bob p

I've been sidetracked away from working on my Super 88 for a while because my daily driver K2500 Suburban needs some work.

I live in the rust belt. Right now I've got rusted bolts that are kicking my butt and I need some advice.

I'm trying to remove the front wheel rotor/hub assembly, which is mounted to the spindle by 4 bolts that go through the spindle into blind holes in the rotor/hub assembly. These mounting bolts are rusted tighter than anything I've ever seen. This is the only time that I've ever seen acetylene and penetrating oil fail.

Much to my amazement, the first bolt came off with nothing more than a some penetrating oil and a breaker bar. But that was just a teaser -- the other three have been a major problem.

* I've tried several days of penetrating oil -- no luck.
* I've tried scraping off the flaked rust and pounding-on a smaller size socket, then repeating the penetrating oil and breaker bar -- no luck.
* I've tried a 240 ft-lb impact wrench (electric) -- no luck, though I did manage to fracture a socket.
* I've tried pounding on the bolt heads with a ball peen hammer -- no luck.
* I've tried pounding on the bolts using a 5 lb sledge and an impact driver -- no luck.
* I've tried heating the bolts with acetylene several times, and then tried again with the impact driver and sledge, and then the impact wrench, and then the breaker bar -- still no luck.

I know it'd be best to heat the nuts, or to just cuts the nuts off, but the "nuts" in this case just aren't accessible. The bolts mount into a blind hole in the internal 4WD hub assembly, and this mounting point in the hub is "captive" within the rotor. In other words, the threaded hole in the hub is hidden inside of the disk rotor. There's just no way to access the part of the hub where the bolts mount to heat the threaded receiver. My only option is heating the bolt.

These bolts have been kicking my but for a couple of days now. I spent all afternoon yesterday and today trying to free up three bolts. They just won't budge.

One problem that I'm having seems to be that acetylene (no oxygen) isn't getting the bolts very hot -- I have to heat them for quite a while, and the result is that a lot of heat goes where I don't want it to go, instead of where I want it to go.

Of course, these bolts are hardened, high strength steel, and they're recessed into counterbored holes in the back of the spindle, which makes getting to them all that much harder.

I'm hoping that someone has a brilliant idea.

brownbomber77

Not so brilliant...but I've had this problem in the past when I lived in northern Illinois. Sometimes it's just best to get a new spindle from a salvage yard or eBay and putting the new components on there. Unless I'm thinking of the wrong thing....it's attached to 2 ball joints and a tie rod end? It may be easier and faster to start over. Either that or borrow someone's Snap On (or other name brand) 1000lb impact. I don't think you have enough thump in the tools you're using.

MDchanic

I would pretty much agree, except to suggest that you add oxygen to the acetylene and try to heat the bolts to just before melting - worst thing, you melt or break off the heads, but you're going to be using new bolts anyway, and if the heads come off, you can remove the part, and possibly have better access to heat the other piece and remove the shafts with Vise-Grips.

In the end, if you screw all of that up, see the post above and replace the whole assembly - annoying but perhaps inevitable.

- Eric

Professur

What you describe is exactly why a plumber's propane torch isn't a viable answer for heating bolts. You need that O2. Sometimes you just have to man up and head to a pro. Your local pro wrench will probably only charge you a little to break them loose, put them back in to let you get it back home ... then it's easy. Alternately for a few more greenbacks, you could probably find a mobile welder that can bring the heat to you.

First time I've ever heard of someone with acetylene and no oxygen. What's the story?

oldcutlass

First off, I believe heating the bolt will not net you the result your after as it just makes the joint between the bolt/nut that much tighter. I agree that removing the spindle assy from the truck would probably gain a more suitable approach.

lshlsh2

One thing I have done that some times works is slip a long pipe over the breaker bar(I have an old 10 ft pipe)

Something will break but can't guarntee what.

