general help with blazer build

[abanger1]

Hello everyone,

I would like to thank everyone in advance for help that is given to me with the build of my k5 blazer. This is my first off road vehicle build and havent quite figured it all out yet

To start off I have a few question about the best route to take with my blazer. Here is were I am at in the build. I have a 1982 k5 blazer which use to be a 6.2 diesel and is now a carburated 358 it has stock baby axles and a 6 inch lift and 37 tsl super swampers it has the 700r4 tranny and 208 transfer case which I just blew up on my last trip with it. This blazer will only be for use off road no daily road driving. I just finished up the complete over haul of a 14 bolt ff rear for it and I am jumping into a complete over haul chevy dana 60 front for now. I have it pretty much broken down besides getting the bottom kingpin cover off, which are soaking in pb as of right now. I plan of doing a arb air locker in it or some type of power locker with 5.13 gears as well. I just picked up a set of pretty much new 44" boggers for it. I also have a turbo 400 and a 2 speed power glide that can be used for it but havent decided which to use yet. Also I am about to finish up a breaker box and cutting out all the old electrical from the diesel and whatever else that is not needed.I live in florida were there isnt any real rock crawling or much trail riding it is all pretty much deep mudding, but would like to do some trail riding if the oppertunity arises.

So here is were the questions start with it. I have tried to reserch this without any real definit answer I would like to go with the highest lift possible before having any major pinion angle probems and having super dollars on 2 piece drive shafts. I am planning on having leafs made for it and I am willing to do about a two inch body lift and cut the fenders a little but the less the better even with the body lift.I would like to get about 10" or more if possible and I havent gotten a transfer case yet until i know what will work best with the lift and everything. I am leaning toward a married 205 since the blazer has such a short wheel base but am not sure if the divorced would be better or if a np 200 would be better. I would prefer to leave the leaf spring hanger were they are but will move them if I need to and I will already be cutting the leaf purches from the axles to make them fit so if If they can be moved foward a little to help with pinion angle I will also do that.

If I could get some opinions on what would be the best path to take to save some money and to be the most reliable. I am sure many of you have had experience with your builds. Thanks again for any help.

 

[ZJumper]

The current trend for offroad only rigs is leaning toward a lower and more compliant suspension vs. old school "tall lift/stiff springs."

It it were me, and since you are talking off-road-only, this is what I'd do.

1. Stick with the D60/14 bolt combo with 5.13 gears.

2. For suspension, do a shackle flip in the rear and a 52" spring swap in the front. http://coloradok5.com/52inchspringswap.shtml This will net (YMMV) around a 4" lift all around without using blocks and will be softer and more compliant than the 6" you're running now. Additionally, driveline angles are going to be more tolerable.

3. 44" tires with the 4" lift are going to require trimming, so bust out the sawzall and get busy.

4. Ditch the doors, hardtop and K5 tailgate. This is going to lighten the K5 up. If you need it, install a softtopper and a tailgate from an older GM truck.

5. Install ORD frame bracing kit and/or frame repair kit since 44" tires are in order.

6. Keep the 700R4 for now, but if it goes, install the TH400.

This should get your rolling.

Divorced T-case is going to cause a bunch of little issues with mounting and driveline angles. Personally, I'd stick with married trans/t-case.

 

[abanger1]

I doesn't ride all that bad with the 6 inch lift but the problem is that the mud down here is so deep especially with all the rain that we get so I keep getting swamped so I need to get it up in the air more. I don't want to go crazy with it but just enough so that I can make it through the big holes with out the water coming through the doors and almost through the windows.

 

[83ChevyK5Blazer]

4 inch lift 52s in the front, 4 inch lift rear springs with shackle flip zero rates on all 4 corners for 9 inches of suspension then throw on a one or two inch body lift and trim what you have to

 

[K85 Octane]

If you want to run 44s, you can't be afraid of some fender trimming. If you don't want to trim, be prepared for driveshaft problems and TC drops. A 6" lift, 1" zero rate moving axles apart, and 2" body lift nets you 9" of lift. Even with 6" lift, you are looking at new driveshafts, so do the 205 fixed yoke TC and run a CV shaft with slip joint. The 400/205 will be built proof, not great for crawling or road manners, but you're not doing either of those. Then, trim the fenders like there's no tomorrow, or do a 3" body lift and put some gap hiders in.

