GM RULES. I think Matco is in on this thing with GM. That way you have to buy standard and Metric everything

 

UPDATE:

I got everything put back together earlier this afternoon and went to start it up and feel the vibration free idle... well... I put the battery back on, and it made a noise, so I looked underit, everything looked good so I try to crank it, nothing but click click... so, I grabbed the jumpbox and hooked it up, same thing....
so now I'm thinking starter... run to Advance, drop $230 on a starter, and come back. put it in except this time, I hook up the battery and the thing starts cranking!!! WTF!!!! the keys are in my pocket!!! I un-hooked it and looked around, everything looked good again... so after scratching my head and cussing up a storm and kicking the lift for a minute, I take both starters to advance and have them tested, they are both fine!!!! now I'm stumped.... I ran out of time before we had to close the shop up.

I'm thinking either its a pinched/rubbed wire going to the starter, or a bad ignition switch.... keep in mind everything worked perfectly when I pulled it on the lift... drove it up there, killed it,and started work... I'm leaving tomorrow morning to New Orleans for a conference and wont be back until Thursday... I guess I"ll get back at it Thursday afternoon... I just dont know. anyone ever experienced this???

 

just a shot in the dark....but don't we have starter relays in our trucks? How do the cables look, corrosion?

 

not positive on the relays but the cables looked fine... not brand new obviously, the truck's 7 yrs old, but.... the werent corroded or cracked to ****...

 

Sounds to me like the starter silaniod (jesus christ I am a bad speller). I had one do the same thing to me. Tap it with a wrench a few times and see if it unlocks. If it dosent then that is what I would start replacing first.

 

I had the starter tested, worked great... its definitely not the solenoid. something between the starter and the battery... I'm thinking wires at this point.