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'85 K5 "Denali" Blazer: Front 4-link

The goal is to restore and upgrade this truck for mixed use on/off road (ex: drive across the country to a national park to 4x4 camp).
Overview Gallery Discussion
Conner said:
Yes, but of course planning on lots more to be safe. What I meant is at this point, tentatively the axle location is looking good. At all axle positions, the panhard bar and bracket clears everything. The axle is closest to the panhard bracket at roughly ride height, and with the axle moved now I'm 99% sure the coilover has enough clearance to the panhard bracket at ride height. It gets further away as the axle goes up or down.

I have not fully cycled with a tire on (yet). I will need to trim the front of the fender to do that (hopefully moving the axle back helped a little, but it will definitely still need some).

That's a good point though, I should do that next before worrying too much about shock hoops because I need to make sure the coilover clears the tire. Other than the fender and the coilover, I can't think of anything the tire will potentially hit? I'll find out either way I guess.

Thanks for the help thinking through everything (you and everyone else)! It's very appreciated.
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Sounds like you are on the right track! I just think max articulation with the tire turned left or right could maybe touch some things? Honestly have no idea. Just have seen others articulate with a tire on and ORD I think recommends that in their directions when cycling.
 
CriticalAction said:
Sounds like you are on the right track! I just think max articulation with the tire turned left or right could maybe touch some things? Honestly have no idea. Just have seen others articulate with a tire on and ORD I think recommends that in their directions when cycling.
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Yep it's definitely in the instructions, you're right. I had been putting it off mainly due to not wanting to cut sheet metal until I knew exactly where the axle would sit, but I think now is the time.

Thanks again!
 
Babaganoosh said:
Don’t forget new tires makes a difference if you can or just add a little more.
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Thanks! The plan is to use the old tires for now (I think they should be close enough to make sure the coilover has room, and avoid any other major clearance issues). My brother-in-law has the exact tires I plan to use (35x12.5r15 K02s) currently brand new for his K10, so I am going to steal one of those to put on a rally wheel for final touch up on the fender trimming. Luckily the high school has the tire machines handy to switch it back and forth since he has different wheels.
 
Conner said:
Thanks! The plan is to use the old tires for now (I think they should be close enough to make sure the coilover has room, and avoid any other major clearance issues). My brother-in-law has the exact tires I plan to use (35x12.5r15 K02s) currently brand new for his K10, so I am going to steal one of those to put on a rally wheel for final touch up on the fender trimming. Luckily the high school has the tire machines handy to switch it back and forth since he has different wheels.
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That should work. This part was a really cool day for me seeing it on its own weight.

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Got the driver shock hoop tacked in today. Ended up cutting it in the middle so I could twist it. I sleeved it with some of my leftovers from the panhard bar. Going to cycle it a thousand more times but so far it looks like it clears everything. Tomorrow I will try to mirror it onto the passenger side.

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I forgot to post it, but I realized I was going to have to cut way more than I had initially hoped on my fenders. So I pulled my new ones off and put the old (crappy) ones back on. I just cut them out of the way. The front isn't too bad and I will do something similar on my good pair. The back is bad, and I don't like it, but I have a plan to rework my good pair to retain the stock look but with a larger wheel opening.

But for now I have a pair cut where the tires clear and I can gauge everything I need to in the meantime. Thanks again everyone who reminded me to do this before the shock hoops, I didn't ignore you I just forgot to post it. LOL

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Conner said:
That’s the plan, I don’t have any of it yet though. I’ll close up the holes in the firewall that I don’t need at some point.
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Nice. Just saw the compressor and current location of your shock hoop... Didn't wanna be the guy to burst your Stock HVAC bubble!
 
Life has been busy, but I got my bump stops tacked into place this weekend. The driver side is a very tight fit with the steering shaft, but after shaving a little extraneous material off the top of the can, it has about 1/4" in the worst spot, which I think should be good. I can grind a little more if needed. The passenger side was much easier to fit. The cans are stood off the frame with a small piece of 1/4" plate. I will also gusset them on both sides.

