The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)

[BLUE THUNDER]

Very very nice. I love Suburbans. Almost makes me want one more door.

[Ackattack]

I can't wait to be able to get my son out in the garage helping me. He's only 13 months now.

I took him for a ride in my truck, and when I got on it he made kinda a Tim Taylor grunt and had a big smile on his face. For all I know though, he may have just farted.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by lyrikz

I like stories like that.. My daughter is the same way, ALWAYS wants to sand something on the truck. I need to get her more involved.. just find one piece for her to take care of.

Good story.

Thanks!! Yeah, it sounds like you are well on your way there. Maybe have her do the sanding down low--I can't reach down there, can you get that for me??

Originally Posted by BLUE THUNDER

Very very nice. I love Suburbans. Almost makes me want one more door.

Thank you. Funny, we both want one more door. Three doors--WTH?? One more door would make things sooo much easier, but I hate bodywork, so this one will not get one.

Originally Posted by Ackattack

I can't wait to be able to get my son out in the garage helping me. He's only 13 months now.

I don't know how old my boy was when I brought him out in the shop. He had some strange health issue when he was very young. He would sometimes get to crying so hard that nothing could get him to stop. I would take him out in the shop, just holding him and letting him look around. More times than not, it would hit the reset button on him and calm him down. I also have a couple Hot Wheels trucks and a helicopter that are mine, that he can play with in the shop, but they do not go in the house. I guess it was kind of a trick to get him out here, but it worked. I always stressed shop safety, both in equipment and behavior. I take him to different shops that I deal with and he will maintain himself in a safe manner such that he is welcomed wherever we go.

Originally Posted by Ackattack

I took him for a ride in my truck, and when I got on it he made kinda a Tim Taylor grunt and had a big smile on his face. For all I know though, he may have just farted.

Hey, at his age, appreciation of acceleration or quality gas is a good sign!!

We had a fun day today. We went to Costco to restock our shelves and while rolling through the parking lot, my wife said that she likes the strange looks that the truck gets. I have run enough older vehicles that get/got looks and this thing is like none of them because of the sound coming from it. It is not just an old Suburban, it is an old Suburban that sounds like it has a large diesel engine in it, so it elicits strange looks.

Shortly after that we head across town to pick up my sister and go to get some dining room chairs she secured for us. We get six chairs loaded up, drop off my sister, load up my boy's scooter, helmet, baseball gear, a couple large folding chairs and some other miscellaneous stuff and head to his baseball game. We get out of the game, fire it up, turn on the front and rear A/C (my wife was with me) and set the manual throttle at about 1000rpm to get the interior cooled off while I finish loading the gear. While this is going on, some other dad comes over and says with a big grin that this thing sounds like it has a Cummins in it. I said yeah, sure sounds like it doesn't it?? He asks what does it have and I tell him and his grin get bigger and we chat for a moment. We head out from there, stop and get some mexican food for dinner then stop at a car show. We head home and as we are rolling down the freeway we come up on one of those XB box shaped vehicles. I look at it and realize what kind of a load we are hauling what with all the crap in the back and all and say to my wife that we couldn't be doing this with one of those--even if it had a roof rack.

[LOW DOUGH]

The looks and questions are worth every bit of the work you put into the burd.

[mosesburb]

Well, I guess it has been awhile since I've updated this thread. Not too much has occured since then though.

I pulled the injectors awhile back and had them tested as I thought I might have one that was leaking. When they were tested they were found to be popping at 222 bar instead of the required 245 bar. Among other things, this has the effect of advancing the timing an ever-so-slight bit. I changed them out with a set of injectors from Cummins. Upon starting it I immediately found the idle to be smoother. I thought the idle was smooth before, but after the injectors, it was just that much smoother. By injecting the fuel exactly when it was needed instead of popping a bit early, I lost a bit of raw power. It still runs very well, but I could tell a difference in power after the injector swap. The loss is not enough to make me want to adjust the pump to get it back. One nice side benefit is my mileage went from a repeatable average of 19.5 mpg in town to a repeatable 20.5 mpg in town. Now, I had been working an odd shift that put me on the road in non-rush hour times, but recently I have changed shifts and find myself in stop-and-go on a daily basis. I figured my in town mileage was skewed because of my odd travel times. The first tank after my shift change I figured was a fluke, but when I got 20.6 mpg on my next tank, I knew I was on to something. That is true stop-and-go, with the a/c and fan clutch on. Not too bad for 6600lbs and the aerodynamic properties of an 8-8-16.

