Edmunds dealer partner, Bayway Leasing, is now offering transparent lease deals via these forums. Click here to see the latest vehicles!
Options
Popular New Cars
Popular Used Sedans
Popular Used SUVs
Popular Used Pickup Trucks
Popular Used Hatchbacks
Popular Used Minivans
Popular Used Coupes
Popular Used Wagons
Comments
Hang a fused test wire off of the starter into the car, so that you can measure the voltage of the ignition switch feed to the starter. It's the thinner wire to the primary side of the relay, on the starter motor. When this primary goes positive, the starter relay should engage, providing power to the starter motor. Wire this up, and wait till you have a no-start situation. Try to start the ignition switch, and measure the voltage on this wire. No (or low) voltage, you know the problem is 'upstream' coming from the ignition switch. If you have the correct voltage (13+volts), then you know the ignition circuitry is fine, and you need to look to the starter motor or battery/cables.
Once you know the ignition switch and circuitry is good, hang your test wire on the secondary side of the relay on the starter, it will be the big thick wire. (Disconnect your battery before you wire up any of these test wires.) Now wait for a failure again, and measure the voltage on the secondary when it fails. If you have 13+ volts, then your starter relay or starter is bad, because it's getting the voltage but not turning over. If you don't have the correct voltage, then either the battery is bad, there is corrosion in the connector or up in the wire itself.
I have a 98 suburban and I just bought a used transmission with transfer case attached for 800.00. I'm mechanically inclined and could install it my self, but I have never installed a transmission with 4 wheel drive before. I'm looking for some instructions or someone with know how that can walk me thru the remove/install of my old trannny and install of the new one. My truck is 1500 4 wd if I have to I will take it to someone but if I can cut cost on the labor and do it my self I'd rather do that. Please post something here if you know of any free available resources I can use to help me with this project.
Thanks :sick:
To me it feels like the timing is doing something funny, but have replaced the distributor 3 times and its still doing it?
Thanks for the help.
Thanks for you time, Eric
Follow the wires from the fan motor, they will plug into the resistor bank.
To avoid just throwing parts at this problem, I would hang a fused test lead off of the starter solenoid (the power coming from ignition switch), to see if the solenoid is being told to engage.
If you are experiencing the problem, and you turn the ignition switch and see power going to the solenoid, and the solenoid doesn't engage and turn the engine...then you've proved it's a solenoid/starter problem.
If on the other hand, you have no power being supplied, then you know the problem is 'upstream' of the starter, for instance possibly the ignition switch itself.
Arrie
fuel filter on the 2000 Suburban
Thanks
gris46
If they get it back in, and see that it's out of alignment, they'll check for worn parts (they should have checked before doing the first alignment). You either have a worn part, they didn't tighten something up the last time, or they didn't get it adjusted right the last time.
There's a lot of weight on those balljoints.
"IF" the ball joint is your problem.....Just purely guessing, I would think a ball joint is around 30-40 bucks a piece, and at least an hour of labor a piece. They put on spring compressors, and un bolt and disconnect the hub from the ball joint. Then use a ball joint tool which presses the old ball joint from the lower A frame. They then press in the new ball joint, and reassemble the hub. Take off the spring compressors, put the wheels back on, and then have to re-align the vehicle again.
Sometimes a ball joint will squeak when it is worn.
You say that "The steering wheel must be held about 10 degrees to the left to keep it going straight."
Do you actually have to hold it to the left or would the car go straight but steering wheel would position itself 10 degrees left if you take your hands off of the steering wheel?
If you actually have to force the steering wheel to 10 degrees left to keep car going straight you definitely have alignment problem and it could be caused by worn out ball joints etc. (I assume the problem occurs on flat unworn road surface. Be careful when diagnosing the problem because so many road surfaces are "round" which causes your car to want to drift off of the road, i.e. when driving on right side lane you need to steer slightly to left. Also, if the road is worn to the "grooves" it makes car steer left or right depending on which "wall" of the groove you are driving on. But let's assume you have this problem when driving on perfectly flat pavement.)
If you do not have to force to keep the steering wheel to the 10 degree left position when car goes straight the problem is not alignment problem between the 4 wheels. A fact telling for this is that you do not see any kind of uneven wear on tires. It is alignment problem between steering wheel position and front wheel turning position, i.e. they did not center the steering wheel properly when setting the front toe.
When I have my car aligned I always check for the steering wheel position myself when alignment is done because almost every time I had alignment done and I didn't check for this the steering wheel positioned itself slightly left or right. This is the reason why I always have alignment done in a small shop where I can get to the car when alignment is done and can check for the steering wheel position.
I have a 2004 Tahoe, which I believe is identical for front suspension compared to your Yukon. I had a problem with inside wear of front tires and had alignment checked by the dealer and they said it is inside GM specification. I installed new different brand tires and they wore and cupped inside edge too.
I then had alignment done at a small shop where they said it is inside GM spec too but I asked them to close toe to the minimum limit of the spec. This fixed the front tire wear problem. With my 3rd set of tires now I have about 18 000 miles and no sign of any kind of uneven tire wear.
I drive a lot of highway, i.e. fast speed and closing toe helps because I believe fast speed induced down force pulls car down and causes front suspension to open the toe slightly so closing it a little bit helps in my situation.
If your tires do not show any uneven wear (which might take more than 1500 miles to show up) and you do not need to fight to keep car going straight but steering wheel positions itself to 10 degree left position it most likely means that your problem is just that when they adjusted the toe they had the steering wheel in that 10 degree left position. This could also be why they had to adjust toe on both sides as usually only one of them needs adjustment (but not always).
