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Hummer H3For the Hummer driver who wants the rugged look and off road capabilities of the Hummer, but in a smaller size and with a more fuel economy friendly engine.
I am absolutly pissed what I just found after finally crawling under the truck from a squeek that started two weeks ago and now since the steering wheel grabbed to the right when i was turning and didnt want to go back to center; squeek started really soft now its very noticable. Ive had my truck in one shop for the front end upgrades (there was some attemted ****ery then with the tech saying i drove the truck in with a broken ABS sensor wire). Im not going to name the shop yet, but it is nation wide.
Please tell me what you all see wrong in these photos and how you think it happened. -I am schedueld for them to do rear end upgrades this coming Friday, I told the sales rep yesterday that I want them to look at the front for a squeek. And now I am preparing for a battle.
Questions I have:
Looking at the front diff; should I be concerned about the oil leak out / is my diff damaged possibly? Does this indicate the seals are bad?
The ball joints' zerks point at the wheel (WTF), isnt there suppose to be a boot installed on these? are these still good?
Tie rod out ends still good?
Steering rack, its shot isnt it / is that a crack on the rack? Would a zip tie on a boot cover just magically fall off?
Front Diff Bushing....how the **** does the bushing just explode? These poly bushings are harder than the OEM rubber ones...
List of Front End upgrades installed-
May 2015: Outfitter Design Tie Rods
June 2015: Scorpion Steering Bracket & Differential Bracket Bushing
February 2020: Moog Upper Control Arms, Moog Ball Joints, Leveled and Aligned. Took three days b/c their tech cut the driver ABS sensor, then claimed I drove it in like that
Do the repairs yourself or take it to a different place.
Looks like they are a hack job place. Or at least the mechanic working on it was.
New rack (you can sell the new 16mm tie rods it comes with to someone), new tie rod ends (Extra HD), new differential bushings, new sealed lower ball joints and new diff seals. Make sure to use an axle seal protector (Kent Moore J-44394 Axle Seal Protector) when installing the half shaft back in. The half shafts have very sharp splines and will slice the brand new seals.
Looks like your rig has taken some hard hits on or off the road.
Your mechanics could have given you some information about some of the evident things that need attention on your truck. Boot problems for example.
It would be easier to get help if you eliminate some of the easy to resolve problems and come back with your problem areas individualized with specific images related to those areas.
More details on your model year package and mileage would also be helpful to others here to help you.
You state "recent upgrades", we need to know what and when.......
In my years I have learned that when you want something done right, you should do it yourself. Taint is right, do the repairs yourself.
Example: Back in the day a close friend had an oil pan leak on his starboard 454 boat motor and decided to just hire the Marina to repair it over the winter. Damn thing leaked like a sieve when fired up in the spring, they did not even check it. The Marina re-did the repair, still leaked worse than when started after being dry docked for a month. He is a capable DIY guy just did not want to deal with that job in his free time. I convinced him to do it with my help (I was 25 years younger then ) so we took turns going down in the bilge upside down resting on our shoulders with our feet sticking up between the motors and did that job in about 6 hours, covered in oil and bilge slime. Fired it up and did not leak a drop as long as he owned that boat. Never be able to do that today.
Just because a bushing is polly, does not make it better than an OEM. You will find over time lots of that aftermarket HD stuff, just ends up breaking other chit that was doing just fine until you added that in the picture. I am not a fan of over-sized super duper tie rods, they just transfer punishment up the chain. IMHO I'd rather break and replace a stock tie rod than deal with other more expensive steering and suspension components.
we took turns going down in the bilge upside down resting on our shoulders with our feet sticking up between the motors and did that job in about 6 hours, covered in oil and bilge slime.
Had twin 350 inboards in my 30' SeaRay. Surprised you were able to R&R the pans without pulling the engines!
Thank you for your comments and help, its all appreciated.
I hear the Do-It-Yourself trope I do; just I cant as I tore my lambral cartilage in my left shoulder ast year. I will figure out a way around this.
The upgrades I had installed in February were just replacment upper arms, lower ball joints and a torsion bar lift to level her out.
Previous upgrades are the Scorpion steering bracket, the diff bushing upgrade, and fox shocks around and Outfitter Tie rods.
There was absolutly nothing wrong with my ride when I brought it to them; no torn bushings, no oil leaking out of the axel and no grease pop outs.
I also have not done any offroading since like 2013 and I sold my airstream Basecamp (lightest airstream) before I had the truck lifted.
The mechanic tore the driver abs sensor wire and had tried to blae it on me bringing it in that way. So I would asume that if he saw anything on the truck out of order at that time, he would have also been saying this and that after he blamed me for the cut wire...
Had twin 350 inboards in my 30' SeaRay. Surprised you were able to R&R the pans without pulling the engines!
It was an old 34 Sea Ray with twin Merc 330s (454s), and it was a contortionist's feat to get down under there. Had to have the other guy help pull your feet to get out. I was a tad thinner then too.
Dwaine of Prefered Chassis Fab said the diff crossmember bushing could be damaged from "jacking the front of the vehicle with the jack/floor jack under the front differential carrier can and will cause the end supports to fail. The end supports are not designed to support the whole front vehicles weight, they are designed to support the "hanging" of the front differential/axle assy."
So how ikely would it be that the 4x4 shop in February did that while leveling the front and replacing an ASB sensor, lower ball joints and Upper control arms?
Would an audio install shop lift the front of the truck to run wire to a new amp-subwoofer combo and a new head unit? The audio shop was the last to touch the truck just a week ago to add direct power to the head unit and replace the new head unit (that wasnt working); and twice before that for the first new head unit install.
I doubt an audio shop would lift the front because you can crawl under any H3/H3T fr simple stuff??????
Anything is possible regarding the 4x4 shop. Some places hire knuckleheads and let them operate nearly unsupervised so "work" can be done quickly. You want the shop that takes pride in their quality of work, not how quick they can get your truck out the door for payment. When you just slap in the lower Ball Joints without paying attention to the direction that the grease zerk is facing, I would say that is evidence of hurry up rather than planning.
I would not jack anything except the frame and rear axle.
Just spoke with the shop manager. He appologized for his Tech installing the lower ball joints backwards (in the way they couldnt be serviced) and provided some photos showing the steering rack is actually not cracked. He kinda took responsibility for the steering rack boots not installed with metal clamps, but his shop didnt install the Outfitter tie rods. He said the tie rods are fine and the grease squeeze out is normal. He further said the tie rods should be easily rotated in the hand (is this true?).
He thinks the diff bushing had been cracked in the back for a while and there was dry rot (It was installed in 2015 & not by his shop). He said b/c they did the the front end leveling, by 2", this changed how the load goes to the differential which most likely caused the bushing to completly fail.
I dunno, I dont think this should have happened but its not as bad as I first thought. He assured me its safe to drive until i get new bushings.
A few questions I have are: whats causing the squeek, is this from the diff bushing? (I know the clunking on acceloration is from the bushing.)
Im gonna have them install the Outfitter bushing kit when I get it.
Help: Steering, BallJoints & Front Diff Bushing
) so we took turns going down in the bilge upside down resting on our shoulders with our feet sticking up between the motors and did that job in about 6 hours, covered in oil and bilge slime. Fired it up and did not leak a drop as long as he owned that boat. Never be able to do that today. 
