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One Piece at a Time: My 1985 Diesel Suburban

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Those look awesome.

I always wear leather gloves while doing fab work. I save the mechanics gloves for more axle or suspension work.
 
I hate wearing gloves when working with power tools. But it seems like the longer through the day I work I end up spending more time picking metal slivers out of my fingers... Still have a couple in there from a couple of weeks ago. Tradeoffs...
 
You should start selling those. I had to cut holes through my floor to get long enough shocks on since I wanted the lower mount nice and high and out as far as possible. I'm sure I could have done a better lower mount and maybe got away with those.
 
Truckman4life said:
You should start selling those...
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I'm glad to share the recipe with you. They're easy to build - just a cage plate, notched shock tabs, and 2" square tube. Everything else is 3/16 or 1/4.

You can extend the tube to place the shock mount farther over the spring if you want to mount as far outboard as possible. I can tell you it's a cozy fit for the 2" Bilsteins between the frame and the spring. I have them canted very slightly inward.

campfire said:
Those were Wifey's first words, David. I hope you have plans in place...
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Yessir. I needed an LLC for my business checking.

I might make some for purchase. Not sure how much interest there would be, and it's decently outside the intended scope of my business plan. I need to stew on it.

David
 
Passenger rear installed. It takes a floor jack to compress them, and a pry bar to manipulate within the bracket. They're stiff.
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Rear suspension work is done. Onward to the front.

David
 
I've said it before: I work slow.
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I'm usually in a position where I can take my time and work the incidental items that come up with projects like these. For example, it's a lot easier to build these front shock mounts with the inner fender out. This particular inner fender has never been removed since the truck was assembled in 1985, so there were a couple of fatigue cracks, broken u-nuts, and some decent surface rust. I've removed the other inner fender a couple of times already - turbo, AC - so it's already gone in for rehab. Quite frankly, I really do enjoy these details.

Most of Saturday was dedicated to pulling two leaves from the ORD front pack. @Stephen suggested I flip the bottom two over, but they interfered with the tie rod. Originally a ten leaf pack, this dropped the front ~1", so I'm now 15.75-16" from the top of the tube to the factory bump stop. The shackle angle is now almost perfectly vertical. We'll see how it works; I can always put one back.IMG_9654.JPG

Cleaned up my ferd towers.
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With the axle moved forward 1", I'm using up about half the travel in the heim as its sits static. We will see if that's a problem at full droop as the axle travels forward, but my initial mock up suggests it won't be.
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Lower mount welded in. I put a 5* inward angle so this heim is in a neutral position.IMG_9656.JPG

Wife got home early from a trip out of town (which makes it beer-thirty), so the truck is all stowed (minimum wheel lugs, one battery reconnected) and ready for more progress during the week.
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Please excuse me while I grab another Shiner.

David
 
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