Project “Mule”

Sometimes… things don’t go as planned. Sometimes, you have to address the issue(s) at hand before it snowballs and becomes a Yeti. I personally don’t like somewhat simple problems to get out of hand and become a logistical and financial monster. This particular problem would be my errand runner and occasional beachcomber: the ’07 Chevy Avalanche AKA the “Mule”. I had total intentions on blogging “a lot”, but I also need the “Mule” functional because I don’t really want a new truck (which are very unnecessarily expensive) or “newer” one until much later. Also, I don’t want to drive around in the WRX running errands (that and I need to finish tuning it as well…)

The truck has it’s original height, but it’s Z71 4×4 package, so take that with a grain of salt. No tricked-out LSx, just the aluminum block 5.3L flex-fuel variant LC9. To my dismay, I discovered the full-sized spare is it’s original from 2007; Never used, just flat. This was one of those repairs where I was “just” going to repair that one faulty item and discovered many more.

Bad calipers, bad CV axles, bad control arm bushings, bad sway bar bushings, rotting brake lines with stripped nuts, sagging springs, eroded helper springs… Some of many issues you find when buying a vehicle; this truck, in particular, second hand even from a dealership. So why purchase this in the first place? Despite all of its faults, it’s still a bargain to repair this truck than to buy new in most cases at any time.

So I’ve spent a good amount of time and money in the past month researching parts and repairing the “Mule” so it will last a few more years. Now that’s she’s operational again, I will finish tuning the WRX this month (hopefully) maybe even talk (blog) a little about the upcoming project car.

If everything goes as planned…

Curious about which parts I’ve replaced and what they were swapped out with? Let me know and I’ll go into details (click on the contact form).