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My 86 K5 build

Overview Gallery Discussion
nimak5 said:
You are several steps ahead of me. I've got a long ways to go. Really digging your truck. Looks good.
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Thanks man. I got lucky that I purchased this thing with a lot of things done for really cheap :woot:. But I really like the looks of yours. I will be watching for sure :waytogo:

Well, I have been real busy with the new house. My bro-in-law and I have been doing tile throughout a large portion of the house. It looks really good, but takes forever. But I have found some small moments hear and there to get my hydro assist going. Finally got everything in this weekend.

On to the pics

Got the DIY4x diff cover mounted up



Got the factory end cap on the box removed and the new tapped end cap installed (that was really easy)




Then drilled and tapped the top cap of the steering box. Just removed the pitment arm and pulled the whole sector shaft out (made it a lot easier cause I didn't have to undo that adjustment screw on the cap and mess with that). Then installed both hydro lines


 
Then did the radiator hose on top of the pump



Decided to go with this amsoil fluid. I read a thread on pirate4x4 of guys that used it. Most said this made a huge difference, some even more than adding a cooler. The crap wasn't cheap, but I thought I might as well give it a shot. It seems to be working pretty well so far



And finished and installed, lines plumbed, ect...





It took me a while to get all the air bubbles out of the system, and I think there is still some in there, because the more I drive it, the smoother its getting. But overall, it is fantastic. It goes down the road sweet with not even a hint of death wobble. I have a 2" ram, and I can tell it is a little slower, but not that bad at all. Overall, for less than $300, I think it's :saweet:
 
Well, I have decided to do the pump mod that just about everyone does that's found on westtexasoffroad.com. I didn't do it before because I'm a freaking retard. But it's lagging really bad at low rpm's. So i will be pulling it off and doing the mod hopefully within the week. At the same time, I found a PS cooler on summit that has everything (hoses, clamps, and mounting hardware) for $35. So I decided why not and will be installing that at the same time. After that, I'm confident everything will be ship shape with the steering. None of my fittings or ram or anything is leaking, just sluggish at low rpm's. So just some tweaking needed.

A new development is this:



56's out of a 3/4 ton burb. They already have ez inches installed (which I was going to do anyways) and poly pushings that are still in pretty good shape. Thanks Scott (mrk5) :waytogo:



Painted and waiting to go in



So I will be trying to get these in the rear pretty soon after getting my steering rocking.

And, just cause I want to, here are some pics of my oldest son (he is 2 yrs old next month, and I have a 8 months old boy as well). He loves the blazer and constantly wants to go in the garage and look at the "truck truck" as he calls it. Training him right


 
Awesome kid. That second face twenty years from now, that will be what you see as he passes you on the trail.
 
Thanks for meeting up with me Saturday and chatting a little. I see you didn't waste time getting the springs cleaned up. Kinda cool the General's suspension will live on with your truck. You have recycled recycled parts! LOL!
 
Haha, that's how we roll! I was actually thinking the same thing and telling my brother on the ride home that now all the suspension that was in the General is in my rig!! I am hoping to get them in by the weekend or soon after that. I just pulled my pump last night and will be doing the pump mod today after work.

It was good chating with you too. You need to get that crew cab done so we can go wheeling a couple times before blazer bash :thumb:. If you need some help on anything, let me know.
 
I did drive it home last night which is 20 minutes on the highway. Had my bro-in-law on standby just in case but I made it without trouble.

Sounds like you have a lot planned for the next few days.
 
Nice, that must have been a good feeling.

I got the pump mod done yesturday (had a half day of work, so had some time to get it done). When I was doing the mod, I drilled out my main fitting to 5/32 and also notched the end. When I took apart the piston, I did not have any shims in there, so I just put it all back together (should I have still ground off a little portion of the limiting stud even if I dont remove a shim??), and streched the spring to ~2.25 inches. Put everything back in the truck and installed my little PS cooler. I started the whole process of bleeding again. I think there is still some more air in the system. I would turn lock to lock for about 20 minutes, then shut it off and go inside and play with my boys for a little while, then go out and do it again. I did that about 3 or 4 times. It seemed to start to feel better as I kept going. I made sure to mount my little cooler lower than my fluid level in my pump/rad hose, so I should be good there. I think it will just take a while to really get the air out. The thing that seems a little wierd still is it seems like the assist really kicks in at about 900rpm's. If I am in gear at idle (~500-600 rpm's), it is still really sluggish and fights me just like normal push/pull steering would. I have read a bunch of threads about this and have found a bunch of people who have said the same thing that it really kicks in at 900rpm's. I am not that worried about it because when you are wheeling, especially in 4low, you are higher rpms than that about 95% of the time, but I was wondering if anyone else has had this when setting up their hydro assist and done anything to help out??? Should I pull it back apart and grind down the limiting stud eventhough I didn't have a shim to remove??? Do you think there is just still air in the system that I need to keep bleeding out (this is what I think, but I'm relatively new to this whole hydro assist thing :D). Let me know what you guys think!!
 
Well, don't know if anyone cares to know, but I figured this is a site about tech and learning. I emailed Matt at West Texas Offroad about my pump, and this is what he sent me:

"The stud only needs to be ground down if you are adding shims inside under the spring. If you already ground it down that's fine it just wasn't needed.

The problems that you are having are pretty common with older Chevys. They are even worse when you are running Hydro-boost brakes.

The only two choices you have are to 1. try a new pump because yours might be getting old or 2 find a smaller pulley.

Hope this was at least some help to you."


Matt's a cool guy and responded very quickly to my email. So, I am just going to run it for a while and see what happens. Maybe get a new pump down the road, who knows. I just want to wheel for a while.
 
My steering acts the same way after I put a PSC hi flow pump and ram on. My guess is just the rpms' like you mentioned, but I haven't figured anything out for sure.
 
stan1688 said:
My steering acts the same way after I put a PSC hi flow pump and ram on. My guess is just the rpms' like you mentioned, but I haven't figured anything out for sure.
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That's interesting to hear that even a PSC pump and ram would do it too. I just figured if I really needed the steering power at dead still, I'll just hold my foot on the brake and get the rpm's up. Being carb'd still, I'll probably have to do that anyways :D.
 
So, I realized I never put some pics of my pump mod, so here are some

Power steering pump removed. I couldn't really get to the high pressure line and main fitting with it installed in the truck, so I just removed it. Wasn't a big deal, just a couple bolts and it was out. Made a freaking mess though



The guts of the pump



Drilled the main fitting out to 5/32 and also notched the end of the fitting. I don't know if that really did anything, but I saw it on another site, so thought I would give it a try


 
Now on to the 56" spring swap. I won't go into too much detail here because this is easily one of the most popular swaps out there. But anywho, here are some pics:

Rear 52's removed (these will go to my brother with the Blue blazer in some earlier pics so he can eventually do a front 52 swap)



56's installed



ORD flip brackets swapped side to side (now pointing towards the rear). This is the shackle angle with zero weight on the springs.



And finished, installed, and sitting on the tires. Shackle angle looks pretty good now :pimp:




I just have to put the tank back in and we are back in business. I am also going to build some bump stops for the front. Hopefully within the next week I will get those done.
 
Nice work with the spring swap and shackles, you beat me to it. Where did you end up getting the rear springs and what lift height does it have?
 
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