ultim8gamr
New member
- 162
- 0
- 0
- Location
- Napa Valley, CA
The Story (some background):
I have wanted to own a '73-87 Chevy for the longest time. I previously owned a IFS '90 Chevy K1500 and wanted an affordable way to lift it that was dependable. so a SAS was what i had come up with. Well a few months ago I found a truck with the older body style for sale. The front brush guard really set it apart from the other trucks I had seen for sale. I checked it out and was very excited the oh so great D60 that is talked about with great honor on Pirate4x4. I had been looking for a diesel so that i could run Bio-diesel in it, i always thought it would be cool to do. One more reason to buy it. took it for a test drive and found no major problems with it. So long story short, I bought it. I figured if something went wrong i could part it out and sell the D60 and make back most of the initial price. It turns out the truck was a military M1008 CUCV. On the way home (5miles) from paying the owner and changing ownership of the truck I ran out of diesel and the battery was too dead to start the engine when my dad came with a can of diesel. After driving for a few days i noticed some death wobble at around 30MPH. Took it to a shop and found out the tires were worse than I thought. New tires were now on the urgent agenda. I had always wanted a truck of this era because of the price of lift kits for tires and the dependability of SFAs. It was decided that I would lift the truck now when I replaced the tires rather than 40,000 Miles down the road. The Truck had a dead rear battery because the previous owner did not have the correct passenger side alternator in it (no isolated ground). And I didn't figure this out until after buying a brand new battery for the truck
. So first I bought a new 100amp alternator with an isolated ground for the passenger side.
Truck as I bought it:
http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/8623/1013317bn1.jpg
Lift Info:
I knew that I wanted to run 35" tires with as little lift as possible and NO fender trimming. I settled on a 4" lift. In the rear I chose to installed a shackle flip from OffRoad Design (ORD) because I had heard many good things about their products. For the front springs i finally chose to go with the Tuff Country HD EZ ride springs because of their spring rate of 495 (slightly higher than SkyJacker's at 490). I took advantage of spring break to install the lift after collecting most of the parts.
Measurements before lift (center of axle to fender directly above):
w/ truck weight
frnt driver ?
frnt pass ?
rr driver 23 3/4"
rr pass 24 1/4"
full droop
frnt driver 25 3/4"
frnt pass 26 1/2"
rr driver 26 1/2"
rr pass 26 1/2"
Rear:
I started the rear lift on 4/9/07 removing the old shackle hangers. I have become very good friends with the grinder. OH! And I got to sawzall the exhaust ends off. That is the coolest tool! I have never had a need for it before. After removing the wheels I used a wire brush to remove rust and painted the rear drums black. On 4/10/07 I went to San Jose to visit Santa Clara University (gotta apply for colleges next year) and stop at 4Wheel Parts where I picked up four ProComp eXtreme A/Ts and some procomp extended brake lines. When I returned to work on it I removed the lever for the brake proportioing valve. I replaced the old brake line with one the longer procomp line. I finished the shackle flip on 4/11/07 at 11:15PM, i was excited to get it done. I feel kinda sorry for the neighbors though, I was using the grinder until 10:45 and although I was on spring break their daughter wasn't and they still had work. Rear shocks were not installed until the night of 4/17/07
4/12/07 I did nothing
Front:
Friday 4/13/07. Friday the 13th I started on the front lift springs! I put hte truck on blocks. I removed the sway bar. I removed the old drag link, it was trashed and had become just a blob of grease. I removed the shocks. I don't remember dates for the following but here's what I did. I lowed the front axle down on to jack stands and then removed the old springs. When I installed the new springs I had to move the drive shaft forward to line it up with the center pin on the springs. The new springs actually have and arch in them! I went to the dealer looking for lock nuts and was informed that these trucks didn't use lock nuts for the U bolts. I just torqued the old nuts (gonna get in trouble with some of you here) back down to spec at 150ft#. I replaced the old bake lines with the new braided stainless steel brake lines from procomp.
Dad drove down to Pismo on fri-sat and stopped by 4WP on his way back home Saturday to pick up my wheels and shocks (4/14/07). Tires were balanced on Monday 4/16/07 at Big O Tire. On Tuesday I bought new drag link ends at Bert Williams and Sons and installed the drag link and wheels/tires that afternoon. Just before installing the wheels/tires i flipped teh rear axle shim to fix the pinion angle by 5-6*. That night I installed the shocks. I had to install the rear shocks upside down because of clearance problems with he axle tube and the shock tube on the passenger mount. I rigged the brake proportioning valve to a temporary setting and went to grease the drag link ends only to find that the grease gun was out of grease and all stores were closed. I drove out to walmart at 7 the next morning for a tube of grease. greased up the ends and was able to drive the truck to school that morning
4/18/07.
http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/1074/1003453rk8.jpg
Measurements after lift:
w/ truck weight
frnt driver ? waiting a few days for springs to settle
frnt pass ? waiting a few days for springs to settle
rr driver 27 1/2"
rr pass 27 3/4"
full droop
frnt driver ?
frnt pass ?
rr driver 29 3/4"
rr pass 30"
I plan to get the truck aligned this weekend.
John
I'm working on a blog/slideshow/album for this build @ image shack that I will have up very shortly.
I will also be posting all parts and prices for the build up soon.