I did have one problem recently. I had a crack develop in the power steering pressure line at the pump. It did not spray out, it just dripped--and not too much at that. It made it a real ***** to locate. It wasn't until I pulled the line off of the truck, cleaned it thoroughly and inspected it in the shop that I located the crack under the nut. Unfortunately, I had already tried a couple other things before I located the source of the fluid. Oh well. I made a different line for it and routed it differently, so hopefuly there will be no more issues with it.

In the middle of June I did a carpentry project on it. I built a structure that would be used in the near future.

Base structure:



Top sheeting:



Basement storage:



Now, other than the two bolts attaching the base to a couple seat bolt holes, the entire structure is keyed together--no tools required to remove/disassemble. The really cool thing is that it doesn't rattle or squeak. With the exception of the one 4' wide chunk of plywood, the whole deal stacks up into a space of about 16 x 16 x 60.

So, that takes care of sleeping arrangements for the Missus and me, but I had to come up with something for the boy. Roof-top dwelling momentarily crossed my mind, but I figured I'd lose that sale with two votes against me, one of which being female, so I set to work figuring out something for him. I decided he had to sleep somehow on the rear seat. The seat itself was too narrow, but with a platform of his own, it could be made to work. I took some measurements of him and ripped a chunk of plywood that should fit well, added a couple legs that are keyed in place (no tools needed) and came up with this:



It works great and it actually has some room for growth. I sanded everything so as not to find a splinter in the dark woods. I also added a couple tie-down points for the cooler at the very back of the rear platform. I put some of that floor cushion stuff with the diamond plate texture on the platform to keep loaded goods from rattling around while in transit.

Then came the camping expedition.

[mosesburb]

So I had some vacation time that I had to use before my service anniversary, so I plotted an idea that if sold, could be quite fun.

It worked. We loosely planned a camping/wandering trip and with that, set to loading the truck. Now, my boy has not been camping before and as a side note, he still sleeps with his light on in his room (I am opposed to this, but with my horrid work schedule for the past nine months or so, it left me on the phone at bedtime instead of there in person). Now, when I say sleeps with his light on, I don't mean a little bit, I mean we have planes circling asking for permission to land kind of light. So with that, we knew that we had some work cut out for us.

I got the truck loaded up on the Tuesday before the 4th of July weekend. We got out of town at about 0900 and we were on our way. We headed up to Poland Junction and took that across to where it meets up with FR261. A funny thing happened on the way to FR261 though. When you get past Poland the road gets rough and is basically one lane at that point. About 1/4mi in, we come around an uphill corner and are nose-to-nose with a Caterpillar D6R. Uh, this is not good. Where we sat, it was around 1/8mi worth of backing up to get to a point to turn around. I do not really like the sound of that, so I park it and walk up to talk with the operator. He says the road is open and give him a few to clear the area and we'll be able to pass. Sure enough, a few minutes pass and he runs it almost vertically up the side of the hill so we can pass. We finish Poland Road with no further excitement and meet up with FR261.



We take FR261 over to Seantor Highway and head North toward Prescott. Somewhere along the way, nature called and I found a nice scenic spot to take care of business:



We get into Prescott and find a place to eat lunch. We get out and find a museum that has a bunch of old mining equipment outside, so we wander around it and I explain to my boy what each piece is and how it worked and was used. We wander back to the truck and find some fuel then head north to AZ89A and take it toward Mingus Mountain/Jerome.

We turn off AZ89A about ten miles before Jerome and take FR104 over to FR413. Heading northeast on FR413 we start looking for a spot to camp. Not too far down the trail I saw a little two-track off the left side. We back up and head down the two-track. We get in a ways and find a tree fallen across the trail. It had been there awhile and a route around the tree was already present. I managed to get the Sub around it and we continued heading back into the sticks on this two-track. We got back in a ways and found a nice spot.



We started setting up our gear, but with burn restrictions there was no possibility of a campfire.



We stayed up for awhile then decided to retire to the truck. I put up the window coverings that I engineered and had my Mom manufacture. She used two layers of canvas (almost like denim in weight) and stitched magnets along the hems to make some really cool window coverings. This, and the fact we were in the middle of nowhere, made the inside of the truck very dark. We watched a John Deere show on the DVD player, then he laid down and I read him a couple stories. After those were done he got a little whiney when he realized the lights were going out. I told him a non-fiction story about an orange Suburban and how it came to be. He liked the story and was about out. When he woke up in the morning, I pointed out the fact that he slept with the light off and woke up alive!! (side note: he only uses a dim night light at home now--a positive effect of camping!!)

