Chevy Astro

Overland Vans (overlandvans.com) has a variety of lift kits and other accessories for Astro and Safari vans.

to get to the latch rod you will need to pull the plastic trim fasteners from the door and take the screws out of it on the bottom of the door. Pull the trim out just far enought to go thuought the top access hole after you cut a hole in the plastic vapor barrier and the latch rod will be just a few inches to the right pull up and the door will open.

Marlin proofmark the mark first used was the letter M in a circle. In later years (after the model 1889) the mark used was the letters JM (John Marlin) in a oval

On my '94 Lumina minivan with the 3800 V-6, the oil filter is well hidden just above the right hand drive shaft. Turn the wheels hard left to improve access.

Make sure the parking brake is completely released. If the parking brake is on the Highlights go off.

European foot controls are identical to North American foot controls except for the British Isles, which drive on the "wrong" side of the road. Foot controls are the same, in GB, with the accellerator furthest right, brake next then the clutch, for vehicles that use a stick shift.

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OI! It's not the "wrong" side to us, in the UK and Eire! The control layouts are the same, but on the other side of the car.

Did you recheck your connections to the fuel pump on top of the gas tank? Can you hear or feel any buzzing from the tank? Take off the hoses leading to the throttle body and spray some throttle body cleaner down into the throttle body with the blade open.......then try to start your engine. If it starts, then you do still have a fuel delivery problem. Next go get a fuel pressure gauge and attach it to the fuel rail and just turn the key on, the pump is electric and the engine does not need to be running and look at the pressure. Have pressure? Did you change out a new fuel filter when you had the pump changed out? If not.....some junk may have come loose and blocked your filter. If you did put a new fuel filter on , was it installed directionally correct? There is a fuel pump relay which will trip if you are in an accident and shut electirc off to the fuel pump. I do nto know where it is located on a Blazer........sorry........but there is some leads for you to work on before going to get another pump.

I don't know for sure, because I never had this happen with one of the 4 samurai's I've had over the years. But my guess is you have a weak electrical system* so that by the time the battery is putting out all those amps to turn over the starter you don't have enough 'ummmph' left over to create an adequate spark. Normally when starting the battery has to put out major amps to turn over the engine, and then more juice through your coil and distributer to make the spark plugs spark. When you are push starting the car all the battery energy is going to the spark plugs (with help from the alternator too), so if it's starting ok that way it probably IS a weak electrical system. NOTE I am assuming the engine would really "turn over"...and not just go click-click-click (another problem, VERY common, caused by not enough juice through the ignition key circuit to activate the starter relay. If it IS a 'click-click-click' trouble write to me and I'll let you know how to work around that.) How to tell if you just have a weak electrical system, and what to do about it? Well, one way is to see if you are getting a decent spark. At night disconnect one of the sparkplug wires (pull it gently off the sparkplug by the rubber boot) and then hold it near some bare grounded metal while someone else cranks the engine. Do you see a spark? Does it look really small and weak, yellow and flickering, or bluish with a nice 'snap' to it? (Humm...if you haven't looked at a spark of a strong running engine this could be hard to tell.) Doing it at night makes it much easier to see the spark. If you aren't getting a good spark you probably have a weak electrical system. Oh yeah, even a WEAK system has enough juice to make you jump if you allow it to ground through you...be sure to hold the open sparkplug wire and boot back from the opening and near bare metal (like the alumimum block) so the spark goes to it and not through you. Won't kill you, but you won't do it twice! In fact, once the engine is running at night, if your spark plug wires are really in bad shape sometimes you can even see sparks from one to another or from the wire to the engine even while everything is plugged in! If you see sparks from wire to wire or wire to block while the engine is running you absolutely need new spark plug wires. OK, lets say you think >maybe< it's a weak system. What else do you do? First check that the cables on the battery are clamped tightly (BOTH the battery and the engine-ends) and that there isn't a lot of corrosion. If it looks like a bunch of green cheese take a wire brush and clean them off. Rinse with a lot of fresh water, and don't get it on you as it will be acidic. Baking soda helps neutralize the acid. (If not used to working around a vehicle wear gloves and eye protection...not bad advice even if you do this stuff a lot.) After you clean up and reattach the cables put a little petroleum jelly over the battery posts and cables, it will help slow down more corrosion in the future. Auto parts stores sell a nice little tool that has an external wire brush to clean the inside of the battery clamp, and in internal wire brush that will clean off your battery posts so they are nice and shiny-fresh. If all that didn't do it for you, think about getting a fresh distributer rotor, distributer cap, (NOT a full disbributer: Just a new cap and rotor), new spark plug wires, and new spark plugs: They are all routine maintenance type items...and if they haven't been changed in 3 or 4 years (or ever!) I'd start there. Get a semi-decent generic set of spark plug wires from Kragen, Autozone, Napa, whatever. Probably around $40. You don't have to buy super duper double platinum spark plugs...get the ones that cost no more than 3 or 4 bucks each. And you don't need "Suzuki Dealer Brand" distributor cap and rotor either. All of this stuff should be had for < $80, and even if it isn't the root cause sometimes these things can be cumulative and it's time to change them out anyway. How old is your battery? Most of the auto parts places I mentioned before will do a free test of how well your battery and charging systems are working. An old battery doesn't have as many cranking amps as a fresh one. I found maybe I'd get around 4 years out of a battery. Likewise a weak alternator won't give the battery a full charge...that's why you have the shop test to tell you if the battery is weak, the alternator is, whatever. It is not a very difficult job to change the alternator out, some bolts up from the top, and remove the splash shield under the engine (if it's still there) and then you can get to the lower bolts. Last time I did this I was 95 miles outside Vegas in the Mojave Desert when my alternator gave out...took me a half hour to pull the old one, a buddy drove me to Vegas to the nearest auto parts store (that's why I know it was 90 miles each way), we also had a nice cheap dinner in a casino, and 9:30 that night I put the new alternator in by flashlight. 4-wheeling is fun isn't it? (ALWAYS go with at least TWO vehicles!) Hope this rambling helps! Paul, prhkgh@comcast.net

