CUCV2
5/4 ton fun
After looking for a 89-91 Crew Cab diesel, I found this. A 93 Chevy Crew Cab with a 6.5TD and a NV4500. I traded a dirt bike that had been sitting in my shed unused for about 3 years.
The rub on this truck was that the transmission was shot and it was a 2wd. A SAS would be perfect right? Well, NV4500s in good shape are hard to come by and so are 79 Ford HP60s. After diligently looking for a NV4500, a remanned one came up with 10K miles on it. There was already a 32 spline NP241 TC sitting in my storage unit to use off of that.
Finding a 79 HP60 is one of the challenges of converting this truck to 4wd. It seemed like a long shot but I asked the guy I bought the NV4500 from if he knew of any. He said he had one that he had been saving for a SAS but he would part with it.
The next challenge was figuring out how to do the SAS since there are no SAS kits for a 2wd C3500. After looking around I found a pretty good description on the difference between 2wd and 4wd frames on ORDs website.
http://offroaddesign.com/catalog/88-98SolidAxleConversion.htm
It looked like their kit would work with some slight mods to the front brackets.
It was starting to look like the plan was coming together. It was time to get the truck mobile again. The 2wd NV4500 was pulled and the new 4wd NV4500 installed. The good news was that the clutch had just barely been replaced and would be fine to reuse.
Converting to a 4wd NV4500 did have a few challenges though. A new xmember would be needed, the rear driveshaft would have to be shortened and a slip yoke attached the driveshaft for the 241. A friend was parting out a 92 Suburban at the time so we tried the xmember out of that and it worked. Also, scored a shifter for the 241 as well.
Onto the brackets. The part that seemed would be an issue actually went pretty smoothly. The front bracket modification on the 2wd frame was easy enough. I used the brackets as a template for what needed to be trimmed out, then bolted them up where they are supposed to be. The frame needed some reinforcement after the trimming, so, a piece of flat stock was used to tie everything together and it was all welded up.
And that is where it is at the moment. It looks like the rear brackets will bolt right up after some minor exhaust pipe mods are made.
Here is a shot of the truck and the front mounts installed.
The rub on this truck was that the transmission was shot and it was a 2wd. A SAS would be perfect right? Well, NV4500s in good shape are hard to come by and so are 79 Ford HP60s. After diligently looking for a NV4500, a remanned one came up with 10K miles on it. There was already a 32 spline NP241 TC sitting in my storage unit to use off of that.
Finding a 79 HP60 is one of the challenges of converting this truck to 4wd. It seemed like a long shot but I asked the guy I bought the NV4500 from if he knew of any. He said he had one that he had been saving for a SAS but he would part with it.
The next challenge was figuring out how to do the SAS since there are no SAS kits for a 2wd C3500. After looking around I found a pretty good description on the difference between 2wd and 4wd frames on ORDs website.
http://offroaddesign.com/catalog/88-98SolidAxleConversion.htm
It looked like their kit would work with some slight mods to the front brackets.
It was starting to look like the plan was coming together. It was time to get the truck mobile again. The 2wd NV4500 was pulled and the new 4wd NV4500 installed. The good news was that the clutch had just barely been replaced and would be fine to reuse.
Converting to a 4wd NV4500 did have a few challenges though. A new xmember would be needed, the rear driveshaft would have to be shortened and a slip yoke attached the driveshaft for the 241. A friend was parting out a 92 Suburban at the time so we tried the xmember out of that and it worked. Also, scored a shifter for the 241 as well.
Onto the brackets. The part that seemed would be an issue actually went pretty smoothly. The front bracket modification on the 2wd frame was easy enough. I used the brackets as a template for what needed to be trimmed out, then bolted them up where they are supposed to be. The frame needed some reinforcement after the trimming, so, a piece of flat stock was used to tie everything together and it was all welded up.
And that is where it is at the moment. It looks like the rear brackets will bolt right up after some minor exhaust pipe mods are made.
Here is a shot of the truck and the front mounts installed.
Last edited:
