99 Chevy K1500 "Ron Suburgundy"

k9lestat

Expedition Leader
The fuel gage has been jumping around and twitching, that is a sign in the suburban that the fuel pump could go out. I ordered a new one, with a new upgraded wiring harness and a new locking ring from napa tonight. Now I just gotta burn through the 44 gallons of gas I put in it a few days ago.

my 99 just started the same. the gauge isnt reading properly down trust the gauge.
 

EricM

Standard American Mutt
RcaLez0.jpg

Fuel filter.


Ca1wItV.jpg

Fuel pump.

Now I am just waiting to burn through the last little bit of gas in the tank.
 

rad

New member
The twitchy fuel gauge needle may not have anything to do with the fuel pump. The gauge in my 99 Suburban was twitchy before and after I had the fuel pump replaced. I think the problem might just be the stepper motor in the cluster.
 

cyclic

Adventurer
If its truly jumping around and not whats refered to as humming bird, then you simply need a new fuel level sender, if its doing the humming bird thing it has nothing to do with the sender.

Humming bird fuel gauge is quite normal and has nothing to do with the pump or sending unit. The fuel gauge on the 96-99 chevys is analog but the system is odd, analog signal goes to the computer, then the computer sends a digital pulsed signal to the gauge. The gauge over time loses the dampening fluid from inside the gauge allowing it to show the pulsed signal as a flutter/vibration. There are several places online that show replacing the silicon dampner fluid, it will leak again. My plan is to try bypassing the computer so the gauge sees the level signal directly. I haven't done it yet as the gauge flutter is pretty far down my list of things I need done as it still displays correctly, just has humming bird flutter.
 

Joe Kickass

New member
I just replaced my third fuel pump in my 98 k1500. 1st one was OEM when I worked at the dealer, ($$$$) 2nd was from the local parts chain, and this last one was from ebay for $38 shipped. That cheap seems a little sketchy to me but it looked identical to the last one. I've heard that driving around on empty kills them. My kids drive it most of the time and the wife and I just use it to camp.
 

cyclic

Adventurer
Yep fuel pump is cooled by the fuel in the tank. I keep all my tanks half full or more and have never had to replace a fuel pump (yet).
 

EricM

Standard American Mutt
kyFWXlf.jpg

Fuel pump 1, me zero

I got the old one out, but can not get the new one to seat right to get the locking ring back on. Anyone know the trick for that?
 

rad

New member
Yep fuel pump is cooled by the fuel in the tank. I keep all my tanks half full or more and have never had to replace a fuel pump (yet).

What he said, but you can probably get away with keeping at least a 1/4 tank. This has been standard procedure with my 97 Yukon, which I picked up in 06 with just under 80k miles and now has a little over 130k. I've never had to put a fuel pump in it, and the fuel pressure was recently checked in course of diagnosing an issue and found to be at spec. It's possible the previous owner replaced the fuel pump, but I don't know. In 2010 I got a 99 Suburban with around 130k, and about a year later we had to replace the fuel pump.
 

EricM

Standard American Mutt
The napa brand pump is just too big. I returned it and got a Delphi brand and it fit like a globe the first try.


I put the truck all back together but one the filler hose is leaking............. I just filled the tank.
 

chilliwak

Expedition Leader
Eric I always pull my old parts and then take them with me when sourcing new parts. A junk yard or a new parts dealer: they dont sem to be able to always get the order right. Maybe the new stuff you got is some chink stuff that does not fit? Best of luck to you mate...:)
 

EricM

Standard American Mutt
Well the pump is working and the filler hose replaced. The AC leak was two lines running to and from the rear climate control unit. I am having a shop do that work though.

It *should* be all back together this evening.....
 

EricM

Standard American Mutt
Didn't get it back until today. The lines were hard to find and very expensive. But on the bright side when the AC is on the temp of the air coming out of the vents is 43 degree F. So I got that going for me, which is nice.

On a side note, while my kids are at grandma's house this summer my wife and I are tent camping in Wisconsin. We picked up an Eureka "wind river" three season tent at a garage sale for ten bucks. From the research I have done in the inter webs it is about 30 years old and was about $300 when new.


rb9VaKQ.jpg
 

EricM

Standard American Mutt
govN23b.jpg

I mentioned to my brother in law that I was going to replace the headlights. He said that before doing so to try to use an ant-oxidizing agent on the plastic first. Here I have done the passenger side top light. Though not perfect, it looks a hell of a lot better.

I have done all the plastic lights front, side, and back.
 

EricM

Standard American Mutt
Also today I was chasing down an exhaust leak. I thought I had to do some welding, turns out it is just the gasket to the driver side catalytic converter. Special points to the GM engineers who incorporated the passenger side exhaust pipe connector into the same gasket making a double super gasket. No local autoparts store has them.

It is the Felpro 61683 if you are interested in looking it up.
 

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