Larry

RROLDSX

I don't think heating the bolt is a great idea unless you can get cherry red to soften it. It will expand and get tighter in the hole. I'd keep soaking it the way you have been and then hit with that 10ft. bar Larry is talking about. The final alternative is to get someone good with a cutting torch and "blow" the bolt out. A good torch guy can do this without damaging the threads by following the dark circle .

droldsmorland

Oxy/Acetylene, a good air impact AND a good air hammer/chisel with a non chinese chisel. You need to heat not only the bolts but the knuckle and bearing retainer lip interface where the bearing retainer fits into the knuckle. Heat it and beat it. You will likely need to replace the dust shield too or whats left of it.
Once you've purchased the new non china parts coat everything liberally with a good quality anti-seize. MAW do the front shaft ujoints/or CVs in your case while your there. Cuz you know their next, and you likely touched the boots with the torch. Hate CVs. Inspect the ball joints too MAW do them too...
This method has worked countless times. You just need tools with some ***. Its how we did it when I was a full time wrench and how I still do mine to this day. Some of them I've had to go back in and do a second time. I was great full I anti-seized everything. Made it a breeze!

Octania

Never put grease or anti seize on stuff like that

Unless you want to avoid this fun in the future.

Koda

Ok, this may not work, but it will be fun. Think of it as a last resort. Heat that whole thing as hot as you can get it, then take a can of compressed air for cleaning a computer with, turn it upside down, and hit that bolt, only the bolt, with all the nitrogen in it, then apply the breaker bar hard. The temp differential might make it be breakable.

Professur

Here's the thing. If you heat the bolt, it does expand in all directions ... but it's constrained by the cold knuckle around it. That forces all the expansion to happen along it's length. Then, when it cools, is shrinks in all directions .. leaving you with a bolt that's now slightly longer, and slightly skinnier.

bob p

Googling around a bit more, it seems that this is a real problem with the 8600 lb GM brake systems. They capture water and rust to hell, fusing the bolts to the hubs. My truck is 15 years old and it's probably got the worst bolts of anything that's still on the road. That calcium chloride brine solution that they spray onto the interstates here in Chicagoland just destroys everything made of metal.

The Youtube videos on the rotor replacement are really annoying. They only show after the fact summaries by guys who got these things apart without any problem, and they make it sound like the job is a cakewalk.

After starting this thread I looked around some more, and I found 20 or so forum stories of people who had the same problem -- it seems to be very common if not universal. The conditions were always the same -- the bolts were seized in place and no amount of oil, pounding, heat or torque would get them loose.

People with Acetylene/Ox couldn't free them up, and the high powered air impacts didn't help either. Sledge and air hammers were commonly used to no avail. The 10-foot breaker bars inevitably ended up rounding off the heads of the hardened steel bolts, leaving behind round-headed hardened steel bolts that were a bitch to drill out. The most common solution to the problem involved drilling the bolts out with cobalt left handed drill bits just to get the hub off of the knuckle. Some other people separated the ball joints and removed the knuckle so they could move the point of cussing from the driveway to a workbench.

Aargh.

Thanks for the suggestions.

bob p

I was thinking that heating the bolt couldn't be all bad, unless I weakened it. My conceptualization of this is that when heated the bolt expands in all directions, and then shrinks in all directions, resuming it's original size. I was thinking that the bolt would return to it's original size, and that process of expansion/contraction should compress, disturb and possibly weaken the rust interface between the fasteners, weakening the rust joint.

Of course, heat can be a two edge sword -- it could break up the rust or it could weaken your bolt.

