Today was devoted to oil changes & other maintenance related tasks on the Tahoe & K5. Both were due for an oil change which was the easy part. Fresh Pennzoil Ultra 5w30 for the Tahoe & Pennzoil dino-juice 10w40 for the K5. While in the garage, I checked & topped off all of the other fluids in both vehicles.
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 course 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 course 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 warrantied NAPA reman starter, about another hour of work, and the K5 was back operational.
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 awhile now since it has been getting more & more 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!