Time for a new project, been a loooong time

[bigblock72]

For most of the last 5 years I have just been (ab)using the crap out of this and only done smaller weekend type projects that of course I didn't take pictures of.
I installed 66ish inch rear springs 2 years ago after totally trashing 4 or 5 sets of 56" springs, should have done that 10 years ago. I then replaced the old trusty urethane bump stops with these.Replacing the way too soft and small Bilstein 5150s with something a little more substantial.Which required a more substantial upper mount.The rear is a lot more planted and is a lot easier to drive especially when full of kids and camping gear. I need to do some minor valving changes but overall it is by far better than it has ever been.

 

[bigblock72]

We went for our traditional Labor Day camping trip which gave everything a pretty good work out. Usually we have 4 or 5 rigs with around 16 total people. Leave Friday and come home Monday. We''ll run anywhere from 350 to 800 miles. This is the first year for this many Blazers, usually it's more Jeeps then anything. The one who normally drives a Jeep decided he couldn't be outdone by no stinking Blazer so he brought something a little more ......well........ he'll be the top dog for some time.... Yep a 5 ton 6x6. This thing only has 7,400 miles on the clock and still smells new. At 22,000 lbs empty it weighs as much as 3 ready to go camping Blazers to boot.The downside to being big is more stuff gets in the way. Everyone else went right under this tree, Matt "had" to move it to get through. He was disappointed. The trip was really quite sedate with not much to show as far as scenery or other craziness, which is actually quite nice.With all of the room in the army truck we definitely ate well. BBQ, cobblers, roasts, breakfast burritos, you name it we ate it. The only real note worthy thing we saw was the Stillwater Dam.This thing is big, especially considering it's at least 40 miles to the nearest anything. It was built in the mid 80s. I couldn't find any exact dimensions for the dam, but I would guess that it's around 180 feet high and 1,200-1,500 feet long. The drop down center part is the spillway, it has no adjustable spillway and a small pipe that keeps some water running down Rock Creek. It looks like it was done in one continuous pour and was engineered to maintain integrity when concrete cracked as it cured. The various discolored and wet spots are from cracks in the concrete that have or will plug themselves with the minerals in the water. There has to be more info on this dam somewhere so if anyone can find any construction pictures or exact dimensions please post them.

 

[TREA18]

Cool stuff, and nice looking trucks . Would love to see more and your truck is real nice.

 

[bigblock72]

The trip was nice at only 360 miles (190 were dirt) and minimal breakage.

The army truck blew out a seal in the right front hub for the CTIS which forced manual tire pressure adjustments. This thing rides like a gigantic turd in the dirt at street tire pressures and drives even worse on the street with dirt tire pressures. The pressures were adjusted 2-3 times a day; yes, we missed the CTIS. The blue '90 blazer lost a heater core on the last day and forced an emergency bypass in the parking lot at the dam.As usual there was one guy working and 6 barking orders.


All in all a fun time. Three of the Blazers averaged 9.5 mpg, I averaged 8 and the army truck came in at 5.5. Only one kid barfed, unfortunately it was my kid in my Blazer. It was my own fault for trying to jump into and out of some large drainage channels that were cut in the road. After 5 miles of up and down he lost his breakfast, fortunately my co-pilot was able to get out before he lost his breakfast. I'll keep the clean up details to myself since many of you are pretty squeamish.

 

[bigblock72]

Now that I have the rear suspension sorted out and working pretty well it has made some of the minor handling quirks of the front more apparent. When I did the front suspension 6 years ago there wasn't anyone who was making high steer arms for the '05 Ford super duty steering knuckles so I had no choice to make the most of the stock knuckle. I put the tie rod on top of the steering arm and then the drag link on top of it with a reinforcement bracket to hold everything in double sheer. It has been strong and reliable but the steep angle of the drag link and track bar left a lot to be desired, especially when jumping or heavy throttle on the street. The steep angle pulled the front axle to the driver's side 5ish inches which would steer the Blazer and make everything feel unsettled. I had a stock knuckle machined for a high steer arm which will raise the drag link up 4" and I will be able to keep the vacuum hubs.You can see how far the axle is pulled to the driver's side and also the steep angle of the track bar and drag link. The heims are completely maxed.In this picture you can see the bolt on bracket on the knuckle used to support the drag link and tie rod, both are removed from the knuckle. You can also see the vacuum line for the hub. I removed the springs and bump stops to check clearances to see if I can get any more compression travel, the compression travel has been about 5.5 inches. Kinda crappy with 16" travel coilovers. As you can see it's getting a little tight but it looks promising. The shock is completely bottomed (had the bumpstops set to leave an inch of shock previously) and there is still just over an inch of clearance between the radius arm and the frame. I moved the shock down an inch and was able to use up every bit of space between the radius arms, the exhaust, the bump stop cans, the housing and everything else.I still have just over a 1/2" on the shock at full bump, it's tight but nothing critical is going to come into contact with the front end. Everything else will have at least a 1/2" at full bump, the first thing to come into contact after the bumps are fully compressed will be the radius arms to the frame. Now to figure out a track bar that will clear the front axle and the oil pan. Just so happened I had an old worn out track bar from a 94-02 Ram that had bends similar to what I needed and is quite strong. I cut off the ball joint end then drilled and tapped the end for a 3/4" heim. I was then able to heat it up and straighten out some of the bend to get it clear everything. It took some serious heat and pressure to get this thing to bend!! Even when glowing red it still took over 10 tons of pressure to straighten the bend. At least I know its not going to flex on me.
The track bar was about a foot short so I chucked it up in the lathe and machined down in two steps. The first step was 1.060" for a piece of 1.250 tube to slide over and weld and the second step was 1.265 for the larger 1.500 tube to slide over the top of the 1.250 and weld. This section will be straight so it will be plenty strong. As it sits now I will have almost 8" of compression travel with only minor revisions. Time to figure out the track bar bracket on the housing and getting the high steer knuckle installed.