Bear with me I'm trying to get pic situation controlled so that they show up in the thread.
I have wanted to own a '73-87 Chevy for the longest time. I previously owned a IFS '90 Chevy K1500 and wanted an affordable way to lift it that was dependable. so a SAS was what i had come up with. Well a few months ago I found a truck with the older body style for sale. The front brush guard really set it apart from the other trucks I had seen for sale. I checked it out and was very excited the oh so great D60 that is talked about with great honor on Pirate4x4. I had been looking for a diesel so that i could run Bio-diesel in it, i always thought it would be cool to do. One more reason to buy it. took it for a test drive and found no major problems with it. So long story short, I bought it. I figured if something went wrong i could part it out and sell the D60 and make back most of the initial price. It turns out the truck was a military M1008 CUCV. On the way home (5miles) from paying the owner and changing ownership of the truck I ran out of diesel and the battery was too dead to start the engine when my dad came with a can of diesel. After driving for a few days i noticed some death wobble at around 30MPH. Took it to a shop and found out the tires were worse than I thought. New tires were now on the urgent agenda. I had always wanted a truck of this era because of the price of lift kits for tires and the dependability of SFAs. It was decided that I would lift the truck now when I replaced the tires rather than 40,000 Miles down the road. The Truck had a dead rear battery because the previous owner did not have the correct passenger side alternator in it (no isolated ground). And I didn't figure this out until after buying a brand new battery for the truck
. So first I bought a new 100amp alternator with an isolated ground for the passenger side.Truck as I bought it:
http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/8623/1013317bn1.jpg
Lift Info:
I knew that I wanted to run 35" tires with as little lift as possible and NO fender trimming. I settled on a 4" lift. In the rear I chose to installed a shackle flip from OffRoad Design (ORD) because I had heard many good things about their products. For the front springs i finally chose to go with the Tuff Country HD EZ ride springs because of their spring rate of 495 (slightly higher than SkyJacker's at 490). I took advantage of spring break to install the lift after collecting most of the parts.
Measurements before lift (center of axle to fender directly above):
w/ truck weight
frnt driver ?
frnt pass ?
rr driver 23 3/4"
rr pass 24 1/4"
full droop
frnt driver 25 3/4"
frnt pass 26 1/2"
rr driver 26 1/2"
rr pass 26 1/2"
Rear:
I started the rear lift on 4/9/07 removing the old shackle hangers. I have become very good friends with the grinder. OH! And I got to sawzall the exhaust ends off. That is the coolest tool! I have never had a need for it before. After removing the wheels I used a wire brush to remove rust and painted the rear drums black. On 4/10/07 I went to San Jose to visit Santa Clara University (gotta apply for colleges next year) and stop at 4Wheel Parts where I picked up four ProComp eXtreme A/Ts and some procomp extended brake lines. When I returned to work on it I removed the lever for the brake proportioing valve. I replaced the old brake line with one the longer procomp line. I finished the shackle flip on 4/11/07 at 11:15PM, i was excited to get it done. I feel kinda sorry for the neighbors though, I was using the grinder until 10:45 and although I was on spring break their daughter wasn't and they still had work. Rear shocks were not installed until the night of 4/17/07
4/12/07 I did nothing
Front:
Friday 4/13/07. Friday the 13th I started on the front lift springs! I put hte truck on blocks. I removed the sway bar. I removed the old drag link, it was trashed and had become just a blob of grease. I removed the shocks. I don't remember dates for the following but here's what I did. I lowed the front axle down on to jack stands and then removed the old springs. When I installed the new springs I had to move the drive shaft forward to line it up with the center pin on the springs. The new springs actually have and arch in them! I went to the dealer looking for lock nuts and was informed that these trucks didn't use lock nuts for the U bolts. I just torqued the old nuts (gonna get in trouble with some of you here) back down to spec at 150ft#. I replaced the old bake lines with the new braided stainless steel brake lines from procomp.
Dad drove down to Pismo on fri-sat and stopped by 4WP on his way back home Saturday to pick up my wheels and shocks (4/14/07). Tires were balanced on Monday 4/16/07 at Big O Tire. On Tuesday I bought new drag link ends at Bert Williams and Sons and installed the drag link and wheels/tires that afternoon. Just before installing the wheels/tires i flipped teh rear axle shim to fix the pinion angle by 5-6*. That night I installed the shocks. I had to install the rear shocks upside down because of clearance problems with he axle tube and the shock tube on the passenger mount. I rigged the brake proportioning valve to a temporary setting and went to grease the drag link ends only to find that the grease gun was out of grease and all stores were closed. I drove out to walmart at 7 the next morning for a tube of grease. greased up the ends and was able to drive the truck to school that morning
4/18/07. http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/1074/1003453rk8.jpg
Measurements after lift:
w/ truck weight
frnt driver ? waiting a few days for springs to settle
frnt pass ? waiting a few days for springs to settle
rr driver 27 1/2"
rr pass 27 3/4"
full droop
frnt driver ?
frnt pass ?
rr driver 29 3/4"
rr pass 30"
I plan to get the truck aligned this weekend.
John
I'm working on a blog/slideshow/album for this build @ image shack that I will have up very shortly.
I will also be posting all parts and prices for the build up soon.
Bear with me I'm trying to get pic situation controlled so that they show up in the thread.
