'83 K5 6.2L Diesel 64" rear springs. 3/4 ton axles. rear discs. Boring but works!

[Truckman4life]

I am watching this closely, as I need to cut holes in the rear for mine too...

Yeah so far I just kinda winged it on the size and location of the holes. I knew where I wanted them to be in relation to the seat so I drew out the initial squares on the carpet then I drilled small holes at the corners and checked from below where it would end up being. I then cut about an inch bigger opening in the carpet to leave room to cut the metal. I used a cutoff wheel in a grinder and a sawzall to do the cuts. I put wet rags around to save the carpet from the sparks. My axle is moved back as far as it could prob go with the tank there still. I'll get the mounts fabbed up then more updates on it.

 

[Truckman4life]

Bam! Today's lunch break achievement, lower shock mounts/towers. These will get welded to the axle tube between the leaf spring and end of the axle tube and sit almost as tall as the u-bolt plate and my lower shock tabs will get welded to them. They are 2" square tube 1/4" wall and some 3x3x1/4" plate.

 

[GWeakland620]

Cool!

 

[Truckman4life]

Finished up the rear shock mounts. Need to weld them on next and do some kind of a cross bar between them.

 

[blazinzuk]

You gonna do the crossbar in the cab?

I like the design overall wanna do something like this when I put 63s in the Jimmy.

 

[Truckman4life]

You gonna do the crossbar in the cab?

I like the design overall wanna do something like this when I put 63s in the Jimmy.

Yeah I need to add tabs to the top or back to do the crossbar. I will tie in some bumpstop mounts on the bottom also. I used 3x5x3/16 steel and boxed in the top with 3x3/16 plate with the tabs welded to that.

 

[Truckman4life]

Anyone know if $400 is a good price for a used Warn 8274 winch? And is it going to be too small for a blazer? Should I just hold out for a 12K winch?

 

[nbrown2500]

Anyone know if $400 is a good price for a used Warn 8274 winch? And is it going to be too small for a blazer? Should I just hold out for a 12K winch?

My blazer came with a Warn 8274. The PO wheeled it for 13 years and never had a problem with it being under powered. The winch I have is an old one, the serial number is in the 12,000's. I have not used it yet but I think I want to switch the old style solenoids for the newer style. Will be waiting to hear what other people have to say.

 

[6872xtc]

Subscribed so that I get more ideas!
Keep up the good work! I hope to see you and your truck at BB16!

 

[Truckman4life]

Subscribed so that I get more ideas!
Keep up the good work! I hope to see you and your truck at BB16!

Definitely gonna be there. I should hopefully start driving it in the next few weeks or so.

 

[nbrown2500]

Anyone know if $400 is a good price for a used Warn 8274 winch? And is it going to be too small for a blazer? Should I just hold out for a 12K winch?

Check this out, it has a lot of info on winching and recovery.
http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/Recovery/index.html

 

[blazinzuk]

The 8274 is a great winch.

It will suit your blazed just fine.

400 bucks is about the going rate around here.

You can buy every single part for one of those so pretty easy to restore it to like new condition

 

[Truckman4life]

The 8274 is a great winch.

It will suit your blazed just fine.

400 bucks is about the going rate around here.

You can buy every single part for one of those so pretty easy to restore it to like new condition

Thanks, not sure on it since I got other needs first and its a few hrs away in CO. Prob hold off for now.

 

[Truckman4life]

Check this out, it has a lot of info on winching and recovery.
http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/Recovery/index.html

Looks like good info. I might use it for the guys at work. We run M12000 winches on all our trucks even the 18,000lb F550s and they get stuck fairly often around here. The guys usually just hook them to whatever they can and pull until something breaks or the winch stops/burns up.

 

[Truckman4life]

Got some new goodies today, now I just got to find some time to work on it. Now that the warm weather has returned there's way too much to do around here lol. Plus I'm trying to balance my time, I picked up a little side project

 

[82355]

How are you going to enclose those rear shocks? Have you thought about just enclosing them in sheet metal, added to the wheel tubs?

Martin

 

[Truckman4life]

How are you going to enclose those rear shocks? Have you thought about just enclosing them in sheet metal, added to the wheel tubs?

Martin

That's my exact plan. I'm gonna cut out a little more for access to the shocks through the wheel well then I'm going to buy a new wheel tub for a pickup and cut it in half and make two enclosures out of it. I need to do a cross bar and I plan on cutting a hole in the enclosure and doing a removable crossbar with an aftermarket shift boot or something to completely seal it so it keeps out dust and exh fumes.

 

[Truckman4life]

Finally made some time to work on the rear shock mounts this weekend. Mocked them up with a shock I had laying around that was the same length extended as my correct shocks would be at ride height. I just bolted the mounts on loosely and stuck it in there and tacked them when I was happy with the position. The lower one is really close to the caliper but should be fine. I'll do a little grinding on it next time I have the caliper off.

 

[Truckman4life]

I'll post some flex pics a little later when I get time.

 

[82355]

Going to box those in?

Martin