Recent content by Kurb

Resting. I hurt my back replacing the sway bar on my Grand Prix last week. Back pain is no fun, but at least it’s a good excuse to be lazy 😉

@HARDTRAILZ That’s great news! And nice job on fabricating the new cross member. It’s definitely more than surface rust. Pieces are falling off of the cross member. It’s great that it can be replaced, though. I’ll add it to the list of things to do. I guess I also need to inspect the...

I was showing my son what worn out shocks look like by kicking the bumper on my Trailblazer, and pieces of rusted metal fell on the ground.😱 Anyone have any suggestions on how to replace the hitch and adjacent structure? i don’t have a welder or know how to weld, so I may need to take this...

I fixed my Craftsamn creeper. I love the creeper, but I got tired of the wheels falling off. I spent 30 minutes looking for hardware when the wheel fell off today. In case you are wondering, you really do not need that much torque to round out the internal hex sockets on the creeper. I was...

Dumb question I know. I’ve been checking the fluid in several different vehicles for many years without giving it much thought - until this week. I normally start the vehicle, shift through all the gears, and then let the vehicle idle for 10 minutes before checking the fluid. I was recently...

Great videos for sure! I am hoping the years of frequent synthetic oil changes will prevent this from happening, but I have more miles than him, so I am wondering if low oil pressure is in my future.

I am a little confused since I did not think there was a resistor for the rear blower. There is a blower speed controller, which I think is a power transistor, that mounts between the blower and ground. If you have 14 volts on both sides of the blower, then it is not getting a ground. The...

They gave me a list, but they were definitely overpriced and over picky. I knew it had a bad ball joint and muffler but did not have enough time to fix it, and the inspection was expired.. Although the other ball joints/control arms bushings look a little wore, I did not feel any play. They...

I bought a m... m.... m... min... mini.. minv... uh... minivan. A Toyota at that. Still coming to grips with this one. The Trailblazer failed inspection. They wanted $2200 to fix it. I decided it was probably time for something with a little less miles. Don't worry, I still can't part...

Great tool! The torque adapter looks like a good way to check torque wrenches for only $29. I am going to have to make a trip to Harbor Freight.

I am not the original owner, but I bought it in 2008 with ~42K miles on it. With over 210K on it now, I might as well be the original owner. The lugs were nearly brand new since I recently replaced the front hubs. Thanks for the info. I don't have time at the moment, but I'll check out the...

My Trailblazer would not start. It sounded like it was turning over well, so I first verified that I had spark. I then checked the battery and found the voltage was only at 11 Volts. I tried to jump it unsuccessfully, so I removed the battery and took it to Advance Auto. They charged it, and...

I have been working on cars for over 25 years without torquing lug nuts, and my first time using the torque wrench on the lug nuts was the first time I ever broke a lug tightening it. Based on my test, I know that the torque wrench put too much torque on the lug and snapped it off. I am pretty...

Won't anti-seize reduce the thread friction and increase the preload for the specified torque values, which normally apply for dry installation?

Just to clarify, the low torque values were my post failure test. When I broke the lug, I was using the torque value listed in the Haynes manual, which was 103 ft-lb. The test showed a delta of 15 ft-lb between the two torque wrenches. Assuming the lower torque wrench was bad and the percent...