93 K1500 SAS YEEHAW (Disc brake writeup!)

[82K10SBC]

The relationship between a man and a truck is a complicated bond that involves cussing, yelling, kicking, and drinkin, the relationship between a woman and her truck well its no different

This build is for my woman, some of you may know my black truck, known as the Mistress, my first truck. This is my woman's first truck, and its going to have the same care devoted to it as I gave to my beast.

The plan for this rig is to make it a capable driver as well as a light duty wheeler. Solid axle swap, 3/4 ton swap, etc.

Now to start the story,

The truck was purchased by my wife in 2007 on her 17th birthday, it was a 1993 Chevy K1500 with a 6 inch tuff country lift on 35" BFG ATs and 16.5" LMC 5 spoke wheels.

Excited to be a Chevy girl

Decided she needed to go play a bit

All shined up 8)

Up camping in Rimrock

New grill to fix the busted one

Soon after the head gasket failed

My woman doing work

Pair of new head gaskets, all new valve seals and bit of paint

"Pink is her fav-or-ite cula"

Replacing a bent up fender

 

[plyr2k]

Stealing all the thunder from my SAS build!

What kit you goin with? You gunna build your own?

We need pictures

Your wife and I are the same age......

 

[82K10SBC]

Now here's that point in the life of a truck that changes the build completely....... A few days after Christmas my wife and her friend decided to check the snow level up in the mountains. The road in was snowy and once they got to a point where the road was too slick, they turned around to come back down... while descending on the road, they made it to a turn that was pure ice and the truck went into a skid. It slid to the corner and spun backwards, flying off a large drop and a very steep incline, hitting a few rocks, stumps, and finally to a halt between two trees. The truck was completely stuck and unable to move. The passenger side door had been smashed and unable to open, while the drivers door had just enough give they could slide out with out a scratch. Luckily the snow was shallow and my wife and her friend climbed the embankment and another small hill to try and get cell service, to which no avail. No luck on the CB either. Fortunately another driver came along and they hitched a ride back to town. The next night they returned in the middle of a snow storm with a truck and a 10K winch, and burned the winch up in the first 5 feet of pull. So the truck sat for 3 days until we could get back up to it with another couple trucks and winches. By this time the snow was almost 8" deep on the truck and 12-18" deep on the ground.

Knowing our work was cut out for us we got as many rigs and people as we could scrounge to get it out. We had a toy with a 9.5K warn as the main pull truck and another toy with a, 8274 warn as a backup, it took 4 solid hours to pull the truck up the hill, between shortening our leads and snowmobile pukes cussing us out, it was a long ass day...

We finally got home around 10 PM on New Years Eve

 

[82K10SBC]

Stealing all the thunder from my SAS build!

What kit you goin with? You gunna build your own?

We need pictures

Your wife and I are the same age......

No thunder stealing, just THUNDA BUDDIES! haha

You'll get the pics soon, gotta tell the whole story. haha

 

[82K10SBC]

Brought home my boggers at the same time. haha

the truck sustained some damage in the crash, tweaked both of the x-members, cracked the a-arms, dented the bed and the passenger door, bent the drivers side rear wheel, broke the spring pack bolt, and beat up the front driveline....

My buddy supervising the real work being done, haha

After the junk suspension came out.

The donor F-250 HP D44 front axle, Spring plates, 4" lift springs.

Skys crossover kit

new bushings and painted up pretty

She wanted pink, she got pink. haha

Crossover steering arm

 

[82K10SBC]

After cutting off all the IFS brackets

After I opened the cover on the diff I saw the nightmare it contained...

So I began total disassembly

I also started cleaning off the frame

Soooo much grinding....

After I swapped out the lousy 10b for the hefty 14bff... those are 37" toyos stuffed under the back with no lift.... the complete previous lift was sold as whole, including the previous lift blocks.

 

[82K10SBC]

The plan...

