My truck started making a clicking noise when turning. I put it on the lift at my father-n-law's shop and found that both inner tie rod ends were bad. Thought it was a little strange they both went bad at the same time. I replaced both tie rods. I figured if I reassembled the new tie rods with the same about of turns as the old one, the alignment should be very close to as it was before I replaced them to buy a little time before I spent more money to get an alignment. Well when I go test drive my truck, I could tell the toe was really off, was extremely responsive to the the slightest touch to the steering wheel and tires squeal when turning. Needless to say, I went straight to the alignment shop. Now my truck drives/steers like when it was new.

Also, while I had it up on the rack, I replaced the brake shoes/drums and pulled to cover off the diff to inspect the G80 which has been giving me problems. Everything looked perfect and magnet was clean. Talked to a friend of mine that is a mechanic at a GMC dealership and he said as the gear oil breaks down (seems to be about 30,000 miles) the G80 will start making noise and not spin posi. I replaced gear oil with the same stuff they use at the dealer ship (Mobile 1 synthetic gear oil). I did bunch of burn outs and launchs on the street yesterday and it spun posi every time and no noise (so far). Hopefully it will hold up a while longer so I can save money for a trutrak.

 

I would like to hear some on the rear brake job.
How much were the shoes and were they the OE parts?
How many miles were on them and what did the drum surfaces look like?
Did you buy drums or turn them?

 

I'm not sure the price of the shoes......I did the work at my father-n-law's mechanic shop. He called in all of the parts and charged them to his account then had them delivered to his shop. 65,000 miles on them (did front brake job a few weeks ago). We tried to turn the drums but it wouldn't cut them so I had to get new ones. Brand of drums and shoes is Wagner. The surface of the drums were glazed and had minor grooving.

 

Hmmm, I'm curious as to why they wouldn't cut, glazing and slight grooving is normal and can usually be machined out. Were the drums out of round and not re-surfacing true...did you have a pulsation? How about the brake lathe, was it in good functioning condition with good bits? Eh, at least you got it done. Wagner makes good stuff so hopefully you'll be good to go for another 65k

 

WoW,
Drums that would not cut. I am a machinist and am thinking hmmm?

I didn't know you already did the fronts. With spirited driving 50 to 65k is great!

 

I'm no mechanic (I do IT work) but I can change parts especially with the guidance of my father-n-law or his mechanic. I didn't attempt running the brake lathe though, let his mechanic take care of that. After reading your posts, I just called to ask him exactly why they wouldn't cut. He said something about they would be to thin to get hard spots out? I think I misunderstood him and it wasn't that they wouldn't cut but he couldn't cut them true again.

 

Ah! This did cross my mind. Thanks for not being thin skinned. I wanted to say more but some folks are kind of touchy.

This can be a semi tough crowd here but it's mostly in humor.

 

It's all good......I never take things too seriously on any of the forums I'm a member of. Some of the forums I'm a member of are kinda strict and those that are thin skinned regularly get a "vacation" from the site.