I liked the Lumina APV as a van... interior was neat.

I'm surprised there aren't ANY of those left- it's not like they rusted.

The dustbuster? I see none on craigslist for the whole NW....

So the water pump went out...then it occurred me this is the original water pump from 1989 so it did pretty good for a 26 year old part!

Fortunately, the water pump was 19.99 from O'Reilly so I just did the swap today.
And I didn't need that special GM fan clutch removal tool either!.

Well, I had the transmission go out; was stopped at a light and I had no foward gears. Got the rigged towed home eventually and when I had a chance, I dropped the transmission pan and found two bolts loose from the valve body plus the filter popped out. Got a new filter replaced the bolts and buttoned everything up. Put new fluid in and it was driving fine. Then stopped at Taco Bell and after wards, I had no Drive; only 1/2 and reverse. So I limped it home and debated my options. If I had a garage again, I would of swapped in a 700R4 into it for cheap but I don't. So after talking with the wife, I decided to sell the rig to a friend of mine who has a shop and is looking for a vintage Suburban anyways.

However, not all is lost. Our SAR Group was surplusing another rig. 1994 GMC Suburban 1500 that previously was an ex-AMR Supervisor rig that was well maintained. And is outfitted. I bought it.

OPEC will send you Christmas cards.

Posted by Samurai OPEC will send you Christmas cards.

HA!

Actually, I'm getting pretty decent MPG with this newer Chevy 350 and the 4L60E transmission; getting 14 MPG, which is pretty good for this monster.

So I had a couple of goofy things happen to the rig over the course of two weeks...

First issue I had was that I lost automatic shifting; it wasn't in limp mode as I had 2 and 3 gears so I could survive a bit manually shifting thankfully.

Second issue is that I developed a weird vibration from the drivers rear at 50+ MPH.

Third issue was at Day 1 of the Oregon Trail Rally at the end of the day, I tried starting my rig but no crank.

Now, I thought this was leading me to some epic fail again, but all was not lost.

First issue I found out was an electrical issue caused by a corroded ignition switch; turns on the TCM for the 4L60E transmission and the NP241C transfer case solenoids and actuators are powered from there; so I replaced that and I was shifting like butter again.

Second issue was thankfully just the drivers rear tire having a bulge on one spot causing the vibration. I put on the spare tire for now and smooth. Will probably get a new set of tires when its warmer all around

Third issue was just a bad battery ground cable; so I replaced that and it works great again.

Next up I am going to replace the knock sensor that is the root of the SES light going off; this has been a problem since Mt Wave owned the rig and I finally read the codes to figure out that was tripping it.

Future upgrades: Open Air Intake, second battery, and perhaps a bumper upgrade...

Well, the knock sensor was replaced...also found the connector for it was bad so I spliced a new one in and volia! no more SES light and it runs better! Feels like it just rolled off the line in Janesville!

Speaking of Janesvile, I just realized in June of 1994, I took a tour of GM Janesville Assembly. Looking at the door sticker, I realized this rig was built in June 1994...I probably walked past this car being built!