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97 King Cab DS-Ton build - Rock Jock 60 and shaved 14

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I slept on it (it's when I do my best thinking) and I can see the negatives of the air shocks. Those can be negated by using the ORIs (they have a "park" setting where there is no longer any pressure forcing the cylinder down to prevent unloading), but I think that would stretch the budget too thin and also get into the bed of my truck.

For now I think I'll move forward with a coil spring 4 link setup which I will hopefully be able to complete before Blazer Bash, otherwise I'll be there on some custom leaf packs made with a factory main leaf.

So seeing how the Ballistic Joints are on backorder from Ballistic Fab and they do not have a good reputation on shipping things in a timely fashion when they are on backorder, who would you guys recommend?

I'm going to try to come up with a more accurate cost estimate now that I know what I need. I think I need to do the gas tank relocation first though so I can get an accurate corner weight for the rear axle before I order springs.
 
I have used the summit machine joints before. They are a quality peice it is what I would use if I were going to not use a heim
 
I have 8 1.25" heims that I traded someone some parts for, but I don't want heims on both ends. I was thinking maybe use the heims on the axle end and Summit Joints on the truck end? What are your thoughts?
 
Maybe just use heims on both ends since you have them. Then some delrin plastic, as in go buy a cutting board, spacers to take up the slop. Just a thought..
 
r3dd0g said:
I have 8 1.25" heims that I traded someone some parts for, but I don't want heims on both ends. I was thinking maybe use the heims on the axle end and Summit Joints on the truck end? What are your thoughts?
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Type of joint doesn't really matter just as long as neither is binding. I think heims at the axle end and a cartridge joint of some style at the other would be dandy. Although I think cartridge style joints would make everything overall quieter.
 
I'm confused, take up the slop? I thought the Heims with high misalignment spacers and the Summit Joints would be the same (2.625")?
 
2.625 is the norm width with spacers but other widths are achievable if desired. I would just run the heims since you have them and if for some reason down the road they aren't working for ya then change them later. I had the first generation 2.625 ballistic joints on the uppers on the sonoma and they had issues and I finally changed them all out for heims. I had the 3" on the lowers and they had the newer style bushings in them and never had an issue with them and were still in it when I sold it.
 
y5mgisi said:
Just out of curiosity, why don't you want heims at both ends?
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Answered by Blazinzuk:

blazinzuk said:
Although I think cartridge style joints would make everything overall quieter.
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MNorby said:
I would just run the heims since you have them and if for some reason down the road they aren't working for ya then change them later.
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I think that's what I will do, that will make everything a bit cheaper to get it up and running. I think my total cost will be under $1500 going this route.
 
r3dd0g said:
I'm confused, take up the slop? I thought the Heims with high misalignment spacers and the Summit Joints would be the same (2.625")?
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I was guessing the noise was the issue with the heims. So I was suggesting running the bushings over the the high misalignment spacers that I've seen pics of guys running on trailing arms. I understand that on the trailering arms it's because they want to limit the rotation due to the shock being mounted to it. But wouldn't it keep the heims quieter if you ran some at the frame end where blazinzuk suggested the cartridge style joint, maybe just not as wide as so rotation isn't limited much.
 
I bent one of my new rear leaf springs when I flexed it out. The spring inverted and apparently they aren't designed for that as it did not straighten back out.

The plan now is to do a triangulated 4 link with coil springs for the rear. I've started ordering parts and taking measurements. I picked up a wheel load checker so I could figure out corner weights (S-10 weighs in at approx 5340lbs).

The first thing that will have to be done is that I need to move the gas tank behind the rear axle. I ordered a '97 2 door blazer tank and picked up some parts from the salvage yard today. Hopefully I can knock that out next weekend and get it back together because I'm going camping the following weekend.

In the meantime, I took a ton of measurements and plugged them in to the 4 link calculator. I did two sets of measurements, one uses my current leaf spring mount to mount the front of the lower link, the other cuts those off and installs new mounts 14" further forward. Here are the results, the first one is re-using the existing mounts.
4link-using-leaf-spring-mounts.png


This one is using the new mounts.
4link-using-new-mounts.png


I'll be honest, I don't understand what all of this means. Is it worth it to push the lower links that much farther forward? It will make the lower links more likely to get bent, but they will be approximately the same length as the front links so they should be OK since I'm making them with Chromoly.
 
Call you triangulate the lowers more and/or make them more flat and get get the roll axis lower?
 
The lowers are mounted to the bottom of the frame rail and 3" below the centerline of the axle as far out on the axle as I can go. To get them flatter I would need to raise the axle end, but then I wouldn't have as much vertical separation. The only way to get more triangulation would be to make a crossmember for the lower mounts.

I guess I'm not understanding roll center, I didn't think you wanted that low... :dunno:
 
I crawled around and took some measurements bringing the lower links all the way up to the crossmember behind my t-case.

4-Link-_to-Crossmember.png


Is that better? This makes the lowers over 5 feet long. I could make the uppers longer too, but I would have to drop them down since I wouldn't have as much room under that part of the cab.
 
Not sure if you are interested but I have links saved at home that explains the calculator and the meanings. It helped me understand how a link system works.
 
The big things to watch for are anti-squat and roll axis angle.

Lots of opinions on anti squat but 50-100% for a rear seems to be best. My Blazer is ~75% and I wouldn't change it.

You want the roll axis angle as close to 0 as possible, roll steer sucks.

Long links are easier to hit and easier to bend. The rear links on my Blazer are ~28" IIRC and they still work great even maxing out 16" coilovers all the time. When I was designing my rear links I had much longer ones drawn out and then realized how much clearance I'd lose when i mocked it up on the truck and bailed on that idea. It's all a compromise, but I would consider much shorter links.
 
My front links are holding up so far, I did bend the original DOM links I made though. I can't get the triangulation if I go much shorter because I can't get another crossmember in there without going to a 2 piece driveshaft.

This isn't supposed to be a hardcore wheeler, I need to get it done so I can build another rig and I stop taking this rig on trails it shouldn't be on :whistle:.

I played with the lower links a bit, moved the mounting point up back and closer together by a few inches. I think I can fit it in there, but I may have to make them further apart or lower to clear the driveshaft...

This gives me 70% anti-squat and a 0° roll axis angle. If I have to move the front of the lower links out further I end up with 1° which wouldn't be bad. If I have to move them down my anti-squat goes to 61%. Other than the long links what do you think of this setup?

4link-to-crossmember-v2.png
 
Babaganoosh said:
Not sure if you are interested but I have links saved at home that explains the calculator and the meanings. It helped me understand how a link system works.
Click to expand...

Post up the links.

I should have everything I need to do the gas tank swap this week and I'll get that done over the 3 day weekend.

I did my calculations and ordered some coil springs, I need to figure out what RuffStuff brackets I can use and what brackets I'll have to custom fabricate and get that stuff ordered.

I'm taking a 4 day weekend for camping/wheeling the weekend after the 4th so I'll start the 4 link the weekend after that. I should be able to knock it out in one or two weekends since I'll have the gas tank swap done ahead of time.
 
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