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86 k5 questions

lurch08

lurch08

Registered Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2015
Posts
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Location
north alabama
Hey folks I'm fairly new to the forums as a member and very new to building a 4x4. This is not my first k5 but I plan to hold on to this one a lot longer than the last one. I'm still trying to figure out exactly how I want to build it. I'm trying to land somewhere between purpose built trail rig and trailer queen mall crawler. Something the wife our two kids and I can get out on some easy trails on and have fun out in nature in. i don't want
to go bigger than 35's maybe 37's currently it's completely stock. 350 with a 700r4 and 308 gears i believe. The body's not bad and the drive train is pretty solid. The interior is trashed so while I and my little helper (our almost 4 year old son) are getting that taken care of I was hoping for some ideas on the drive train. What's the best way to lift it to get a decently capable rig while still having a good ride quality? Also do I need to plan on going to 1 ton axels or will the current axels get the job done and be dependable for mild off roading and daily driving ? I'm open to suggestions and ideas.
:1zhelp:
 
Welcome! I am exactly in your position. I have an '88. Fortunately, it has 3.42 gears, which are livable with the 35 inch tires i got, but just barely. I need to regear eventually.

So, here is the problem. I can regear my axles, and have a rear locker installed, for a bit over 2 grand.

I bought a 14 bolt ff axle with 4.10 gears. That's the easy part. I need to find a matching 8 lug dana 44 (or 60), get 8 lug wheels, which will probably be at least 16 inch (not 15 inch like i have now), which means my new 35's won't work either. This will end up about 3200.

I'f I regear my half ton axles, will I ever break 'em? I dunno. Driving around desert 2 tracks, probably not.

At the moment, I'm leaning toward going as far as I can go with the axles I have, and if they break, deal with it then.

That said, if you have 3.08 gears, you will be miserable with 35's. Mine is barely passable with 3.42's, and I have a manual transmission.
 
Welcome and best of luck with your new addiction/money pit!

-I'd personally stick with 35s or smaller unless you really need the size. The bigger the tire, the more considerations and potential issues you have to deal with, and drivability takes a hit. Bigger tires will require more lift, which makes maintaining ride quality and handling more challenging, to say nothing of fuel mileage.

-You don't need 1 ton axles for your application, however you may find that the cheapest and easiest way for you to re-gear would be to purchase a used set of 3/4 or 1 ton axles that someone is getting rid of, particularly as 4.10 ratios are common, and 4.56s are available (one ton CUCV only). My personal recommendation is 4.10s for 33's and 4.56s for 35's, but others have run taller gears without issue, particularly for trucks that see mostly street time.

Personally, my setup is a 4 inch lift on 33's, and 4.10 3/4 ton axles. I find it to be a nice combination of capability and relatively pleasant driving. The key is going to be taking a good, honest look at what you want the truck to do and what you're willing to put up with. A lot of people build a truck biased towards the driving that they imagine themselves doing, and find it's not well suited to 95% of the driving they actually do.
 
You have received good advice already but I will add my two cents. The gears you have will not work with 35's. Like it has been mentioned above, I had 3.42 with 35 and it was miserable on anything but flat. The truck is just lugging the poor engine.

I can't imagine what the 3.08 would feel like.

It terms of durability I broke a front axle and the rear pinion and ring gear in the years I was wheeling it with the 1/2 tons. I didn't wheel all that hard but I wasn't all that easy either.

I have built a truck for somewhat similar goals for my family and exploring and didn't want to risk the family to a broken axle in the middle of nowhere. Me hiking out with buddies is a lot different with kids and wife involved.

I personally sourced a set of CUCV 1 tons with a Dana 60 and 14bff. I paid 1500 but got the gears 4.56 and locker. I also was getting new tires at the time so that was factored into the cost.

Now that is not to say you have to go that route, but for what I intended to do it was the most economical route for me to take.
 
That was one of my concerns was if it would just be cheaper in the long run to go with either 3/4 or 1 ton axles. I knew I would at least have to change the gear ratio. My previous k5 had the same drive train and 33's and it was a turd. It wouldn't stay in od until about 70 on flat ground.

I agree completely it's one thing for me to get stuck out on a trail, but not something I want the wife and kids to deal with. This truck will see a lot of street time so drivability is huge.