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I'm trying to figure out my limit straps, and I'd appreciate any advice or ideas.

Using the existing limit strap attachment points on the axle brackets, I mocked up the limit straps to (barely) prevent the shocks from bottoming out with the axle fully articulated. Because the limit strap attachment points are inboard of the shock attachment points on the axle, with the axle drooped fully at both sides, the shocks compressed about an inch and a quarter from full extension. This is probably acceptable, but I'm wondering if I can do a little better. For reference these are 12" shocks and in the aforementioned setup (with some buffer room on the bottom out side too) it was roughly cycling 9.5" of vertical wheel travel and 21.75" of articulated wheel travel.

I'm wondering if alternate limit strap attachment points on the axle side can help use more of the shock stroke for vertical wheel travel. It gets a little hairy because not only does the axle tilt when articulating, but it also moves sideways several inches when the passenger side is stuffed vs drooped. Cycling the axle and taking measurements between various points on the axle and frame (trying to find spots where the distance is close to the same at full droop and driver drooped/passenger stuffed), I landed on the below as a possible solution (see blue line).

Potential, probably solvable problems are the limit strap getting in the way of the bump stop and/or coil spring and maybe chafing on the edge of the inner fender.

Anyone see any other issues with this? Any better ideas? I considered putting the limit strap on the front side but there's almost no room due to the panhard bracket. I also considered running a limit strap parallel to the shock, eye-to-eye, but it would be like a 30+" strap which seems like it could stretch a lot and have excessive slack to manage when the shock compresses.

Thanks in advance for reading this far and any ideas/feedback/advice anyone might have!

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I went a qtr inch of shaft showing before my coil overs fully extend. I also have a Clovis where I can suck them up when they stretch.

I paid for it I wanted all the 14in of travel.
 
Babaganoosh said:
I went a qtr inch of shaft showing before my coil overs fully extend. I also have a Clovis where I can suck them up when they stretch.

I paid for it I wanted all the 14in of travel.
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I did order 2 of the adjustable clevis mounts for the frame side to be able to fine tune and adjust for stretch.

So you used the pre-existing limit strap holes in the axle side brackets I assume? Did you set the limit straps with both sides of the axle drooped, or with the side being set drooped and the other side stuffed?

I'm probably describing this poorly, but I guess what I'm having trouble with is that if you set the limit straps with both sides of the axle drooped so that the shock is just barely inside the fully extended position (therefore getting effectively the max vertical wheel travel from the shock), then when you articulate the axle the side that is drooped will top out (fully extend) the shock, start hanging on the shock at that point, and begin putting slack in the limit strap on the drooped side. Unless I'm grossly misunderstanding something, which is entirely possible... LOL.

It's also crossed my mind that maybe the above scenario (topping out on the shock instead of the limit strap when articulated) is acceptable since this seems most likely to happen at crawling speeds, putting much less stress on the shock than if it happened at full (both sides) droop since that's more likely to happen at high speeds.

I think my question boils down to: Using the pre-existing axle side limit strap holes, particularly on the driver side, if you measure where to put the frame side limit strap mounting point with both sides of the axle drooped, versus with the driver side drooped and the passenger side stuffed, you will end up with 2 different spots for the frame side limit strap mounting point. One of them limits vertical travel and the other lets the axle hang on the shock (not the limit strap) when fully articulated. Which one is right? Or is it beneficial to try to find better mounting points?
 
I would set them booth dropped out then check it lifting it side by side. I believe that is what I did.
 
It’s because the bump stops are inboard of the shocks. The bump contact is your pivot point and the shock is outside if that. It’s a common issue trying to put race parts on an already designed and built vehicle. My rig is the same way.
You want it to protect the shocks from bottoming out at high speed. If they extend to max at low speed articulation Thats fine.
 
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