I've never before heard the one direction of expansion idea. That bolt would have to be really hot to get there -- I don't think I accomplished that.

droldsmorland

You are a masochist!

joe_padavano

I have these on my 99 Chevy Crewcab Dually. This truck eats front brakes, so I've done this job a LOT (the truck has over a quarter million miles on it now). The very first time I did this, I was skeptical of my chances of success, as I also live in the rust belt. The bolts thread into the outer flange of the wheel bearing in the hub, which you can't access with the parts assembled, so simply heating the head of the bolt does nothing for you. I used a six point socket, breaker bar, and pipe on the breaker bar to carefully break the bolts loose and was successful with all eight. I use anti-seize every time I have them out and have never had a problem getting them out after that. By the way, once you do get the bolts out, you then have the problem of the bearing being stuck in the spindle. Again, I always clean the bore thoroughly and liberally use anti-seize on the OD of the bearing when reassembling.

I'm afraid I don't have any magic bullets for you, however. If you've rounded the heads of the bolts, you're screwed. Your only option is to carefully melt the heads off with a cutting torch, extract the bearings, and replace the bolts. Be aware that applying enough heat to loosen these bolts or melt the heads will likely damage the seals in the bearings or the hall effect sensors built into them, so plan on replacing these parts.

Once you get them out, replacing the rotors requires pressing the eight wheel studs out of the hub, swapping the rotor, and pressing the studs back in. This is a PITA trying to maneuver the heavy hub and rotor on the press. RockAuto sells a pre-assembled hub/bearing/rotor assembly, which makes life MUCH easier once you get the parts out of the spindles. They aren't cheap, but what's your time worth?

bob p

Thanks.

Yesterday I removed 1 of 4 bolts on the driver's side, the bottom rear. The others are stuck in place. I haven't even touched the passenger's side yet.

Those bolts are supposed to be 15mm, but they aren't. After scraping off the scaled rust, 15mm and 9/16" sockets were too big. Although a 14mm socket had to be pounded on initially, after a lot of impact driving now even 14mm is a little loose. 13mm is way too tight to pound-on, and there isn't a fractional size between 13mm and 14mm. Sometimes there are intermediate size options when you mix metric and fractional sizes, but there's nothing between 13mm and 14mm.

The problem is that 14mm sockets are tight enough that they get a reasonable grip with an impact driver and a sledge, but loose enough that with a socket and a breaker bar, or a socket and an impact wrench, the sockets don't rotate on the bolts (rounding), they rotate off of the bolt heads because the heads are hardened and with a breaker there's no force to keep the socket pushed on -- the tools end up walking off of the bolts. The bolts don't look badly rounded -- the problem seems to be that due to rusting, the size of the bolts has been reduced to an in-between size that nothing seems to fit.

I'm beginning to think that maybe a set reverse-grip extractor nuts might be worth trying. I'm considering trying the Lisle #19250 rounded bolt extractors with a breaker bar. Theoretically at least, these things will bite in tighter as you apply more force. I'm hoping they might be the answer. The Lisle extractors supposedly don't care about whether or not the bolt head is rounded, or if it's an intermediate size. You just pound them on with a hammer until they bite, and then apply torque to make them bite harder. They cut into the bolt head to grab it. I'm thinking that they might be my last chance before it comes to drilling out the bolt heads or having someone melt them out for me. If anyone has experience with these Lisle tools, please speak up. Although I know they exist, I couldn't find the extractors locally, so I will have to hunt to find them. Before I commit the time to hunting them down I'd like to know whether or not it's worth looking for them.

I did try to contain the torch heat by building a heat shield out of a soup can. It's helped to protect nearby external structures, like the rubber boots and ABS sensor wire, but the internal components of the hub are probably screwed by heat damage. I imagine that I'm going to be installing a new hub/bearing assembly with the new rotors, which should come with an embedded ABS tone ring and a new ABS sensor.

Assuming that I can get everything off, it looks like I'll be buying a new rotor/hub with ABS sensors, new bolts, and a new set of rotors. Maybe the rotors can be turned.

