a sleeve over it from what I can tell) seems to be 1" longer, so the sway bar will sit a bit higher for a given lower CA position. my guess is that this somehow keeps the sway bar in a more "neutral" position on vehicles that have the torsion higher and are sitting higher in the suspension travel most of their life. The links just showed up today, whether or not anything I just said is true I'm not sure but they do appear to be high quality. I'll post some pics of the install & the relative position of the original links and these new longer ones.