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Weekend BDS lift install

tRustyK5

tRustyK5

Elbows up!
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Recently I met a new CK5er that lives close to me here in Edmonton. There aren't a lot of us here, so it was cool to meet someone so enthusiastic about K5's and everything 'square'. His user name is "bix"...and y'all can ask him to explain his user name.

Nick has been over here quite a bit over the last few weeks, and mentiuoned he was buying an all spring BDS 4" lift, and was getting it installed. I offered to have him bring it over and we could do the lift in my garage. This weekend was when we arranged to do it. I had hopes to have it knocked out in a day, and had Nick get some DIY4X stuff to make life easier and end up with a better end product.

Saturday we got my Blazer out of the garage and moved out of the way, and got our stuff organized. Nick made two trips over to bring his lift parts and tires here and we finally got underway about 10 am. I fought with the steering arm for a couple of hours, the worst one I've had to deal with so far. Finally Nick and I switched jobs and with a few tentative smacks with the hammer he had the last two cone washers pop up and out. It did hold us up and when we knocked off a 9 pm we still didn't have the front back on it's tires yet.

We got back at it by 9:30 this morning, and by 5 pm we had it all done.

4" BDS all spring lift
New drag link and DLE's
New BDS shocks
Moog stabilizer
New front spring eye hangers from DIY4X
All new 9/16" greasable bolts from DIY4X
Rear upper spring plates from DIY4X
33x12.5" Fun country AT's on new Rock crawlers. Quite a nice tire, I might consider these when I buy tires for my Blazer.

While we were at it I installed 3" single exhaust with a FM super 44 muffler. The old rotted cherry bomb glass pack and half missing tailpipe had to go.

I'm tired and feel a little beat up, but it was an awesome pay-off hearing it run better, and ride better and most of all...look better! Nick seemed to be pretty happy with it.

Snapped a few finished pic's, Nick took a bunch while it was all in progress. He may add them here.

Money shot:

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Nick looks tired...lol

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This is one side of the old 3" duals I had on my Blazer. I plan on using one side with 3" single on my Blazer with the 5.3, so this side was sitting here collecting dust. I may have spent 20 minutes installing it, and it sounds really good!

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I like this routing, and have done it a few times now. It get's everything out of the way of everything...high and tight.

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your hangin with good people "Bix"!
welcome to the snowball club!
 
Looks good!

Quick question though, in that last pic, it looks like the spring bolt is hitting the shackle hanger. Hows the clearance there?

-Rob
 
Looks pretty ace to this guy!

I'm diggin that way you ran the tailpipe, should help with clearance I'd say.
 
Those bolts are close and did have to be trimmed. It'll get another look in a few days and may need a bit more taken off.
 
Looks great! I am going to have to look into those tires.
 
I run those tires on my canyon. Great tire, uses the same casing as the cooper ST/SST.

Trucks looks good, I had been thinking about running my exhaust like that for some time now and couldn't figure out why no one had done that:dunno: looks good to me!
 
Thanks all! Was a battle and a blast. Never had so much fun cursing and spitting rust out of my mouth. First things first, without the extreme generosity and knowledge that rene offered me, i would have either paid to have this done due To lack of space right now or it would still be in pieces trying to get the steering arm off, so hats off to him for this one! The kit from bds was good. Nicely packaged, shocks came with new studs if needed, new nuts for the bolts, one issue we did have was clearance on the bushings and the new DIY4x shackles. A little trimming with the grinder and it went together well! The springs were made in canada which was a nic change compared to china, so thats another credit i will give bds. I have read that bds springs can be very rough and have a high compression ratio. Me and rene looked and i beleive it was 490 on the leafs ( a little bit higher than the average kits ). We eliminated the sway bar, even though the bds kit came with a relocation kit, which rene claimed was different than the usual, and keeps the sway bar at the same angle with no bind. (If anyone could use this PM me and i can find shipping and send it your way as im super pleased with the ride without it). Last of all the ride is a HUGE improvement from stock, it may have been something else causing my ride to be so uncomfortable but Is eliminated now, i can hit a tiny bump without sending the whole truck all over in a hurry. In my opinion i would tottaly recoment this lift. I think it cost me about 1500 for the lift with the 5500 series shocks and no blocks. Included steering arm from pro comp, sway bar kit and a few other goodies that are nice to have for a back up.

And the exhaust sounds great, when everyone at works stops working at stares at your truck rumbling by with a fresh kit and tires, its a good feeling or as rene would say " it makes your pants fit funny " .

I couldnt be any happier with this truck and has quenched some of my need to get it upgraded. Now i can focus on the smaller parts coming in the mail and fixing the bugs with it. I will be starting a build thread for this truck when i get the time and before i tackle my rear window issues.
 
Nothing better than new tires a new lift and cool custom 3inch Rene exhaust! :thumb:

Good job guys! Looks great!
 
Too bad we missed MPS, I think we mighta done OK. Bustin' out the 20 lb sledge monster for the steering arm has gotta count for something...:whistle:
 
Had my cousin from a local acc/parts shop phone me and ask me how to get the steering arm off a k5 late last fall. I told him get the mexican swing press out, guess it got a few good laughs :haha:
 
The only trick is not to hit up from underneath...the rest is just exercise. On Nick's the first cone washer popped up after three hits with the 4 lb mini sledge. I was encouraged, the next hour quickly changed my mind. :rolleyes:

One thing we did find on Nick's truck is there isn't a single rivet left on his frame. At some point the body was off, frame completely disassembled, painted and all the parts bolted back on. Swapping to the DIY4X front spring eye hangers was as easy as unbolting the old ones, hogging out the bushing hole a touch and bolting up the new ones. Not having to bust out rivets was a big bonus!

Based on the flaking paint and the look of things underneath I'm thinking that was done somewhere around 5-8 years ago. It's too bad they didn't use a better quality paint...

For an Alberta truck it is damn decent though. Some rust issues need to be addressed, but overall a pretty solid starting point.
 
tRustyK5 said:
Too bad we missed MPS, I think we mighta done OK. Bustin' out the 20 lb sledge monster for the steering arm has gotta count for something...:whistle:
Click to expand...

Woulda placed in top 5....20 lb sledgehammer work is a definite points whore!
 
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