Low cost lift aletrnatives (long)

[hi pinion]

Sorry, but this is one of those, i havent got the truck yet posts



I have some qusetions about plain old regular 4" lifts , alternatives, and some stuff.

My uncle has a truck i might buy off of him in Oregon, its a 75 blazer, its got a 4 inch rancho lift on it already , has old shocks, need to be replaced, lol, has the blocks in the rear,drop drag link type ,, and the standard 350/350/203 combo.



Suspention,,,,


Since it already has the springs in there, i was thinking why not utilize that and keep the springs,and mabey add the ford towers with some new gabriel shocks, instead of blowing money on new ones. AGREED? Or leave the ford tower idea to rot?

As far as crossover , why is it im hearing all kinds of different storys about that , you CAN get away with not having it, some people say dont even roll out of the driveway withought it, i dunno. Somewhere i think a while back i was told you can run hydro withought a crossover setup and be just fine, is there any feasabilty in that?

Blocks in the rear, i told my uncle to look at the rear, he said it does have blocks, i was thinking do a 4 flip , leave the springs, and call it good. Also, are there any other things i should look into as fas as cheap relocation of the shocks mabey, inboard them or something cool like that? I dunno.


Transfer case drop, do it? Leave it? what? Do you need it all with a 4 inch lift?


As far as the 350/350/203, i was going to just rip that out, run a 400/205 combo, and call it good until the new STAK* ?Or Atlas case (yeah baby) comes out,(wichever is the one offering the OD gear option) and have them do the one with OD gear in there, to utilize the strenth of the 400, and yet at the same time get my OD, have a bunch of cool gears, it seems like a win/win deal lol. But first change it to the 400/205 , the 32 spline short shaft style.


The 350 motor he says has a cam, and has been rebuilt, runs killer, so i was thinking leave that for a while.

The axles are 8 lug d44 373 in the front, and a corp 14ff in the rear btw.I was thinking 33s might be ok until i can get new axles in there , perferbly some 456s or something. I was thinking the 373s might be good FOR NOW....


Its not gonna be a fluff truck by any means, lol, im going to do more than light wheeling with the thing, mabey not kill myself on the rocks, but actually wheel the thing to a degree**,with my 2 sons.


OR, should i rip the whole thing down , the lift, the springs,do it all over and JUNK the springs in there, junk the motor,junk the whole axles and everything to a shell? And dump cubic dollars

 

[Greg72]

Run the numbers on the STAK boxes and some "conservative" axle gears.


Running an OD rangebox AND deep axle gears doesn't make sense....and will cost you a lot of money.

3.73 or 4.10 gears with a TH400 and a 5.44:1 STAK box is probably better than you realize.

 

[hi pinion]

Thats the thing, i dont know how to run numbers on anything yet is it like counting sheep? j/k Im lost


Remember you are talking to someone on a really low/ starting all over again guy that needs to get up to speed on a direction with it all.


Ive heard good things about installing an nv4500 and calling it a day as whell.

As i was told the stak is made for jeeps and wont handle a full size truck like a blazer. Its not strong enough? Whos actually running one ? An atlass , a Stak,,or any other aftermarket case for that matter besides the doubler sucessfully?


I havent a clue as to what is going on with all of this new junk thats out now, as ive been hiding in the lounge for 2-3 years.

Im getting re educated by alot of 18 year olds lately as i dont even know where to start.

Baaaa. Id have to have someone hold my hand to get a cool aftermarket doubler deal anyway,theres too many stles out there, i dont know what is what, etc etc.

Looking for mainly basic info at this point only.

 

[bigjbear]

I didn't know you had something picked out already. But you need to make some decisions first. Decide you you want to run the auto or standard. Pick a tire size then start working out gearing issues. 3.73s & 33s that most likely are not 33" tall is not an awful combo. Check you PMs.

 

[hi pinion]

Just kicking around ideas. Ive been wanting that thing from him for a while now, it rains good in oregon, but i might get a deal on it because hes my uncle. Im thinking i might use whatever is there if i can instead of buying new stuff i dont need.

 

[1985_K5_Silverado]

The lowest-cost lift alternative, if the intention is to make more room for taller tires, is taking a sawzall (rent or borrow, if you don't own) to the fenderwells.

 

[moturbopar]

I would just keep th front springs, change the front shackle position and add longer shackles to help soften up the front. For the rear I would do a shacle flip and add a zero rate to make up for the added lift you have on the front from adding the longer shackles, then I woul do the ford mounts up front.


This is what I did on my old blazer, but it had 2.5" front springs.

 

[Greg72]

I didn't know you had something picked out already. But you need to make some decisions first. Decide you you want to run the auto or standard. Pick a tire size then start working out gearing issues. 3.73s & 33s that most likely are not 33" tall is not an auffual combo. Check you PMs.

This is the way to do it: ^^^^


Pick your tire size, then work backwards from there.

The tire diameter determines the amount of axle strength you'll need, the type of gearing needed, the amount of fender trimming/suspension lift....etc.

 

[hi pinion]

This is the way to do it: ^^^^


Pick your tire size, then work backwards from there.

The tire diameter determines the amount of axle strength you'll need, the type of gearing needed, the amount of fender trimming/suspension lift....etc.

I was thinking backwards again then , being that a dana 60 and a 456 geared 14 ff is a GIVEN later on,,, does it make any sense at all to the tire sizing for some setup right now , that i know for a fact will be different later on? Its like the leaving the thing sit while i gather up all the stuff i really want option might be better, and mabey cheaper in the long run.

I might just run the way it is now untill it breaks . Then buy my junk.

Ahhhhh!

 

[hi pinion]

You know what, thats it right there, ill run it till it breaks,with no money on new parts,, untill then gather up new gear, and then put the new junk on it. No further replys are necesarry.