New toy questions

[73K5Kid]

This is my first Blazer. My wife let me take out a second mortgage on the house for it. She just did not realize the money pit we bought. The good thing though she loves it. I took off the full top Saturday and she got to drive it. She says she wants to drive it every day to work now great!!! Here's what I bought a rust free 350/350 factory ac, and a full cage of some kind. It has 1987 bucket seats in the front and the back. I bought it primered gray with a straight body. I took it to the shop yesterday to get it painted. I had it in the shop Saturday for a new power steering gear and pump. And I had them replace the front wheel bearings and seals. Here's my questions what can I do to get some of the play out of my steering wheel. I thought buy having the steering gear and pump replaced it would not feel like I am all over the road. It drives alot better than when I bought it but it still has some play in the wheel. I also want to replace the th350 with a 700r4. I would like to drive the blazer when the wheather is nice to work. I was thinking of buying a 700r4 out of a 89 camaro a neighbor has down the street. And have it rebuilt. I have read up on the conversion and know I will have to move back the crossmembers and modify my drive shafts. Would it be easier to buy a 700r4 out of a blazer or jimmy. I have a 203 t/c but may buy a 205 t/c. Has anyone done this conversion. Thanks for all info.

 

[chevyracing]

You can probably find a wrecked "donor" truck for a bit less than you can buy all of he other stuff for that already has the parts.

John

 

[Grim-Reaper]

Well you need to look at it this way. You have a 30 year old truck. It is going to have some issues. Front ends usualy need new seals and ball joints about every 150k if you keep up the general maintance. Same with a lot of things. They need attention when the miles get high. Once you get through the cathing up on what the last owners neglected then your not going to need to put much money in it for the next 5-10 years. If you had a carpayment you would be dising out $300-$400 a month. You may put $1k in the truck in the first few month on little junk but that stuff is not going to need work again for a long time.
As for what to do to tighten up the steering. Visit this sight www.offroaddesign.com Buy the steering brace. It does a great deal to improve the feel of the steering. You truck is also going to have the wide ratio steering box. It's about 5 turns lock to lock. In the 80's and late 70's a close ration variable steering box was available. It's a litteover 3 turns lock to lock. You might concider upgrading to that.
On the top of your current steering box you will see a larg nut with a Allen head bolt in the middle. That allen bolt ajusts the end play on the box. loosen the nut about a 1/2 trun then give the alen bolt about 1 turn clock wise and that should tighten the box a little and take up some of the wear that box has. Then hold the allen key and tightne the nut back down. You don't want to go crazy with tightening that allen bolt. 1 turn should be plenty. You can over tighten and cause problems.
I would not mess with a 700r4 iuntill you get the gearing right in the truck. The best set up for a 700r4 is 3.73-4.10 for 33's. 4.56 when you get to 35-36 inch tires. More people smoke that tranny from wrong gearing than anything else. To put a car version of that tranny in you would need to change the output shaft. You may also need to have driveshafts lengthend or shortend. It will set you back a lot more than you think.
What gears are you running now? You might be able to just adjust tire size and get it to an acceptable level. 35's and 4.10 gears has been a good set up for me with the TH350. Running about 2800rpm at 70mph on mine. My wifes 79 3.73s and we are going to put 33's on it.

 

[shane74]

I'll second everything Grim said. I bought a '74 almost a year ago. I had to have the front end completely rebuilt. It needed new upper/lower ball joints, drag link, suspension, tie rods, bearings, and theres more that I can't remember. I will also recommend the newer steering box and brace. It made a world if difference to me. I have more than $7K into my truck (including purchase) and I haven't done anything too wild. I'll probably have another $7K-$10K in it before I am done. BUT....I don't have a truck payment and I know exactly what has been done to it. It will last me a long time and to me it's worth the investment. I know i'll never make my money back if I sold it, so everything I do is because I want to.

Oh yeah, one last thing. DON'T scrap the TH350. They are much tougher than a 700R4 and if you run tires much bigger than 33's you won't be using the OD very much anyway (unless you drive on long flat stretches all the time). If you have the TH350 built right, it'll be one of the best trannies for your truck. Also, the NP203 is the 2nd toughest T-case used in the blazer but it has the best low range. These truck were built tough from the get go. Do A LOT of research before you start tearing into things. You'll save yourself a ton of $$ and headaches!

 

[Pookster]

I thought the 700R4 + NP (used in the part time cases in the 80's)Had the best low gear overall, because of the steep first gear of the 700R4. Am I wrong?

 

[3car]

pookster,your right.700r4's had the lowest 1st gear of the autos.also the np205 and 203 both had a 1.96:1 low range.the np208 and later on np241 both had lower gearing,but i cant remember the exact numbers.np203's are great boat anchors,except you cant pull em' back into the boat without a crane /forums/images/icons/grin.gif .

 

[74k5inVA]

I must agree with grim and shane74. I have not done my front end yet but need to badly. you are lucky to have found one rust free! around here everything rusts (even fiberglass, lol!) I have to replace the entire body on mine, but when i do it will look so awesome! it is definately a passion, an obsession. and not a good investment, but then again no cars are. don't go with the 700r4 until you are sure of gears, etc like said before. Some people used to rave about this awesome upgrade called the raptor 700r4, but now it is despised. I am sure others will let you know about that. welcome to the group, if you haven't recieved a formal welcome yet. have fun wrenching. On another note the 203 is an essential part of the Off Road Design (ORD) doubler. don't get rid of that. They will have to pry mine from my cold dead hands. now if i could only come across a 205.

 

[73K5Kid]

Thanks for all the info. And thanks for the welcoming 74k5inVA. I don't know what my gearing is yet. I am going to take my vin # to my chevy dealer and have them give me my vitals. Right now the truck has 33' tires I plan on running 36' Super Swampers TSL. I have a 4' lift. And when money permits add a 3' bodylift. Sorry for all the dumb questions but how do I tell if my tranny is leaking or if it is my t/c. It is leaking red oil that looks like tranny fluid but it is dripping towards the back of the t/c by the skid plate or crossmember. Thanks

 

[79Silv4x4]

As for the 700r4, contact bow-tie overdrives. There suggestion, which is simpler and cheaper, is to move the engine forward 1.5 inches and change over to electric fans. This eliminates the hassle of altering driveshafts and re-engineering all the t-case shifter linkage.