Why I am Mad As Hell!

President Barack Hussein Obama had some advice this week to Republicans. In a partisan campaign speech he said “Stop being mad all the time. Stop just hating all the time.” Well, Mr. President I am mad as Hell! And I would like you to understand why.

1. I am mad when you send your Foreign Secretary of State to try to enforce a cease fire to help Hamas and hurt the best U.S. ally in the world. And then to make matters worse, he calls Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and tries to bully him to stop defending his country and accept Hamas’s terms! Instead of unconditionally supporting Israel, Obama’s administration joined the Hamas propaganda that Israel is killing children. They even try to impose what was a de facto embargo on Israel by having FAA to stop flights to Israel.
2. I am mad because the Obama administration intentionally gives in to Iran’s demands and instead of putting pressure on Iran to stop developing nuclear weapons, Obama puts pressure on Israel from attacking Iran (an upside-down world order!). This is equivalent to the misguided actions by Chamberlain who tried to appease Hitler before World War 2. Actually, it is worse than his actions, because there is considerable evidence that Obama is not motivated by a naïve desire to appease Iran, Barack Hussein Obama is motivated by admiration for the Muslim Brotherhood.
3. I am mad because you are Mr. President intentionally not enforcing the U.S. Constitution and U.S. laws. You are intentionally not enforcing the U.S. borders and letting not only hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants into United States, but also letting violent gangs and most likely terrorists into United States. Your political actions encourage thousands from South America to send their children on a dangerous journey – you are not doing any favors to these children – you are using them as puns in your political games. 
4. I am mad because your misguided EPA and economic policies hurt the economy and the middle class of this country, and they hurt the well-being of my family. 
5. I am mad because you are weakening this great country both militarily and economically.

So you see Mr. President, thanks to your policies, there are plenty of good reasons to be mad.

For those of you who naively believe that this is not a solution – an intelligent calm dialog should be preferred I say that this was the position of many Jews before the Holocaust. They also did not want to publicly criticize FDR for not accepting Jewish refugees from Europe and for refusing to bomb the concentration camps and railroads and possibly saving thousands of Jews. Instead they chose to privately plea with FDR. The result was murder of millions of Jews. I say no more, not again! It is time to get mad and do something about it!

Kerry’s Brilliant Diplomatic Accomplishment

Ok, I agree, Kerry is far from being brilliant – he is a known moron, traitor, person with no moral values, and a hater of everything good and decent about United States and Israel. It is no wonder that the black King of the United States Barack Hussein Obama chose him to represent his screwed up understanding of foreign policy.  

Who do you chose when you want to send the message that you don’t give a donkey’s ass about your allies, and all you care about is some new version of Socialists ideology? Kerry of course. Who do you choose if you want to dismantle American military, but of course someone who hates the American military and too stupid to argue with you? Chuck Hagel (but this is another subject all together). 

So what was so brilliant about Kerry’s performance last week, when he launched himself full force, without being invited by anyone, into an effort to save what was left from Hamas? For the first time he united Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Israel! All three countries were united in their resistance to Kerry’s and Obama’s efforts. All three countries were united in contempt and disbelief of Obama’s foreign policy. They may even decide to strike a more formal alliance against United States – until at least the leftists idiots still control the American government for the next two years.

If this does not convince the Nobel Prize commission to give Kerry the Nobel Peace Prize, I don’t know what will. Maybe they will give him the damn prize so he can go back to his luxury home on Cape Cod, his luxury yacht, and his rich Heinz wife, and save American from more embarrassment.  Maybe then he will finally leave Israel alone!

Choices!

Hillary’s Hard Choices is a $10 Million Loss.  So paying Hilary Clinton a $14 million advance for a badly ghostwritten book about the time she did nothing as Secretary of State proved to be a really bad choice for her publisher. 

Those Americans who are still considering voting for a potential candidate who spent a lifetime in politics accomplishing nothing (other than marrying a corrupt politician), whose only virtue is being a cold fish and a little bit to the right of another potential unaccomplished candidate, Elizabeth Warren, are making a choice of being dumb. 

 

If her Majesty actually runs, and those Americans vote for her, they will make another bad choice for America – the third bad choice in nine years.  This bad choice has a real good chance of completely screwing up this country.  Therefore, let's hope that Americans will make the right choice this time.

By the way, Romney running again is another bad choice.  He lost in 2012 because he did not connect with white middle and lower class Americans, and there is very little chance that he will connect if he runs for the third time.  We need a Republican candidate that has a chance of connecting with this still important (but not for long) group.  

Choices, choices – at least we still have them!

Replacing GMC Yukon XL 2001 Fuel Pump

I just replaced the fuel pump on my Yukon XL SLT 2001. Following the procedure described in this article, I was able to replace the pump myself for $77! GM dealership wanted about $800! I hope that this will help many other Yukon owners.

Diagnosing No Start Condition

 

First let’s start with how to diagnose whether the fuel pump is the problem. The symptom would be that your Yukon does not start but your starter cranks. Of course, if the Yukon does not start and the starter does not crank, then you need to diagnose a problem with your starter.

