I'm not sure if you're joking or serious, that could mean so many different things
CK5
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I'm not sure if you're joking or serious, that could mean so many different things
That's legit. Sounds funny, but real.I'm not sure if you're joking or serious, that could mean so many different things
I'm not sure if you're joking or serious, that could mean so many different things
back in the early 80s I worked in parts stores, I remember them in green boxes that said Chicago Rawhide on them.
Well I got one...
Found the old install sleeve (left) so I did not have to punch a hole in the new one...
Installed...
Found the old install sleeve (left) so I did not have to punch a hole in the new one...
Installed...
Wow, I should update this. So much has happened to this Blazer since 3 years ago...Axle is in, ended up re-using the old front end gears and did new bearings and seals, i have since replaced the Seals It seals in the outer axle tube's once since the front rebuild. After this last trip to the con, it looks like I need to do the axle shaft seals again. Got the front end buttoned up and painted and back under the Blazer. Got some 39s from Tyler @chev87k5 and slapped them on the beadlocks back at the end of 21.
Updates:
Ended up ripping/tearing the frame in a couple of spots wheeling hollister hills svra in April of 2022. I fixed the areas where the frame ripped apart and then boxed the entire frame. Found the steering box broken as well and not sure if I repaired it before or after the frame repair. Either way it got a new brace welded in and a different bolt in support I had from my 79 k20. I used a different steering box. Used the diy4x top plate and end cap for pressure ports on the Hydro assist.
Boxing the frame, I used the diy4x kit they had a few years back, 1/8" plate contoured to fit the frame. I welded nuts on the inside of the frame for all the fasteners that attached to the frame. Melted in the front upper shackle hangers and got rid of the old mounting hardware. I re-did an existing crossmember that was attached by rivets and used 1" dom to tie into the frame. Lifted the gas tank 1" on those 2 rear crossmembers to accommodate the 1" aluminum puck body lift. Fixed the frame at the rear shock mounts and added the ord double shear kit for the rear shocks.
The worst damaged area was above the front upper shackle hangers on both sides and a slight crown in the middle of the frame.
Boxing the frame wasn't that bad, did it solo, glad I had that extendable cherry picker that lifted the entire cab in one shot and the wheel dollies to roll the frame out and spin it 180 to the other side of the garage.
There is more updates, I will update when I can.
Updates:
Ended up ripping/tearing the frame in a couple of spots wheeling hollister hills svra in April of 2022. I fixed the areas where the frame ripped apart and then boxed the entire frame. Found the steering box broken as well and not sure if I repaired it before or after the frame repair. Either way it got a new brace welded in and a different bolt in support I had from my 79 k20. I used a different steering box. Used the diy4x top plate and end cap for pressure ports on the Hydro assist.
Boxing the frame, I used the diy4x kit they had a few years back, 1/8" plate contoured to fit the frame. I welded nuts on the inside of the frame for all the fasteners that attached to the frame. Melted in the front upper shackle hangers and got rid of the old mounting hardware. I re-did an existing crossmember that was attached by rivets and used 1" dom to tie into the frame. Lifted the gas tank 1" on those 2 rear crossmembers to accommodate the 1" aluminum puck body lift. Fixed the frame at the rear shock mounts and added the ord double shear kit for the rear shocks.
The worst damaged area was above the front upper shackle hangers on both sides and a slight crown in the middle of the frame.
Boxing the frame wasn't that bad, did it solo, glad I had that extendable cherry picker that lifted the entire cab in one shot and the wheel dollies to roll the frame out and spin it 180 to the other side of the garage.
There is more updates, I will update when I can.
After fixing the frame, went to fordyce and - broke a leaf spring, swapped with a spare 52 I had. At this point, I was carrying a spare leaf spring and 2 Jack's on the rig to swap a spring on the trail.
I snagged those 40s @shady posted a while back from Amazon, I got 5 of them and slapped them on some steelies and just had to go smash through the only mud on the property...
power washed it off minutes later...
Took off, went on a cruz to the redwoods...
Didn't take long to break a shaft and snap a center pin on the front, opposite sides in the front. I had it on its side for a minute with the doors on, winched out, luckily I was at a state park and it was a short drive on a dirt road to the trailer with straps and the winch holding the axle in place. Put in some yukon inner chromo shafts and new spicer joints already had the Yukon chromo outers
I snagged those 40s @shady posted a while back from Amazon, I got 5 of them and slapped them on some steelies and just had to go smash through the only mud on the property...
power washed it off minutes later...
