'89 R3500 Crew Cab 2wd to 4wd conversion & beyond

[mrk5]

Thanks!

I finally got one of the shocks mounted.

Arg, I hate when I notice a place I missed with the paint when I post up project pictures.

Big hindsight item was that I should have got the spacers for 1.5" between the tabs instead of 1.25". The unfortunate thing is the 1.25" spacers are a heck of a lot less expensive. In order to make things work, I had to cut down the mounting tabs so they have the minimum amount of material above the holes. The unfortunate thing is I forgot this when I welded the tabs to the axle and i had to cut them after the fact and they look kinda hack.

I'm debating about torching them off and welding on new tabs. Can't decide if it's worth the effort.

Here are a couple pictures of the second side in process.

I decided to use existing holes in the frame which ended up making things harder. If I had it to do over again I would make a plate that would bolt to the frame the entire length between the 2 holes I used above. And then weld everything to that, namely shocks and bump stops. This would have given me more versatility and done a better job covering up all the holes.

I used a 4" hole saw to cut the hole in the fenders. On the passenger side I tried to make 2 holes to make a nice looking cut. But the hole saw didn't cooperate and I had to finish it off with a sawsall. So the one side is not quite round.

In order to figure out where to put the hole, I used a plumb-bob, or a weight on a string. Marked the inner fender where the weight lined up with the axle. The 4" hole saw gives me room to clear the 2" diameter shock with some room for error as well.

The passenger side should go a little quicker. One, because this is the second time around, and two there is less stuff in the way on the passenger side.

 

[mrk5]

The other thing I did was get rid of the dumb little air cleaner housing that came on the truck.

I went to the pick-n-pull and grabbed a factory housing. Apparently there is a different length inlet tube for the kind the type of connection I have at the core support.

I'll have to see if I can find one.

 

[Babaganoosh]

Shock hoops look fairly similar to what I'm making. Glad to see I wont have much hacking to do to the inner fender to make them go through.

Looks great, keep it up.

 

[y5mgisi]

Good job! That intake tube looks right, but it does look long huh?

 

[mrk5]

Shock hoops look fairly similar to what I'm making. Glad to see I wont have much hacking to do to the inner fender to make them go through.

Looks great, keep it up.

Thanks. The first time I put these shocks on my K5 I cut way more than needed. So I tried to be more precise this time. I want the inner fender to retain as much integrity as possible.

Good job! That intake tube looks right, but it does look long huh?

This truck has a different type of connection at the core support as compared to what I've seen before. However I do remember seeing one at the pick-n-pull. Hopefully the intake tube is still there.

 

[blazinzuk]

Scott I only see one bolt?????

am I blind or are you not done

 

[kgblazerfive]

Well I would say you are blind, I see two one one each end.

However it needs to be more.

 

[mrk5]

There is one on each end of the hoop, on what I call the face of the frame. They are 9/16" to fit existing holes. There is a 3/8" hole at each end on top of the frame that I drilled. 2 per end, 4 total. Which I wouldn't quite be satisfied with but I also plan to run a bar across over the motor tying the tops together.


That's what I hate about the driver side; too much crap in the way. You can't see most of the bolts. And it's a pain working around it all.

 

[82355]

You can just cut the end off that air intake tube and shove it in the hole. That is what I did on my 1987 V10 when I swapped a 1991 Suburban radiator support and grille onto it.

Martin

 

[mrk5]

That's good to know. I wondered if that might work.

 

[mrk5]

front shocks mounted

I finally finished up the front shock mounting. I will first commiserate over the one big lesson learned.

So you know those times when you are trying to be cheap and you end up causing yourself way more grief than what the savings were worth? That happened to me.

I was looking at shock spacers I need for the rod end style shock mounting I have and noticed the spacers for 1.25" shock tabs are only $1ea and the spacers for 1.5" are $4.50ea. When you need 16 of them, that's a huge difference in cost. So naturally I when with the 1.25" tab spacing.

I have since decided that was a mistake. For one thing the bottom mount on the shock won't clear the 1.25" spaced tabs. The option I've used before was to cut down the tops of the tabs to where there is just barely enough metal left to provide adequate structural support. This time I decided it was time to modify the shocks with a flap disc. Here's what they looked like before:

Here's what they look like now.

But that wouldn't have been necessary if I'd used the 1.5" spacers.

At the end of the day I was a little frustrated with the shocks, which I will talk about later. I was thinking I should just get something different and I realized my stupid 1.25" tab spacing was going to severely limit my shock choices to something that comes with rod end style mounts again.

The shocks I'm running I bought 7yrs ago. There's actually an article in the product review section here about them. When I removed the shocks I noticed one of them wouldn't extend without some assistance and all of them were "weak". I thought they needed to be rebuilt. They can be shipped back to Doetsch Tech for a rebuild at $35/shock. I was talking with Stephen about them and he pointed out there was a chance they just needed to be recharged, or the nitrogen re-pressurized.

