fastbee

cadowns - truck is tuned and has a cam and custom exhaust. Converter seems fine as it drives great as long as cruise is not being used. EXGM - No CELs, not even any soft codes according to my scanner. Would the throttle body cause issues only in cruise?

Yesterday I set my cruise control to 40 mph on a stretch of highway notorious for speed traps. I don't recall every setting it that low before. Almost immediately the truck started to buck and jerk, almost like it was coming in and out of gear. It settled down when the throttle came back in but started jerking again as soon as it came off throttle. Today I got on another long straight stretch and tried various speed settings. The truck had the same reaction at any speed above 35 mph. At 60 mph it felt and sounded like something was about to come apart. The bucking/jerking is triggered when it comes off throttle. I can push the gas pedal and it will settle down or use the cruise control controls to add speed. As long as increased fueling is being commanded it seems OK. It should be noted that there are no issues when not using cruise control, it runs fine. Anyone ever heard of or experienced this?

I've mounted GPS antennas there before and they all worked fine, I'm guessing the sat radio antennas wouldn't be any different. I really didn't want to do the brake light unless someone could give a way to keep the leaks out. If I go the SiriusXM route, I think I'll just mount the antenna on the dash and see how it works.

I'm going to replace my old radio (Pioneer double din) with a newer model that has some better features. One thing I'm thinking of doing is going to XM radio. My truck already has XM antenna and factory tuner. My antenna is the dual lead type and I can seem to find any way to turn that into a single lead that the newer sat radio tuners use. I've saw where folks have just used one of the leads, but that means picking between satellite and terrestrial signals and possible signal loss. I've also read where people have replaced the antenna with the newer style stock ones. My truck has had some paint work done on the roof from the PO to correct hail damage. If I remove the current antenna the newer one will have to be the same or larger to cover any imperfections. I suppose I could use the antenna that comes with the tuner but am not sure about where to put it. If I installed it on the dash right against the glass would it work as well as outside the vehicle? Has anyone mounted it near the third brake light and ran the wire in the cab there? This project might be more effort than it's worth, just looking for some ideas.

Drained fluid from front differential. Didn't see anything unusual on the magnet but there appears to be quite a bit of very fine material in the fluid. When I move the container around I can see a slight "residue" that trails behind the fluid. Fluid didn't smell bad at all and didn't look burned. Is there anyway short of disassembly to check the differential? I've spent over half of my life as a maintenance technician, and I really hate to just throw parts at something without knowing what is wrong.

Here is a video of the slop. I thought the idler arm pieces were bad, but after getting them out they were pretty tight. I couldn't get either stud to move other than rotation just like the new parts I had. https://youtu.be/dUXdStC-ed8

Might be torque converter going bad.

The hubs feel fine, no movement at all and no noises when turning them by hand. The strange thing is the noises only happen when turning or coming off throttle. If I'm driving a constant speed in a straight line it's completely quiet. Let off the gas and it sounds like the differential is whining. Turn left and there is a slight chirping sound (every time). Turn right and sometimes there is a slight roar/rumble, but not every time. Might just put the hubs on and see if anything changes.

I didn't change them. I didn't want to put them on if they weren't the problem. When I noticed the movement from wheel to wheel I thought that might be the issue not the hubs. I guess I'll drain the differential and see what comes out.

Update: I started getting a random growl when I turn right in addition to the noise when turning left. I went ahead and bought 2 hubs, thinking that had to be it even though I couldn't get any movement out of them. Today I jacked the truck up to start replacing the right side hub. I noticed that I could rotate the right wheel a fair amount before the left wheel moved. How much play should there be there? When I say fair amount, it is very noticeable, maybe 1/4" or more rotation. I would have thought the gears would have been tighter than that, but have nothing to compare to.

I checked everything with the wheels on as well. I was really hoping to hear/see/feel something in the hub but they felt solid, no play or weird sounds at all. The stub axle was the only unusual movement I found anywhere.

