Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

Last thing I need is another vehicle to house but I just couldn't resist buying this from the 2nd owner who had it 4 months. '77 half ton Suburban. Interior is perfect and everything works. Original owner took very good care of it and I have receipts for everything. I believe it has 111K on it.
Now I need to figure out what to do with it. It needs to be lower and the whitewalls have to go. I don't want to take away from it's originality though. Suggestions on how to lower? I have three 1/2 ton 2wd squares (this, '77 Jimmy, '84 swb C10) that all need to be lowered sooner or later and I think the Suburban needs to go low first. Thinking drop spindles and possibly cut coil in the front. Rear is where I'm concerned. Not wanting to notch or do a flip in the rear though. Rear lowering springs? Suggestions on where to purchase are welcome too.
Some pics:

At PO's house

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

Inside. No dash cracks

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

Barn doors :)

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

350 that hasn't been messed with.

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

Last one.

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

Very nice.

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

Wow, what a gem!! Drop leafs in back might be the best option...never lowered a burb or blazer before...but know space is tight.

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

Thanks guys. I was thinking lowering springs in the rear, just not sure how much drop they provide and how to match the front.
I also need to figure out if I want to stick with the steelies and caps, switch to rallies, or heaven forbid spend some money on some 20's.

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

Wow - makes you feel good that they're still out there. Nice score! If it were me I'd copy Blue J's stance best I could and drive it.:lol:

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

Very cool burb!

I lowered my old burb years ago with drop leaf springs in the back.
I would look at 4" or 5" drop leaf springs.
You have to be careful because the "center section" of the rearend gets close to the burb's floor.
I know www.performanceonline.com sells them.
Not sure who else.

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

Thank you. I'm liking the replacement springs in the rear over anything else at this point.
I did some digging and saw a small pic of your blue and white two tone. In the post you said:

"3" drop spindles and 2" drop springs up front.
The rear was a set of 4" drop leaf springs."

Anything you would have done different?

At this point I"m thinking 2.5" spindles and 1 cut coil in the front. I have seen this set up on several trucks and I like how it sets the front end. With that front end drop I need to determine how much to lower the rear. The leaf springs are available in 4" and 5" drops. Any suggestions on which one to go with that will have it sitting level?
Plans for rims at this point is a set of van rallies but is subject to change.

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

I would get 5" if you want it to set level.
Mine had a little rake to it,... but I also had no c-notch.

Just get under it with a tape measure and see where 5" is going to put all of your rear suspension.
(axle tube, center section, etc)

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

Make sure to run a good quality drop shocks.
I used Belltech.
If it doesn't have a sway bar,... get one.
Add some Energy Suspension bushings and it will be good.
I think I also had a carrier bearing spacer on the driveshaft to help with driveshaft angles on the 2-piece drive shaft.

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

Thank you for the great information. Do you remember how much space you had between the frame and the axle tubes without a notch? I'm assuming you removed the bump stops. I was hoping not to notch, but I may have to if it's going to sit right. Did you relocate the rear shock mounts?
It does have a front sway bar...I haven't looked to see if there was one in the rear.
I'll get under it tonight and give it a good look with a tape measure. I hadn't thought of spacing down the carrier bearing but it makes sense in order to get it to a good angle as I'm assuming (without looking at it yet) that lowering it 4-5" in the rear will flatten out the driveshaft which may lead to some bad vibes.

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

No c-notch.
Bumpstops and brackets removed.
I don't remember the rear axle clearances.
That was a long time ago.

I used rear shock extensions to straighten up the shock angles.

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

Wow that is clean! Reminds me of my brother 77 C10 he sold a few years back.
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...byBBtrucks.jpg

Good luck with it! I like the idea of keeping it basic.

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

That look's like a nice C10. I'm envious of the sport mirrors.

Decided today that I needed to get the suburban out of the rain and out to my barn. Yup, I'm gonna put it away for the winter and not mess with it until spring. I've always been a 4x4 guy and never lowered a truck before (besides leveling a '72 C10 by heating a coil when I was a teenager) so I think I'm gonna start on something not quite as clean.
Burby headed to the house with the barn.

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

The victim getting backed in the driveway. '77 2wd Jimmy.

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

You've got some nice trucks!

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

Thanks Bruiser! I've been collecting them (and parts) since my early 20's (42 now) and it's a mixed blessing. Case in point, today I had a buddy over to help me get all of my junk situated in my barn in preparation for winter. I knew it was going to be tight after picking up the 18' 8" Suburban. Managed to get all 12 to fit though thankfully. Summer car and box van still need to go in here.
2wd K5 is in house garage and '73 K5 in storage at the dunes.
Problem with all of this crap is only a few are exactly like I want them and maintenance is a pain. They all run though :)
It would be much easier to just focus on 1 or 2.

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

Another. Yes, I have a problem.

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

Nice collection!! I spy an 83/84 Monte Carlo SS. Great taste in vehicles!!