Since I have a buddy's truck I take care of running the same shocks, I thought it would be worth investing in a nitrogen kit; especially if I ever decide to run air bumps. I got a Uniweld RHP400 regulator on ebay for $55.

And a hose and nitrogen fill adapter from Polyperformance.com

The fill adapter threads onto the schrader valve on the shock, but doesn't open it. The little tee valve is spun in to depress the valve. This way you don't lose pressure in the shock every time you check pressure.

When I put the fill adapter on the shock it was reading only 90lbs. They should be up around 125lbs. Not horribly low, but about 75% of what they should be. To recharge them I just set the outlet pressure where I wanted the shock to be and you put an air chuck on the schrader on the adapter. Once pressure equalized at the target, I closed off the little tee valve on the adapter and released the air chuck.

After I had the shocks installed I was looking at the truck and noticed it seemed to be sitting lower on the driver side. I verified it was 1" difference with the tape measure. I got suspicious and decided to check the pressure in the driver side shock. As soon as I pulled the cap off the schader valve, air leaked out. The valve was leaking and had lost all pressure. Something is up with the schrader valve. I messed with it to see if it was just junk in the seat, but nothing seemed to clear it up.

That was at the end of long day that I thought had ended successfully so that's why I was frustrated enough to consider buying new shocks. However I figured out replacement valves can be found at Home Depot for $3.

I'm still debating about the value of rebuilding the shocks. They are 7yrs old, but probably have less than 10,000 miles on them. I'd hate to go to all this work and put bad shocks in. I'm trying to decide if I have the patience to wait for them to get done. I'd really like to be driving this truck around town soon.

 

[82355]

You don't need shocks to drive around town.

Martin

 

[mrk5]

Here's how the shock hoops ended up with the cross bar.

This last picture shows how they are kicked out at the bottom.

 

[mrk5]

You don't need shocks to drive around town.

Martin

Well that is true. I have driven it around the neighborhood of the shop. I'm talking about being able to drive it home and back which is 20 miles each way on the Highway. I need to starting logging some street time so I can figure out the reliability of this truck. Come September it's gotta make the drive over I70 to Moab and Blazer Bash. It's not good when the event organizer doesn't show up...

 

[Babaganoosh]

I'm really glad I can see how I'm mounting mine are turning out. Looks great. How high does your hoops come off the frame rails? I hope I can fit a cross bar between the hoop as well.

 

[mrk5]

I'm really glad I can see how I'm mounting mine are turning out. Looks great. How high does your hoops come off the frame rails? I hope I can fit a cross bar between the hoop as well.

I'll have to measure again, but I'm pretty sure it was less than 12". It was pure luck the bar fit straight across where it did. I thought I would have to do something complicated with the tube bender. I'm also thinking the cross bar will give me a good place to hang the steering reservoir.

 

[y5mgisi]

The tires look like they are kicked out at the top?

 

[82355]

My crew cab has never had shocks on it since I've owned it. You won't hurt anything. I like the full convertible plow rig. (You should take the plow off the poor thing and replace it with something I don't mind seeing rot away....)

Martin

 

[mrk5]

The tires look like they are kicked out at the top?

I can kinda see what you are talking about. I think it's because the angles are all wonky. It's actually sitting on a bit of a slope there that angles downhill on the passenger side. But because the passenger shock is fully charged and the driver side is completely dead the truck is sitting level, which would make it sit lower on the driver side if it was on level ground. It was a 1" difference when I noticed it in the shop.

It better not be anything with the wheels as I just replaced the bushings and springs in the king pins.

My crew cab has never had shocks on it since I've owned it. You won't hurt anything. I like the full convertible plow rig. (You should take the plow off the poor thing and replace it with something I don't mind seeing rot away....)

Martin

You're probably right about no shocks. Although the ORD springs are soft so I think it would get sketchy is on a hard braking situation.

It's not my K5. Belongs to my father-in-law. His father bought it new in '75. When his father got sick and was bed ridden it sat in the driveway and started rotting. He didn't want to sell it because he liked seeing it out the window and as long as it was there he felt like there was a chance he might one day get to take it camping again. After he passed my father-in-law parked it at their cabin where it mostly sat some more. Now it is the plow truck at the shop for the occasional snow storm. Really I think the only reason he hangs on to it is for sentimental reasons.

 

[mrk5]

Replaced the schrader valve, pressurized the shock and it seems to be working fine. I test drove it around the industrial park and I can definitely tell a difference in stability.

I did cheat and charge the shock with it installed. You are technically supposed to do it with the shock extended. I just checked the pressure on the other side and matched the driver side to it. It did gain about 10psi due to being compressed in the truck.