I've been having some random noises coming from the front of my truck for about three weeks. I've had the truck a couple of months and ever since I bought it there has been a little howl coming off throttle. I've read that is pretty common. The other noise is a rubbing/scuffing sound that would just happen sometimes. It's to the point now that left turns can cause the noise at will. I first thought it was one of the hubs but now I'm not so sure. Today I got the front jacked up and pulled the wheels to begin inspecting everything. Both side hubs feel smooth, no grinding or rubbing sounds at all. Brakes looks good to. Both CV axles seemed tight, driveshaft was tight. What I did find was a fair amount of movement at the driver side axle flanges (right at the differential). The passenger side had no movement, but the driver side could be moved a mm or two. I'm guessing this is my issue. Can this bearing be replaced easily or does the whole differential need to be torn down? I've always done all my mechanic work and feel like I can handle just about anything but I've never been into a differential before.

Thanks for all the replies, I feel better about it now. Is the riding the bump stops normal as well?

Aldofasho, I don't want to level the truck, the rear measurements were just for comparison. It just seems strange that the bolts would be that much different. I found a couple of threads that had some measurements and mine line up with stock height trucks. I guess I just won't worry about it.

I measured mine a little bit ago, 35" on both sides for the front and 36" on rear.

Do you know what the stock measurement is? From ground to fender well?

It doesn't look lowered and it looks "level" from side to side when looking at the front of the truck. I'm not sure if sitting on the bump stops is making it look the same height or not, but like I said in the first post, the driver side bump top is noticeably more compressed. I don't think I've ever had a truck that rode the bump stops all the time unless I had lowered it a fair amount...this truck looks to be the same height as a completely stock SSS I looked at not too long ago.

I was under the truck today and noticed that my torsion bar adjusting bolts appear to be set quite a bit different. I did some searching on here and found that the general consensus was this was alright, but mine are different by about 3/4". The passenger side bolt (shorter) is pretty much flush with the cross member while the driver side is below the cross member by 3/4". I also noticed that the driver side seemed to be riding the bump stop a lot harder than the passenger side. Is this normal? I've never really dealt with torsion bars before, so I'm still learning. I'd think a couple of threads difference would be fine, but 3/4" might be excessive.

Has anyone put a subwoofer behind the rear seat in an extended cab? I don't want to lose the storage I have under my rear seats, and the JL Audio stealthbox for the console is pretty expensive. I haven't tried to get any real measurements but it looks there could be enough room for an enclosure behind the seat.

Thanks, I'll give it a read!

My front bumper air ducts are kinda hosed up...I just keep finding small stuff wrong with this truck! The ones on there now don't fit very good. I didn't notice it until I saw how they should look. In searching online it seems these things are pretty expensive, at least $175 each is the best I've found. Does the year of the SS matter? Are there any other options to replace them from the aftermarket that looks/fits like they should?

I got a chance to drive a completely stock SSS the other day, night and day difference! I came to the conclusion that the tuning was most likely off some. I did some searching and found a very interesting write up about proper idle, off throttle and part throttle tuning for cammed SS trucks. I'm certain this procedure wasn't done on this truck as the PO indicated he sent the PCM in to be tuned, so there is no way they could have done all the stuff outlined in the write up with out having the actual truck. I don't know of any local tuners around me (Knoxville, TN area), but I haven't looked much. Does anyone have some recommendations? On the diesel stuff I've messed with for years data-logging and email tunes were the norm, not sure if that holds true for these trucks or not.

I've only had my truck about a month, so I'm still feeling it out but there are a couple of things that I don't think are normal. 03 SSS with a mild cam (new pushrods and springs as well) and tuned. Stock air intake, and basically stock exhaust with Magnafow DIDO muffler. When the truck is cold, it'll "stumble" some, almost like the throttle is cutting out. Once I've had it on the road a bit that seems to level out. After it gets warm there is an intermittent hesitation or miss coming off throttle. Also, seems to be a random miss while at idle after being warmed up. The only thing that is consistent is the cold situation, it does that every time I start out in the morning. The other things happen from time to time, but not every time I drive the truck. I'm not sure if these things are possibly related to the cam, or the tune, or neither. I'm coming out of the diesel world and am quite familiar with troubleshooting and repairing them but really have no baseline for how this truck should act since I bought it with the mods already complete. Any help would be great, just something to point me in the right direction. I've monitored it while driving with my Torque app, but nothing went red and no codes are being set.

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I'm looking for the front end of the exhaust system, from the manifold connection back past the cats. I've got another thread about it, but don't know how often anyone checks it. Located in 37771.