What's new
CK5
Register an account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members.

lift height and rear end

HelpMyZ

HelpMyZ

1/2 ton status
Joined
Feb 28, 2006
Posts
208
Reaction score
0
Location
Quantico Virginia
ok, so I've done a little searching around and I'm trying to fit a set of 42/14/17 iroks on my truck... I'm THINKING that I can do it with an 8" lift and maybe a little trimming. any sugestions? also, I'm trying to find out what my rear end is... I know it's a 14 bolt, but I don't know if it's a full floater, or a 10.5 or whatnot... I'm pretty new to the 4wd world, so I'm not really sure what to look for to find out... I went on summit racings website, and from what I can tell I've got the 10.5 but I don't know... it's a 1987 GMC V3500... other than that I don't really know a whole lot about it.. it came with a manual transmission, and thats about all I know..dana 60 front end, I'm also kind of trying to figure out what gears are in it, is there any way of knowing?
thanks for the help guys!!
 
Last edited:
if its a dana 60 front then it 95% a full float rear 10.5. and most civilan trucks came 4.10 some odd balls were 3.73. then mill spec was 4.56 but few were in civilan also. there might be a tag on one of the front cover bolts with the ration or teeth counts.

also try this buddy.http://www.coloradok5.com/axleguide.shtml
 
that link helped a lot.. that says that the 9.5 came in the rear of 1964-and-later GM pickups, and in the rear of 1984-91 3/4-ton Suburbans while the 10.5 came with big engines and/or overly large tires. It was used under 1973-87 3/4-tons... so I assume that since mine is a one ton and by running the vin for my truck supposedly it came with a 7.4 liter, so I imagine that means I've got the big 14 bolt...

any opinions on the lift size?
 
Last edited:
It depends on how you drive your truck. Hardcore flex offroad and you will need alot of trimming. What do you plan on doing with it? How are you going to lift it?
 
It is pretty easy to tell by the shape of the diff cover wether it is a 9.5 or 10.5, 9.5 is a semi floating axle.
 
it's going to be almost all mud... no rock crawling or anything.. bassicly the only lift I've found was the 8" skyjacker... I think it's 6" of spring, and 2 from the blocks
 
HelpMyZ said:
bassicly the only lift I've found was the 8" skyjacker... I think it's 6" of spring, and 2 from the blocks
Click to expand...

no thay dont do that. no blocks in the front = bad .

any spring for a 73-87 will fit the front. but the reason you cant find much for the rear is the longer 56" springs thay run on 1 tons. all the big lifts are for the shorter 52" springs.

you can do 4" flip in the rear and some lift springs and add the lift of the springs to the 4" flip for over all lift total and block if needed to gain more to match the front.
 
o.k. you should be good with that combo. the taller the blocks the more axle wrap you get. 2" shouldnt give you to much .

i did a 4" on my cab chassie flat bed. 1 thing i ran in to was the right side shock hit the axle tube. needed to cut off shock mount and move it up a bit and re weld it on. cause the pitch from the wedges or blocks wedge moved it down in rotation and wouldnt alow the shock to move correctly. but easy fix.
 
Hey man, I was about to buy a complete 12" leaf spring lift for 73-87 chevy trucks/blazers/suburbans from a guy on another another message board and backed out because I want to start my truck off a little shorter. He has the 12" lift front springs, 8" lift rear springs with 4" lift rear blocks, and he has all of the necessary components to adjust the steering to accomodate for the lift, but they are for the smaller 10-bolt front axle found on 1/2ton and 3/4 ton trucks and won't fit your Dana60 axle so you will have to look elsewhere for the steering parts. I recommend calling Steven Watson and crew at Offroad Design in Colorado www.offroaddesign.com for their crossover steering systems. Just tell them what you have and they will make certain you get everything you need , that you know everything you need to know and that whatever you get from them will be done RIGHT.

With 8" of lift you can fit 38" tires perfectly and 40"ers with some trimming. If you're mainly running in mud and you won't be crawling on rocks and flexing out your axles then I recommend going up 10-12 inches to fit 42's.....unless you want to bust out the sawzall and trim off several inches of metal off of your fenders and quarters. Of course the lower the truck is to the ground the more stable it will be on or off the road. It depends on your preferance.

If you're interested in the 12" lift the guy told me $600 for the front and rear springs, the rear blocks and all the steering parts. I'm sure he'll take a reasonable offer for just the front and rear springs and rear blocks.

pm me and I'll help you get in touch with him


as for the rear axle , you have a 10.5 full-floater with 4.10's. I'll bet my Elvis sunglasses on it!

