Today I tore down the 360 out of my 96 4x4. Abit of a mess, but rebuild-able. Had a good laugh when I grabbed ahold of the counter balancer and the outer ring came off! Oh well, just another 100 bucks right? lol

 

Better now then later, on the road.

 

no doubt

 

2 days ago I went to the junk yard to replace.my rollover valve and grommet. My original fuel pump went out about a year ago and in a pinch I went to the junk yard and pulled one. Turns out it had a different rollover valve and I threw my old one away by mistake. So when the junk yard one got replaced with a new one I didn't have a grommet or rollover valve that would fit my old 96. So I stick a temp freeze plug in there. Fast forward a year and I noticed gas coming out the stop of the tank after I ripped it off Wednesday. Turns out that plug's runner shrank. So I fixed that Wednesday.

Yesterday I got both of my new O2 sensors installed. Cleared codes and haven't seen a misfire yet. I suspect it was the old front O2 sensor causing the misfires. It ran super lean and you could smell it but it never occurred to me that it would just be a bad front O2 sensor. Replacing the rear one also seemed to solve the no 1st gear issue. Actually let me explain that better. I unplugged it to test something and plugged it back in, or I thought I had it plugged in. When I went to replace it yesterday I noticed the plug was just kind of in there but not snapped in. Either way it coming unplugged shouldn't have fixed it not taking off in 1st gear unless there was a short.

So yep, fixed one mess up I did and replaced 2 crappy sensors.

 

Actual work was done Sunday. After dumping half my brake fluid out the passenger wheel cylinder on the way home from work Friday I got to reacquaint myself with drum brakes. Did new drums, shoes, springs and cylinders on both sides. Hoping not to touch drums again for quite a few years. Pedal is firm again and it stops in a strait line.

 

Over the last week, I replaced the fuel pump, replace the e-fan controller, changed the oil, and I'm currently replacing the bed. Busy week.

 

Finally changed my timing chain. 198k on the original which is why I’m sure a few will take offense. I don’t consider myself much of a mechanic so I’ve been putting this off for a while. Matter of fact I’ve owned a new double roller chain since 2012. That’s when I did the water pump and radiator over a weekend but couldn’t find a chain I wanted to put on before I needed the truck. This weekend I finally had the time and got the guts to dig in. Really wasn’t bad at all. Battery impact wrench pulled the crank and cam bolts easily. Nothing broke in disassembly and nothing left over on reassembly. Idles smooth and felt strong on the test drive, the heater blows hot and I don’t see any leaks yet. I guess time will tell. (I also replaced the water pump and hoses since I was going in and figure I should be able to stay out of there for a while now). Also used my cheapy borescope camera to get a good look down the throttle body at the intake. My plenum plate looks good. For $20 on Amazon it’s a great toy!

 

Gave it a week of commuting then changed the oils and filter in case I got anything in there doing the timing chain. Also looked around to make sure I didn’t have any leaks from that job. So far so good on that but I do seem to have some seepage around my trans pan and or transfer case

 

Sounds like you did everything correct. Good job!

 

I cleaned her out and put her up for sale. It was fun you guys but I'll be moving next door on this forum. I'm now the proud owner of a 06 Mega Cab.