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'90 K5 - The Nevada Blazer [Post 1437: School me on alternators)

colbystephens said:
I didn't know that. That's dumb.
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Oh I've been told the same thing, that is when I bought the FSJ, just to spite them, they said jeep, no one said it couldn't be a full size.:thumb:
And I had real good fun with it for 3 years until on a snow run I broke a front driveshaft and it whipped and wedged under the tranny case and broke it.
It's been sitting in my garage since waiting for a "fundamental transformation" :D
She will live again.
 
alexsdad said:
Now that it's been posted locally how a stock Blazer made it through, I am anxious to attend the next Jeep run and watch a few of the built Jeeps get stuck. Side note- I don't hold a grudge, but the local club told me I couldn't tag along, as my Blazer was just "too big" to be on Jeep trails. Okay, so I do hold a grudge. :whistle:
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That is seriously lame. Before I had my blazer I used to get told I couldn't come on certain trails because I drove a samurai, and there just not tough enough out there. I came anyway and being the only one locked front and rear usually shut em up pretty quick.

Same thing when I got the blazer, meant a couple guys with smaller rigs and they said oh we are going wheeling next week ( they had never seen my blazer) but you should just ride along. Its rocks and your blazer is just too big. I drove the blazer and shut them up too.

Although sometimes I do find myself trying to talk guys out of coming with more stockish vehicles, but I try not too.
 
Well when you are with a couple of guys and they advise you not to is one thing, but when you want to go with an organized group and they won't let you, it's different.
What we did was follow from behind a decent distance since it's public land they can't say anything as long as we are not in the group.
Most times we ended up picking up the broken trucks and by the end of the trip earned their respect.

blazinzuk said:
That is seriously lame. Before I had my blazer I used to get told I couldn't come on certain trails because I drove a samurai, and there just not tough enough out there. I came anyway and being the only one locked front and rear usually shut em up pretty quick.

Same thing when I got the blazer, meant a couple guys with smaller rigs and they said oh we are going wheeling next week ( they had never seen my blazer) but you should just ride along. Its rocks and your blazer is just too big. I drove the blazer and shut them up too.

Although sometimes I do find myself trying to talk guys out of coming with more stockish vehicles, but I try not too.
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You should hear what the Jeep guys say if you are driving a K30 3+3 long box.

Martin
 
As far as I'm concerned, wheel what you've brought, just don't do too much stupid stuff that's going to hang up the rest of the crew. I'm more concerned about people being honest with themselves and their capabilities than I am with what kind of truck people bring out there!
 
alexsdad said:
Now that it's been posted locally how a stock Blazer made it through, I am anxious to attend the next Jeep run and watch a few of the built Jeeps get stuck. Side note- I don't hold a grudge, but the local club told me I couldn't tag along, as my Blazer was just "too big" to be on Jeep trails. Okay, so I do hold a grudge. :whistle:
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XJ-Nation (local board) drug an f-150 through Steve's loop a couple years ago, they ran like 40 rigs through that day, looked like a real cluster. Seeing you and colby take your blazers through was awesome. It's too bad the IFS on my truck falls apart everytime I hit dirt, cuz I would love to do some runs with you guys. As for the run on the 27th, it sounds fun, but I have to work that day so have fun.

Colby, I see the green blazer everyday on my drive to work, sitting in it's sad, lonely, cageless, half-topless state.
 
chevydan3 said:
Colby, I see the green blazer everyday on my drive to work, sitting in it's sad, lonely, cageless, half-topless state.
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Lol. :D I know, it's pretty sad. The 14 bolt is going to get pulled the end of this month, and, fingers crossed, stuff gets swapped in January.

Also, I'll let you know when we have further outings. :) alexsdad and I have been going about once a month, as my fuel budget allows. :D
 
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Ok, here's a lift question I should know the answer to.

So I want to run 5" of lift on this truck. I have 4" Procomp lift springs that I'll be using. I was thinking DIY4x EZ inch in all four corners. But, now it occurs to me that I might want to run a longer shackle in the front to get better movement out of the spring.

If I run a longer shackle, how much lift will it give me?

I was wanting to run the EZ inch in the front too so I could push my axle forward, but if I get lift with the shackle, then the EZ inch might make the front too tall.

Does running a longer shackle screw with the pinion angle? seems like it might push the pinion down.
 
It does push the pinion down. Which also messes with your caster.

I think the best thing you can do in the front is to get a set of upper shackle hangers and then move them forward. The problem is not so much the length of the shackle its the angle.

To truly truly do it proper Colby you need to cut and turn the knuckles. I have done it before. Grind down the welds on the knuckles, then get 4 or 5 guys and a very sturdy stand to put the axle in. Then start hitting the knuckle till it breaks free of the weld.

This of course is the caveman way of doing it but I have done it several times with good success. The most important thing of course is knowing what your pinion angle needs to be and what your caster needs to be.

In your situation I think this is the best way to accomplish what you want, which is a daily driver type of rig with serious off road capability.
 