This is a surprisingly complex question with many different routes. My daily driver is a 1991 S10 Extended Cab. This is kind of stupid, but I started looking for lift kits after the vacuum switch on top of my transfer case went bad. This switch supplies vacuum to the 4wd actuator that connects the right axle shaft, and I really didn't want to drop my transfer case to replace a 10 dollar switch. I may have given you a lot of unnecessary information because I'm not sure if your truck is 4wd. Anyway, I started out at my local U-pull it, and was walking around looking at jeeps and the ways they utilize the axles and suspension. I was planning on putting larger tires and ended up deciding on either 33's or 35's and the S10 axles are far to weak for the lever effect those tires will place on them. I wanted a width that was as close to the same as possible maybe a tad bigger in a Dana 44 package or similar. I happened to come across a 1984 Grand Wagoneer, which is Jeep's full size luxury model. It had the driver side pumpkin up front so i knew the front drive shaft would bolt right up as it used the same 1310 u-joint. This particular Grand Wagoneer had a Dana 44 front and an AMC 20 for the rear, which is an axle that creates a lot of debate. However, I knew that the full size Waggys had one-piece 6-lug axles, thicker tubes than the weak AMC 20 found on Wranglers. I brought the two axles home complete brake to brake with all hoses. My original plans were to just swap in the rear axle, which involved buying stainless steel braided rear brake lines at the correct lengths with the correct universal fittings. The jeep and s10 use slightly different fittings. I can't remember if one of them was metric or if they were just different sizes, but I will look later tonight. Now I may be getting way beyond what you want to do... I don't really know, but replacing the front IFS (Independent front suspension) with a solid axle (unless you are wanting to race across the desert) opens up a large number of options. It makes it fairly easy to convert 2wd to 4wd, it allows for much greater articulation, and puts common parts on the hard to upgrade s10. I won't go into any more details until I know exactly what you want to achieve and the use of this s10. Adding to that though, I set my front Dana 44 on my s10 with 12" travel dual rate coil overs and the back sprung over and I love it and I can just about go anywhere without worrying about breaking things. There are really no easy ways to lift the front of the s10. The Trailmaster 5" lift kit will run about 2500 i believe and it requires a lot of work; whereas, when I first swapped my axle from the waggy, I paid right at 2000 and that included the tires. That was when I used leaf springs up front, and I performed all the fab work, minus the welding which needs to be perfect so someone doesn't die. I started typing too much and lost my train of thought, but feel free to ask any questions, and I will do my best to answer them.