The damned ABS sensor is the root of this problem. It began firing inappropriately at 10 mph and ruined the truck's low speed stopping. My decision to fix the ABS sensor on the hub is what started this fiasco -- All of this PITA rust-wrenching is a direct result of the ABS computer malfunctioning -- all because the people who wrote the code never bothered to pay attention to the fact that as a vehicle ages, corrosion on the ABS mounting sensor's hub mounting point changes the gap and causes a hall-effect sensor's voltage differential to drop. This problem should have been easily fixed in software. The fact that it exists is an example of the crappy engineering of the software that controls the ABS system. This is a good example of how electronics in cars aren't the great innovation that they told is they would be.

Grumble.

MDchanic

The voltage differential shouldn't matter much, as the computer should be reading square-wave pulses, and should be tolerant enough of degraded voltages that there is no physical way that the reluctor points could deteriorate enough to make the voltage too low.

So, if you are saying that this system converts the Hall-effect impulses to a voltage that increases with impulse frequency, and then reads that voltage from the sensor, then, yes, that is one stupidly designed system.

- Eric

RetroRanger

unplug the abs ?

droldsmorland

IMHO...Time out...stop wasting your time. The extractors likely will not work. If they're in there that hard the extractors will likely snap. You could try and maybe get lucky and twist off the bolt heads, which is desirable. I think you're now at the point of no return and frustrating the hell out of yourself...been there done that.... Snap the heads off or get after them with the fire wrench(best option). I doubt theirs enough room for a cutoff wheel or air saw. Get a good cutting tip on a decent Oxy/Acet torch set-up and burn off the heads. Heat, beat and air chisel out and separate the retainer from the knuckle. The only other option is to separate the whole mess at the ball joints, box it and send it back to GM engineering with a love note. Then install new/used with plenty of never seize. Option 3; remove gas cap, install rag, light rag, run in opposite direction, have lawn chair and 6 pack of fav working fluid available and watch it burn to the ground.

joe_padavano

There's a known failure mode where rust particles stick to the head of the ABS sensor and screw up the readings. Mounting the sensor on the BOTTOM of the hub (instead of the top) didn't help.

Not an option. The ABS is too integrated into the rest of the computer system. I tried that when a sensor went bad on my trunk. That truck has FOUR serial data buses, for example. The dome light control even runs through the computer.

Not even close. The heads are reduced diameter and buried down in counterbores in the spindle. This is why they are so difficult to remove.

Koda

You try that nitrogen idea of mine or just ignored it?

Octania

It should be a crime to assemble stuff like that w/o using any sort of grease/ oil/ antiseize.

Selfishness

It saves ME a penny so that's how we do it

It costs the later owner and society in general quite a lot, but too bad.

Good thing we are not trying to win WWII with this type of practice.

bob p

AFAIK the only way to deal with this problem is to continually dismantle the rotor/hub assembly to access the ABS sensor and clean it. IMO undesired activation of ABS is a safety issue and should be the basis for a recall.


Don't get me started on that dome light that comes on by itself and runs the battery down because of a computer programming glitch.

The ABS is so integrated that the proportioning valve no longer exists as an independent unit between the master cylinder and the ABS module. Now the proportioning valve is internal to the ABS unit. Unplug the ABS unit --> no proportioning valve. Blow out a brake line with the ABS disabled and you lose both the front and rear circuits.

Your description makes it sound too easy. You must have a 2WD Dually, right? On the 4WD truck the situation is further complicated by an axle being thrown into the middle of everything. On a 4WD knuckle the 4 rotor/hub bolts are snugged right up against the CV axle/boot. There's absolutely no room to get to them with anything less than a thin-walled socket and an extension bar. Because of the counterbore thick sockets won't fit unless they have a tapered tip, and because of the CV axle you have to use an extension bar to get past the boot. The thin socket requirement is why I was breaking sockets.

