Got the tires rebalanced and rotated... My luck with wrench monkeys is such that the first balance was off, and today I had to wait for just shy of two hours after my appointment time to get my truck into the bay. This time around they got the balance right.

The wrench monkey pointed out that I need a new serpentine belt... the Gatorback's already in the toolbox, and the Dayco tensioner is already on the way. No wrench monkey will get anywhere near it!

 

can anybody make sense of this?

new tires 315/75-16
old(factory size to get the right ratio) 245/75-16



i wanna do a 5" lift and 315/75-16s but i cant figure out exactly what gears to get i know they say 4,56s but every conversion and calculator says that 4.10s would be best, and closest to the factory setting.

any input is greatly appreciated.

 

that would put the truck back to a stock feel,,, speedo wouldnt be off .................... which 3.55's are to high on a big truck

 

Not saying you don't need a new one, but I have to laugh at your monkey friend telling you that. Last time somebody told me I needed a new serpentine belt I drove another 50k with one behind my seat before i changed it.

 

My serpentine belt is near the end of its service life anyway and the tensioner is just about worn out, and with the truck creeping up on 100,000 miles I'm working my way through a long list of maintenance items a chunk at a time. I knew the belt was near the end, but the tensioner didn't start making noise until last week so I put off replacing the belt and ordered the tensioner so I can tackle them both in one swell foop. No worries there.

What gets me about these menu pricing shops is just how much effort they put into finding more work to do. I watched the wrench monkey spend about 15 minutes looking for more work after he'd remounted the wheels... looking for worn muffler bearings, bent Johnson rods, and low blinker fluid, no doubt. He called me over to point out an ATF leak, and when I pointed at the remote filter and said, "It's just a remnant from when the last mechanic got that filter hooked up wrong and had to fix it", he asked, "What's that filter for?". It's very obviously plumbed into the transmission cooler lines that he'd just pointed at...

What? He's never seen a blinker fluid filter before?

 

changed the oil. cut the heater hoses and backflushed the core. drained/refilled radiator with fresh af. floating 4 *****. serp belt ok.

tires bald dreading the expense.

 

Seafoam, baby! Made lots of puffy white smoke and gave me an excuse to go WOT to 70MPH. As if I need an excuse. Also drew off the ATF overfill so the dipstick now shows dead nuts full.

I miss the days of getting decent pickup truck tires for less than $100 a pop.

 

Within the last 3 weeks I've done the following.
Got it back from the shop after paint no moldings, emblems or tailgate plastic cover/liner. Plenum gasket replaced and fabricated my own belly pan plate. Coolant flush, seafoam.
New:
Intake and pan bolts, rotor, cap, TPS, Map sensor, autolite plugs, ignition coil, evaporating vacum valve, pvc valve, tail lites, lug nuts, head liner, radiator, water pump, iddler pulley.
Truck looks and runs great 133K on it now.

 

Sweet lookin ride man!

 

Forgot I never posted pics last weekend after I was done the painting and SS differential cover install so here's one for y'all