September 26th, 2003 (Post #34)

September 26, 2003
CV Joint Woes
Well the knocking in the front of the Big White Bus had gotten to the point I was afraid to drive it. With the insistance of my buddy JagGuy I endeavored to persevere. [I miss Chief Dan George] Anyway I went to Rover Cannibal after seeing the prices of a new CV joint on the internet. They had a lovely one in the color I wanted too, just kidding.

So I got that and the premeasured tube of grease and the inside seal. I actually did not replace it but I have it just in case. I went over on Sunday afternoon. It was not as horrible an ordeal as I expected. JagGuy had done his when it exploded and described a nasty job. When they explode or come apart they leave lots of schrapnel all inside the housing. This schrapnel has to be removed and is not a pleasant job. So when he was being insistant that I change it, he was speaking from the experience of a lengthly procedure, and he and I wanted to avoid that.

I (and he) could not get over how easy it was to change this vital part. In our experience
with the countless cars we had owned before this would have been a good reason to get rid of the vehicle. But this thing was amazingly simple and functional all in the same design. These trucks are tough and easy to work on. That is something you don’t see in most vehicles. I have a write up for this but need some pictures which JagGuy is going to provide from his project. My camera died two shots in to the job, dead batteries. So look for it later next month. On the
Difficulty Scale
I would rate this job a Level Three. A few tricks are important to know
but nothing the manual probably doesn’t say.

Error 34
I track my gas mileage with a Palm Pilot. So each fill up is lottery of how great or terrible
my gas mileage is. I average 14.9 miles per gallon most fill ups. This last two weeks it has risen to 15.9 mpg and even a 16.1 mpg. Well with all good things there is some bad. The Check Engine light illuminated and a quick check under the passenger seat of the OBD readout shows Error 34. As you are or are not aware that is Injector Bank A, Left Side, still no help with the description.

I do not know which side that is but I will find out soon. I don’t have any idea
what the message means either. I will be doing some investigating of the fuel system and how it works this week I guess. I’m guessing with the gas mileage going up the truck is running leaner than it should. I also have a tappet rattle when I accelerate hard which might be fuel starvation. But again these are guesses. More as I get it.