Took off, went on a cruz to the redwoods...
Didn't take long to break a shaft and snap a center pin on the front, opposite sides in the front. I had it on its side for a minute with the doors on, winched out, luckily I was at a state park and it was a short drive on a dirt road to the trailer with straps and the winch holding the axle in place. Put in some yukon inner chromo shafts and new spicer joints already had the Yukon chromo outers
I didn’t hear about the frame damage. Not that I’m surprised though…
Clean break on the stub.
Looks good.
Clean break on the stub.
Looks good.
Gawdamn that is a ton of work. Well done!
The frame was worse than I thought, even the rear spring hangers were bent upwards and rolled the frame with it. Once the cage is tied in, it should be stout.
More pics from the shaft repair....the seals it outer tube seal and the spindle bearing/seal...
I had bent my passenger side slider pretty good, so I pulled it and used the work truck to straighten the sliders best I could. Welded a spring perch to the top of a stabilizer jack as a trail jack.
Ended up wheeling on the property with some buddies, steering got difficult, turns out, I broke the tierod end on passenger side and the 1.5 x 6" ram broke the 5/8" heim off the end of the shaft, nice clean break and a long walk back to get some tools to fix and limp back home
I ended up going back to low-steer tierod and running a 1.75 x 8" ram that I've had for a long time. Made some tabs out of 3/8" plate and welded them to the diff cover. The tierod is the ORD 1" dom .250 wall tube I had originally purchased for hi-steer years back, I cut and sleeved it with 1.5" x .250 dom and welded the ends, placing the cut in-line with the ring gear. The 1" x .250 dom is tapped on both sides for the tierod ends. I had to heat up the outer sleeve to get them pressed in. Seems pretty stout. Installed the tierod, grinded the steering stops on the knuckles to obtain the lock to lock distance and measured 7.5" lock to lock. I made a 1/2" spacer for the ram out of delran and mounted the ram and set the toe and welded the tabs on the tierod. Next I routed the lines and wrapped them in rubber splicing tape and ziptied 5/8 heater hose over for protection. Cut off the old hi-steer ram mount. Steering done for now, I was ready for the next trail run in a few days...
Headers doing header things...It was leaking for a long time, finally changed it out.
I had bent my passenger side slider pretty good, so I pulled it and used the work truck to straighten the sliders best I could. Welded a spring perch to the top of a stabilizer jack as a trail jack.
Ended up wheeling on the property with some buddies, steering got difficult, turns out, I broke the tierod end on passenger side and the 1.5 x 6" ram broke the 5/8" heim off the end of the shaft, nice clean break and a long walk back to get some tools to fix and limp back home
I ended up going back to low-steer tierod and running a 1.75 x 8" ram that I've had for a long time. Made some tabs out of 3/8" plate and welded them to the diff cover. The tierod is the ORD 1" dom .250 wall tube I had originally purchased for hi-steer years back, I cut and sleeved it with 1.5" x .250 dom and welded the ends, placing the cut in-line with the ring gear. The 1" x .250 dom is tapped on both sides for the tierod ends. I had to heat up the outer sleeve to get them pressed in. Seems pretty stout. Installed the tierod, grinded the steering stops on the knuckles to obtain the lock to lock distance and measured 7.5" lock to lock. I made a 1/2" spacer for the ram out of delran and mounted the ram and set the toe and welded the tabs on the tierod. Next I routed the lines and wrapped them in rubber splicing tape and ziptied 5/8 heater hose over for protection. Cut off the old hi-steer ram mount. Steering done for now, I was ready for the next trail run in a few days...
Headers doing header things...It was leaking for a long time, finally changed it out.
Went back out to Sierra Trek 23 in August and wheeled it pretty hard...broke another leaf at winch hill 4 @ Fordyce, sheared both leaf spring studs in the Dana 60 housing, leaf spring hit the frame, exhaust, the driveshaft hit the transmission pan. Here is a picture from that night limping down the trail back to winch hill 3 from winch hill 4, my buddy had a tap extractor which was able to get one bolt out and just left the extractor in the other hole.