Thanks for all the advice so far. it's making me lean towards doing an axle swap... with time. Right now it runs and drives great and it's the only 4 wheel drive we have so until it warms up and we see if we will have another "snowpacalipse" this year or not I don't want it to stay down for too long. So until early spring I'll start collecting parts in the mean time.

That being said, say I plan to do the axle swap what would be the best way to lift it? I've read a little about doing shackle flips and of course I could get a lift in a box from somewhere like rough country but what would really be best for light wheeling/ exploring and not make it rough on the road? I'm not going bigger than 35's. With some thought since my last post I won't need anything bigger than that for now. This is the "family rig" of sorts so I don't need to get into anything crazy right now anyway.
 
Phil513 your build thread seems to be right on track with what I'm wanting to do. Except out here we don't deal with sand or desert it's more rock and mud. Although I wouldnt mind taking a trip out west and playing in the sandbox one day.:pimp: Ive learned a lot and gotten some good ideas from your thread and the blue and white really has me debating about what colors to paint mine. You've got a very nice ride.
:bow:
 
Thanks dude, that's really nice of you to say. Since I painted it myself, it's pretty much a 20 footer, but I'm happy with it.

And definitely head out this way if you get a chance. Exploring the deserts is a lot of fun!
 
lurch08 said:
That was one of my concerns was if it would just be cheaper in the long run to go with either 3/4 or 1 ton axles. I knew I would at least have to change the gear ratio. My previous k5 had the same drive train and 33's and it was a turd. It wouldn't stay in od until about 70 on flat ground.
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I don't have much to add, but hunting and pecking between 3rd and 4th is putting a bunch of wear on the tranny. You should look at regearing as an investment in your tranny's longevity. :)
 
Look at muddysub build thread. It is a well built rig with reliability and comfort as very high prioritys
 
man I went through 3 12-bolt rear ends! 3! The ones that Iused were junkyard high mileage units that I got for for $50.00 at my friends junkyard . any way Ifinally wised up and got A 14 BOLT FULL FLOATER out of a3/4 ton 2wd suburban. 3.73 ring &pinion seemed to be good for 33 inch tires but 4.10 would have been better. Had no trouble with the front 10 bolt as far as ring& pinion , but I did waste a couple front axle u- joints and axle stub shafts,lock out hubs. It's always smart to carry spare parts and tools to fix these and other parts out in the boonies.As far as suspension , I like a shackle flip in the rear from ORD orDIY4X, and 52 in springs up front with some good bilstien shocks-make her ride like a caddilac.
 
I think with what I've read and heard so far 3/4 or 1 ton axels are in order. So I've added those to my growing parts list. After getting into the truck it's not quite as I was told or expected. Turns out to be a 305 with 3.42 gears and had to have a power steering pump and now has a fuel leak and I discovered the less than satisfactory welding job on the floor pans to hide some rot( I found that when the seats suddenly got lower while riding down the road) and about a half dozen other things. So I've decided for now I'm going to leave it as is. I've got planned to build a shop before long so I'll have some where to actually tear into this thing. until then I'm going to keep reading and hunting parts. I hate to have to back up and punt so to speak but I don't see my wife being to happy with me if I let it consume the garage.
 
Same thing happened to me a while back with my 79 k5 . I had big plans and swore I someday follow through with those plans. Many years later,all I have of that truck is a frame that has been sandblasted and painted,axles ,trans/transfer case, engine,wheels,tires- pretty much every thing but a body.The body was so rusty that it was declared unsafe.If yours is so bad that the floor is falling through,you might want to part it out or save the good parts for another truck.Or it might not be that bad,and you can weld in some patch panels.A lot of people just put a truck cab on there(73-87) to create what they call a trazer(truck cab +blazer chassis = trazer) ,but then there is no room for the kids in back. I'm planning to put an 89' cab on mine which is not a bolt on deal, like a73-87 cab would be,but it is still doable.The body mounts line up on a73-87 cab to mount it on a 73-75 blazer but to mount 73-87 cab on 76-91 k5 frames you have to fab a rear crossmember.Some body mount bushing variation in 73-80/81-91 too. But it all depends what year frame you are using-just use the bushings for that year to mount a73-87 cab and it should work.But it seems that Ihave gotten off topic ,cause you probably don't want to do that ,anyway. Have you thought about maybe finding a suburban?
 
