Burl -- 2003 GMC Safari soon to be camper

[pmou]

On another note, I got the motor mounts replaced. i ended up paying a local shop to do it as I wasn't gonna have the time for awhile and couldn't have the vehicle totally grounded in the meantime. The shop uses napa so they are the balkamp mounts. they don't look particularly special, so we will have to see how they hold up. 2yr/ 24k warranty from the shop.

The mounts were toast, like way toasted. here's a shot of the driver's side one. I'd love to find a thread on this forum where we can all share our wrecked motor mounts.

DS from rear

scooting out...

and... the pieces

Needless to say, the van is a hell of a lot quieter. oil pan has about an inch or so of clearance on the diff now. I also was having some serious shaking when I cut the wheel, had the brake on, and wasn't moving -- that is almost not noticeable now. Might be hard to see from the pics but the wear on the outside is from my exhaust I believe. you can also maybe see on the lower part of the clamshell, the bolt head actually wore the metal down from resting on it. good stuff!

[pmou]

I'm planning to hang onto these and probably order some urethane mounts to go in them for the next time around, in the hopes that if the rubber ones only last a year or two I can just swap in the urethane and be good for longer.

Edit: also abs light came on on the way out of the shop, the mechanic told me there was a pending code in there for the front DS abs sensor that finally got enough data to trip.. he did replace the ds diff seal, so he had the CV out. He said the wiring was all good, it is just the sensor. going to have to get under there and look myself when I do the idlers and sway bar.

[AlpineVan]

How do you like the 3.73 gears in your van? I have 3.42s and 29" tires on mine and it feels like it just struggles everywhere.

[pmou]

Hey Alpine -- I am pretty happy with them overall, although honesly i've considered how nice it would be to have 4.10s (at least from the outside). The van still feels like it has decent pull off the line, however getting up around 3-4 gear the highway torque is non-existant. I find myself floored in 3rd at 60mph or floored in second at 45mph pretty often. Or floored with the speedo sinking slower until it finally downshifts (at the appropriate RPM range) and can pull some extra torque.

I also live in Colorado, and have some very large highway hills that are a regular thing. other folks may not be as concerned with different surroundings.

i went to 30.5" tires and the odo is about 10% off so i figured a 10% gear change on mine -- looks like it puts me about 3.39 final drive ratio. My friend went to 29 on his 2001, he hasn't mentioned that it got sluggish in his experience but everyone has different things they notice. It seems like it would have taken his a little under 10% off, down to around 3.25

I've also just sort of accepted that my van will be underpowered until i get 4.10 gears or drop an LS in it or an e-crate someday. None of those things will probably happen lol.

[pmou]

Well, @sixsix, regarding the sway bar links -- I have no idea how those would have worked. They were way too long, the upper control arm was in the way.

My perception of what is going on is this -- the control arms move in a parallelogram, and further "up" in the travel (ie torsion increased) the parallelogram is not an easy shape to get the links in there. Add to this an extra inch of swaybar link and well it's just about impossible. I ended up needing to park my van front wheels downhill to get some extra weight on them just to be able to get stock length links in there.

Anyhow, did the links, sway bar bushings, idler arms (did the old idler arm as a spacer trick), and new leaf springs over the weekend. Have a big drive coming up so we'll see how it all does on that. Have some updates from the camper side as well but didn't take any photos yet. Have a fan in the ceiling and half the floor cut out / placed in.

[pmou]

Well, the P0101 came back on the long drive.. however it did not re-set itself on the way back (i cleared it to try to get another freeze frame). Still thinking through that one.

On the way back, I got re-directed off of i-80 in Wyoming because of winds. I had to cut down to 70 on 40 (well, not so much cut as drive for hours). It was getting late, around 10:30pm and things were stormy in the CO mountains. I was coming down off of rabbit ears pass south of steamboat, well down from all the storms and encountered a sweeping left turn (blind, due to cliffs). Coming the other direction was a bus that took the turn too fast / wide and caused me to swerve to avoid them. I briefly lost control, being a turn this was enough to send me off the roadway and into a ditch. Had to get yanked out by a tow company. I was the only one in the vehicle and was completely fine, no airbags or anything like that.

The barb wire fence seemed to have broken my fall quite nicely, got a few scratches on the van and a head start on the cladding removal. Little bit of damage to the tail light. Overall, fared way better than i expected.

A little shaken up, but all is well. I plan to get the alignment re-checked in the near future in case anything up front got dinged.

Also noticed that my van is eating a fair amount of oil -- i was down a quart after this big drive (~900 miles), which could have been partially from before as well. I believe the bulk of this is running out of my oil cooler lines, there is a fair amount of oil on the front diff area below the lines. I am going to be doing an oil change in the next week or so, and plan to delete the oil cooler lines at that time.

[SportsBoy]

Whew, glad you're ok bub.

[Rod's Trucks]

Glad you and the van ore still with us!
Feeling very lucky is good, and a reminder that we are all subject to the actions of others on road.
Barb wire scratches and a bit of help with the cladding are a very small price to pay for the off road excursion.
Rod J

[dcsleeper]

Well that was lucky! Glad you had minimal damage.
I'm always fearful of something like that happening. I drive into Chattanooga like I'm driving on eggs.

[sixsix]

... got a few scratches on the van and a head start on the cladding removal.

Glad all is sorta' OK ...

Nice to hear/see a Genuine Positive Attitude.



Thanks for the Great "Crash" pics.

[AstroWill]

The barb wire fence seemed to have broken my fall quite nicely, got a few scratches on the van and a head start on the cladding removal. Little bit of damage to the tail light. Overall, fared way better than i expected.

Glad you didn't get hurt; looks like the van just added a little bit of character. Could have been a real bad night if that fence had taken out two tires.