Got back to camp, and tore the driver side down and also noticed the U-bolts on the passenger side were loose and the spring perch was flattened. The gas tank was smashed in pretty good too. Drivers front shock looks bent. Used some heat and got the other stud out in the morning and put a spare spring I had which was a 47" tuff country 6" lift spring on and limped it down the trail and out the committee crossing and out to a fire road. The guy in front of me broke his Transfercase in half and had no power front or rear, so buddies are dragging him out in front of me...
Once I got it home, I tore the rig down on the front and welded in new lower shock mounts and cut off the factory mounts. Shocks are bent too. Welded a 14bolt spring perch on and bolted the matching lift spring on for now. I ordered Alcans with Fox shocks from ORD and they are 2 months out so trying to have this together by Thanksgiving rubicon run. I noticed the crossmember was cracked and so I pulled it and welded it back together and welded it on both sides.
Ended up doing the axle seals again, and the outer tube seals. Painted the diff cover and tierod again. Smashed the front fender again, its pretty bad, but knowing a new one won't last long either, so Its staying for now.. more pics...
Got back to camp, and tore the driver side down and also noticed the U-bolts on the passenger side were loose and the spring perch was flattened. The gas tank was smashed in pretty good too. Drivers front shock looks bent. Used some heat and got the other stud out in the morning and put a spare spring I had which was a 47" tuff country 6" lift spring on and limped it down the trail and out the committee crossing and out to a fire road. The guy in front of me broke his Transfercase in half and had no power front or rear, so buddies are dragging him out in front of me...
Once I got it home, I tore the rig down on the front and welded in new lower shock mounts and cut off the factory mounts. Shocks are bent too. Welded a 14bolt spring perch on and bolted the matching lift spring on for now. I ordered Alcans with Fox shocks from ORD and they are 2 months out so trying to have this together by Thanksgiving rubicon run. I noticed the crossmember was cracked and so I pulled it and welded it back together and welded it on both sides.
Ended up doing the axle seals again, and the outer tube seals. Painted the diff cover and tierod again. Smashed the front fender again, its pretty bad, but knowing a new one won't last long either, so Its staying for now.. more pics...
Springs showed up and I swapped the old 52s out and the temp springs in the front. I ordered 52" all around and 6"lift. Fox 2.0s for shocks and new bumpstops.
Had to flex them out on the property gravel pile, the shocks were really close to touching the bump stop bracket, so I trimmed a corner off...
Made it to the con for Thanksgiving...
Had to flex them out on the property gravel pile, the shocks were really close to touching the bump stop bracket, so I trimmed a corner off...
Made it to the con for Thanksgiving...
I threw on the 40s, doors, and taillights, and buttoned up the rig for winter/street.
I swapped out the power steering cooler as it started leaking, It was also slightly higher then the reservoir tank cap, so I had a newer GM one with push-in fittings laying around that was smaller, so I just bought a line from the auto parts store with the push in fittings and cut and flared the end and clamped it on the cooler lines and mounted it to the radiator support and buttoned up the grill.
I swapped the gas tank too. It was so smashed that it was blocking the pickup tube and causing fuel pressure problems, I installed a new fuel pump and used sender unit from my other Blazer tank into the new one. Has power again and the check engine light doesn't come on any more. I also did a new fuel filter at the same time.
Mounted a ram mount phone mount to the cage.
I swapped out the power steering cooler as it started leaking, It was also slightly higher then the reservoir tank cap, so I had a newer GM one with push-in fittings laying around that was smaller, so I just bought a line from the auto parts store with the push in fittings and cut and flared the end and clamped it on the cooler lines and mounted it to the radiator support and buttoned up the grill.
I swapped the gas tank too. It was so smashed that it was blocking the pickup tube and causing fuel pressure problems, I installed a new fuel pump and used sender unit from my other Blazer tank into the new one. Has power again and the check engine light doesn't come on any more. I also did a new fuel filter at the same time.
Mounted a ram mount phone mount to the cage.
As I sit here reading about all the carnage and repair, I can’t help but think “…and people complain about mud!” 
This all started from a mud truck, 20 years ago, haha. I broke a lot of stuff then too
Well, update, I ran Fourdyce trail for Sierra trek again in August. Didn't break anything and the new springs flex really good. My rig was the winch point for guiding jeeps through the trail. Got the wheeling bug again and ended up running the Rubicon backwards later that month and did just fine. Loving the new springs and shocks.
