Been a long time. Time for an update

So it's been a long time since I've seen or talked to you all. Soon, I should be able to get more involved with the club...so time for updates:

1. My mom finally passed on 07/05/11. She went quick and was not in pain. I now have a new tat and edited a previous tat in memory of her.

2. My Terminator is still running good. My mod list is extensive and almost pinned down finally to get me through a few years/the life of the Cobra (excluding upgrading the fuel system and swapping out the Eaton). Once I get the rest of my new windows in my house and pay them and get a few other things for my house, I'll be able to assess what I can afford right off and start buying to mod her. Who's in to help me?

3. My house A/C is on the crapper as of last night. Luckily, we're only missing 3 of our new windows, so it is not real hot in the house, but still not pleasant. I've got my A/C guy coming over tomorrow at noon to assess what's wrong, but my question is, if I have to replace the damn thing, any recommendations on brand? Are the high SEER rated units really worth the higher cost (say a 22 SEER vs. a 16 SEER)? I think I have the original unit, so anything will be more efficient at this point. I don't expect to be in this house for more than 10 years.

4. I've got a wicked noise from the Hoe I bought from Jerry. Belt slip, squeak, rattle/vibration since it's been really hot. The alternator fryed out, which I replaced, and I replaced the serpentine belt tensioner thinking that would be the fix. Not so. I've got a new A/C tensioner and belt to put in this Sat. If this doesn't fix the noise, I'm gonna need some help diagnosing/resolving the problem. Any takers?

5. I've got two friends that own a bar in Jenks (called George's). They wanted me to organize a BMMC meet there. I said I'd try. They said discounted drink and food. I'll get more details on discounts they will give us and make sure we get primo parking (they have on the street in front, gravel behind the bar, and other paved spots from other businesses that can be used). A head count would be helpful for me. Anyone interested in an informal BMMC gathering there say some Friday or Saturday night. Must be 21 to enter. The bar is in Jenks, off of Main street, right behind JDI sprinkler. Their regular prices are good and no well liquor used. Great beer selection. Food is good bar food.

Well that's all for now.... so now, updates from you all......

Sorry to hear about your mom, cant imagine what you have gone through.

A/c, well... Welcome to my world! Been dealing with jackass companies who dont even want to call you back let alone come out. And everything has to go through my home warranty company. I have a brand new unit ( same as Jerry got) but still have underlying issues waiting to be resolved

My truck is acting up, only getting 2-4lbs of boost ;( hope its just the boost actuator that took a dump. Hope the new part arrives tomorrow, otherwise im going to park it and drive my Jeep.

Again man, sorry to hear about your mom, let us know if you ever need anything and hope to see you back on and active

Chupacabra wrote:Sorry to hear about your mom, cant imagine what you have gone through.

A/c, well... Welcome to my world! Been dealing with jackass companies who dont even want to call you back let alone come out. And everything has to go through my home warranty company. I have a brand new unit ( same as Jerry got) but still have underlying issues waiting to be resolved

My truck is acting up, only getting 2-4lbs of boost ;( hope its just the boost actuator that took a dump. Hope the new part arrives tomorrow, otherwise im going to park it and drive my Jeep.

Again man, sorry to hear about your mom, let us know if you ever need anything and hope to see you back on and active

Thanks man. She was ill for several years and it was expected.

My A/C guy used to do A/C work full time, then retired from it as a primary job, and now does it on the side for extra money. He is licensed still though. He knows what he is doing and isn't there to blow smoke or rip you off. I'll know more tomorrow at lunch on what's going on with it. He rattled off about 5 different reasons on what could be wrong on the phone earlier. It blows in air that isn't cold. Not hot, but not cold. I washed the coils, the compressor was smoking hot, but my output pipe to the house was not cold. My thermostat (digi) was also freaking out last night saying it was 60 inside at one point, then a few minutes later saying it was 86 inside. The thermostat seems to be fine today, but no cold air. I turned it off a while ago.

Sorry to hear about your Lightning. If not the actuator, does that equal a seal leak?

Sorry to hear about your loss, cant imagine.

Good to see you back here and cant wait to see what you have in store for the Cobra.

Sorry to hear about the A/C. Not as big of deal but our fridge took a dump and the repair guy miss-diagnosed the problem so we were out of a fridge for 2 weeks, food all ruined. So I kinda know your frustration.

Shelby10' wrote:Sorry to hear about your loss, cant imagine.

Good to see you back here and cant wait to see what you have in store for the Cobra.

Sorry to hear about the A/C. Not as big of deal but our fridge took a dump and the repair guy miss-diagnosed the problem so we were out of a fridge for 2 weeks, food all ruined. So I kinda know your frustration.

Thanks man.

Oh, my fridge crapped out on me 2 months ago. Motherboard crapped out. Luckily I took our frozen to my dad's and didn't lose much. I was actually thinking about that dilemma a couple of hours ago. Which is worse right now? No fridge or no A/C? No A/C just equals unpleasant for all inside, but still can eat ice cream, have cold drinks and what not. No fridge with working A/C means comfortable inside, but always having to go eat out somewhere and not having cold refreshments. Right now, I am voting for no A/C sucks ass worse....

Sorry to hear about your loss man... Looking forward to
Hanging out more though.

I can lend a hand or two on anything automotive, just hit me up!!

Home A/C on the other hand I leave to the pros.

Yea, I've been a little bit of a loner as of late too. Sorry to hear about your mom, I could never imagine going through that.

We are about to buy our first home, and I am fearing all the upkeep lol. Gonna be a lot different than just putting in a work order to maintenance. But, it's all worth it in the end.

The Jenks bar idea could be interesting. I don't go to bars much, too expensive. But I am also down to hang out, especially since the semester just ended and I have a little time until the next one starts.