Woah. That's more work than I was anticipating. :(

Are you suggesting that an alternative would be to drill out the rivets in the stock hangar and move the front spring hangar forward a couple inches? Sadly, I don't even know what the proper shackle angle is... care to enlighten me? :ears: If I move the spring hangar forward, do I need to fill my original rivet holes first?
 
I think the rule of thumb is 1" longer than factory and it won't negatively affect your caster and pinion angle enough to matter. Don't quote me on that though... 1" longer shackles should net you 1/2" of lift.
 
1/2" higher in front is no big deal, I suppose.

Hey BlazinZuk - check out post 270. ;)

Had some bummer news today, well, kinda. It's not that big of a deal. I had a flat the other morning, took it in today to have the tire checked to see if it was a repairable flat. Nope. Has about a 1" long vertical gash (perpendicular to the tread) in the sidewall. :doah: Going to see if I can find a cheap 31 to 33 inch spare for the truck. I had a full size 33" spare, so that's nice, though the tread on it is less than the other tires. The hope is to only have these tires on here another couple months, fingers crossed.
 
Is your tire a 15" tire?
I have a couple of 33" tires one of them is a cooper, might be the same tread as yours too.
And you can get the other too as a spare if you don't already have a spare.
I will be back in a few days and I can get you some pics and maybe next time I am headin up the hill you could meet with me on I80 and get it.
colbystephens said:
1/2" higher in front is no big deal, I suppose.

Hey BlazinZuk - check out post 270. ;)

Had some bummer news today, well, kinda. It's not that big of a deal. I had a flat the other morning, took it in today to have the tire checked to see if it was a repairable flat. Nope. Has about a 1" long vertical gash (perpendicular to the tread) in the sidewall. :doah: Going to see if I can find a cheap 31 to 33 inch spare for the truck. I had a full size 33" spare, so that's nice, though the tread on it is less than the other tires. The hope is to only have these tires on here another couple months, fingers crossed.
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Yes Colby drill out the rivets and reposition the upper shackle hanger about an inch forward.

I suggested this with the Iron Maiden build and I think it was only 3/4s of an inch or an inch that worked I will pm Dave and see.

There really is no "proper" shackle angle. For me the proper angle would be more than for you because I am more interested in off road performance.

A more street oriented truck like yours the proper angle would be less.

I really don't like the straight up and down or even forward in some cases angle of the shackle when using normal off the shelf lift springs. I realize it is a bit of work but its cheap work and does work very very well.

It should also make the ride a bit better as the shackle is already pointed the way it goes when hitting a bump ( towards the rear of the truck)

I would probably fill in the holes but I don't see a big need too. The upper shackle bushings derives most of its strength from the surface area it covers.

The other argument for moving it is the fact of you don't want your lift springs to go negative arch, while I have yet to see a set of lift springs go negative arch, the fact that the shackle is straight up and down suggests that you should have equal droop and compression. That is never going to be the case with off the shelf lift springs. So moving the shackle hanger does very little to hinder compression, but helps quite alot with droop.

Although moving the upper shackle hanger does bring into play the shackle length, it needs to be long enough to keep the spring away from the frame but not too long.
 
Colby check out post 1498 on the Iron Maiden build thread. You are a small block so probably only an inch forward.

Its discussed a little before that but you can see what Zim did.

I think it worked really really well, its kind of a pain to do but I think the benefits are worth it
 
Great stuff here, Zuk! Thanks!!

iceman - I appreciate the offer. I'll be in touch about it! :)
 
Well, this post is pretty irrelevant, but I decided I'd check my gear ratio today. I've got 3.42s in my truck. I'm surprised at how much power the truck has with the 33s on those gears. Should be fun once I get the 1 tons in with 5.13s. :D
 
colbystephens said:
Well, this post is pretty irrelevant, but I decided I'd check my gear ratio today. I've got 3.42s in my truck. I'm surprised at how much power the truck has with the 33s on those gears. Should be fun once I get the 1 tons in with 5.13s. :D
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OK so I am not much worse with my 33" supposedly on 3.08s maybe I should double check, I could have 3.42 which was more common in 89 for a suburban.:dunno:
 
Here's a bit of math I did regarding crawl ratios. It is said that the ideal crawl ratio is equal to the circumference of your tires.

Current set up:
2(tq converter) x (3.06x2.71x3.42) = 56.72 on a 33" tire. Ideal crawl ratio = 103.62 for this size tire. thus, I'm currently at 54.7% of ideal.

Future Set up:
2(tq converter) x (3.06x2.71x5.13) = 85.08 on a 38" tire. Ideal crawl ratio = 119.32 for this size tire. Thus, I'll be at 71.3% of ideal on the new set up, which I think should feel like a pretty significant jump. That's an increase of 16.6% overall, and an improvement of 130% of my stock set up. That'd be a sweet set up with a 205/241 doubler someday. :D 168:1 craw... :yikes:
 
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