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

Thanks! First post too so welcome.
Yes, it's an '84, and you obviously know your montes to be able to tell the year from that pic. I wonder if anyone else knows how you knew it was an '83 or '84.
I purchased it from the original owner. All original with ~40K miles.
Regarding my collection, most of my friends or coworkers always ask me why I don't collect something cool like an old Ferrari or Porsche. People weren't driving those where I grew up! Here's a better pic of the Monte after a wash this summer.

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

By the S10-style wheels? They went to an 80 or 81 Z28-style wheel after that? I'm guessing, I know there are more differences in stripes and tail lights but that's what stands out to me in that one pic. Nice car, I'm a fan of them too.

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

That's why I don't have a barn. The color is a give away as well. Is it a bench seat or bucket seat car? Either way, love it!

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

I'm thinking the color is what tipped off Bourbon. They only offered blue in the first and second years they made the G body SS. That limited my search when I was looking for one. What I don't like about this car is it has a TH350C trans instead of a 200-4R (started in '85) so it tops out around 70 mph.
It's a bucket car.
Thanks for the compliments on it fellas. This one is my 11 year old son's favorite.

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

Very nice 84 SS!! As you could tell, I am a bit of a MCSS enthusiast as well. The only colors available in 83-84 on the SS were white and blue. The 83-85s had the tear drop mirrors while the 86-88 had the aero mirrors, T-tops from 85-88 and Aerocoupes from 86 (rare)-88. The notched tail lights (83-86) or smooth (87-88) of course they all has the 305 and minor changes to it and the transmissions available. The addition of black, burgundy, and silver were from 85-88. My buddy says blue was the fastest color!! Haha I own a blue 84 SS and a (currently) white 86 T-top SS along with my 88 Suburban. The 84 has a TPI 350 and the 86 has a 383.

http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s...pslloi9oks.jpg

http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps5d00717c.jpg

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

Been a while since any updates, but there has been activity as time allows. I parked the Jimmy (it's a '78....I called it a '77 previously) in the 2 1/2 car garage a few months back and picked a way at some of the easy stuff. I purchased this blazer about a year ago from a CL add in Mississippi. 2wd K5's are impossible to find up here and I've always wanted one. The price was low and it "ran" enough to get on the shipper's trailer so I was happy. When it showed up it barely ran. I had to dump gas down the carb just to get it off the trailer.
Engine compartment and overall shot when I purchased it. I think I had put a different carb on prior to this shot and was in the middle of new cap/rotor/plugs/wires.

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

It didn't seem to be running on all 8 when I got it so I pulled the plugs. Found this thing on one of the plugs. A friend of mine said they sell them for fuel economy and/or to stop a bad cylinder from burning oil. I put new plugs in and after tuning it it runs very smooth with good power. I like keeping old drivetrains alive so I'm hoping this one turns out ok after driving it a while. If not, this will turn into an LS swap thread.

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

Other things done:
- valve cover gaskets
- steel fuel line from pump to carb
- crack free dash (wrong color, but works for this build). Also note, the gas gage is pegged at full :(

Not pic worthy is a rust free battery tray I found at the junkyard (rare in MI) to replace the rusty one, transmission gasket/filter replacement, and a replaced wiper motor I pulled from a low mileage cab I purchased last summer.

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

So with that out of the way, I should explain what I want to do with this thing: I like shiny, clean vehicles just as much as everyone else, but I find myself not driving those ones as often. Maybe it's because I have young kids (people with kids will understand that), or because I'm not one of those "neat" kind of guys that details everything so it is perfectly clean, or because I don't have time to constantly be cleaning, or because I get nervous about dings, scratches, etc. Actually, what I really think makes me like the old, used looking rigs is they have a lot of character...no two are alike. So with that, this K5 will be built with preservation in mind as opposed to restoration. I've done restorations and will do more in the future, this isn't one of them. If you need to see every part painted or powder coated prior to installation, won't happen here. A lowered, safe, 2wd beater is the goal.

So this Jimmy is clean, but by no means rust free. Accumulations of leaves and dirt will rust just about anything after this long. Since it will not get fresh paint I am cutting out the bad, replacing it, and will be spot covering it with matched spray bomb paint after minimal body work.