Oh no its fixable. Some new floor pans and it'll be good to go in that aspect. Just not something I expected. The truck really is pretty solid that's why the floors really suprised me.
 
lurch08 said:
Oh no its fixable. Some new floor pans and it'll be good to go in that aspect. Just not something I expected. The truck really is pretty solid that's why the floors really suprised me.
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There are so many parts for these square body trucks. LMC truck has patch panels for all the problem area's on the body ,but if you can find genuine gm that's always better. Have you checked out all the parts available from OFF ROAD DESIGN and DIY4X?
 
I've looked around on both sites and i just got my lmc catalog. I'll be ordering some of the patch panels and just replacing both driver and passenger front floor pans. I haven't went through all the stuff on here yet and I'm sure my answers out there somewhere but what all is involved in running 52" springs up front? I understand the point of it and I get the point of shackle flip but will it move the axle location, change the pinion angle etc same goes with the bigger springs up front what all will it change and how exactly is it done? I'm not new to mechanic work, but most of my experience has been making two wheel drives go fast so a lot of this is pretty new to me.
 
lurch08 said:
I've looked around on both sites and i just got my lmc catalog. I'll be ordering some of the patch panels and just replacing both driver and passenger front floor pans. I haven't went through all the stuff on here yet and I'm sure my answers out there somewhere but what all is involved in running 52" springs up front? I understand the point of it and I get the point of shackle flip but will it move the axle location, change the pinion angle etc same goes with the bigger springs up front what all will it change and how exactly is it done? I'm not new to mechanic work, but most of my experience has been making two wheel drives go fast so a lot of this is pretty new to me.
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Hang around here and post up questions, we'll walk you through anything you wanna do.

When you switch to longer springs, you'll hafta move the spring mounts & shackles to accommodate the additional length. You can choose any points you want for your mounts, and they (along with the shackle) are what determine spring placement. So if you want the axle to move or to not move, that's within your control.

As for pinion angle, that's set by the angle of your axle's spring mounts and the angle of your springs (unless you add a tapered shim to change it). So that's not going to change unless you cause it to change. Changing the ride height will affect your driveshaft angle, though.

Basically, read through a bunch of build threads on here and you'll get a feel for what factors are involved. Then post up lots of questions.
 
lurch08 said:
I've looked around on both sites and i just got my lmc catalog. I'll be ordering some of the patch panels and just replacing both driver and passenger front floor pans. I haven't went through all the stuff on here yet and I'm sure my answers out there somewhere but what all is involved in running 52" springs up front? I understand the point of it and I get the point of shackle flip but will it move the axle location, change the pinion angle etc same goes with the bigger springs up front what all will it change and how exactly is it done? I'm not new to mechanic work, but most of my experience has been making two wheel drives go fast so a lot of this is pretty new to me.
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The whole reason to run the 52inch(rear springs) on the front is to have better axle articulation over rough terrain and therefore better traction. The longer and flatter spring also provides a better ride.The B-52 front spring hangers are the best way to do this.Some people make there own hangers.You must cut off the rivet heads and pound out the shanks and remove your factory spring hangers.(look up SKULLCRUSHER/JAVIER PADRON on you tube.)The longer spring does move your wheel base forward some, but most people with big tires like this cause it keeps your tires out of the firewall on full suspension compression.you should also use the front upper shackle angle from DIY4X. This has larger bushing, and is also for 52inch front spring swaps.The b-52 mount has adjustability,so you can get the shackle angle right and position the tire wher you want it. Some people move the spring as far forward as it will go to get the best approach angle up front.This requires redrilling the hole for the swhackle hanger forward too.52inch springs up front provide typically 5 inches of lift. I like this over 4 inch lift springs for ride and flex.
 
yeah or call kert at DIY4X pretty cool dude and will answer your questions. Forgot to mention that crossover steering should probably be used.
 
you will need pinion shims to correct pinion angle.Them Offroad design leaf springs are in my future.I have 52 inch springs for the front and 56 inch springs in the back for a3/4 ton suburban from general spring in the back. A lot of people like to run 64 inch springs with a shackle flip ,those are real flexy. I heard that you get a lot of axle wrap -gotta use a traction bar inback. . Look up MUDDER MALITIA he has a blazer with a truck cab on it called Dirty Girl .He has the 52s infront 64s in back and is running 42 inch tires!
 
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