I the rear of the engine under the "doghouse" or cover behind the glove compartment.

Check to see if the fuse is blown. Michelle Ress USA

If the leak is against the head, it can burn tracks into the exhaust port faces as if done by a cutting torch.

*With Fuel Injection: **Inside the fuel tank *Without Fuel Injection

My 2000 Chev. Astro Van started doing the same thing and it ended up being the fuel pump! It did that for about 7 months before it went out.

Using the minute and hour buttons at the bottom right of the radio. (4.3L Auto) Using the minute and hour buttons at the bottom right of the radio. (4.3L Auto)

1)disconnect the neg. battery terminal.2)drain the antifreeze.3)remove any wiring or hoses from the fan shroud.4)remove the shroud.5)remove the drive belts.6)remove the hoses going to the water pump.7)remove the fan and the clutch8)remove any brackets necessary to gain access to the water pump bolts.9)remove all bolts to the pump. if the pump is hard to remve from the engine ,use a hammer and tap lightly to break it loose from the block. to install the pumpyou need to 1) make sure all of the old gasket is removed from the block 2)clean the surface with lacquer thinner or acetone.3)coat both sides of the new gasket(s) with a thin layer of rtv sealant.4)place the new gasket on the pump (to prevent leakage around the bolts ,apply some sealant to the threads of the bolts too.5)insert the bolts into the pump and install the pump to the engine block.6)torque bolts in a criss-cross pattern(the torque is 17 ft-lbs for 4 cylinder and 30 ft-lbs for a v-6) the rest is reverse order that you took the stuff off.

The MAPP sensor is located on the passengers side of the thottle body. Remove the "dog box" and when looking from the inside of the vehicle you should see it on the right side of the thottle body. It's kinda tricky to remove ...but it is do-able. Good Luck ... hope this helps. MR. X

This is a very common problem on this and several other GM vans, unfortunately (for the owners). Open the hood and look just to the right (passenger side) of the center of the van near the evaporator housing (a large, black, plastic case). You will, no doubt, after a short search, find a broken/burned, small, black vacuum line. This line originally connected to the intake manifold just to the left of the top of the engine (driver's side). On top of the intake (after removing all of the air cleaner nonsense that GM thinks looks so good cosmetically (big deal-- But, does it run?!) you will see a black, palstic round device (vacuum check valve) and the other half of the broken hose. Go to your local auto parts store and purchase a length of 1/8" or 7/32" vacuum hose approximately 3' in length. Replace the broken hose with the new hose and Voila! You have airflow once again! Now... if your A/C was not cooling BEFORE this occurred, it won't be cooling now. This procedure only affect WHERE the air comes out. If you have no COOL air, you should have your system checked out by a professional. Good luck SDIgroup ---- Kudos to the SDI Group, you saved me some money. It was exactly what you said it would be. To make things easier for me I removed the engine cowling aka doghouse. To remove cowling on 2000 year model see below, but not to change plugs. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/On_a_Chevy_Astro_Van_how_do_you_remove_the_engine_cover_to_change_plugs

sounds as if you may need a tune up bad cap and wires will contribute to not starting on rainy and damp days .hope this helps.

Yes.