Let us know when you start compiling parts and we will all be down to help.

Condolances on your mom. Life goes on.

As far as the A/C goes, I replaced mine 1-1/2 yrs ago. I went with the 22 SEER because after a rebate and an Obama deduction, it actually cost a little less than the 18 SEER. It's been absolutely fantastic. Sounds like you have a bigger problem, but if all you need is a squirrel cage fan, I have one in my garage that only has 6 mo. usage on it that you can have.

wish you and your family well after your loss......


i have to say i have only briefly met one person from the club and that was Hector.

i finally got my car back up and running after having issues after the E-Force install. now it's making 484hp &444tq at 8-9 psi. I'll also have a nice pile of parts to put on both the 07 and the 86 when i return. I'm in Afghan till early next summer.

also the wife and i are possibly moving back to the tulsa area, but have decided to wait till my son finishes high school in about 2 years.

Yeah, your a/c problem sounds just like mine. Same symptoms at least. I have a new unit thanks to home warranty, but still have a small glitch keeping it from working properly. Hopefully be resolved soon.

Not sure on the truck, everyone on the lightning forum said boost actuator, and all of the 10 pages of searching i went through points to that. Hopefully the part will be here today and fix the problem, if not i really dont know what to do.

Cool air but not cold is low freon,maybe a leak some where.Rheem is a way i would go.Mine is 30 years old.Easy to work on.One capacitior and a set of contacts.Other brands use to many eletrionic boards.

Very sorry to hear about Mom Zac. My thoughts and prayers go out.

A/C Definitly sucks. Just don't by a Trane. The so called Solid State control board that is suppose to be worry free... I've replaced it 5 times at $500 bucks a pop.

The Hoe... Jerry beat the crap out of that truck when he had it. Always ran it on only 1 qt of oil and either gas pedal was to the floor or the brake was. And then there was the he decided to play Dukes of Hazzard in it. That was crazy... Didn't he mention any of that? :)

Let talk about the bar in Jenks...

Just be glad he cut the welds around the doors before he sold it... Used to have to climb in through the windows

BMMC1 wrote:


The Hoe... Jerry beat the crap out of that truck when he had it. Always ran it on only 1 qt of oil and either gas pedal was to the floor or the brake was. And then there was the he decided to play Dukes of Hazzard in it. That was crazy... Didn't he mention any of that? :)

Wait till the bondo starts to crack.I still can't believe they got the frame straight.

carcrazy53 wrote:Cool air but not cold is low freon,maybe a leak some
where.Rheem is a way i would go.Mine is 30 years old.Easy to work
on.One capacitior and a set of contacts.Other brands use to many electronic boards.

Trane is suppose to be one of the best out there. Not a fan after this
one. I had a Rheem in my first house. It was underrated for the sq footage of the house. In the heat of summer it would run constantly. But it never broken down. The only thing I ever had to replace was the fan motor.

carcrazy53 wrote:Wait till the bondo starts to crack.I still can't believe they got the frame straight.

No kidding. Here's a pic.

Sorry to hear about the loss of your mother. My condolences.

The A/C units always go out at the peak of summer, don't they? The blower on ours went out for the 2nd time last summer, so we bit the bullet and got a 2-stage Lennox. While they were at it, the installers sealed all of the air ducts because the builder had used ZIP-TIES on them (seriously??). They also put a 2nd return in our upstairs room. Our electric bill dropped by almost $100 after that.

Well, update of the update.

The Hoe is down. Known issue for a lot of GMs from 02-04 (mainly SUVs and trucks, but also cars too). The compressor just pulls too much, and the bearings fail prematurely so to speak. Luckily for me it didn't lock up or else it would be worse. The A/C belt tensioner just slaps the crap out of the bolt holding it on. So just about $500 in parts, some labor for the rip out/install, and a vacuum/recharge and she will be fine for a couple of more years, lol.

On my house A/C: my guy filled it last Wed (it hold 6 pounds of R22, he had to fill 3 pounds in it) and said it will either get me through the rest of the summer or who knows. Well on Thurs night it was blowing warm again. He came back. I lost 2 pounds, so I had a big leak. I used to only have to get a pound in before the start of summer and be able to get by until the next year. Major oil deposits on the compressor fittings, copper lines pre-coils, and some on the aluminum coils. He couldn't locate the leak, and he said even if he could, he couldn't guarantee a 100% fix. He said if it was in the coils, it couldn't be fixed anyways. It was a Trane that was 15 years old this year, R22, single stage, rated at 10 SEER. My new A/C guy told me units roughly lose -1 SEER every 5 years. So if that is the case, I was only running at approx. 7 SEER when it went down.

I now have a American Standard Gold XI Allegiance 15, 410A unit (coil inside my furnace was converted too), 15 SEER (their website rates it up to 17 SEER), single stage unit, that has 10 year warranty on the compressor, parts, coil inside furnace; and 2 year warranty on the labor. My meter spins half as fast as it did before. This sucker is big, very quiet, and blows cold. My furnace unit is an American Standard as well, replaced by the previous owners in 06. I couldn't do a two stage system without replacing my furnace unit too.

My wife and I decided to convert from R22 to the 410A, but not dump too much into a higher SEER as the tax breaks suck (max of $500 for 2011), minimal rebate offers out there, and we won't be in this house forever. We figured the conversion and 15 SEER (plus the new windows on our house) would be enough to satisfy any future buyer to make the purchase when we sell; and hopefully we can get a decent chunk of ROI back.

Sucks to hear about the Tahoe but at least you got it figured out and fixed up.

I changed out my house a/c last year. I only upgraded to a 13 seer unit. Comparing it from June of 2010 ( this was the last month of the old a/c) to June of 2011, I used half the amount of energy. I'm sure you will notice the difference in the cooling cost over the long run.