So I packed up the truck and we head out. We continue down FR413 in the same direction (toward Jerome) that we were headed when we found the two-track. Now I had run the road about ten years ago in another truck so I had an idea of what was coming, but I was in for a rude awakening once we got well into the switchbacks. It appears as though the road has not been maintained in many years. It was quite overgrown and very rough--mind you not too difficult, just rougher than hell, so no speed could be attained. We ran fourteen miles of this road in low range for speed control and several of those miles never saw the speedometer needle move off zero. It is a VERY NARROW shelf road. These pics do not do justice to the roughness or narrowness of the road.



In this one you can kind of see where the edge of the road is in relation to the center of the hood. (This is an extremely smooth part of the road, extremely smooth...)



The road just grates on and on and on and on. I have to put the left side of the truck into the bushes/trees/manzanita/genereal vegetation to keep the right side tires (the wife's side BTW) on the trail. There were points where I was scraping the left side, right side and top simultaneously. It got to a point where we were taking on so much vegetation through the open windows on the left side that we rolled up the windows and cruised in A/C comfort for the rest of the trail. This is a long, painful trail, but it has some spectacular scenery. There is a point where you can see sixty miles in a 180* radius from one point. My favorite view of Jerome is also had from this trail:



The trail ends in Jerome, so at this point relief is felt because the end is near. Well, not quite. There is still over an hour of this lovely road to run yet. Somewhere along after this view, I am putting the left side of the truck into a bush and all of a sudden the steering wheel spins left and the truck stops. Uh, that can't be good. I back up, move right ever so slightly and head on down the trail looking for somewhere I can get out and inspect the damage. I find a spot and check it out. The chrome ring on the locking hub hit a rock. It appears as though there was no harm done. Driving down this trail is a constant sawing at the wheel, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.... Well, somewhere along that run I get the feeling that something with the steering is not right. It still works and we FINALLY get off that trail. It took so long that it is past lunch time so we head down the hill toward Cottonwood. Now that we are on pavement, I realize what is up. The steering wheel is at 11:00/5:00--not good. We stop to get some grub and when we get out, my boy looks at the excessively pinstriped/scratched truck and exclaims "The truck looks cool!! It looks like it has flames on it!!" I call a buddy of mine that we visited in January and he is around so we decide to head that way. We stop to pick up some food and I stay with the truck and start working on the drag link. I get it re-centered and we head up the hill.

We get to the forest road that my buddy lives on and I tell my boy to come up front. I have him sit on my lap and let him steer us along the FR to my friends place. He loved it!! We hang out there for the night and the next day we go out wandering around. We stop off at Blue Ridge Reservoir.



We head down by the dam and check out it and the spillway. We brought a fishing pole and tackle box for my boy, but the walls surrounding the lake are so steep that we couldn't find a trail down to the water.



We decide to spend another night up there. I brought a rifle with so I could teach my boy how to shoot. He did pretty good and actually put a few rounds into what he was aiming at. Not bad for a first time. We roasted some marshmallows over a grille and sacked out. We got up the next morning and putzed around trying to delay the inevitable departure. While we were doing that my buddy's wife said we need to stop at the Baker Butte fire lookout station. Sounds good. So we load up and head out. We stop off and check out the tower.



It is very neat up there. The map for spotting fires is extrememly cool in its simplicity. The lady has a very cool labrador and she answers all kinds of strange questions that I/we have. I have some pics off of the tower is anybody is interested in seeing them. We climb down from the tower and unfortuantely are on our way home. We get home without issue and unload the essential goods leaving the others for later when it cools off.

All in all it was a great trip. We had a load of fun. My boy got his first camping trip, first rifle use, first opeartion of a UTV, first roasted marshmallows and first driving of the Suburban. The truck ran great and other than the adjusting of the draglink had no issues at all.

This was the intended use of the Suburban from the time I bought it. It took a bunch of years, but it can finally be used for what it was built for--back country travel. Yay!!

[Palf70Step]

Looks like a GREAT trip. Beautiful scenery.

[bullington]

Awesome Suburban!

I looked for what size lift you had and couldn't find it. Is it a 4" lift? Love the lift with skinny tire look!

Edit: Found it 4" lift plus an inch from the 3/4 ton spring pads.

