burb to blazer swap

[bparti73]

I've got two donor trucks that I want to combine to end up with one good blazer. I want to swap the 81 suburban axles (10 bolt and 12 bolt) under the 73 blazer (D44 and 12 bolt). What problems will I run into? From what I measured the burb rear spring is obviously longer, but there seems to be a bunch of threads about swapping in larger springs. Can I fit a 81 burb rear spring pack under a 73 blazer easily?

Why swap in a 10 and 12 bolt?... because they are geared lower, have a better aftermarket spring and are free!

 

[toomany]

The axles are a direct swap. The only problem you might have is the banjo bolts for the calipers. Just use the calipers from the D44 on the 10B.

I'm not up on my Suburban spring lengths, but they should be the same length between the two.

 

[bparti73]

Thanks for the tip on the brakes. I hadn't looked at that. I did a quick measurement on spring lengths (still on the blazer and burb). The rear spring on the burb, from bolt to bolt, was considerably longer. Can that extra length be taken up with a longer shackle?

 

[sweetk30]

blazer will be 52" springs. front eye to center pin and center pin to back eye the same length.

burban prob has 56" springs. 4" longer on the back side of the spring pack only. so longer by 4" on the back side only.

you can move the rear frame hangers back but thats for long travel and requires mods in the back also.

if you want 4" of lift and want to run 56" leaf springs you can get a flip kit for the rear and swap the brackets side to side.

but for you at this point in your build i would say stick to the 52" springs for bolt in easy and do some research on these few things to see if you might want to do this.

 

[bparti73]

Thanks for the help!