-Zayne
 
you guys have bassicly covered everything I needed to know... you said with an 8" lift I'll be good with 38s and 40s with trimming... I should be good with that, becuase of phase 2 of my rig... I'm taking the body from my regular cab s10 zr2 and mounting it on this one ton frame, I think I can get my extra clearance from there and a little trimming, along with the fact that its a lighter body... I was looking at the 8" lift to fit the tires, to keep from going to the 12" lift for center of gravity reasons.. also I'm lookin at a detroit locker for the rear, and then a selectable locker and chromo shafts for the fromt, any opinions? also someone said I should go with CTM's? don't really know what they are.. and I'm already planning on going to ORD to get a crossover steering setup
 
I don't have any direct experience with swapping bodies on trucks but that little S10 body lined up on the 1-ton frame will alter clearance big time. I wouldn't be surprised if you had room for 44's without excessive trimming and an 8" lift.

Detroit lockers are beautiful. They have a bad rep when it comes to street manners ( locking/unlocking around corners ) but if you don't get on the gas to heavy around corners they don't re-engage. If you want guranteed strength and traction they are the sure bet, besides the ARB which is bad-ass and extremely versatile. I am using a Detroit in the 10.5 " FF 14-bolt I'm slinging under my '91 Burb.

The CTMs they talked about are u-joints. www.ctmracing.com
They build seriously beefy u-joints for the front axle and , if you've got the $$ I would definetly reccommend using them for that extra strength.

On the front axle the ARB Air-locker is the king, BAR-NONE. If you get into tight turns and you need response, immediately, you can disengage the locker at the flip of a switch and then re-engage it just as fast. The biggest concern with them to my knowledge has been the copper ailine twisting or pulling out under extreme flex. www.arbusa.com

I'm installing one on the front of my Burb also.
 
oh wow... I didn't realize that the CTM's cost that much... can't you get u-joints from like auto zone for a few bucks?!?!
 
lol yea, for like 20-30 bucks each. But those are the stock joints....which are probably the strongest stock-joint out there and can handle fairly large amounts of torque......but, they are also usually the first thing to break under severe stress and CTM has addressed the stock joints deficiencies and basically injected them with u-joint steroids. their joints are way expensive, but can survive under the huge torque loads of Big engines,big tires......and lead-heavy right footsies!
 
are these the u joints in the driveshafts? I just re-read it and it seams that these are the u joints actualy IN the axles.. that connect the axle shafts to the stub shafts? (I think thats what they are called... if so I'd need 2 right? and what about the driveshaft u joints? are they good stock?
 
yes, the CTMs are in the front axle between the stub shafts and inner axle shafts. They allow the knuckles to turn when steering, and yes, you'll need (2) one for each end. The driveshaft u-joints aren't bad stock, but it depends on how hard you're going to wheel. I'm not positive which u-joints yours came with stock, but I'm thinking they're 1350 series. You can upgrade to 1410's or larger but I haven't done all the research on that yet so I'm not 100% positive. Its actually next on my list, as I'm getting the parts truck with the axles I need next weekend and I'm trying to get everything together so i can do the swap in a weekends time, in about a month.

with 8" of lift tho your driveshafts are going to need to be lengthened, or depending how far you want to go.....you can have two custom shafts built with beefier u-joints already installed. Basically, if you're lifting it yourself then once you get the lift springs bolted up under your truck and install the axles you will need to measure the distance between both your transfer case yoke and rear axle yoke, and vice versa for the front axle. If you call a driveshaft shop they can tell you exactly where you need to take measurements from so they can build you a pair. If you're having a shop lift it they will take the measurements for you and either use a local shop they're familiar with or provide the measurements and driveshaft type you want to a great reputable shaft builder like www.tomwoodsdriveshaft.com or www.highangledriveline.com who can even further assist you in chosing what kind of shaft you'll need/want based on what type of wheeling/driving you do.

It all seems so simple at first......lift,tires,headers......

then a short time later its....axles,big block,body mods.....

A never ending story

good thing you already started off with one stout truck to begin with
 
well, I've got the axles and tires and rims lined up and have a lift selected, also have a motor in the garage to rebuild... going with a 383 stroker with a TPI setup, I've got a turbo400 with a stage 3 shift kit, and an np205 t-case... looking into a detroit for the rear end, and an arb for the front (using your suggestion) with chromoshafts, and as long as I'm at it, might as well go with the CTM's. do you think I'd still need to lengthen my driveshafts if I did the t-case lowering kit?

also, with that much motor would I really need to swap gears or would I be good with the stockers?

ok, I've been looking for new front axle shafts.. how do I know if I've got 30 or 35 spline shafts without actually taking it apart and counting the splines?
 
Last edited:
awesome! thanks guys... about the front locker.. is the arb air locker the only way to go? I'm not too fond of the ieda of it I don't think... does anyone else make a selectable locker for the d60 front end?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest Posts

Top Bottom