[71meangreenc10]

Some of the best views I remember were from the AZ skylines.....

Only if the schools were good for my son where I lived, I would retire there......


Smitty

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Damn good story...

[vectorit]

Those pics of your burb on the back roads really look good, and they brought back lots of memories of my burb doing those trips back in the day! Though I plan to do some like that soon again with my baby.

What size tires are you running? They look great!

I am currently running 33x12.50's, and I am thinking about going with a tire like you are running.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Looks like a GREAT trip. Beautiful scenery.

Thanks!! It was a great time.

Originally Posted by bullington

Awesome Suburban!

I looked for what size lift you had and couldn't find it. Is it a 4" lift? Love the lift with skinny tire look!

Edit: Found it 4" lift plus an inch from the 3/4 ton spring pads.

Yes, 4" and the 1" comes from the 1 ton D60 spring pads and a Zero Rate type 1" bolt-on block on the rear spring pack.

Originally Posted by 71meangreenc10

Some of the best views I remember were from the AZ skylines.....

Yes, and the best scenery is only visible from dirt--not pavement!!

Originally Posted by FRENCHBLUE72

Damn good story...

Thanks!!

Originally Posted by vectorit

Those pics of your burb on the back roads really look good, and they brought back lots of memories of my burb doing those trips back in the day! Though I plan to do some like that soon again with my baby.

Cool!! I highly recommend it!!

Originally Posted by vectorit

What size tires are you running? They look great!

Man, I had to look through the post to find out myself (I didn't feel like going outside to look)

(From post 164): They are 255 85 R16 BFG M/T KM's. The size is what drew me to them as I was able to use them on a 6.5" wheel. The dimensions come out to be about 33 x 10. This was perfect--tall and skinny, ready to go on my "old man" wheels.

Originally Posted by vectorit

I am currently running 33x12.50's, and I am thinking about going with a tire like you are running.

I had 33x12.50 16.5's on this for many years while it sat. I liked the look of the tires/wheels, but the tires dried up and cracked apart, so I went with these because I got a screamin' deal on them (also I liked the size and they would go on the stock steel wheels).

The problem with the size is that it is odd. I am dreading the day I have to replace one as I bet it is going to be a special order or at least a transfer from another store. Maybe not, but I bet it does.

[mosesburb]

Ten thousand miles!! Yessir, I passed 10k a few days ago. No fanfare, no pictures, no hype. I celebrated by taking it through emissions (it sounds super-*****in' running on the rollers at 50mph inside a bulding). One year and ten thousand miles. In a way it seems like I have been driving it forever when in reality I have just been looking at it forever in my driveway.

So, Saturday me and my boy were going to go to a car show in Prescott, AZ. It is about ninety miles north and 5300' in elevation, so it is much cooler than here. I figured there would be some different cars there than we see at the shows around here. My boy was looking forward to it big-time. I think from Wednesday on, it was the topic of choice for him to bring up. It rained--cow/flat rock type stuff on Saturday. He was not happy about having to stay home. We bounced around town picking a few things up and visiting some people here and there.

Sunday I got up at about 0600 and it was dry outside. I went in his room and he half-way came to and gave me a hug and wished me a good day (typical work day routine). I informed him it was Sunday and he half tilted his head and said oh. I asked if he wanted to go to a car show. He asked "in Prescott??" I said yes and he threw his covers off and sailed down the ladder and ripped into kitchen to start getting ready. So we get our stuff together and head up there. We pull up to the guy collecting money for parking and he asks what year the Sub is and i say '72. He said that I have a choice. I can pay five dollars and park right here in the mud and walk all the way over there--or--I can drive all the way around over to there, pay five dollars to enter the truck in the show and park in the grass. You sir, are a great salesman!! So needless to say, we paid five bones and entered this chick-magnet in the show. I knew I had no chance at winning, but out of humor, I went ahead and filled the registration card out and turned it in.

Yes, I was officially #137 in the Truck category.


Obviously, I did not win anything, but I did notice a couple things. The first thing I noticed is this truck was all-or-nothing with people. There was almost no in between. What I mean by that is people would either pass by, completely oblivious to it or if they looked at it they spent a minimum of five minutes (usually more). Now mind you, all I did was pop the hood and take off. I did not hang around the truck at all, but the topography of the site was such that I could see the truck from the swap meet area and when I would see the same people there for awhile I started glancing at it when it was visible and noticed the pattern.