 

[AJs72K5]

Have we seen those tube doors and front bumper before?? I like that bumper, a lot. Did you build it?

 

[bigblock72]

Have we seen those tube doors and front bumper before?? I like that bumper, a lot. Did you build it?

The tube doors have been on since'07 I think, I didn't paint them until 3 years ago though.

The bumper is one of the many smaller projects that I've done since '09. There might be some pictures of the process somewhere I'll see if I can track them down. It's built from a combination of 1/4" and 3/16" plate that I cut and welded together. It's pretty heavy but strong. I may redo some of the tube work around the radiator and see if I can slide the winch back under the grill and build a new bumper so it doesn't stick out so far.

Hoping to get back on to the front end project sometime this week, I really want to drive it.

 

[sponsoredbydad]

Glad to see you still using it and upgrading too. You still do your annual Dumont trip?

 

[bigblock72]

Glad to see you still using it and upgrading too. You still do your annual Dumont trip?

We try every year to go back to Dumont but something major happens last minute that prevents us from going. This year my wife got way sick the day before we were going to leave, so we unhooked the trailer and put everything away. I hope 2016 works out, in the meantime your videos keep me dreaming.

How was St. Anthony? Any vids? I haven't been up there in 8 years since the camping isn't very small kid friendly.

 

[y5mgisi]

Always thought about using a ram trac bar on a linked front end! Glad to see someone do it!

 

[bigblock72]

Always thought about using a ram trac bar on a linked front end! Glad to see someone do it!

The track bar ball joint is a pile of garbage that is lucky to last 30k in a ram, the bar is a little bit on the short side, but the rod itself is quite strong even with the sharp bend. For me it was a perfect place to start, cut the POS ball joint off, lengthen it 8ish inches, straighten some of the bend out and it will clear everything well and be plenty rigid.

 

[max 02]

Cool thread, Cool First gen! Seen pics of your rig before but missed all this.... Right on Man!

 

[sponsoredbydad]

St Anthony's was cool and fun but different. No vid to really speak of. I realized that with it only being me and the wifepoo at the end of the season with nobody else out there, there was going to be little to actually no recovery if I had a failure or misread a transfer and found a witch eye. So I just cruised, which makes for very boring footage. Please remember to let me know when you are making the trip to Dumont. I would love to see your rig in action and meet a member

 

[bigblock72]

Cool thread, Cool First gen! Seen pics of your rig before but missed all this.... Right on Man!

Thanks.

St Anthony's was cool and fun but different. No vid to really speak of. I realized that with it only being me and the wifepoo at the end of the season with nobody else out there, there was going to be little to actually no recovery if I had a failure or misread a transfer and found a witch eye. So I just cruised, which makes for very boring footage. Please remember to let me know when you are making the trip to Dumont. I would love to see your rig in action and meet a member

Definitely a lot more spread out compared to Dumont. A lot of fast riding dunes if you can get the right group. I understand the fear of a broken Blazer out on the dunes believe me, I broke my truck at Sand Mountain less than a 1/4 mile from the trailer and that was a nightmare, pretty much had to fix it where it sat. The wind blows like crazy at Saint Anthony and they have terrible witch's eyes that will easily swallow a buggy.
I will let you know if I can actually pull the Dumont trip together, would love to go out with another full size.

 

[bigblock72]

Found a couple pictures of the bumper project, not much but you can see how I put the bumper together. Don't look to close at the grill, it was an old one that ended up getting destroyed when my wife and brother decided they both needed to be in the same spot at the same time. That crusty old Mile Marker winch is still going to this day, so I haven't replaced it yet. After the bumper was built and my wife crashed it I removed the whole front clip and repainted the rad support pieces, the hood inside and out, the left fender, replaced the smashed passenger side fender, replaced the grill and headlights etc.

 

[bigblock72]

I was able to get some more done on the front end. I installed the knuckle and high steer arm but found a little surprise when I put the tire on. The danged drag link rubbed on the tire.Oh well, I guess it wasn't that important to have the drag link and tie rod share the same bolt. Simple enough fix, just remove the steering arm and turn it over since the arm is offset.The only minor hitch is the hole for the vacuum hubs is already drilled. A little grinding to enlarge the hole in the steering knuckle so I don't have to redrill the arm. With that taken care of it's time to move to the next issue. Comparison of the old angle (track bar) and the new angle (drag link).Now the next problem, fitting the track bar in it's new location and having everything play together nicely.Much like a bunch of spoiled brats nothing wants to play nice, the coil over and the drag link don't want to share at all. After a bunch of moving things around I was able to get the track bar in a spot that would work, it's tight but it'll work. I will need to build a new, shorter drag link with a bend to clear the track bar bolt when turning to the right. The bump stop can was ground back and I may have to lightly clearance the bump stop cap but it all clears throughout the full range of motion. As much as I wish this were done, there is still a lot to do. Hopefully another 6 hours or so and I can be driving again.

 

[ashman]

I don't understand half of what is going on, but it looks cool! lol

 

[Greg72]

I don't understand half of what is going on, but it looks cool! lol

I just wish the photos were larger!!!





-G

 

[bigblock72]

I just wish the photos were larger!!!





-G

Put them up on the big screen then.


Are they showing bigger than they should? It looks ok on my laptop.

I don't understand half of what is going on, but it looks cool! lol

Mostly I just needed a project to give me an excuse to dig up an old thread and be a pic whore.

 

[ashman]

As good a reason as any! It's good to see ya back working on this thing.