I want to add to my kit, a heater hose by-pass. A Hot Shot Delivery guy said he has had the quick release connectors break for him and he carried a piece of metal curved tube and hose clamps for a quick fix. I think he said it needs a 5/8" tube to fit inside the hose. Is this the right size ? Thanks. *BW*

 

Ha !!! Mrs. Cusser had such quick-release connector break just last August on her 2005 Yukon (of course 70 miles from home and while towing the horse). She couldn't didn't know/couldn't describe what was wrong, I got there and was able to bypass the heater core with a straight connector and get the Yukon home. You'll want a universal 5/8 x 5/8 inch connector (either straight or angled, see Autozone), or 5/8 o.d. metal for this. I later replaced the broken quick-connect, needed the green-coded 5/8 quick disconnect tool (which I got from O'Reilly).

Another alternative would be to buy a radiator flush kit like https://www.autozone.com/heating-and...eVehicle=false which has three different size connectors and hose clamps.

 

Thanks for the info. Did more late night searching and it seems that the lighter color quick connector is the one that fails nearly every time and hardly ever the black one. Some have stretched the hose just enough to get it on the heater core stub and clamp it after a couple of careful cuts with a saw blade to remove the plastic connector. Maybe others have better solutions. Thanks again. *BW*

 

This one broke on my 2005 Yukon Denali with 6.0L engine


Anyway, I have a new issue with that 2005 Yukon (200K miles); the water pump is leaking again. We've had this since 2010 at 90K miles, and this will be the third water pump I've installed since we've owned, will tackle this tomorrow afternoon. One was from CarQuest, one from O'Reilly, both lifetime warranty, so won't be paying again for the part (new, not remanufactured). It's sure like a seal on a shaft is a "mature" design, these should last longer than that...

 

Thanks Cusser, couple of things about your water pumps, a tensioner mostly rules out over tensioning and you don't mention uneven wear of the belt. Did yours leak or lock up ? Don't know if you know about B-G Products for engines. It could be as simple as the coolant you have been using. *BW*

 

Serpentine belt looked OK, was only a few years old at most. The water pump was leaking, not a lot, might have been happening for a while, had a stubborn slow loss of coolant over the last few months; I really miss having a cap directly on the radiator, as for me was more convenient and better way to check for coolant losses. Anyway, repair yesterday appears successful: no leaks, but only 25 miles driven since, and re-checked after that drive. Of course the toughest part was scraping/cleaning off all of the old gaskets; and that I couldn't find my Haynes GMC repair manual to check for the torque values.