My truck has been getting some much deserved attention lately. Earlier this year I did some brake work in NM and AZ. Those stop gap measures got me down the road and bought some time.
Last week I made a longer pit stop in KY. First I replaced the OEM front rotors with drilled and slotted discs.
They're supposed to dissipate heat better. That seemed a prudent upgrade as I do a lot of towing and seek warmer climes with seasonal travels. Time will tell how they endure the long haul. But so far, so good.
I also added air springs to the rear axle. I don't plan to exceed any weight ratings. But I carry tools and other heavy stuff in the bed. Plus tongue weight of the trailer. Which pretty much maxes out my load limit. Sometimes the axle bottoms outs on the bump stops. Maybe the 15 year old leaf springs are sagging. Regardless, air springs solve it by leveling the load. Plus allow adjustment as the load changes.
Next up: oxygen sensors. My V8 has four. Both upstream sensors showed fault codes. With the right tool they were actually pretty simple to replace. No more Check Engine light. Cool! The downstream sensors were another story. They apparently still worked fine. They were just badly corroded.
On the driver side the studs were still solid but the nuts were gone. Rust was all that held the retainer plate. The gasket was crumbling beneath it. That explained a small exhaust leak that was starting. A little prying and the plate popped right it off. Post threads were cleaned up with a chaser nut. Three down. One to go.
That pic above is from the passenger side. There wasn't enough of the nuts left to grip. Plenty to keep it held fast though. So I decided to punt that ball down the field. I'll try more tricks when I get another opportunity. Meanwhile, I'll carry a spare for a while.
Now for the big job. I had a very small coolant leak. And a suspicious noise under the hood. I figured the water pump was going. At 183k miles I figure the original was due. Nope. Turned out the radiator was leaking. At least the replacement has lifetime warranty.
Getting to the water pump was a pain. It's driven off the timing belt. That's pretty deep on the front end of the engine. Although having the old radiator out of the way wasn't required a couple extra inches of clearance did help.
Access did require removing the AC compressor, power steering pump, alternator, idler pulleys, tensioner and serpentine belt of course. Then the several covers to get to the timing belt and water pump. The poor thing looked so naked at that point.
Turned out the water pump was fine after all. The timing and serpentine belts also looked great. All got replaced as preventive maintenance anyway. Hopefully my high-end aftermarket choices measure up to the original equipment. Time will tell.
It did kinda suck that after putting it all back together it overheated on the test run. So I tore it all back down a second time. I couldn't find anything wrong. But I was more meticulous about the refill procedure. It worked.
Now I can turn my attention to the Scamp. I've been itching to do some major renovation work on that for some time.