ORD SAS swap
Skyjacker 4" front springs (73-87 Chevy0
Procomp U-bolts
Procomp extended braided brake lines
Ruffstuff beefcake tie rod (1.5"x.25") and 1 ton TREs
Ford 78-79 F250 HP D44;
-New U-joints
-4.10 ring and pinion and new bearings
-Warn premium hubs
-Milled, drilled, n tapped knuckle
DIY4X shackle flip with extended cross tied shackles
Ruffstuff 14Bff swap kit
14bff with 4.10s and disc brakes
17x9 black Cragar soft 8 wheels
37" SS M-16s
All new exhaust
4 New shocks

 

[Stomis]

Im really interested in this but the pictures arent working!

 

[82K10SBC]

Im really interested in this but the pictures arent working!

Take it back!

 

[yellowK20]

Looks good

 

[Stomis]

Ahhh better!

 

[Big Ray]

killer...

having your Lady share your hobby/lifestyle is simply awesome

 

[Brian_D]

fun build, looking forward to more

 

[93Blazed]

I'll be watching this as well. looking at doing an SAS to my 93' Blazer up here in Nine Mile Falls, WA.

93Blazed

 

[Chevy305]

I like SAS builds

 

[82K10SBC]

Surgery Thanksgiving Weekend

So I took advantage of the long weekend (Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday) too make some much needed progress on the build.

I stripped the front axle down to nada. And cleaned all the busted teeth out of the housing. haha

Then I re-assembled with the new-ish carrier, and ring/pinion combo.

Then I moved to the front spring hangers

Then moved onto the task of mounting up the rear hangers. It took a bit of grueling work to get them drilled and put in. The hardest part was getting the nuts on the back sides, I don't have large hands but it was a challenge all the same. Drivers side mounting position is fairly easy, the bushing for the transmission shift linkage. Without instructions I was forced to figure all this out on my own. The distance from the first shackle hole on the rear mount to the front mount is around 46". That's how I located the passenger side. I didn't take any install pics, just the finished product.

But...
Here's the lowdown.
I used a C-clamp to locate the brackets for drilling. Once I had the bracket in place I used a .500" 60* carbide spot drill to mark the center for my holes. Once I had a good center mark, I used a .250" carbide drill and punched out a good pilot hole. Then I used the spot drill to finish off the holes. All but one hole lined up perfect on the drivers side, so I put in all the bolts and tightened them up, then I reran the spot drill to finish off the one hole.
The passenger side was a different story though, the trans pan is much closer to the frame, making it much tougher to get the task done easily. But its do-able.

Here's the finished product

My Wifey was my photographer btw. haha

 

[82K10SBC]

Spring install

Then at 1am I took a nap. haha

Then I got off my lazy ass and hung the axle on the springs

Then I pressed the new balljoints into the knuckle and installed them on the axle.

I also personally drilled and tapped the passenger knuckle. With hand tools its a lengthy and time consuming process.

From there I put in the axles and the spindles and found out my assumptions were correct about O'reillys parts, they didn't fit correctly like I figured they wouldn't. I even told the guy, "that looks nothing like the part I pulled out"

I had to grind a ton of material off the stud and nut to make them fit
So I replaced both axle joints, both spindle bearings as well. Also installed a Ruffstuff 1.5"x.250" tie rod with 1 ton TREs. Also hooked up the Sky manufacturing drag link with 1 ton TREs. So the steering is all taken care of

 

[Stomis]

More and more of us are falling victim to that damn mis-produced stud and nut...

 

[82K10SBC]

More and more of us are falling victim to that damn mis-produced stud and nut...

F**k balljoints -_-

 

[454Sub]

Just a thought, but my friend recently did this, and its hard for my eyes to see in the pics, but his front spring hangers actually peeled off the factory frame and about dropped the front end off. So make sure your mounting in the front is up to the task, we rewelded the frame, and used 1/4in angle and boxed it all in. His truck is bigger, heavier, and a bit more HP with a 5speed in the mix, but something to consider.