Also, you are going to want a lot steeper gears than 5:13 with 44s. The 400/205 combo has a terrible crawl speed, but again, built proof

 

[B.N.Z.MTNS]

I second what Octane said...you are going to have to remove some sheet metal to fit 44's. My rig is sitting on 8" lift plus extended shackles so net 9". I had to do a bit of fender trim to fit 38's at full articulation.

I have a TBI 350 and 4.56's in my axles and they are still too tall to get those tires moving as quick as I would like them. I don't do any mudding, but I do know you want some throttle response in the goop.

Should be a fun rig to build though,

 

[abanger1]

Thanks guys for all the input I am not scared of cutting at all I just wanted to stay way from any crazy body lifts, but 1 or 2 inch I dont have a problem with. I am planning on going with the 4 or 6 lifted 52 inch leaf swap in the front. I do have a set of old 52 inch leafs that came on my 14 bolt that I just finished building and they dont look to be stock height. So another question is what is the best way of telling how much lift the spring have?

 

[K85 Octane]

So another question is what is the best way of telling how much lift the spring have?

find someone with a stocker that's not saggy to compare

 

[abanger1]

More help please

Alright guys so I am in need of some more guidence. I have managed to get pretty much all the parts need for the drivetrain, which left me with a sad bank account and a mad girlfriend. for the lift I am going to do the 52 in swap in the front with new six" lift leafs and with the diy4x leaf swap frame mounts, and also I purchased the off road design 4 inch shackle flip with 6 inch leafs for the rear and I figured this would give about 9-10 inches all around and I figured that I could always add a leaf or add shackles if needed to sit level. I also picked up a old M175 military np 200 divorced transfer case which I will have to get some 1410 yokes for. I finished the 14 bolt rear with yukon locker and 5.13 gear since I am running 44" boggers and finishing up complete overhual in the dana 60 front with arb air locker and complete kingpin rebuild, axles the whole nine. I will be painting it this weeked since when I bought the rolling chasis it had pink flames on it and I am not really feeling them so they are going bye bye.





So here is were I need alittle guidence. I not sure where to start with putting everything in it to make sure that I get good drive line angles. I have to build some type of diaper for the transfer case and I know with the old np200's you can clock them quite a bit with out any issues. I also have to relocate the spring purches as well on the axles. So where should I start with it maybe putting the lift in and work my way down and just leave the stock axle under it for the mean time. Then build the diaper for the transfer case? or put the axles under it and maybe just tack weld the perches so they can be easily removed to help setup the pinion angle after I put the transfer case in. I was planning on built a steel frame around the transfer case but then I wont be able to change how much it is clocked. So if anyone has any ideas on where to start with it all so that so I wont be making it harder than it should be and going back and changing thing Twice please let me know.

 

[B.N.Z.MTNS]

I would get everything above the axles in place the way you want it, put the lift on with your old axles to be a rolling chassis. Then, when you are ready, you can put your new axles under it and tac your new perches on where you want them.

As far as drive line angles, I have found plenty of good info on the Tom Woods page and then some of the Bella Vista articles on Pirate 4X4.

All of this is coming from my farmboy fabrication mentality. You will probably get more technical info than I have for you, but that's how we do things here on the farm .

 

[K85 Octane]

I'm confused and I'm not ashamed to admit it

np200? Divorced T-case on a blazer?
Diaper?

fyi: The rear wheel well openings are about 37" across. My 38" Toyos would not fit without trimming. Just saying.

Also, and I think I speak for a couple people at least, we need some kind of truck porn pics from you to satisfy us. Where's the truck pics?

 

[bww3588]

You speak of a "sad bank account" but I have yet to see cross over steering on your list...did you forget about that?

 

[abanger1]

Hey whats up guys sorry for the lack of communication started a new semester at school in which I am a full time pre-med student, so I get super swamped. Here are the pics from my build, I ordered the cross over steering for it the other day with the heavy duty 2wd steering box and everything ported in case I have to get the hydro assists.