The whole car show deal with the judging is not for me, but my boy liked it. He was all excited when we entered it and heard about the judging. It was a very fun day there and about a hundred yards past the car show is a lake.



It had all kinds of granite outcrops and boulders that lent themselves well to climbing and adventure so we crawled around on those for awhile then headed back to the truck to roll out.

So all in all, we had a great time. We had great weather and a real nice drive.

On a little side note, I was at work today and a member of management came up and told me he went and looked at a '72 shortbed in town this morning and the guy selling it couldn't stop talking about this cool Suburban he saw at a car show in Prescott. It was orange and had a Cummins. The guy I work with said he knew of the truck. Then a buddy of the guy selling the truck came over and started telling the guy I work with about this really cool Suburban they saw with a Cummins in it. I thought it was kind of funny that it took less than two hours at work to hear where I went this weekend. Small world.

[Beelzeburb]

Great work again man. This thread has yet to disappoint or decrease in the quality of the material posted. I'm about a year behind your project in terms of driveability and completion, but I can't wait until I get to start having adventures and using it like it was intended to be used, just like yourself.

[jbclassix]

No BFG's for the show? Every time my wife sees your pictures she starts thinking more and more about moving to Flagstaff...

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by Beelzeburb

Great work again man. This thread has yet to disappoint or decrease in the quality of the material posted. I'm about a year behind your project in terms of driveability and completion, but I can't wait until I get to start having adventures and using it like it was intended to be used, just like yourself.

Thanks!! Take your time and see it through to the last detail before you start driving it. Once you start driving it, you will not want to take it out of service to finish this or that little detail--trust me on this....

Originally Posted by jbclassix

No BFG's for the show?

Nope, no BFG's. I wasn't planning on entering the show. I only entered it to get the non-muddy parking. I had put the highway tires on it last week because they ride and drive soooo nice compared to the muds. Being that we were just driving to the show I wanted the nice ride/handling of the highway tires as opposed to the better looks of the BFG's.

Originally Posted by jbclassix

Every time my wife sees your pictures she starts thinking more and more about moving to Flagstaff...

Really?!? My orange Suburban makes her want to move to Flagstaff?? hehehe. I would like to move there too, but logistically speaking it is not too feasible right now.

[bullington]

Originally Posted by mosesburb

Nope, no BFG's. I wasn't planning on entering the show. I only entered it to get the non-muddy parking. I had put the highway tires on it last week because they ride and drive soooo nice compared to the muds. Being that we were just driving to the show I wanted the nice ride/handling of the highway tires as opposed to the better looks of the BFG's.

you know you want the nice looking tires so you can win all the hardware at the show

[N2TRUX]

Thanks for sharing

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by bullington

you know you want the nice looking tires so you can win all the hardware at the show

Nah, it's all about the preferred parking!!

Originally Posted by N2TRUX

Thanks for sharing

Thanks for your help!!

I just realized that I started this post two years ago. It sure has come a long way in that time (like being able to be driven instead of being just a big orange yard ornament--you know, little things like that)

[mosesburb]

Well, no real big update right now, but I filled the tank on Thursday and got a new high mileage to report....

20.88!! Yessir, almost 21mpg in town, stop and go, front and rear A/C cranked, fan clutch on, rush hour--pretty much everything that will kill mileage numbers and I got 20.88.
Woo-hoo!!

[Critter]

THAT'S AWESOME! Power, mileage, good looks and gobs of interior room, that thing is a win-win-win-win vehicle!

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by Critter

THAT'S AWESOME! Power, mileage, good looks and gobs of interior room, that thing is a win-win-win-win vehicle!

LOL. Yeah, it is a pretty hard package to beat. It still burns me that I can't even get 16mpg on the highway, but then I think about what I'd be getting if it still had the big block and realize I have nothing to complain about. If I was getting 11 on the highway with that I would have been content.

[mosesburb]

I have been avoiding a situation on this truck for some time now. The front suspension was kind of jacked up in that I never really finished it. Because of my engine being set so low, my engine crossmember was pretty close to my front diff making uptravel rather limited. When I bought my shocks many years ago, I bought shocks that were too long (as it sat) because I had different upper shock mounts for it, but those had not made it into the truck yet. So, I had a couple projects that needed to be tackled simultaneously on it. I started by taking it out and flexing it a little bit to get an idea of where bumpstops needed to be placed.



