'93 Blazer build thread

[hd44blazer]

Went to Prairie City again late Sat. and almost didn't make it.

I pulled off the freeway in Rancho Cordova to stop at the usual gas station I stop at whenever I go up there and my alternator was screaming,
the rear shaft bearing had toasted itself and lost about 3 of the maybe 9 or so balls it had.

I could actually see the pulley dipping down when the motor would change rpms.

So long story short I quickly drove to the nearest O'rielly's and picked up a new alternator and installed it right there in the lot and I was on my way.

It sucks being alone out there so I just got a couple pics but still had fun, the new courses are a nice change.

 

[Deuling]

Looks like fun!! Good thing there was a close parts store, sucks being broke down alone.

 

[NorCal_Chris]

If you ever want to go on a weekday. IE wed or thur hit me up. I work till 330 all other days though.

 

[hd44blazer]

If you ever want to go on a weekday. IE wed or thur hit me up. I work till 330 all other days though.

Sat/Sun is about all I got, otherwise I'm in Livermore at work till 3:30 as well and just to Napa on a weekday
is 1.5hrs with commute traffic. I really want to run the Rubicon soon though.

 

[hd44blazer]

Looks like fun!! Good thing there was a close parts store, sucks being broke down alone.

Very lucky, I called the nearest one on my phones map to check their stock and they had one left, so
I tenderly drove there keeping the revs as low as I could and on my way over noticed I wasn't in the
best neighborhood, so I was twice lucky I didn't have to hoof it. Plus it was damn hot out.

 

[Avery4jc]

I lost my alternator on our last wheeling trip a days drive into a trail. It SUCKED. Luckily I was with some of the best wheeling partners out there and they painstakingly stopped every 10-15 minutes and charged me for another 10-15 minutes worth of driving.
Makes you re-evaluate setups when stuff like that happens.

I switched to an electric fan a while back and without the alternator I could only get those 10-15 minutes of run time off a charge.... so I either need to go back to a mechanical fan or I need to carry a spare alternator. Stuff I didn't think about before hitting the trail.

Anywhoo, glad you got it worked out.... never wheel alone.

 

[hd44blazer]

I took my truck down to Livermore for the week and went to Carnegie again after work with a coworker and his 2010 Tacoma...that he didn't take on the rocks

truck did great though and walked up everything I pointed it at

sorry for the wind noise

[youtube]I3ou-X0jBYc[/youtube]

[youtube]R6aXr6QV2-Y[/youtube]

 

[hd44blazer]

went out to that BLM area again today, and I've got a Rubicon trip finally planned for next weekend so really looking forward to that

found a good spot to stuff my suspension too

 

[hd44blazer]

finally getting around to working on my rear flex joint shackle mounts

a few in process pics, these are ballistic fab's 3.0" flex joints(and are the last things I'll ever order from them with all the nonsense going on over there)
they make a decent product and all but turn around time and stock on hand is terrible, just glad i got what I paid for though

funny how the 3/4" bolt dwarfs the 1/2" or 9/16" in the spring hole

 

[Deuling]

Looks beefy! So u just cut off the old shackle mount then and attach the new piece up? Is that some sort of bearing? Never seen one before.

 

[hd44blazer]

it's kinda like a bearing in that there are two Nylatron inner races that cradle the steel ball, but there are a few companies that make identical pieces

here's the first part tacked in place, i also moved my shackle back a little bit in the process to improve the angle, it was laying too flat at static ride height

side view

and the 3/8" thick angle piece i welded to the top for the final attachment,
it's also welded all the way up under the old shackle mount and around the back side,
i still may add some gussets to the top of the angle piece

i beveled the hell out of the angle in order to get a good complete weld, that's why it may look thinner

they have a slight lean to them, but not anywhere as bad as a heim joint setup like this i've seen where the shackles were nearly flopped completely over, it looked scary bad!

and a bit of local testing, just after I got it all finished

the only thing that kept me from going all the way to the top was that damn fence

here you can see the ball doing it's thing, this is the compressed side

and the unloaded side

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Any weird handling on the road?

I remember folks saying those TeraFlex shackles gave some squirrely road manors.

 

[hd44blazer]

Nope nothing weird, it actually rides a lot better, probably attributed to the improved shackle angle though more than the flex joints,
and I also replaced the front shackles with the old rear ones which fixed the frame scraping problem I was having. So all in all a successful upgrade.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Good to hear.

Thinking about it your setup wouldn't have the "hinge" motion of the teraflex joints.

 

[hd44blazer]

have a small update to share, if you've been by the Tires/wheels classified section you might have noticed my 39.5 TSLs are for sale.

They've served me well but I really need to get back into the radial world for as much time the truck spends on the street, it'll just
make those trips that much more comfortable.

I found a set of 38" radial trxus sts tires for $80 up in Sac and picked them up last weekend. They're kinda worn so I didn't put the
stauns back in until I get a better set, these will just be temporary until I have the money.

With the extra valve stem hole for the stauns I ran into a problem though because the hole for the tube valve stem is much smaller than a
standard valve stem hole, so I couldn't just put in temporary valve stems.

I solved this problem by buying 8 rubber backed washers for a 5/16" bolt and (4) 5/16" bolts and nylock nuts. This bolt fits the tube valve
stem hole and the washers along with a dab of clear silicone sealant around the bolt seals up the hole no problem.

 

[Deuling]

$80 for a set of tires

 

[hd44blazer]

yuuup, they were originally listed for $100 and nobody wanted them, then they were relisted for $85 and the guy
said he'd take $80 even before I got a chance to lowball him.

 

[hd44blazer]

so i did a little work n the truck this weekend, replaced a rear hub seal that was leaking and getting worse but better
yet I finally shaved my 14 bolt and installed my Barnes 4wd "13" bolt cover that I've been kicking around since Xmas.

Started by placing the cover on the housing and marking a cut line

it seemed a little thin too me so I actually cut just below the ink line which gave it another 1/8" of material, so basically
it'll drag off the housing and step up to the cover rather than have a rock or something pull directly on the cover if I had cut more off

also the holes didn't come countersunk, I did that myself so it'll save me the trouble later of having jacked up bolt heads

 

[hd44blazer]

some items in the works...
picked up the tires from a pirate member the other weekend for $1450, they're in exceptional condition for the price and the H2s for a measly
$100 locally and found out they fit the Ford front hubs with a 1/4" spacer without boring the centers, but Im going to run 1" spacers anyway
to offset the deeper backspace on these, plan is for some Staun type beadlocks again as well

also in the planning stages are swapping out the front spool for a Spartan locker(I know some of you probably saw that coming eventually)
not that the spool doesn't work, just can't turn with the damn thing on any sort of grippy surface

but can't wait to hit some trails again soon


tires are 40x13.5

 

[TREA18]

Looking good I can't wait to see more.