- Pass rocker needed to be replaced. Note I kept as much of the old as I could.
- A few small holes in fender were cut out and patched.
- Still need to figure out what to do with the driver door. I use old truck hoods for my replacement patches so I'll probably just cut out bad and replace.
- The hood was kinked so I was lucky to find one at the junkyard in a close (maybe the same) color with no rust or kink.
- Swapped in 73-74 GMC grill. I'm thinking it needs to lose the bumper guards

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

I want the Jimmy low but not so low as to cause other problems such as the rear pumpkin hitting the bed floor. Flip kits seem to be the way to go but after doing a lot of research it seemed like most K5 owners that had done flips complained about being too low after the flip. Once I took some measurements between the axle and the frame in stock configuration it was apparent that it would in fact be sitting close to the frame with a flip.
My initial thought was to remove the factory lift block (shown below) and the overload spring to see what that would do. It only dropped it an inch statically and sagging/axle wrap over time would be a concern also so that wasn't going to work. I contemplated some lowering shackles but I still didn't think that would be low enough and I don't feel like messing with the filler neck interference that occurs on Jimmy/Blazers.
After more research I found a few posts by lolife99 stating that people had used a flip and then installed 4x4 rear spring hangers to lift the back end back up a little. That sounded interesting to me and would allow me to use lowering shackles without filler neck interference if I needed to go a little lower. Surprisingly, I found some on ebay at a reasonable price as I didn't not want to have to remove these at a junkyard (there would be plenty of time for rivet grinding/chiseling in my future). Comparison between 2wd (left) and 4wd (right) hangers. Looks like a 3" difference in shackle hole height.

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

The gas gage hasn't worked since I purchased it....pegged above full. First check was the pink wire and tank grounds...all checked good. I did notice when test driving that every now and then the gage would move to the correct tank amount. The PO had replaced the tank prior to me getting it....he couldn't have reused the old sending unit I thought. Well, after crawling under there with a flashlight I confirmed he did so that is what I suspect is causing the fuel gage issue. The rear bumper is bent and now the tank needs to come down. I guess I'll be going with the 4x4 hangers in the rear if all of that is out of the way.
So yesterday I decided to tackle the task of getting the axle pulled and rear hangers removed. In order to remove the axles the e-brake cables need to be removed from the backing plates. Already planned on new brakes but this just confirmed it. Sorry about sideways pic.

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

I drained gear lube and replaced rear 12 bolt cover gasket, unhooked exhaust after the muffler, unhooked brake line, unhooked driveshaft, and then after I couldn't procrastinate with medial tasks any longer I pulled the rear axle in preparation for the dreaded task of removing the rivets that hold the rear spring hangers to the frame. Speaking of the number 12, there are 12 rivets that need to be removed. I used a cut off wheel to cut an X in the head of the rivets and then used an air chisel to cut them off. But you're still not done....the rivets need to be ground as smooth as possible and punched through the frame. Glad that's over with.

Red dirt was falling on me throughout the process. I'm all about wearing PPE but I still got some stuff in my eye that bothered me the rest of the night.

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

A few other things of note: Rear window didn't work so I had to replace cable and motor in tailgate with ones I pulled from a newer K5 gate I've held on to for years. Also seen are some like new door seals I pulled from the same cab I got the wiper motor from.
The door panels are shot. I have some used ones but not in this style so I'm on the lookout for some of them. Thought that would be easy but not proving to be.

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

OK, last post in this update. Here's how it sits now. I was going to try to bolt the hangers up and get the axle mounted tonight but I'm torn as to whether or not I should pull the springs and replace the bushings while I'm this close to them.
I forgot to mention that I picked up some 8' wide rally rims a few months back on the cheap off of a 2wd suburban at the junkyard. Two of those and two of the 7" wide rally rims off of the Jimmy are currently at the blasters. I've researched rally rim and tire size combos and I like the looks of the set up BigMike608 has on his SWB (shown) although I would go black out on this pile. My plan is to run a 3" drop spindle (the backspacing on the 7" rim allow this without rubbing) and cut 3/4-1 full coil off of the springs. Any thoughts/concerns with this combo and the amount of drop I will have?
The only other thing I am pondering is what my pinion angle will be like with the rear 4x4 hangers as although I've heard it has been done, I haven't heard if there were issues with the pinion angle.

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

Cool save, love the plan for it.

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

Slam the burb and be done with it already!

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

Thanks Bruiser!

I'll hopefully get to it in the spring. I moved away from my big shop that I use for storage about a year ago so I'm working in this little attached garage now until I can afford to build a new shop out back. Way too tight a fit trying to wrench on a burb in here over the winter.

Made some progress last night and today. First thing I did was what I figured would be an enjoyable task of bolting on the 4x4 hangers to the frame. All went well until I went to bolt up the lower support brackets. Line up the existing holes and the shackle bolt didn't line up. Always something....

Luckily the frame was wide enough to line up the shackle bolt and be able to drill some new holes in the frame. You can see my marks showing where the holes needed to be and then the final locations in the second shot.

Re: Had to buy - '77 Suburban
 

With the hangers out of the way I slid he axle in place. Shown is the hole I drilled in each spring plate to clear the lower portion of the spring center bolt.
I was finally able to determine how much drop was achieved with this set up and in my case it was 4.25 inches. I have about 2.5 inches between the top of the axle and the bottom of the frame. Note this is without a gas tank but with the factory spare tire mounted in back. I'm happy with it at this point and will wait to see if it bottoms when driving before deciding whether or not a drop shackle makes sense for a little more low.