I pretty much started over from the beginning and went a little crazy. First I started with painting it. When i got the blazer it had these awful pink flames on it which drove me crazy although the paint was still in super good condition but I sanded it down and painted it with the u-pol raptor tinted bed linear which I think turned out great.

View attachment 140232



The dirt doesn't really stick to it and the bed linear actually makes the body itself much strong. I saw post on a different forum where this guy painted his truck with this stuff and he rolled it on it side and scraped it down a bunch of rocks and it didn't really affect the body what so ever which was super crazy.
So next I started the lift for it in the rear since I got my 14 bolt all finished up with the yukon locker and complete rebuild with bearing and everything.

 

[abanger1]

Here are the pictures of the lift I went the shackle flip kit from ORD and six inch leafs


I decided to go with the 52 swap in the front with some 6" lifted leafs in the front and went with the b52 brakets from DIY4X which worked out great. I am still not sure if it will sit leveled since I have completely finished the front axle yet

 

[abanger1]

I was also tackling the electrical while all this was going on my down time trying to save up all the funds for other necessary parts. It use to be a diesel so the wiring was a nightmare causing all sorts of problems and their was a **** done of it. My buddy is a rocket scientist when it come to electronics and he actually help develop those picture frames that change pictures through wifi and was flown to china to teach them how to put them all together. He came up with the idea of putting breakers in like they do in the NASCAR. We ended up finding a good sized project box on this website called digikey with all the breakers and everything for cheap and you could get lost for days in that website. But here are some picture of what we came up with. Everything is water tight




We still wanted to try to keep using all the essentials like head light, windshield wipers and pump, it has power window and the rear tailgate window is power as well that we were able to continue to use and the power locks. I am not to sure how long they will last plus they weight a **** ton so I am sure I will take them all out eventually. Everything will be wired through the box.

 

[abanger1]

In the beginning I decided to use the dupli roll on bed linear on the inside of it. It turned out to be the biggest disaster ever it didn't seal well at all and somehow moisture started to build up underneath it and then the rust began to appear over a period of a few months. So I have also been grinding and sanding trying to get that **** out of their. It was such a horrible experience to deal with I would not recommend using that stuff especially since you can get the spray on raptor stuff for the same price and is much better in my opinion. So i cut out all the rust and welded in new sheet metal

 

[abanger1]

I got the MSD distributor in and the box mounted and all wired up.
Then I started to tackle the front axle

Ring and pinion turned out well with the ARB air locker and everything.
I got a diff cover from blue torch and welded it up which was fun. A few buddies of my and I all welded a different so the welds are not constant but I think is cool.

 

[abanger1]

So know once I get the cross over steering I will get the rest of her all together cause I need that steering bracket for the top of the kingpin. I also just got my jd2 model 3 tube bender so now I can start building the roll cage to strengthen up the frame and build some cross members and the transfer case mount. Also for the dude that was confused about the NP200 transfer case

It is a old military divorced transfer case that usually come in the m17 kiszer's and other military one ton to two ton trucks. They are sometimes hard to come by. I have herd a bunch of mix opinions about them, but you can run them pretty much clocked any way you want vertically and they have no problem, which means you can go much higher with the lift and wont have drive line angle problems, and it is also twin shift like a 205. The np 205 is a predecessor of the Np200 and pretty similar. My buddy has one in his 2.5 ton truck with 72 inch tractor tires and doesn't have problems. He can't seem to break it. So I figured it would be the way to go. The diaper is just another name for a mount for it.

 

[abanger1]

So I post up more pics as I go and yes the cross over did me good on funding. I have alot wrapped up in that front axle with the yukon chromoly 35 spline axles and locking hubs and chromoly yoke. I already have the compressors and tank for the air lockers I will be installing them soon. I went with the 2 heavy duty viair compressors and a 7 gallon tank so that I can run air tools if they are ever need out of the truck, which will be nice and convenient. Let me know if you guys have any idea's that would me out it would be much appreciated and make life easier. Let me know what you all think so far.

 

[K85 Octane]

Interested to see how the divorced TC will work out. Clocking a np205 down isn't an option?

Either way, you're on a roll. Keep it up and good for you having a PITA hobby and pre-med school.