[pmou]

few updates:

I'm not sure if it happened as a result of the tumble or just over time driving, but I've put new leaf springs in the rear (from SD, with the helper spring) and the axle has since slipped. I've decided to go to u-bolts/plates back there in hopes that stuff will stop moving around. I've been chasing some tire wear / alignment issues as well so hopefully once i get things locked in solid I can get the rear lined up square. I ordered plates / u-bolts from Ruffstuff specialties -- UB275 and 3F-UPLT and energy suspension isolators / pads -- 3.2116G. not messing around anymore, i think the shipping weight was over 15 pounds haha.

I found during that road trip where i ended up in a ditch that the van cooked or leaked about 1qt of oil over about 900miles so I decided to delete the oil cooler lines. They have clearly been leaking real bad for quite awhile -- there is oil all over the front diff and everything behind it. That went relatively smoothly following the guide i found on the forum except for the one g-dang 13mm bolt above the diff that holds them in place. brutal. Anyhow, after a ton of oil had rust proofed my engine bay i came up with a solution to plug the holes in the radiator. I took the threaded caps off by removing the little wire clip. A 000 (don't quote me, might be 00) rubber stopper + the best washer i could dig up from the hardware store and no more leaking.

parts

shove the rubber stopper in there

just add washer, hold in place with the clip

There isn't a ton of bite on the washer. It seems like if you have the technology to grind down a dime just ever so slightly, that would be a good fit as well. Anyway, they've held up OK so far.

I also got a floor in there -- I used 1/2 polyiso between the corrugation, 1/4" ply on top of the corrugation to level it to the insulation, some great stuff to fill the gaps, and then 1/4" ply on top.

floorz

Also part way through a diesel heater install behind the DS wheel well that I'll have some more updates on at some point here. This was made possible by the deletion of the rear AC! I snagged the AC line that goes from the compressor over the engine to the accumulator and the one that goes right by the accumulator to the condenser/radiator (the 2 lines that T). I had a mechanic do this as I don't do Freon. He said that the lines were not exactly the right shape.. that perhaps the condenser or accumulator is a slightly different shape on the non-rear AC models. Either way, it is possible with just those 2 parts (my AC blows cold) and some O Rings, etc and a bit of bending (according to him). I wouldn't rule out that the lift played some part in his not thinking things lined up but I wasn't there to see it.

[pmou]

I also picked up a retired data center 112 AH battery for use in the van to power the diesel heater and some other accessories at some point. I am thinking that will go behind the PS wheel well, opposite the weight of the driver and opposite the diesel heater/fuel. That thing is pretty heavy though, would welcome any advice on placement / considerations for not throwing the balance of the van way off.

I also helped a friend do his lower intake gasket a week or so ago. I decided to give mine a good look over, and it seems like I'm going to need one before too long. I found a puddle of coolant to the DS of the dist, below the gasket by the fuel lines.

I'm hoping to wait a couple months until its warmer here, and do an E-fan at the same time to get everything ship shape for the warmer months around these parts.

coolant puddle

[AstroWill]

Thanks for the tip about the rubber stopper, that is a great idea.


What kind of battery? Dimensions? Location on the underside of the van won't matter much, just have to keep it out of harms way and away from heat.

[pmou]

It's lead acid, an old UPS backup battery. it's probably 30 or so pounds I would estimate at least.

measures 13.5"x8.5"x6.75" (WxHxL)

the terminals are on the top but are very low profile.

I was planning to just stick it inside the van, behind the passenger wheel well. but if you know of a place that might fit under the van, I would definitely consider that. having the weight lower is never a bad thing.

a couple pics attached.

it's a bit gigantic, and I may change up the power source as I may have access to some lithium ion that will take some effort to adapt but would save a fair amount of weight.

[pmou]

i also want to consider that I do plan to use this van in the winter heavily, I don't know how that could affect battery life if it was outside the car at like -10deg.. inside the heater would hopefully keep it at or close to it's happiest temperature through the night

[Rod's Trucks]

Yes, those very cold temps WILL negatively affect battery life.
Rod J

[pmou]

Yes, those very cold temps WILL negatively affect battery life.
Rod J

Yeah, i sorta figured. nothing would be worse than the heater cutting out on a below 0 night because the battery got too cold to keep feeding it power! I think as long as it fits behind that wheel well, then it shouldn't really impede on any sort of usable space anyhow. I'm a little ways away from actually trying to fit it in the vehicle but will update as i start in on that process.

[AstroWill]

I wouldn't worry about the temperatures, they are not like Lithium batteries where you can't charge them below freezing. Plus if you put it inside you have to worry about adding a box and venting to the outside(yes VRLA batteries have to be vented to the outside). If you mount it outside then you don't have to worry about that.

The temperature range of a typ AGM would be -67°F (-55°C) to 122°F (50°C) for storage when charged, and -40°F (-40°C) to 160°F (71°C) operating range

That 100lb battery is a beast though, I'm sure they have a manual for it somewhere online and would be worth finding/requesting.

[Rod's Trucks]

Pmou,
Yeah, i sorta figured. nothing would be worse than the heater cutting out on a below 0 night because the battery got too cold to keep feeding it power!

That would not happen ( fail to deliver...), but the capacity would be reduced some. Car batteries work fine at those temps, but need to be in good condition and kept charged.
There are on-line references to that very application. It is not a huge factor, but something to keep in mind if yoiu expect to be working near the normally rated capacity. Also, discharging a battery does generate a small amount of heat, but it is minimal; and nothing like when it is being charged.
I am trying to visualize doing any maintenance on a 100 Lbs. battery, while on my back, under the vehicle; unless there is an access hatch from the top. If underneath, I would need a floor jack to lift it in or out of any sort of mounting configuration I can envision.
Rod J