Tailgate Repair 2002 Silverado

I post auto repair articles not because I'm good at mechanics, but because I'm so bad. If anything can possible go wrong it will. So you can rest assured that if you follow my posts you see every possible pitfall, problem and quirk. Most repair instructions say something along the lines of "Remove part A, Replace Part A" But if you want to know any possible malfunction or problem that might hinder your repair attempt, no matter how unlikely, read my posts...

Tailgate Repair 2002 Silverado

Tools:
13mm socket or wrench
Flat-tip Screwdriver or proper prying tool
Needlenose pliers (optional)



The tailgate latch broke on my Chevrolet Silverado pickup several years ago. The clip for the right side latch broke. I dealt with it by reaching in and pulling the rod to disengage the latch. But when the left side also broke, it became quite difficult to manipulate both at the same time. It was time for a fix.

I went to the Chevrolet parts department and found out they no longer list the necessary parts (Already?) The parts person was very helpful though and looked up the number for a later model, which he said was the same. The little plastic clips I needed were about $5 each.

Step 1

Remove the bezel around the latch. It it held in by plastic catches and just "pops" off. If you're worried about scratching the paint, (I wasn't) wrap some tape around the screwdriver or putty knife or what ever you use to pry with. Yeah, I broke the catches on mine. That part is around $50.

Step 2

Removed the 3 bolts on the inside of the bed holding the latch mechanism
(In all likelihood yours won't have dried cement from setting fence posts)

Step 3

This is what you have after the latch is removed. (That's genuine Texas dust, it is everywhere)

Step 4
This is how the clips look on the rods. Red on left and green on the right. This is NOT how they the assembly proceeds, I took this pic to clearly illustrate how the clips go on the rods.

Step 5

If you skipped the text and put the clips on the rods like in the picture; take them back off. Push the clips into the corresponding holes on the latch (Red on left, Green on right) and set the latch into the opening.


Step 6

With the latch in the opening in the tailgate, the clips in their respective holes, and the clips hanging down as illustrated, push the rod into the clip. (In the picture it looks like the red clip is just hanging in space, but it's not. It's actually in the corresponding hole in the tailgate latch.)

 

Step 7

Once the rods are in the clips, rotate the clips upwards and snap them into place on the rods.

Step 8

Replace the 3 attaching bolts


Step 9
Reinstall the expensive bezel. It simply snaps on. Worrying that its going to fall off and you'll lose your $50 bezel is optional.

 It looks the same, but now it actually works.


Here is a picture of my recovered broken parts, In keeping with my disclaimer above, the piece of black plastic on the left is part of the actuating mechanism of the latch. So I had to go back and buy the entire latch assembly. It was actually reasonable though, $29 plus tax. I assume the right-side green clip remnants are inside the tailgate somewhere.

The new latch came with a set of clips, so now I have an extra set. If you want them email me or comment below. I could keep them in case one of them breaks again, but I would by then have no idea where they are, so I plan to give them away to the first taker...

Goodbye Microsoft Part 2

I decided to make an XP installation disk for archival purposes that contained all current updates. I didn’t want to need the disk for some important purpose in the future only to find out it is unusable. It turns out, this is quite difficult to do. Microsoft doesn’t offer a way to keep up with the 300+ updates to XP since the release of Service Pack 3. 

Fortunately, there are a few useful freeware utilities that are helpful. One of these is WinUpdatesList. “WinUpdatesList displays the list of all Windows updates (Service Packs and Hotfixes) installed on your local computer. For hotfix updates, this utility also displays the list of files updated with these hotfixes.”

Another is Windows Updates Downloader, that does what the name implies, downloads updates from Microsoft. The website also provides pre-made lists to load into WUD.

With these two utilities it is possible to catalog what is currently installed on your computer and download the same files for use in an installation disk image.

After spending quite a while sorting through various files trying to figure out exactly what I needed, I realized there were updates installed on my computer that were obsolete or incorrect versions. Rather than try to sort out the 300 updates, I decided to go another route and use UDC. UDC is a batch program that downloads only critical updates and hotfixes. This is probably a better option if the image will ultimately be used on a different machine in the future.

I also wanted to include all the third party drivers currently installed, to prevent the necessity of manually installing them all later. To extract the inf files I used Driver Backup!.

Once all the files were downloaded, I used a great little program called nLite to create the disk image. nLite has options to include not only the OS updates, but also add-ons such as Acrobar Reader as well as any drivers you want to include. The drivers must be in .inf format, not executables.

The only issue I ran into was that nLite allows you to exclude some Windows components in the installation that you might not want, such as Microsoft Messenger. But it doesn’t modify the installation script, so during installation you are prompted for the missing files. There may be a way to manually fix this in nLite, but I didn’t look into it.

Once the nLite program is done you end up with a custom iso image that you can use to burn to a CD (Be sure to burn the image not the file), or use directly to make a virtual machine. I used VMware simply because it is what I’m used to from working with it on my day job.

That’s it. If in the future you need to run XP, you have a means to do so. I suspect that Microsoft won’t be very accommodating at all in reference to backing up XP installations in April 2014 when extended support for XP ends.

Links

Microsoft Search 
http://search.microsoft.com/en-us/search.aspx 

WinUpdatesList
http://nirsoft.net/utils/wul.html 

Windows Updates Downloader 
http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com/Default.aspx 

Updates Downloader, Checker and Add-on Creator 
http://xdot.tk/updates.html 

Drivers Backup! 
http://www.driver-backup.com/ 

XP Service Pack 3 executable 
http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/3/7/5374ce96-3838-4959-92af-77ab011fd704/WindowsXP-KB932823-v3-x86-ENU.exe 

XP Service Pack 3 .iso; 
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=25129

The "Cloud" - One More Step To Conformity

Cloud computing is all the rage nowadays. Despite the fact that it is functionally similar to the Mainframe/Workstation architecture, Cloud Computing is being sold as a great advance into the future.
It has a few positives, which I won't go into here, because they aren't really compelling. The more important issue is this;

People don't want to be burdened by taking responsibility for their information. They want someone else to do it for them; store their data, manage it, back it up, safeguard it, and make it available. It isn't progress, it's simply a reflection of the cultural death of personal responsibility.

Capitulating responsibility for information comes at a price, and that price is loss of control over that information. Loss of privacy, and ultimately loss of individuality and self worth. One is further reduced to a quantum of production and consumption. It is ironic that in an age of "diversity and individualism", we are being willingly conformed into identical consuming automatons. Those that truly are individualistic are castigated.

A true advancement would be to make it easier for individuals to manage their responsibilities, rather than slyly convincing them to give them up in the quest for all-encompassing consumerism.