Under the dash by the stearing column is a fuse panel. Open it and look for two stacked curcuit brakers. They look like silver boxes. Pull out the lower one. It controls the rear hatch. Push the rear hatch release button several times and reinsert the curcuit braker. It will pop the hatch open. Open the rear door and open the little access panel. It's located on the side of the door, and it has four screws. Look inside next to the latch and lock, and see if the wires are loose. The wires and prong should be touching/attached. Mine weren't. Whatever held the wires to the lock shaft fell off. My husband temporarily fixed the problem by attaching the wires to the lock shaft, slipping an ihook over the pin, and crimping the ihook with vice grips to secure it tightly. After replacing the access panel, he checked the latch release button and key several times, and the rear doors opened. He plans on checking another Astro Van at our local Pick A Part Salvage Yard, to see what should be attached to the wires, but for now, this works.

I already know the reason is a tranny issue causing the warning light but it still runs and drives great at this time. I only want to reset the light until the trans is actually bad enough to need the $2500 repair.

I don't know much about cars but I used to work as a cashier in an oil change shop. If we were out of a certain oil filter, we ran to another location to get one. I don't remember anyone ever using a different one than recommended. It would be much safer to go to a store and get the right one for your vehicle. They usually have a book that tells you which one to get and the filter is a lot cheaper than a new car. Like I said, I'm no expert, I just think it would be better to be safe than sorry.

I'm not a mechanic, nor do I play one on TV, but common sense says "Is it worth saving $4.00 to risk your engine? Do manufacturers make 60 zillion oil filters because it doesn't matter? The only exception I make to using an oil filter that isn't listed for it is a 3100 GM motor that calls for a FRAM ph3387a. If room is available, I use a PH3980 (if I remember correctly, I need to be in front of the shelf!) Anyways, it is the same except it holds more oil. There are different specs on pressure, filtration, blah, blah, blah. The point is : YES It Matters! And don't buy a cheap cheeseball one! I use FRAM, it isn't the supreme oil filter, but it handles 3,000-mile oil changes very well.

I have a 1991 Mitsubishi Eclipse I bought used, and when I serviced it for an oil change, I discovered that the recommended oil filter would not fit because of frame-engine clearance problems. After calling many service reps and parts stores, I ended up going to Wal-Mart and COMPARING filters by matching identical gasket sizes and choosing the filter size I knew would fit in the space available. It works well for me, but do whatever you can to use the original or recommended parts. This was a problem I could solve no other way. -Ted

YES! 3 quick things on an oil filter and engines oil pressure. Vehicles have different oil pressures, which will require different oil filters that hold certain pressures. Secondly the thread on the filter and your vehicle's filter spindel need to be a perfect match. And finally the gasket on the oil filter need to be the size your vehicle requires to secure filter on spindel without any leaks. IMPORTANT: be sure to remove the oil gasket from the old filter because when you install the filter you wanna oil the gasket to prevent it from sticking and melting a little onto the mounting plate. 2 gaskets is not a pretty picture once you start your vehicle. The oil will gush out like there is no tomorrow.

Inside the gas tank

Make sure you carefully remove the interior door panel. Some or most of the small push-in fasteners may break off. No worry, though, as these are readily available at your local GM dealer. As part of the removal, you need to remove the armrest pad and lock/handle plastic trim bezel before attempting to remove the door panel. Once the panel is off, take care not to rip or perforate the black foam "rain shield" that covers the inside of the door. It keeps water from coming through into the passenger compartment!! The lock modulator is inside the door so you may have to carefully lift up the rain shield to see and get to it. (The shield should be re-attached to the door shell after your new item is installed.) The modulator is riveted to the door shell so you will have to use a 3/16th inch drill bit and drill out the center of the aluminum rivets so you can remove the modulator. The new one, if it's a "direct-fit" type like factory ones, will simply use the existing wiring plugs and door shell mounting holes. Per the factory service manual, the new modulator should be riveted in place using new aluminum rivets. If you don't have a pop-rivet gun, you can pick one up reasonably. Just use the same size rivets as needed to fit the holes. Once you are done inside the door, re-attach the rain shield, re-attach the door panel, then the arm rest and the lock switch's bezel. (Note: if you have manual crank windows, I recommend you use the proper tool to get the handles off. There is a "C" clip holding them on and this cheap tool makes handle removal a snap and you won't damage the interior door mechanism or the trim panel. Go to it!!