To use the cut-off method with a torch, I'd have to remove the CV axle so it's out of the way of the fire. It's got rusty bolts at the other end. You can imagine why I'm trying to avoid doing this...

droldsmorland

Not insulting...sorry... after this many years I've learned to work smarter/easier and am lucky enough to have been in debt with SnapOn for many years.... So for me this would be a relatively uncomplicated operation. Mind you time consuming, non stop tool tossin and cussin till it was finished...All cussing geared towards the engineering blunder!
No 2wds here all 4wds. Jeeps, F250-350s, RAMs, Sliverados etc....All rusty too...Im talking from seasoned experience. And I feel your pain. Was kind of a joke about the cut off wheel or air saw. Though a sawzall would be a great tool of use to cut it up for scrap, but the fire wrench would win here too...The Fire wrench and air tools are gonna be your best friend, followed by a can of never seize. Never tried the super chill method? Yes Id gladly pay an extra 100 per new vehicle for some strategically placed anti-seize. Wish these dum azzsz would just once think about service, just once. The 95 GC Jeep was one of my worst. I had every tool in the box out the first time I did it. Destroyed the dust shields and had to rework areas with a die grinder where the air chisel bit into spots it shouldn't have...burned the bearing to a charred piece of carbon, didn't care at that point, was at my wits end for sure. Second time I did it everything came off with ease. Anti seize ease. Luckily the jeep has solid DANAs so it doesn't have the dam CV boots to burn. Thats always a extra added bonus. And forget the two piece "Repair" booties. Now there's a waste of resources!
I've also learned to purchase everything with a CV front end. Axles, dust shields, bolts, brake hoses and ABS wires etc...I call my parts counter guy and say build me a CV kit please. He knows what I need by now. Then simply return whats not consumed by the Oxy/Acet. Cuz you know your gona need a part as soon as the store closes.
Having been in the industry I tried to make changes where I could to look at serviceability. Why... because I started out in service and had to deal with Cadi North Star starters, mini van V6 spark plug changes, 5.4L 3 valve 2 piece spark plugs. A special thanks to Ford for that beauty!

Koda

Ignored it, then.

bob p

^ No, I didn't try the nitrogen idea... No offense intended on my part by not responding.

I was thinking that nitrogen wouldn't help, the reason being that the anatomy of the hub/bolt arrangement (which isn't all that clearly described in my description) negates any putative benefit from heating or chilling. Joe described the situation better when he said:

FWIW, I've read at least 20 online write-ups of this problem, and everyone who has tried chilling the nuts reported failure. It seems as if using a can of freeze-off is just one of many steps that preceded destructive removal of the bolts.

I'm a big fan of anti-sieze. The problem is that I didn't disassemble the entire truck right after I bought it, to put anti-sieze everywhere that GM should have put it.

I'm at the point where I can't justify putting off the big compressor/impact tool purchase any longer, so I'll leave the truck sit for a while while I get tee'd up to attack the problem again with professional shop tools. I'm also planning on breaking just about everything along the way, so I'm going to go ahead an order in all of the axle parts that I might need. If that fails then I'm going to have to proceed to destructive removal methods. Sigh. To get good enough access to allow drilling or melting out the bolts, I'm going to have to pull that CV axle.

Koda

Ok, no problem. May have been bad suggestion. Just happy you thought about it.

oldcutlass

I wonder what the dealer book price on the repair is.

droldsmorland

Ya its been a while since I did a Chevy. What year is this front end again? My daughters 01; if I remember correctly I was able to apply heat to the retainer flange and the studs that were sticking out, got it cherry and was able to get a hold of the bolt heads and get one side off this way(easy). I think I used the fluted socket style ez outs. Then if memory serves I had to cut up the flange on the other side because of the bolt heads were to far gone. Then once the bearing was out I beat the bolts back through. Had to chisel the crap out of that side to get it to release. You destroy the bearing/flange but I didnt care they were being replaced. I replaced both shafts too as the boots were shot anyway. She also had that crap bearing design with the internal reluctor/tone wheel inside the bearing and it had come lose on the press fit and was free wheeling throwing the anti lock light and gnawing off the magnet. 2 mechanics missed that one as she got 2 new ABS sensors replaced yet still got the light. Then she brought it to dads shop for a woopin.
I recall seen a youtube a while ago where a guy cut everything with a torch but the knuckle including the shaft. That allowed the shaft to pop out and gain much better access to the back of the knuckle. So maybe sacrificing the shafts is another option. Just be sure the nuts off the end of the shaft, easier to get off before its cut. But Id think if you need to go to that extent you would have to choose that method or removing the knuckel at the BJs. Cutting the shaft voids the core deposit. Then put the dam knuckle on a bench and have at it. Could drill the bass turds out then. Or go to a bone yard and get good used assembly then replace whats needed. Several ways to skin this feline.