This condition can be caused by either a fuel or spark related problem. The first thing to check is whether your Yukon has a spark in every cylinder. This can be easily done using either an in-line spark tester (such as this one sold on Amazon: Amazon In Line Spark Tester), or a simple touch type spark tester that I used (see an example: Touch Spark Tester on Amazon).  These are very useful and inexpensive tools. If either tool shows good spark in every of the 8 cylinders, then your start problem is most likely related to fuel delivery.

Fuel problem can be either related to the fuel pump (most likely) or to the fuel pressure regulator. To diagnose this problem properly, I suggest buying a simple fuel pressure gauge. There are many different fuel pressure test gauges sold on-line. I bought the cheapest one at the Harbor Freight Tools store for $20 that did the job (http://www.harborfreight.com/fuel-injection-pump-tester-92699.html).    You need to remove the engine cover and connect the fuel pressure gauge to the fuel pressure check connector. The fuel pressure connector is number 24 in the diagram of the Yukon fuel system below.

After connecting the fuel pressure gauge, turn the key one click to ON (do not crank the engine). The fuel pump should activate and raise the pressure to at least 55 PSI. If you have zero fuel pressure, then the problem is with the fuel pump. If the fuel pressure is between 55 and 62 PSI, then have someone crank the engine and monitor the fuel pressure. The fuel pressure may drop but then should stabilize. If the pressure drops by more than 5 PSI after it stabilizes, then the problem may be with the fuel pressure regulator or another fuel injection component. You will need to do a diagnosis of your fuel system -- I suggest checking this page for a full GM diagnosis procedure: http://www.justanswer.com/gmc/79k9g-gmc-yukon-denali-2001-gmc-yukon-xl-denali-4wd-6-0l-truck.html.

If you have no fuel pressure, then you need to make sure that the fuel pump is getting electricity. Check all ignition and fuel pump related fuses in the fuse box and then check the fuel pump relay. You can check the relay by pulling it out and replacing it with a similar relay in the fuse box. If all the relay and all the fuses check out, then it is almost certain that your fuel pump broke and needs replacement.

Replacing the Fuel Pressure Pump

The challenge with replacing the fuel pump is that you need to drop the fuel tank. GM’s service manual standard time for this repair is 3.2 hours. It requires to lift the car and to have another lift to support the heavy 32 gallons fuel tank in order to drop it. I was able to replace the fuel pump by making an opening in the Yukon floor as described below. I bought a cheap fuel pump on Amazon for $77 (instead of paying $400 to the dealer!). This pump had a one year warranty, and if it fails, I can easily replace it again using the opening in the floor.

Step-by-step instructions of making the opening and replacing the pump are as follows:

1.     Disconnect the positive terminal (red terminal) from the battery to avoid the risk of spark when you remove the fuel pump. 

2.     Remove the long rear bench.  There are four bolts that bolt the bench to the floor, but also note the two bolts that connect the long bench to the remaining one seat bench as shown in the picture below. 

3.     Remove the carpet and insulation and mark the opening with a marker on the floor.  Please refer to the photo below for recommended opening location (which is a little different than the opening I made).  I recommend cutting along the solid red line shown in this photo, and then making a light surface cut of less than a millimeter deep along the dotted line to allow for bending of the metal.  Please note the spot welds above the dotted line indicated by the white arrows.  There is a box welded to the floor below.  Make sure that your bent along the red dashed line is about ¼ inches before the spot welds.
 

The following photo shows the suggested opening location as opposed to the one I made.

 

 

4.     I cut the floor using a simple Dremel tool with 406 15/16” cut-off wheels.  I used about a dozen wheels to complete the cut (they break easily), but they come in a 36 pack.  You can use any metal cutting wheel that is not larger than 2 inches in diameter (there is a little over an inch between the floor and the fuel tank in the narrowest gap location on the left side of the opening).
 

5.     After you cut the three sides of the floor and make a surface cut of the fourth side, you can bend the metal to expose the fuel pump below as shown in the following photo (note that I recommend to bend the metal in a different location as discussed in the previous step).

6.     Removing the fuel pump is straight forward.  You need to remove the cover first, disconnect the fuel lines (be careful not to break the fuel line connectors) and wires, and then turn the ring that holds the fuel pump.  The only tricky part was to disconnect one of the wire harnesses.  You need to insert a flat screw driver to disconnect the clip as indicated in the photo below.  The new fuel pump typically comes with a spare harness – you can see how this harness connects to the fuel pump.

7.     After inserting the new fuel pump and connecting the fuel lines and wire harnesses, I suggest reconnecting the battery and testing the new fuel pump before proceeding.
 

8.     If the new pump works, reinstall the fuel pump cover/cap.  Now you are ready to close the opening and complete the installation.  I sprayed paint on the opening edges to prevent rust and taped the edges of the bent portion with Duct tape to prevent rust and make sure that there is no metal-on-metal rubbing once the metal is bent back into place. 

 

I then bent the metal back and taped it with Duct tape as shown in the photo below.

 

I hope that this blog helped you to deal with your Yukon fuel pump problem.

