Performance Steering & Handling?

[Cautrell05]

Id go 3/4" lower and 1/2" on the upper. +1" on the upper is getting pretty long and they bend pretty easy.

[HO455]

Thank you for the information. It is timely as I have been looking at replacing the control arms on mine. The current lower arms are factory arms. And the uppers have already been replaced with UMI versions but they are the non-adjustable versions and the truck has too much positive camber. So they need to be replaced with some adjustable ones so I can get some negative camber.

[Cautrell05]

That's unusual that you can't get enough negative camber. Usually the problem is not getting enough positive.
Look into IMCA hobby stock upper control arms. They aren't priced too bad and you have the option of 1/4" shorter than stock on the right arm or 1/4" longer on the left arm. Either arm can be ran on either side depending on exhaust clearance you can also put longer bolts in for the upper control arm.
There's also just enough room to drill new holes for the upper control arm right below the stock ones. That will drop the inner mount about 5/8" and have the same affect on camber gain as running a taller upper ball joint

[HO455]

Shooting from the hip here, but if memory still serves me, the camber was in the +.08 to +1.1 range. One side has no threads showing past the upper control arm nuts and the other side has maybe 2 threads showing.

I looked at putting longer bolts in with custom spacers to replace most of the shims but the truck has a LT1 in it and room is at a premium. The current UMI upper arms have 1/2 longer ball joints so if I get UMI adjustable uppers I can reuse the ball joints. UMI says their adjustable uppers are approximately 1/2" shorter than the non-adjustable uppers when fully shortened.

The front and rear suspension has less than 1500 miles on it. The rest of the truck has over 220k miles with the first owner being the US Forest Service. The engine has under 500 miles since being rebuilt. I recently purchased the truck and am getting things dialed in.

[HO455]

Here is a link with factory part upgrades for 1st & 2nd gen S10's. Lots of junk yard parts to tune up the handling. As well as RPO codes to help ID that rear end in the wrecking yard.

See ya out in the yard!

https://www.s10forum.com/search/9992...10&o=relevance

[connorm]

I'm looking for the right S10 to pop up but I've been looking at this thread and others to get some plans for when I get one. I'm planning on a 3/3 or 3/4. To do this I'm thinking I'm gonna do 2" drop spindles and ZQ8 front springs and 3" lowering springs in the rear. I work at Ridetech suspension so I'm tempted to do a full coilover front and rear. I want to find a Blazer, though, and rear kit won't work without some modification. As of right now this is what I'm planning.

Combining a Ridetech Streetgrip kit with some later factory parts.
I am going to use the Delrin bushings that we sell, along with longer ball joints. Maybe the +3/4" lower and +1/2" upper, that is to be determined. Then our single adjustable smooth bodies front and rear. On the front I am going to do a '98-'04 Blazer 2" lower spindle. This will also pair well with a '98-'04 rear axle. I'll probably look for an 8.5" 3:42 G80 2wd rear axle. This should be pretty well a bolt in and will have disk brakes. The on the rear I'm planning a 3" lowering spring. If I don't like the stance then I'll add a 1" block in the rear too.

As far as the brake swap this will gain me better braking power with 4 piston calipers in the front, a 1" larger rotor, and a sealed bearing, all this being blazer specific stuff. The rear will allow me to get the stronger rear end, the gear ratio I want, a limited slip, and disk brakes. From what I have read all that you need is the master cylinder and everything from the brake hose out. It sounds like the proportioning valve for a disk/drum set up works well for a disk/disk setup. And it appears that most people haven't had issues with residual valves if they swap master cylinders.

One of the big factors for me wanting to do factory control arms and coils instead of coilovers is that I know that I can swap between different factory sway bars. This will let me easily "tune" the sway bars I want. AKA I think I'm gonna start with the thick front sway bar, I believe the ZQ8, and then use the small, I believe the standard pick up sway bar but could be the pick up ZQ8 sway bar.

Steering is the last suspension upgrade and I think I'm gonna do is the ZQ8 steering box. Forget the borgeson box that we sell, I've heard that you can order the ZQ8 box from Rock Auto much cheaper. I also may do the Ridetech True Turn kit but I'm not sure that that is designed for effectively a 1.25" lower so that is still up in the air.

The link that HO455 posted has been very helpful and I will be using that to search for axle and such in the boneyards.