While I had the truck in the garage, I took the time to inspect the wiring under the dash to see if there was anything that could be drawing power when the key was off. I found a rat’s nest of add-on wiring. After looking it over, I couldn’t find anything that depended on this wiring that I couldn’t live without so I tore it all out.

The battery did test weak, but also showed an ~50% charge on my larger battery charger. Between the getting the battery back healthy and removing some wiring, the overall electrical health of the K5 should be much better. Time will tell.

I continue to have problems starting the truck when it’s cold outside… I’m starting to wonder if there isn’t a cracked plate in the battery. Gonna pick up my dad’s battery load tester to see how the battery does. I might remove the positive battery cable to test it as well. When I installed the new starter, I cleaned the contact on the end of the cable, but didn’t really pay attention to the condition of the terminal to wire connection. Plus there’s a pretty severe kink in the cable where it runs down over the frame & through a bracket.

As I posted a few days ago, I had both of my trucks in the garage (separately) to catch up on routine maintenance. I looked over both with a fairly fine toothed comb while they were in there. Just 3 days later and I have a problem with both that was previously not found while in the garage. The Tahoe started leaking at the rear diff cover. After I noticed that, I started driving the K5 until I could get both of them looked at. While out and about I took note of a rather large puddle of gear lube under the front axle of the K5!

The Tahoe was a fairly easy fix (I think). I found two bolts that were loose at approximately the 3 o’clock position on the diff cover. Tightened them back down and cleaned everything really well with some brake clean & a wire brush to make it clear whether I still had a problem or not. Time will tell.  I’ll keep a close eye on it over the next few days/weeks to be sure that was it.  If not, I’ll pull the cover & install a new gasket.

I had the K5 back in the garage to check out what might be happening with it. The most likely source was the pinion seal, but I did find a blocked breather line (collapsed inside) between the axle and the hard line that then runs up to along the radiator. Cleared that and took it for a test drive. Now, I had just engaged the front hubs in preparation for winter (whenever it decides to get here) so I was driving around with the front end engaged which I rarely do for most of the driving I do with it, so it seems that was throwing around the diff lube, making the seal leak worse than when not engaged. So that’s on the docket for replacement this coming weekend. Here’s to hoping that the pinion bearings are ok (didn’t check that while I was under it today)!

The K5 needed new drag link ends which I had ordered & picked up earlier in the month. Half hour later and the drag link was in. Went to start it to back it out of the garage and… “RrrRRR, BANG!!!”… What the heck… Tried the starter again and it was grinding horribly… Crawled back under the truck to find the nose cone of the starter in pieces. After removing the starter, I found a 3/8″ by 3/4″ long coarse thread bolt in the nose cone..! Pull off the dust shield to find all three torque converter bolts installed, but 2 of them were loose enough that I removed them easily by hand… To make matters worse, all three were coarse thread bolts/nuts with regular nuts (i.e. not self-locking). $8 for the proper fine thread bolts with matching self-locking nuts, another $52 for a life-time warranted NAPA reman starter, about another hour of work, and the K5 was back operational.

So here’s the bolt that caused it all and a shot of the crack:

The crack extends all the way around the outside of the nose cone:

In a way, I’m glad the starter went as it could have been a lot worse if the flex plate broke due to missing/loose bolting. And you can’t complain too much about something breaking in the garage where it’s warm, dry, and easily fixed! I had been meaning to replace the starter for a while now since it has been getting increasingly difficult to start…

Also, just a quick update on the A/C leak previously fixed on my Tahoe. I ran my infrared flashlight over the repaired area again today and it still showed zero signs of leakage. The defrost setting has been doing a fine job clearing moisture out of the air with as rainy as it has been lately and I can hear the compressor engage on-demand. No short cycling!

The leak was found on the larger refrigerant line where the line meets the mounting lug. Initially I was thinking it was a solder joint that was responsible for the seal. That was before I pulled the lines off. The mounting lug is soldered to the line, but that is not what seals the line. The line is flanged below the lug. The line itself was leaking just above the solder joint due to corrosion in the line that became visible only after I had cleaned up the line.

While soldering the leak would have worked with the proper equipment, I didn’t want to get it that hot. To use silver solder on the lines, I would have had to heat them to >500*F which I thought would result in damage to the rubber line about 6″ away from the affected area. I don’t have a cold sleeve to use that would protect the rubber line so I avoided that option.

A friend of mine that works in the maintenance department of a local college had suggested I try a product called RedEpoxY. For $16 and a little bit of time, I figured I’d give it a try. My other alternatives were to purchase a replacement line (>$400 – OUCH!) or purchase a block off kit for the suction/discharge lines under the hood which would eliminate the rear a/c all together (but leave the rear heat for the winter). The block off kit would have cost around $36. Time will tell if I made the right decision.

With the RedEpoxY, I preheated the affected area to ~200*F after disconnecting the line & thoroughly cleaning the area with a green scotch brite pad. I did a little cleaning with emery cloth right at the leak to remove the corrosion. The preheat allowed the epoxy to really flow well. I applied the epoxy all the way around the line at the mounting lug to seal/protect that whole area. After that, I heated the area to ~300*F to cure the epoxy.

After reconnecting the lines with new seals and torquing them in place (12ftlbs[144inlbs]), I then pulled a 30inHg vacuum on the system, leaving the pump on for 4 hours before turning it off to do a leak check. After ~24 hours of settling time, the vacuum had moved to 26inHg which is most likely due to moisture coming out of suspension in the system as well as some residual R134a coming out of the oil. That was enough proof that the leak was fixed. I then put the vacuum pump back on it and let it work over the next 12 hours to get as much of the moisture out of the system as I could.

The next morning I charged the system back up and it was throwing ice cubes!

The top has seen better days. There is a cracked out section on the inner rail that will need to be fixed and the joints are a bit loose. The plan is to recondition this top while still enjoying my K5! Then swap them out later on down the road.

As far as the transfer cases go, this was just too good of a deal to pass up. One of the NP205′s has a cracked case at the front output, but all of the gears & shafts inside are in good condition. The other NP205 was just rebuilt and is nice & tight. Both have slip yoke rear outputs so I’ll have to change that. With the 32 spline input shaft being almost as expensive in the aftermarket as what I picked up both cases for, I grabbed one heck of a deal.

Now to work on (or just buy) an adapter to mate the range box from my spare NP203 up to the front of the NP205!