Reflections on Yom Kippur

As I fast and reflect on Yom Kippur, couple of thoughts came to my mind I would like to share.

I did not vote for Obama in the last elections – so at least I do not have to worry about this sin – but those who did, should ask for double forgiveness.

If anyone had doubts that we elected an incompetent leftist ideolog for President, should have no doubt any more.  Putin Checkmated Obama and Kerry over Syria, U.S. was humiliated and embarrassed thanks to those two nincompoops.  I guess our community organizer learned that peddling dirty politics in Chicago and playing the race card does not make him qualified to play on the world stage with ex-KGB agents.  The only sad thing is that there are still many Americans who just do not pay attention enough, naïve enough, or just stupid enough to believe that Obama did well.

It has been 40 years since Yom Kippur war and 20 years since the signing of the Oslo Accords that brought the Palestinian terror organization into Israel.  The political and military leaders who botched the Yom Kippur war and betrayed their people were rightfully held responsible by the Agranat Commission in Israel, and were thrown out of office.  The leaders who were responsible for the failed Oslo Accords – those leaders who equally betrayed their people with poor judgment and misinformation were not held responsible – no commission has ever been formed.  The main gang leader of the Oslo Accords – Shimon Peres – is now holding the honorary post of President of Israel.   This reminds me of the old adage that God works in mysterious ways – one more thing to ponder during Yom Kippur.

Gmar Chatima Tova – May you be inscribed (in the Book of Life) for Good!

Thoughts for Passover

Passover is a Jewish holiday that symbolizes freedom.  Jews came to Egypt on their own free will and prospered for many years, but then their fortunes turned, and they were enslaved by the Pharaohs.  It took a strong leader, Moses, with the help of God to gain their freedom.  This is indeed a powerful story. 

Unfortunately, our nation had experienced many times the loss of freedom and even risk of annihilation.  The Spanish Inquisition, the pogroms in Russia, the Nazi Holocaust, the refusal of the Soviets to let Jews exit the Soviet Union (the last struggle experienced by my family and many of our friends). 

When I was preparing to conduct the Seder this year, few thoughts came to mind.  We celebrate Passover every year to remember our national history and to pass these lessons to our children.  But given the fact that our nation experienced these problems repeatedly throughout our history; did this mean that our traditions of celebrating Passover were not successful?  Were we not successful in avoiding the same mistakes when we did not follow our traditions and forgot these lessons?  Or perhaps we celebrated Passover too mechanically without making the effort to understand its true meaning.

Now that we have our own nation, Israel, does this protect us from the faith of our ancestors?  Indeed, prior to the establishment of the state of Israel, many times Jews became comfortable in foreign lands (Spain, Germany, Russia, etc.), and felt protected them from the same faith of Jews in Egypt.  Only after the Holocaust and the second exodus (exodus from Europe to re-establish the state of Israel) that the Jews applied some of the lessons of Passover.  However, we cannot rest on our laurels since threats to our Jewish nation did not disappear.  Many threats to our existence exist today -- from the threat of Arab/Muslim terrorism to threat of annihilation from a potential Iranian atomic weapon. We must stay vigilant.

Those of us who live in United States of America feel that no harm can come to us in this great nation that was build on Jewish values – values of freedom.  Founding fathers of United States of America understood the true meaning of freedom and the balance between religion and the rights of individual.  They understood the power of economic freedom and the balance between the responsibilities of the individual to the state versus their right to make their own economic choices.  America’s founding fathers understood the balance between our obligation to support the less fortunate and the loss of freedoms by the state taking away hard earnings of its people to serve its own purpose. 

Recent history showed that even those freedoms are not guaranteed in America.  New administration came to power that has a different interpretation of the American core values and does not understand these core values.  Our economic freedoms are threatened by high taxes, high budget deficits, and income redistribution policies.  These new government bureaucrats seek to enslave us economically by taking away an unfair share of our earnings and our wealth.  They believe that others are entitled to share in our success without making the same effort to earn it.  They pass laws and make policies that make it harder and harder for honest people to succeed and for others to be more dependent on the graces of their government and its handouts.  As it happened in Egypt, our freedoms are slowly lost without us even noticing.  Even more surprisingly, this is done with support of some of us that for good intentions or by simply for being foolish and allowing themselves to be influenced by the popular media. 

The same powerful administration also makes foreign policies that weaken both our host nation – America – and our homeland – Israel – and make both more vulnerable to attack by our enemies.  They foolishly believe that modern day Pharaohs can be and should be appeased rather than confronted.   They go through the motions of celebrating our cherished Passover holiday for political reasons without bothering to understand its true meaning.  These people confuse good will with weakness, and they do not believe in the righteousness of the values of American founding fathers.

So lessons of Passover are as relevant as they have been for ages.  When we celebrate Seder this year, it is important not only to mechanically read the Haggadah, but also reflect on its meaning and its implications to our lives today.   We need to seek strong truthful leaders who are capable of leading us to freedom and avoid slavery and defeat.   I am not sure these leaders exists today both in United States as well as Israel, but I stay optimistic that, God willing, they will be found!