Team Stampie flips a Suburban

Turns out this Suburban had a heavy duty alternator. Head down to Advance. Try to get the new parts guy to rub the bald head of his boss. Then when he ask for a phone number I accuse him of hitting on the ex. O well he'll get used to me if he sticks around.

The ex insist on paying for the new alternator. Guess that means she's keeping it. She's in love with this Suburban so I tell her that when she gets pissed off at me I'll just remind her of the Suburban for years. She's heading to CarMax tomorrow to sell the QX4 and then buy the Suburban. Good thing she likes it cause I was able to leave it in her driveway. I don't have any space in mine.

HD alt. Could that mean this Suburban has the full towing package? 

Is there a trans cooler?   HD radiator? 

It's the Ex.  You trump the Ex.  Keep it if you want.  If it was your wife, then you'd be SOL.

docwyte said:

It's the Ex.  You trump the Ex.  Keep it if you want.  If it was your wife, then you'd be SOL.

There’s a time to spite the ex.  When it involves safely and reliably transporting your son, it’s not one of those times

Patrick said:

docwyte said:

It's the Ex.  You trump the Ex.  Keep it if you want.  If it was your wife, then you'd be SOL.

There’s a time to spite the ex.  When it involves safely and reliably transporting your son, it’s not one of those times

TRUTH. 

Sometimes it's cheaper to solve the problem FOR them.

John Welsh said:

HD alt. Could that mean this Suburban has the full towing package? 

Is there a trans cooler?   HD radiator? 

Trans cooler yep. Z82 rpo code is the heavy code towing I believe.

In reply to docwyte :

It's a fine line between screw the ex, give the ex a hand up, and giving her a vehicle. 

I'll sell her this at cost cause honestly she needs it more than me. I'm not going to give it to her because she needs to feel she earned it. 

So, does this mean that Lil Stampie has access to his own (his mom's) tow vehicle!? 

Youre  a good man for setting up the ex with a new suv. Can you require the QX4 in trade and barter that for ac  work on cl  or sell it to finance the gauges and pump? Frugal mechanic had a nice write up on ac fixing a while back. Need to look into this myself as my non functioning a c vehicle list is now up to four...

In reply to John Welsh :

He does. Question is if he'll let his dad borrow it. 

in reply to Agent98:

Looks like she's going to sell it to a friend that plans on fixing it up for a teenage driver. She asked about trading it but I'm trying to make space in my driveway not fill it more. I did discuss using her Suburban as a learning AC vehicle for me. Can't break what's already broke so might be a win win for both of us.

I'm not saying screw the ex.  All I'm saying is that she's your ex, not your wife.  You're not beholden to give her a truck or sell her a truck for what you have into it if you decide that you like it and would want to keep it for yourself.  I don't see how that's screwing her.

If she needs a vehicle than I'm sure she (with your help if you care to) can find another one.

G80 = locking rear.  I’d have let you make 2x your investment off me so i could give it to my dad.  

In reply to docwyte :

I could and we've already agreed I have dibs at $500 if she ever sells this one. She just wouldn't find as nice of a vehicle for the money. I hadn't realized how bad her QX4 had gotten until I rode in it Friday. I'd much rather my son and his mom ride in this Suburban. 

She got the Suburban tagged and titled this morning. Her friend fell through on the $300 for the QX4. I threw it up on CL last night and just meet a guy at lunch. Sold it for $450. I think she's like $300 total out of pocket for a major upgrade in vehicles. I lost $30 for the wrong junkyard alternator but I'll take that loss on a flip like this. 

Got a text from the ex yesterday asking what this meant.

Told her I'd look at it once she got off work and very quickly confirmed bad master cylinder. Plan was to swap it out this morning.