In doing this I learned something that turned out to be rather important. I had found marks on my crossmember from the diff hose and I wrongfully figured that the diff had contacted the crossmember. What I found out actually happened was the shock was bottoming out and the witness marks on the crossmember must have been from the hose bouncing up to hit the crossmember. I had known my shocks were a little too long, but I did not realize they were that long. Well, ok, I already had bought the bumpstops and mounting material, so they were going on regardless.

I had been researching bumpstops for some time and had bought some of those big inverted triangle urethane units and had planned on using them, but I had found where several people had experienced failures with otherwise new looking units. I did not like the idea of making them work, just to have them fail shortly thereafter. That got me to looking at air bumps. I liked the features they brought, but I kept hanging up on the fact that they have seals and oil and nitrogen all of which can leak creating a situation of "no-bump". They are very cool, but way more than I need in both performance and reliability. I need something similar but with much less technology involved. During my research I came across Daystar's Stinger Bump Stop Kit. It shares many of the same features of the air bumps, including mounting configuration and basic idea of operation--piston/shaft contacting suspension and compressing a media that resists compression to limit travel. Instead of nitrogen they use a puck made of hard foam. Three of these pucks stack up in the cylinder to create the media resistant to compression. Two different density pucks are supplied so compression resistance can be tailored to your liking. This fit my bill exactly. The features of an air bump that I want without the potential problems of the air bumps. Stupid simple--perfect.



So I got these and did some measuring and decided what I needed to mount them. They will mount in a standard 2" bump can, but that would be pretty easy, so I decided to make some of my own. I picked up a piece of 2-1/4, .125 wall DOM tubing. I quickly found out that the 2"od of the bump did not fit in the 2"id of the tubing. With that, I took it over to my favorite machine shop and had Russ turn out a few thou's on the id. While I was there I had him make a couple aluminum slugs that share the same dimensions as the foam pucks supplied with the bumps. Once he finished with that stuff I was able to get going on my project.

I took a piece of 1/4" plate and flame cut the mounting plate for the tube out of it. I figured out where on the frame it needed to be and then welded the DOM tube to it. I then took some 1.125 x .125 flat stock and made some gussets to it. I took some 5/16" coupler nuts, drilled the threads out of them and welded one toward the top of the tube and one toward the bottom. I then took a cutoff wheel and slotted the tube from top to bottom through the coupler nuts. This provides the mounting/pinch function. I then drilled some 31/64" holes through the plate and the frame and mounted the plate to the frame with four 12mm 10.9 flange head bolts with flange-head steel lock nuts. That got the bumpstops mounted, but I still had to deal with the shocks.

Several years ago I had picked up a bunch of the typical extended shock mounts that get used on these trucks. All that I had to do was mount them. I figured out where they needed to be and drilled the holes and used some more of the 12mm 10.9 flange head bolts and nuts. I then took my air saw out to cut the inner fenderwell for shock clearance. Well, the saw worked for about an inch and then decided it did not want to play anymore so I ended up using a die grinder with a cutoff wheel. Not the most ideal tool for the task, but it did get the job done.



So, that got the shocks mounted. I ran out to my super-secret high-tech suspension testing facility to see how I did. I immediately found that my too-long shocks were now too-short shocks. They went from being bump stops to limiting straps. I did some measuring and found that the fronts would be about the right length for the rears and the rear shocks would probably be better on the front. I swapped the fronts for the rears and headed back out to my private test facility and found that the shocks are almost perfect now.



Here it is at bumpstop contact point. There is still some shock travel left, so I will have to keep an eye on it next time it hits the trail. My wheel travel needs to be more limited on the right side because of the differential, so on that side I ran two of the harder (black) pucks along with one aluminum plug (to replace one puck) in the bumpstops. This should keep the wheel travel in the acceptable range.



So, with all of this, I have a much more functional suspension system now. I have not had a chance to run it on an actual trail, but from my first test to the last one that I did, I can tell a major difference in how much the suspension moves around already. A good trail will let me know if I am done or have more to do to finish the suspension up. Well see.

On an unrelated side-note, I did this work last weekend when it was about 108-110 (in the shade) with enough humidity to make it very uncomfortable. I stuck it out, plugged along and got it done. Now, in comparison, this weekend we had a cold spell roll in and it was only 98* this weekend with very reasonable humidity. I guess I should have waited to do it until this weekend. Oh well.

[1985-GMC]

Holy moses this was an awesome build! You have awesome attention to detail, im a lot like that but not sure as much you! It looks great man, Love the original paint too.

[MickMc]

Gotta link on the Daystar's Stinger Bump Stop Kit?


Mick