Trusty Yukon had a new leak last week when we got back from the holidays up in Wisconsin. There was a puddle of coolant in the driveway and upon further investigation the radiator was leaking from the seam of the plastic end tank on the driver's side. Just finished replacing the radiator with a fresh GM replacement off of Amazon today. I'm hoping I can get a few thousand more miles out of this rig before another repair like that.
In reply to RacetruckRon :
Thanks for the update. What's the latest on the transmission?
In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :
It is still hanging in there. I don't tow with it or beat on it too bad and it still gets me to work and back every day.
Just did spark plugs last month and had to replace one coil and all of the plug wires last week due misfire that popped up from a loose ground. This thing is an absolute champ but I'm moving next week and don't need two full size SUVs. It will be for sale shortly.
Here's a picture of it being an absolute unit carrying 20 16' deck boards and 2 12' 2x12s
Loading up the last of our stuff in South Carolina tonight and then driving the Bus home to Wisconsin tomorrow.
Things have not been going well. Packing took much longer than planned and when we were ready to leave at 3:30pm discovered the rear shocks were blown out. So autozone replacements and some spring expanders are being installed. Going to take the backroad route tomorrow and keep it under 65mph it's going to be a long drive.
I finally was able to decompress from the fiasco this thing put us in last week. So moving did not go smoothly in the first and main trip a couple weeks ago, we were fighting leaky tires the whole way up from SC. This go round we were fighting poor trailer loading and deferred maintenance.
So we flew from Madison to Greenville early last Wednesday. One of my buddies from my old job was going to pick us up from the airport and drop us off at our house. He was coming from Raleigh, where he spent the long weekend, and got caught in gridlock in Charlotte. He was going to be an hour and a half late to pick us up. This didn't really jive with our plan of pack all of Wednesday afternoon and drive home on Thursday so we got a Uber from the airport 40 minutes home. Got to the house, started the Yukon up, picked up the uhaul trailer and got gas, road trip snacks and hot dogs from Sam's Club. We packed in the sweltering southern heat until a thunderstorm rolled in and told us go to bed or get electrocuted.
We woke up the next morning early to finish packing which we finished promptly at 2:30pm and then decided that we should clean the house one last time and then set off and make it as far as we could that night. The plan was to take backroads and not push our speed because we knew we were loaded up pretty heavy. We made it 4 minutes down the road before we were having issues with trailer sway over 45mph. I pulled into a grocery store parking lot and discovered that the hitch was 3" off of the ground and we were squared pretty good. Great the air shocks on the Denali were blown out and all of my tools I would need for this were in Wisconsin or in the middle of the trailer.
I borrowed a jack from my neighbor and some tools from my buddy that was late to pick us up from the airport. We swapped out the rear struts, installed threaded spring expanders on the rear springs and installed rubber spring expanders on the trailer so it was basically riding on the bump stop on the front axle. This worked pretty well but we still had stability issues over 50 in the mountains.
We left SC at 7:15am on Friday and got back to south central Wisconsin at 3am Saturday morning. We took back roads which added 5 hours to the gps estimate off the bat but our low speed for half of the drive really stretched it out. We had no one ther mechanical issues and made it home safe but very tired. Mrs Racetruck doesn't want to get rid of the Yukon now that it was such a good truck. I might to begin collecting 4L80 swap parts now because I don't want to sell it now either. It's a really good truck and has definitely earned some wrench time once the Saab is plated and sorted. This truck has gotten many "good truck" dashboard pats in the last few days. I'm looking forward to never moving again, ever.
Somewhere in the hills of Tennessee at a gas station/deli/ice cream shop.
Illinois at 11:30pm with 3.5 hours left for our last fill up.
Winter is coming, the Saab is blowed up, parts are ordered. Yukon is going to get some much needed steering and suspension parts.
For some reason this platform seems so solid - nice blend of LS reliability with some general luxury/utility. I always like the styling too. Here's hoping you get it fixed up soon.
In reply to nsogiba :
I love the styling of these trucks and the lazyboy couch that is the front seat makes long drive no problem at all. It's honestly a great truck and has driven across the country 5 times now with minimal issues.
A large pile of Yukon parts next to a pile of crap I still haven't put away from when we moved 4 months ago.
A large amount of suspension parts are still on the shelf, the truck needs brakes and still leaks oil like it's a part time job and it's a tank of gas shy of 230k. This is still one of the best cars I've ever owned and it's a boss at lumber runs. 
The rear main seal leak has reach unmanageable levels. The truck leaves puddles when parked and smokes pretty heavy from oil on the exhaust crossover under the trans. I had hoped to only pull the trans once, when I add a 4L80 to the truck but who knows when that will happen. The oil leak needs fixed now before the snow starts flying.
In reply to RacetruckRon :
interested in your thoughts/results on the RMS swap. I've been debating doing just the seal vs a new cover with a seal already in it
budget_bandit said:In reply to RacetruckRon :
interested in your thoughts/results on the RMS swap. I've been debating doing just the seal vs a new cover with a seal already in it
Engine in the car, always a new cover. Minimize installation error and potential of creating more leaks, plus you are going to change that rear cover gasket while the trans is out too.
If the engine is out of the car I might mess with pressing a new seal into an old cover but if you are buying a press tool not printing one yourself it makes more sense to just buy the whole cover.
Shouldn't be too bad to just pull the trans back and do the rear cover.
Keep the GMT800 content coming, I just picked up an '05 Suburban in white and am slowly going through it.
Attempted to upload a picture from my phone earlier. Fix yo E36 M3 GRM.
And a big berk you to WIDOT for this one. YAY!!!
I scooped a second pair of the 6 ton jack stands from the Hammer Store this weekend. The high reach of the 6 ton stands is real nice like, if you have the means I highly recommend. My 8 year old 2 ton pittsburg jack is probably next on the upgrade list. It flexs a bit more than I'd like when picking up half of the Yukon.
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