bob p

Mine is a 1999 Suburban K2500 with the 8300 GVW (1-ton) chassis. 1999 was the last year for that style chassis on the suburban. the K2500 trucks were the same up until 1998.

In 1999 the K25 trucks changed to the new platform, and the K25 suburbans followed in 2000. So my 1999 K25 isn't like your daughter's more recent truck. On mine, the bolts fasten into the hub, which is encased by a rotor that can't be removed until the bolts come out. I think I said earlier that it's not possible to directly heat the receiver to loosen the bolts... unless the plan is to just torch everything into garbage.

joe_padavano

No, mine is a K3500. The front spindles are the same on both 2WD and 4WD versions. As I said, I've had my front hubs off the truck at least a dozen times in the last 250,000 miles. My axle shafts actually came out pretty easily. I've had to rebuild the entire front end, so the shafts got pulled. Another great design feature is that the front diff is in the way of pulling the lower control arm bolts, so I had to drop the diff. It was actually easier than I expected. I used a trans jack to get it in and out.

I have found on this truck (and other vehicles) that in the end it's usually easier to disassemble as much as possible than to try to work around parts in the way. I had a broken exhaust manifold stud in the head on the passenger side at the back. I tried and tried to drill it out with an angle drill and failed. Finally pulled the inner fender and it went extremely quickly.

And while we're complaining about bad design, how about the distributor cap? I've got the 454 and for as large as this truck is, the more sloped windshield caused the firewall to be further forward than on the prior generation (73-87) trucks. The distributor actually sits in a notch in the firewall. The intake is one of those tall EFI setups with the circular runners, so access to the distributor is blocked from the front by the intake and from the back by the firewall. Then, GM bolts the coil on a bracket directly over the cap, and runs an inflexible 1.5" diameter wire harness over that. There is no slack in the harness and it's rigidly tied down in multiple locations. Changing cap and rotor is SUCH a joy...

Koda

Joe that last thing about the distributor is a sea change in how cars are supposed to be done. Used to be you worked on them and they were easy-ish to do. Now, they are only easy to assemble (that dizzy got put on initially on an engine line somewheres) and last a long time. To get them fixed, the average user goes to the dealership, where the first line is "remove engine" then you get billed for the excessive labor.

I think it's a failure of engineering to not design something to be easily serviceable by the user.

joe_padavano

I agree with most of what you said, but as you know, the automakers are fighting the conflicting requirements of minimizing production cost, minimizing weight, and complying with emissions and CAFE requirements. I understand that the harness needs to be tied down tightly to prevent it from snagging on something on the assembly line. And frankly, how many people have the skills or inclination to work on their newer cars today? I suspect well under 1% of owners do any more than oil changes and maybe brake jobs. New cars go 100,000 miles before a tune up. Designing for owner serviceability really doesn't make economic sense if it compromises the other driving constraints (sale price and compliance with federal laws). NOBODY worries about serviceability when buying a new car, they just care about the purchase price. We don't have to like it, but it is the reality of the industry.

Koda

I agree, bud.

bob p

Thanks for clarifying that the spindles are the same. I didn't know that. I'm thinking that if I had my front end apart every 20,000 miles then I wouldn't be in the situation I'm in now, where I have a lot more time and miles holding things together.