Got the new MC in and went to the passenger rear to start bleeding the brakes. First sign of being berked was no shoe lining on the leading shoe. WTF?  Look in the drum and there it is. Ok so now we need shoes.  Then I decide to start looking over things. I can't find the bleeder on that wheel. Strange so I look on the rear driver's side and it's where I expect it. Look back at the passenger side to find where the bleeder has rusted away. Ok so now I know we're getting deep in berked. I decide in my head that I'll just let her drive my Silverado while I order parts for her Suburban. Because it's the ex I decide not to tell her of this plan. 

So we go on a full inspection of the brakes. Front pads are decent and rotors are good but both front bleeders are rusted shut and strip using a 6 point socket on them. So the list is at 2 wheel cylinders, 2 calipers, shoes for the rear and pads for the front. She's starting to squirm a little as she realizes she can't drive the Suburban and I'm talking about finishing it next weekend after parts come in. Finally let her off the hook and hand her the key to my Silverado. Follow up with more pictures next weekend. 

Got back on it this morning. First a picture of why we decided to just pretty much replace everything.

In the morning we did the rear drums. I berking hate drums. With a total passion. In fact I want that on my gravestone. "He berking hated drum brakes."  Got those done then went to lunch. The front calipers went pretty easy other than one of the new calipers was missing a bolt. No big deal just stole it off one of the old ones.

Then we started bleeding them. I got to some clean fluid but kept getting signs of air. Then I noticed dripping on the other side. What the berk. Jacked up that side and followed the fluid to the hard line right inside the frame rail above the axle.

Ran down to the local parts store.  They had line but length wise I needed two different pieces. Problem was they didn't have a union. At that point I was done. Either I'll get a flare tool and a longer line or see if NAPA has something that'll work tomorrow. 

At least we agree on the subject of drum brakes

Seeing this reminded me that Stampie actually bought the QX4 from me years ago.  Weird.

Forgot to add this yesterday. Ex SWMBO Stampie has been helping. Actually pretty helpful. I set a rim on the lugs and asked her to put the lug nuts on. I went to the other side of the Suburban and came back to see this.

Definitely needs supervision. 

In reply to Stampie :

Thanks for sharing that. I got a good chuckle out of it this morning.

Reminds me of the time that my wife and her dad tried to help me with my son's kart very early on.  I was mounting tires to get him out for a practice session. While mounting the tires on the front rims, they thought they could help and put the wheels on the rear (as the tires were already mounted).  Came back and was pleased to see they were helping.  Until I realized they had put them on backwards......

Hopefully, it's a mistake she'll only make once.

-Rob

We often take for granted the simple lessons we've learned over the years, mostly from significant people in our lives. Lil Stampie is lucky, as is my son

I never updated this one. 

We got everything together and bleed the brakes but I wasn't happy with them. Meaning yeah they worked but they were softer than in liked. I knew it was the damn ABS system. She was going out of town and Lil Stampie and I were taking our Christmas vacation so we decided good enough for now but we'd get back on it.

I had tried to bleed the ABS system but couldn't get it to do anything. You didn't know you could bleed the ABS on a GMT400?  Yep there's a bleeder under a rubber plug at the back.

Today we finally had a chance to look at it again. I took the computer out of its bracket and flip it over out of the way. I now had better access to the bleeder. I had her pump the brakes while I used an awl to push in the bleeder and after a few tries the pedal was much better. Still not perfect so I'm going to have her drive it a few days then we'll try and bleed it again hoping that any air will settle into the ABS. 

It's good to see when ex's can get along... and that takes work from both sides! But that's what is best for the kids. Also good to follow through what ya tell someone, even if it turns out you could think only of yourself afterwards. And, like you said, this is helping Lil'Stampie, too! Besides, if she don't maintain it, she should be obligated to return it to you, right? Win - win.

On the lug nuts, look on the bright side... she at least understood there was  a right and wrong way to put them! They ain't on there random; she just made a 50/50/90 decision. We've all done that.

Mndsm said:

I know better by now bit I still click on these hoping to see a vehicle upside down, perhaps during an eve of destruction.  

Same.