Lifted blazer suspension travel

[CastIron]

I have a friend that just lifted his 95 blazer using torsion bar keys and extended shackles. It now sits about 2.5 inches higher but the front suspension sits on the bumpstops. He got a little more travel out of it by adjusting the torsion bars, but it still has a really bumpy ride. Anybody have any ideas for a quick fix? He bought it mainly for off road or winter use and it is not going to be a daily driver.

[abig84]

Maybe uncrank a bit and do a body lift. I put on a 2 inch suspension lift for a customer years ago and it was a horrible design. The cv joint boots even came off when turning the higher the angle of those front axle the easier they are going to break. I used to wheel a 85 s10 with 33s and got sick of the axles breaking almost every time I turned the wheel, went all out on my next build and put a 10bolt gm axle up front

[CastIron]

My buddy ended up taking out the new torsion bar keys and putting the original ones back in. He then lifted the front just a little by tightening the adjustment bolts as far as he could. It drives and rides a lot better now. It has 31" tires on it and it looks pretty good right now.

[Sblazerblue96]

What i did on blue she is a 96 s10 blazer lt 4door i keep blowing diffs and snapping axle shafts yet to blow a cv surprisingly but she had the 6.25 front 3.73 gear in a AAM and the rear 7.5 gov lock 10 bolt 3.73 in Salisbury i went to a 98+ zr2 rear diff which is direct bolt in and 3.98 inch wider than non zr2 aswell as being a 1/2 ton diff at 8.625 (8 5/8) aswell as the zr2 front which is a 7.25 direct bolt in but i then got interested on how easy all these upgrades were to install i figured i would try zr2 control arms nuckles and hubs.. well i went from single piston calipers to dual piston so master needed to be swapped as well but the control arms are roughly 1 1/2 inch longer so i needed to use zr2 cvs as there longer as well and i did the 3 and 2 inch sus level kit i ground a little off of the control arm stop so i have more drop to accommodate for the t bar keys/crank (gained about 2.5 2.75 more drop for a smooth ride i also put a 1 inch longer compressed shock on the front and i had test fit 33×12.50r15 tires that rubbed to much for my liking so i put 31s back on. A week later my 3 inch body lift pucks came i i installed them and put 33s on. Had to trip fronts and backs of fenders to stop rubbing on a total of 5 inches lift on 33s and lost a lot of bottom end touque so i regeard to 4.56 and made my speedometer correct. I then got longer rear shocks and moved the frame shock mount backwards 3 inches as well as up 2 inches for a 5 inch longer shock and i put a main leaf with the eyes cut off into the leaf pack as the second leaf and assembled the rest of the pack gave me 1 3/4 to 2 inch height for stock rake look giving me 13.25 inch clearance at my low point and i didn't get any stiffer but my pinion angle was 5 degrease to high so i put a 6° shim in and made it 1° low to accommodate for axle wrap under load. I took my 2wd s10 rims with the 5 inch offset instead of 7 offset that comes stock on all 4x4 s10 blazers so i have wider stance i am 84 inches outside tire to outside tire as a full size 1500 gm is 80 inches.. its a ridiculously awesome blazer off road but once i get into crawling up steep washed out road/trails with bedrock steps or big boulders i start snapping inner axle shafts in the front diff and blowing front drive shafts into pieces as well as shattering rear u joints.. this carnage only occurs when i break traction and i get a hop or two before a really loud series of bangs. Next time she breaks i want to seriously look into putting either a 2 door short box frame under my blazer. Or putting the rear and front diffs in my blazer 🤔 any one ever attempted or thought of this conversion.

[CastIron]

I wanted a ZR2 blazer but couldn't find a decent one when I bought my 2000 4 door.
I have seen some conversions using solid front axles on other forums. Some look pretty sketchy and some look well built. I've never heard of anybody putting the body on a different frame. I'm sure somebody has tried it somewhere though.

[BlackedOut67shorty]

Sounds like he cranked the bars too much. Stock s10s are only good for 1.5 inches unless you have a kit then you could go more.

[BlackedOut67shorty]

Zr2 frames are different and have different mounting points on the frame, they are wider as well but putting stuff from a zr2 to a normal s10 will not give it any lift at all, it would eather have to be lifted using shackles and tbar crank or getting a lift