I agree that disassembling things can make the job a lot easier. The frustrating thing about that, though, is that we have to disassemble a whole slew of things to get to one part that's causing a problem. And once we disassemble everything to get to that one troublesome part, if we need help with that troublesome part, then we have to reassemble everything and take it to someone who will disassemble everything, deal with the one troublesome part, and reassemble everything. The whole process ends up being repeated twice, if not three times:

First time -- DIY approach and fail
Second time -- Take it to the dealership
Third time -- disassemble to put anti-sieze everywhere that the dealership didn't put it when they followed the GM service procedure.

The knuckle-to-hub bolts are a good example of this. I've already done the disassembly but I can't get those bolts out, so I have to reassemble everything. That's #1.

Then I have to take it somewhere, and then pay someone to repeat all of the disassembly and reassembly that's required of these other systems, just to get to a stuck bolt. That's #2.

Then when I get it home I have to do it all over again to make sure those bolts are properly anti-seized so that I can get them off in the future. That's #3.

Aargh.

PS -- on the subject of inconveniently placed components, have you ever had to change the fuel pressure regulator on your 454? Mine was between the manifold and the firewall.

joe_padavano

Aw SHOOT, now you've done it. I haven't had to touch mine yet. I suspect I'll be replacing it next week...

Changing the fuel filter is fun. Not only do you need to unbolt the rusty brackets holding the hard lines to the frame, but since the filter is at the absolute low spot in the system, fuel pours out of the line and runs down your arm while you R&R the filter.

Koda

That reminds me of changing a fuel pump on a C3 corvette. IT'S the low point on the system, so the tank got drained and inspected that day, too.

droldsmorland

Assembly/component removal for access is your friend. When you can undo those fasteners.
The blower motor and heater core in a 68-72 A body Olds or any A body in this year span.....Remove the passenger fender and well....its a breeze then. Under dash work in same cars...out comes the seats.
Had an 87 S15 (junk) in which the engine (2.8 serious toilet) and trans were plucked in and out several times during brief ownership. The starter was a large PITA. Had to drop an x member to get it out. No room to work on anything on this POS. There was a seam in the firewall that prevented you from accessing the trans housing to block bolts. I pulled this sucker enough times that I said "time to make things simpler".... I cut the firewall seem out and deleted the xmember. Life was good.
Moral of the story is ...do it enough and battle with the engineering blunders(compromises) enough and you'll find a way to simplify!
Fire wrench, cut off wheel, sawzall and explosives are your friends.
Nothing beats the Northstar starter... yet...well maybe the "snapping off" of the 2 piece spark plugs in a Ford 5.4 three valve. Now thats some fun there!

Joe since you didn't knock on wood quick enough, and Murphy and his seven Gremlins live at your house too...let us know how the 3500 front end work goes next week... lol... not!

Bob sounds like you need to do the rag in gas tank thing... and run. Haven't had the pleasure of workin on that model. Did have a 92 Blazer with its very own specialties for serviceability. They all have at least several. Its impossible to engineer all of the problem spots out. But a dab of anti-seize could save everyone cost, time, and headaches. The factory could save cost in warranty claims as well you'd think they'd smarten up for the minimal return cost.
Keep us posted on how you circumvented the problem.

joe_padavano

Live at my house? Heck, they OWN my house!

TexasT

It doesnt sound like you have tried the lever. Pound the socket on, mount the breaker bar and slip a decently long pipe over the handle. Iuse a floor jack handle most of the time but iron pipe works too.

I have done the fpr, a set of injectors, a distributor, fuel pump, water pump twice, cps. Next little project will be a set of intake gaskets. It is sucking down coolant and I've read the orange gasket death coolant gm installed eats the plastic gaskets. Or at least it did on the mil 2k Malibu my daughter was given after the mil was quoted over $800 to replace the intake gaskets.

Ours has been a great truck and is currently over 200k miles. Heated seats are the bomb.