In case your car goes straight without "fighting" the steering wheel but with the steering wheel in that 10 degree left position I would suggest you do following:
1.Jack front tires up. One side at the time should work but both sides up at the same time is better.
2. Have someone hold the steering wheel firmly in position.
3. Try to move the wheels in any possible direction to find out if there are any looseness in joints. You really have to jack the wheels off of the ground to do this correctly. Weight of the car on the wheel does not allow feeling all small looseness by hand.
If you do not find any looseness in either wheel you can go back to your alignment shop and tell them that they did not position steering wheel correctly when they set the toe.
If you have to fight the steering wheel while going straight you definitely do have alignment problem and if this is without having worn joints then the alignment was done all the way wrong.
However, if you would find worn joints then you should go back to the alignment shop and tell them about it and question them for not finding that. In every alignment shop that I had my car serviced they ALWAYS tested for worn joints because they know alignment is wasted if they do it and it does not work due to worn joints. Any alignment shop should not do alignment with worn joints.
If they indeed did alignment with worn joints they should refund for it, but they will not. You could get them to do alignment as warranty service if you have worn joints and that same shop would change those parts for you.
If you go back to the same shop be careful that they suddenly do not find all kinds of loose parts to cover up their mistake. That is why I would very carefully check for looseness by jacking the car up on each side.
For changing the joints it should not be very difficult. I have not done it for my Tahoe as I have not needed it yet. One of the posts for you suggested that the spring must be compressed. Your Yukon does not have a coil spring in front if it is the same construction as my Tahoe, like I believe it is. It has a torsion bar as a spring. When you jack the car up to get wheel off of the ground there is not much spring force left on suspension and if there is any I believe it can be relieved by the adjustment screw in the back end of the bar.
The best way to do this is the same as how they do it at the shop, i.e. jack both front wheels off of the ground. For this you need jack stands on both sides to keep both wheels of the ground at the same time. This is important because of the sway bar. If one side is on ground it causes the sway bar transfer force to the other side and that suspension then is not completely force free.
Anyway, you do not want to take any joints loose with any spring or sway bar force induced in the wheel suspension. You would not be able to put it back together if you did and could hurt yourself in the process. I believe though that when the front wheels are off of the ground at the same time there is no force induced on the suspension from either torsion bar spring or the sway bar.
Arrie
I'll try getting it on jack stands and checking for looseness. Then I'll take it back where they did the alignment and ask them to check the ball joints and alignment again. Wish I could find the dang receipt, but I'm sure they won't give me a hard time as it was only one week ago today.
Thanks to everyone for taking the time to respond, I really do appreciate it. I'll keep you posted.
Short story long - I went back to the shop that did the alignment, and they put it up on the rack and confirmed that the suspension and balls joints were in good condition, and that the alignment was still exactly to spec as adjusted 10 days ago. The mechanic took it for a spin and agreed it was pulling to the right, so they cross-rotated the tires (switched RF with LF and RR with LR), and it was pulling a bit to the left (although not as strongly as it had been pulling to the right). The diagnosis was "radial pull", which apparently means an inherent problem with the tire. They didn't charge me anything and suggested I go to the tire shop. So I did that, and they seemed skeptical but agreed to look at everything. They didn't notice any problems with the tires themselves, but he did say that front left wheel/tire was out of balance. So he re-balanced it and asked me to drive around for a while and stop back by to let him know if it seemed any better. I did so, and it seems perfectly normal now. Tracks very straight.
So I guess the problem is solved. I'll keep paying close attention to it and see if anything changes, but pretty happy for now. I really wanted this corrected before we took a trip that we have planned for mid December towing a travel trailer.
Thanks again to all for all your assistance. Because I sounded like I knew what I was talking about, I was taken seriously and given good service at both shops today.
And it is probably even better for you to know that the shop who did and re-checked the alignment is a good shop to go back to as they re-checked it for free. And they rotated tires and all for no cost for you. They obviously want your business and so far what you told us they might even deserve it.
Some shops do not re-check alignment and if they do and find it being correct they would charge for it again.
Happy Trails!
You might try typing without your CAPSLOCK on, it makes it easier for everyone to read.
I checked the fuses on the driver's end of the dashboard - all good. Bulbs are good.
'Dome Override' switch seems good. Any ideas?
In my 97 Sub, I had a couple of bulbs that after a couple years would need the bulb twisted back and forth, or it taken out and contacts cleaned with a fine sandpaper.....just to make a good electrical connection. I don't know if this is your problem or not, but you'd detect it by having voltage on the socket, and a known good bulb (showing resistance).
I have a 1995 GMC Suburban and drove it from Florida to Seattle. No problems. Is a charm! But here in Canada and with the snow I REALLY need the 4WD and is not working any more. :sick: Could be something as a fuse? If I don't remember wrong, it used to light up (the handle on the floor where you go from 2WD to low and high 4WD) I'll be taking it to a mechanic but since I know nothing, I decide to ask you first. Any idea would be appreciate it.
Thank you very much!
Thank you for your answer. I don't have a light on my dashboard, only on the floor panel where the 4WD stick is located. That light is the one that is out, but still I don't know if this could be a sign of an electrical failure or something else. I don't knoe what you mean by vacuum activated hubs, how can I find out if I do and how if they are ok? Thank you!