Ran Barrett Lake jeep trail with a large group of rigs and that was a perfect trip, nothing broke and weather was perfect. The trail is narrow and has a couple of bollards you have to squeeze through at the trailhead and they are 86" apart. I'm 84" wide with these steel rims vs the beadlocks at 90" wide. This trail was a lot harder then when I ran it last 8 years ago. After this trip I tied the cage to the frame, tied the sliders to the frame, and added bumper corners to the front bumper. Truck feels even more solid.
Tie-in the cage and sliders...
After I re-did the rear tube bars and finished the cage tie ins, I decided to test it out on the Rubicon again. I ran the RTF property and that is a nice hard trail, ran it solo and winched in one spot called new Sluice...broke a front stub shaft leaving the loop and of course I didn't have any spare parts on me. It was about 4 miles back to the trailer, I limped it with the winch to get back to camp the first night. On the way out the next morning, I snapped a front driverside spring and ripped the 2 studs out of the Dana 60 on the passenger side spring perch. Fixed the studs with just 1 stud and strapped the axles in with 4 straps and a random wheeler with a v8 Cherokee on 1 tons tugged me out while I was powering in 2wd.
Once home, I pulled the springs and put the 6" lift rough country springs back in. Stripped a hole in the housing for the spring mount.
Installed an helicoil and drilled the studs to 5/8-18 fine thread to fix the broken off stud in the housing.
Got the doors on and ready for our clubs Rubicon Thanksgiving snow run. It's going to be 2 months until the new front springs show up from ORD.
Uncle Tom's cabin....
I think I'm up to date now...new springs should be here February as I waited on ordering new ones. Im most likely going to upgrade the winch, its from 1997 and only rated to 8k. It worked on pulling me out, but it's tired.
Ran Barrett Lake jeep trail with a large group of rigs and that was a perfect trip, nothing broke and weather was perfect. The trail is narrow and has a couple of bollards you have to squeeze through at the trailhead and they are 86" apart. I'm 84" wide with these steel rims vs the beadlocks at 90" wide. This trail was a lot harder then when I ran it last 8 years ago. After this trip I tied the cage to the frame, tied the sliders to the frame, and added bumper corners to the front bumper. Truck feels even more solid.
Tie-in the cage and sliders...
After I re-did the rear tube bars and finished the cage tie ins, I decided to test it out on the Rubicon again. I ran the RTF property and that is a nice hard trail, ran it solo and winched in one spot called new Sluice...broke a front stub shaft leaving the loop and of course I didn't have any spare parts on me. It was about 4 miles back to the trailer, I limped it with the winch to get back to camp the first night. On the way out the next morning, I snapped a front driverside spring and ripped the 2 studs out of the Dana 60 on the passenger side spring perch. Fixed the studs with just 1 stud and strapped the axles in with 4 straps and a random wheeler with a v8 Cherokee on 1 tons tugged me out while I was powering in 2wd.
Once home, I pulled the springs and put the 6" lift rough country springs back in. Stripped a hole in the housing for the spring mount.
Installed an helicoil and drilled the studs to 5/8-18 fine thread to fix the broken off stud in the housing.
Got the doors on and ready for our clubs Rubicon Thanksgiving snow run. It's going to be 2 months until the new front springs show up from ORD.
Uncle Tom's cabin....
I think I'm up to date now...new springs should be here February as I waited on ordering new ones. Im most likely going to upgrade the winch, its from 1997 and only rated to 8k. It worked on pulling me out, but it's tired.
Anyone running 3 studs on the Chevy 60 spring perch instead of the factory 2 studs? I'm considering it, but I doubt it will survive another broken spring anyways.
I would love to do it on my 60 but I don’t want to pull it out to do it.
Way back someone made a drilling block fixture to do it but never made any for sale. I believe it was rdn2blazer but he’s no longer with us.
Damn, it looks like I missed all the fun on the trip to the con
I break more shit on that trail.....Have you thought about ditching the studs and using a second U-bolt?
I have, just wasn't sure how to do it, but after searching I see the light and I'm going to add a u-bolt there. Looks like I have to drill a hole in the webbing and open up the u-bolt a little to make it fit and work. I have some .500 plate to make a new spring plate.
