Team Alavanche breakdown

bah. All was good. Made it from gainesville to orlando, disney'd the crap out of yesterday, and hit the road toward GRMland today. JG is being coolest dude ever letting me park my trailer and z car next to some awesome stuff until Saturday morning. Got halfway to his place and something let go in the front axle of the Alavanche. I got under to check CV shafts and the driver side had a ton of play, only the cv was fine. All the play was in the stub shaft coming out of the diff. I was in a parking lot in downpour and had to do an emergency 4x4ectomy. Unbolted the inners from the diff and cut off the outer boots to get to the clips and pop the shaft out so the outer stubs could stay in place as bearing retainers. Hour and a half later I'm soaked, covered in grease, ruined my clothes, and back on the road. Dropped trailer next to the grm camaro and the gold roadmonster, and JG was pulling in with the promaster complete with unbroken windshield. He offered shop/lift/assistance if i need to go further with the truck, which is above and beyond and what GRM is all about.

By the way, JG, with the track camaro there my 4 year old ran to the roady and said "HE HAS A ROADMONSTER WAGON!" That's my boy.

Don't hesitate to call if I can source anything for you from my desk/computer.

Sorry to hear that. I'm pretty sure nothing is worse than emergency repairs on the side of the road.

If you're at JG's shop, make sure he shows you the basement.

If you need help in Gainesville, let us know. There are a few of us here permanently, including some beyond me who might actually be useful!

David S. Wallens wrote: If you're at JG's shop, make sure he shows you the basement.

But don't let Margie show you the patio

David S. Wallens wrote: If you're at JG's shop, make sure he shows you the basement.

not planning to be back until saturday morning to pick the car and trailer back up and head home to ohio, unless something odd happens. i plan to stop by the office in the next day or two and say hi.

patgizz wrote: bah. All was good. Made it from gainesville to orlando, disney'd the crap out of yesterday, and hit the road toward GRMland today. JG is being coolest dude ever letting me park my trailer and z car next to some awesome stuff until Saturday morning. Got halfway to his place and something let go in the front axle of the Alavanche. I got under to check CV shafts and the driver side had a ton of play, only the cv was fine. All the play was in the stub shaft coming out of the diff. I was in a parking lot in downpour and had to do an emergency 4x4ectomy. Unbolted the inners from the diff and cut off the outer boots to get to the clips and pop the shaft out so the outer stubs could stay in place as bearing retainers. Hour and a half later I'm soaked, covered in grease, ruined my clothes, and back on the road. Dropped trailer next to the grm camaro and the gold roadmonster, and JG was pulling in with the promaster complete with unbroken windshield. He offered shop/lift/assistance if i need to go further with the truck, which is above and beyond and what GRM is all about. By the way, JG, with the track camaro there my 4 year old ran to the roady and said "HE HAS A ROADMONSTER WAGON!" That's my boy.

good kid.

You got my number Pat don't hesitate to use it. Hope everything goes smoothly.

i forgot to mention the front diff was hot enough that i burned my hand on the case, and the driver's side stub shaft fell out when i took the cv axle out.

i did a quick search for duramax/cummins crew cabs around here, not much available. toyed with trading the alavanche in and taking something else home because i'm not upside down on the loan, i owe less than the low trade in value taking damage to the front axle into account, but i am not sure what i want to do at this point. i really don't think i could go to a ram, i hate the innards. i almost bought an 06 d-max crew cab dually earlier in the year but decided to keep the alavanche. then the rear axle blew up. now a few thousand miles later the front breaks. wtf. rear is now a hummer h2 14 bolt. i should solid axle swap the front and get rid of the IFS and it's clunks, even though all the steering and brakes are brand new.

Seriously, next time you're back at JG's shop, ask about the magazine covers shot in there. Oddly two of them involved my Porsche.

mndsm wrote:

patgizz wrote: bah. All was good. Made it from gainesville to orlando, disney'd the crap out of yesterday, and hit the road toward GRMland today. JG is being coolest dude ever letting me park my trailer and z car next to some awesome stuff until Saturday morning. Got halfway to his place and something let go in the front axle of the Alavanche. I got under to check CV shafts and the driver side had a ton of play, only the cv was fine. All the play was in the stub shaft coming out of the diff. I was in a parking lot in downpour and had to do an emergency 4x4ectomy. Unbolted the inners from the diff and cut off the outer boots to get to the clips and pop the shaft out so the outer stubs could stay in place as bearing retainers. Hour and a half later I'm soaked, covered in grease, ruined my clothes, and back on the road. Dropped trailer next to the grm camaro and the gold roadmonster, and JG was pulling in with the promaster complete with unbroken windshield. He offered shop/lift/assistance if i need to go further with the truck, which is above and beyond and what GRM is all about. By the way, JG, with the track camaro there my 4 year old ran to the roady and said "HE HAS A ROADMONSTER WAGON!" That's my boy.

good kid.

