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

[Smokinthehippies]

I had and never liked the look of tube doors. They mess with the lines of the truck too much. I think a good set of home made half doors are the way to go. You get the maneuverability and visibility of the tube doors but no big goofy gaps in the flow of the truck.

 

[Kevmohara]

I'd be interested in the rears depending on shipping to 52601 but I want them if that's the route you go. Put a/c in, my crew has it and it works really well. It can't be that bad to swap there's not much to one.

 

[Kevmohara]

I was thinking $400 for all 4, or the front pair for $400 and you get the 2 rears for free.

So they're free as long as someone else buys the fronts right

 

[mrk5]

I'd be interested in the rears depending on shipping to 52601 but I want them if that's the route you go. Put a/c in, my crew has it and it works really well. It can't be that bad to swap there's not much to one.

So they're free as long as someone else buys the fronts right

Haha! Yeah if you can talk someone into doing that deal.

I will keep you in mind if I do sell them. That money would go towards AC whichever method I use to get it installed.

 

[Kay86K5]

I've always like half-doors. Started making them one time but never finished.

Hey, I have a set of half doors laying in my garage right now.....

To be honest, I would say that half doors and tube doors both look good, just in different kinds of ways. I don't think I will build another set of half doors again. It took way longer than I think it should to get them to look half way decent from 10 feet away. When you get close up to my half doors, you can see many imperfections. Plus, I didn't even spend the time to come up with a latch so you can open the door from the inside (lost patience after how long it was taking just to fill gaps and make them look alright). So mine are only functional from the outside to hop in the truck. So on the flip side, my tube doors I now like a lot better. I can open from the inside and outside now which is real nice and visibility is a bit better obviously. But I can't let empty water bottles float around on the floor now as they have a tendency to fall out the door, haha. Now, my rig is a trailer queen and I don't run it on the road at all and I know that will make a difference.

I say run the tube doors in the summer time, then swap the full doors back on in the Fall. It's really only the striker bolt and a couple other bolts to take them on/off...

 

[mrk5]

On the K5, I used the striker that came with the tube doors for both. I did usually have to move the striker for alignment when swapping the doors. And yeah, I would need something to hold the water bottles because we just throw them on the rear seat floor.

With the way I'm feeling this year, I may give driving 10hrs to Moab with tube doors a try.

 

[Kay86K5]

On the K5, I used the striker that came with the tube doors for both. I did usually have to move the striker for alignment when swapping the doors. And yeah, I would need something to hold the water bottles because we just throw them on the rear seat floor.

With the way I'm feeling this year, I may give driving 10hrs to Moab with tube doors a try.

Just throw the water bottles in the bed now....you know, since you have a tailgate now

 

[mrk5]

I don't throw loose trash in the bed. As soon as you do that, it's like an open invitation for everyone and their brother to use it as their trash dumpster.

 

[mrk5]

Gonna be getting this fixed. Moving the carrier bearing back. Changing out the yoke on the 14blt in favor of a flange.

 

[mrk5]

The bracket at the top of the picture below is where the carrier bearing is mounted now.

It is in the way of the new driveshaft setup so I removed the rivets and saved the plate. I notched the crossmember to clear the shaft but I left the mounting holes for the plate I removed. I like NOT burning bridges and being able to go back to the original setup if needed.

The rear driveshaft that came out of my K5 is just barely long enough to stand in for the new intermediate shaft. It allowed me to double check my measurements, angles, and math I had done on computer.

You can see that dip down in the exhaust pipe on the left side of the photo behind the jack stand. Not sure why they did that, but I suspect it's going to be in the way of my new carrier bearing crossmember. So I may be redoing the exhaust between the place where the 2 sides come together and the muffler. At this point that section has 2 bends like the one pictured above and I could replace those with a straight length, almost 8' long.

 

[Kay86K5]

You can always go and lengthen that section of the shaft for pretty cheap, but I guess that section will never be using any type of slip once you are done huh? So as long as it's long enough right now, then the shaft from the carrier bearing to the axle will have the slip in it (if I'm thinking correctly what you are trying to accomplish?)

 

[mrk5]

Unfortunately I can't use that shaft at all. It doesn't have the right shaft diameter for the carrier bearing. Plus it's dinged up some. It was just for mock-up purposes.

I also forgot to mention I noticed my relatively new trans mount is all blown out.

I have those washers in there to space it up a little for the front shaft clearance but there's a gap there anyway. Actually the washers provide a bigger footprint than the feet on the adapter.

Trying to decide if I should try a different type of mount. Seems like I should be able to find something that looks similar to a body mount to go under each foot of the adapter. I've never been impressed with the quality of any of those trans mounts I've purchased, is there a better brand to get? If I change out my washers for a full-width piece of flat strap, that would help some at least.

 

[mrk5]

Did just find this "heavy duty" mount on RockAuto:

Looks like it has a sturdier top metal piece than the one that got all bent up in mine.

Actually the bottom metal piece looks a bit thicker as well.

 

[78K30]

That looks like it should survive a lot better especially with the extra beef around the bolts to the adapter.

 

[mtnman]

http://www.energysuspension.com/parts-search.html

 

[mrk5]

http://www.energysuspension.com/parts-search.html

Yeah I was looking urethane. I'll probably go that route when I redo my engine mounts and put urethane there too.

 

[mtnman]

Yeah I was looking urethane. I'll probably go that route when I redo my engine mounts and put urethane there too.

I've broken every rubber motor/transmission mount I've bought... The Chinese made stuff is just plain GARBAGE...

 

[AgDieseler]

Yeah I was looking urethane. I'll probably go that route when I redo my engine mounts and put urethane there too.

I switched all the powertrain mounts on the suburban to urethane at the same time - engine, trans, doubler. Noticeable increase in NVH, but a worthy tradeoff for a stable, long term setup.

All this after worn out rubber engine mounts, and two broken transmission mounts.

David

 

[mrk5]

Speaking of motor mounts, awhile back I discovered one of my engine mounts was unbolted. I think this trans mount was installed at the time so that may have been a contributor to its demise.

 

[mrk5]

Put the new trans mount in today. Here's another pic of the failed unit.

The new mount is definitely beefier.

The failed mount had me on the road to ruin. It's amazing the things I've found when working on other projects that have saved me a lot of grief in the future. It's one of things things I like about tinkering under the truck; it helps you keep an eye on things.

With the mount blown out, the front CV was riding on the crossmember and the transfer case was riding on the skid plate. Replacing the mount raised everything up a good inch. If I hadn't caught this, I would have likely ruined the front CV shaft or even damaged the case.