Also, let me know next time you're in orlando. I should be a resident in the next month or so, if I ask "amy" nice.....I might be able to hook a brother up.

What front axle did the 2500 Avalanches come with? I know the rear was 14 bolt on leaf springs...

Pbw wrote: What front axle did the 2500 Avalanches come with? I know the rear was 14 bolt on leaf springs...

Probably the 2500 pickup one. Think slightly larger diff, still sad IFS. Researched solid axle swaps this morning and found an 01 ram complete roller with 4.10 dana front on my local CL. If i could get that and literally swap the entirety of the front suspension over brackets and all that would be cheaper than getting another ifs diff, axles, finding whatever the heck is clunking now, and selling what i can of whats left. My front brakes literally have this trip on them and all my steering parts are brand new gm pieces. Getting really sick of my daily being more project. I couldnt find a crew cab duramax or mega cab cummins in my price range here except a 2500hd with 380k. At this point, with all the trouble ive had with my last 3 daily trucks in their front axles(all ifs gm's) maybe i should learn something. Maybe i need to stick with 2wd and locking rear diff with good tires. I did that for the first 15 years of driving, it's only the last few i started buying 4x4 trucks. And I've never broken more daily stuff.

The alavanche already has a 14 bolt hummer rear axle swapped in because the 10 bolt exploded in spectacular fashion in February. Im 2.5 years into a 4 year loan on this truck and now I remember why i only ever paid cash before. So i could dump E36 M3 when it came time to be too much work. The chassis is beautiful and 100% boxed, body is perfect combo of crew cab for family and bed for tools, 5.3 LS engine is sweet, but the stuff bolted to all that has me pissed off.

Honestly if i could find a crew cab duramax 6 speed auto 2wd with 150k or less for sub 20 grand or mega cab cummins ram in same boat down here it would be hard not to go dump the alavanche

truck was fine rest of week down here, albeit did not do many miles just putting around daytona. heading out shortly to JG's house to pick up the trailer/racecar. if anyone on the "on the road assistance" list gets a call from a 330 number today, pick it up because i need help.

Safe travels mate

Good luck. Have a safe trip home.

front axle parts fail even while in 2wd mode?

front diff always turning. it has an actuator that hooks it to the driveshaft when 4x mode engaged. or something like that. i don't quite know the how or why, but the cv's are always turning and in turn something inside always is. i have a feeling that this truck, while very well taken care of prior to me getting it, did quite a bit of heavy towing. i also find it strange that both diffs were serviced at 98k by the same dealer, and they failed within 3k of each other at 147 and 150.

made it to wytheville, VA for the night. 615 miles down, 369 to go. at 614 i had a big laugh. getting off the highway the "service 4wd" light came on... no E36 M3.

so with the service 4wd light, this morning the stability control off light came on, the 4wd selector buttons light went from 2hi to neutral then to no light at all and i had horrible noises coming from the transfer case area on stops and starts. and we just got home 377 miles later. stopped as little as possible to keep the nasty noises to a minumum. at this point i can't trade it in because they'd give me nothing since crap is broken even though it's a nice clean truck with good paint and interior.

i've concluded that the chassis is awesome. the body style and execution are perfect, 4 door for the kids but a bed and towing capability. the LS engine is a no brainer. but everything bolted to that stuff is E36 M3. i've managed to destroy every other major component of the driveline. rear diff explode, trans explode, front diff explode, and now it looks like transfer case is about to explode.

i'm going to look for a compatible 4L80E and crossmember/driveshaft from a 3/4 ton 2wd suburban or avalanche to bolt that in and ditch the entire 4wd system. with the e-locker in the hummer rear axle and not planning any offroad excursions, i'll be fine. of course i walked away from a complete $800ish running driving t-boned 04 2wd 2500 6.0/4L80E suburban over the summer because i couldn't get a clear answer for who had the paperwork and who i was going to pay and exactly how much they wanted. now i could have used all those parts.

so it's either 4L80E or find a rotted cummins truck and swap the engine/trans in, whichever comes first. at which point i've got the receipt for my trans rebuild 10k ago, someone will need a half price 4x4 4L65. the only thing stopping me would be if my express engine lets go(trying to get to 500k, it should roll 425 next week), it's got a 2wd 4L65 that was rebuilt 7k ago. that would be the easy button to throwing all the 4x4 junk in the trash. i'm convinced that IFS 4x4 is the dumbest invention ever.

but whatever, we made it home.

Wow. Glad your home safe.

You did better than Tim .Glad you made it!

Glad you made it home safe, sounds like a long journey.

Glad you made it home safe. Hope the family enjoyed Florida.

In case you change your mind on 4wd there is someone parting out an Avalanche on the Columbus Craigslist. Yesterday he posted a front differential for sale.