'85 4wd burb. (New to 4x4's, and have questions)

[Psycho71]

Hi fellas,
New to this board. Been on the 67-72 for a few years now, just went and picked up an '85 4x4 Burb yesterday. Will be my next project vehicle. I am ignorant about 4x4 stuff, so please answer some very basic questions for me if you can.

Has a 350 engine, 3 spd auto trans, and regular suburban stuff. I have yet to even crawl around under it. So i know nothing about it.

Would it most likely have a 400TH, or 350TH? What transfer case is in it?

It has Warn Locking hubs on the front. Are these preferable?

Will need new wheels and tires. Wanting to do a minimal lift, only if needed to accommodate the tires. Wanting something in the neighborhood of 33x12.5-14.5x?. A couple of questions regarding wheel size.....Is it possible to run a 15" wheel on this truck? If it make any difference, the truck uses a 8x6.5 bolt pattern, and presently has 16" wheels on it. I'd like to run some 15x10's on it. Would I need to order a special backspace? Or will I need the 16" or larger in order to clear calipers and such?

This thing will be getting a mechanical rebuild. Motor and trans at least. Is there any way to bench test the transfer case? The motor is a goner, so no option to test under power at this time. Would like to know everything is gonna work right when I put it all back together.

Thanks in advance for any answers y'all can provide. I'm sure I will be wearing y'all out with stupid questions, at least til I can wrap my brain around the 4wd components aspect of this thing.

[Psycho71]

no-one? Can anyone point me to a source for info on these trucks? I can do research, just need to know where I might could look for the info.


thanks,
Jay

[V30 mongo]

Sounds like a 3/4 ton by the 8 bolt wheels. Never saw 15 inch for 8 bolt. Do'nt know if they will fit past front disk brakes. Warn hubs are not factory. Factory used Splicer hubs manual or auto types. Transfer case should be NP208.

[Walts_restoration]

check out coloradok5.com for more 4x4 info, its a 25/year, but well worth it imho.



yes, you can use a 15" wheel on a 3/4 ton or 1 ton. Sometimes you have to grind the caliper for discs, or just use the right backspacing of wheel. (Thinking 2" offset? let me find it)

[85burb]

Will for sure have to grind on most calipers to make wheels fit. 16 inch wheels are really the best way to go. Would really hate to see the ticeket for modifed calipers and a werck. Thay are only a few more bucks. My 85 has a 700r4 and 208 transfer case. Oh ya them warn hubs are junk....i will trade you my factory ones for the warn ones... Just kidding. They are good. need pics. I am a member of the ck5.com well kinda...they seem to be stuck up mostly. And you cant really do any thing unless you pay for sub. to them. Just my 2 cents tho.

[Tex_50613]

Originally Posted by Walts_restoration

check out coloradok5.com for more 4x4 info, its a 25/year, but well worth it imho.



yes, you can use a 15" wheel on a 3/4 ton or 1 ton. Sometimes you have to grind the caliper for discs, or just use the right backspacing of wheel. (Thinking 2" offset? let me find it)

even with the proper backspacing you will need to clean up the castings on the caliper, I am running 15x10 with a 2" back spacing and had to clean up the outer casting lines on the caliper due to them catching the wheel

[Psycho71]

Originally Posted by Tex_50613

even with the proper backspacing you will need to clean up the castings on the caliper, I am running 15x10 with a 2" back spacing and had to clean up the outer casting lines on the caliper due to them catching the wheel

[Psycho71]

Thanks for the info fellas. Here's a few pics I took the other evening. She's still pretty rough, but I'll get her looking OK soon enough.

[Psycho71]

Tex, you have any pics of yours with the 15x10's on it. I'm only considering this option because it opens my choice in tire by a whole lot. Looks like MRT Wheels will build me the backspace and bolt pattern.

[Tex_50613]

mine's not a burban, it's a k20 but here's the pics of the wheels on the truck, just keep in mind the tires are 44x18 gumbo monster mudders and I'm only running 7" of lift so there was a little trimming, the wheels are rockcrawler 15x10 from 4WheelParts.com that I had the white powder coating blasted and had re-coated black

[USSkoval]

It's best to stick with the 16's because there's FAR more available, they just aren't listed as "33" or "35". A 305/70/16 is a 33x12.5, and the 315/75/16 is a 35x12.5 ...roughly. It's not exact, but close.

Oh, and a 3/4 ton Burb would have the th400 tranny.

[Psycho71]

Thanks for the pics.

I'm still on the fence over the 15" or 16" wheels. I've got some work to do before I have to decide on that. The 16's have a certain appeal, but the 15' wheels give me way more choices in size, manufacturer, and a bit lower pricing. being a burb, that's so heavy, I am actually considering a 14.5" wide tire to get a bit more footprint. If that makes any sense. But I still have a while before I have to commit either way.

[Walts_restoration]

go 17s haha. or get some 37" hummer take offs (37x12.50/r16.5, can get them for like 75/tire with 95%+ tread), have the h1s recentered to get your offset and bam! cheap mud tire with bead locks.

[Stocker]

I had 15" wheels on my '72 K20 several years ago -- it only took a little light grinding on the calipers, not much metal removed at all. If you really want to run 15s, I'd say do it and don't worry about it. I was less happy with the offset of my 15" wheels (don't ask, it's been way too long for me to remember) and I'm currently running 16.5s. If I ever switch again -- if 16.5 tires become too hard to find, as has been rumored for several years -- I'll switch to 16s.

With a 350 engine, you probably have a TH350 trans. Easy to tell by the shape of the pan... I'll post pics of each if I can find 'em. Dunno which TC, you might be able to dig around and find some pics of different cases to compare with yours.

Edit: #3 = TH350, #4 = TH400


There's also this thread http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=278141

[LONGHAIR]

Originally Posted by Tex_50613

mine's not a burban, it's a k20 but here's the pics of the wheels on the truck, just keep in mind the tires are 44x18 gumbo monster mudders and I'm only running 7" of lift so there was a little trimming,

That's more than a "little" trimming and it appears that the rear tires still hit..

[Psycho71]

Originally Posted by Walts_restoration

go 17s haha. or get some 37" hummer take offs (37x12.50/r16.5, can get them for like 75/tire with 95%+ tread), have the h1s recentered to get your offset and bam! cheap mud tire with bead locks.

Well, I ended up buying some Hummer take-offs today. Just couldn't pass up a set of 80%+ tires for $300. Mine are the 36" variety.

I did put the cart before the horse, as I still need to get the burb actually running down the road. Then get a lift on it to handle the larger tires. But I just could let the tires go at that price.

Even though I'll need to get another set of wheels (I'll get me some steelies), I'll still come out close to half of what a set of 315/75/16's would have cost.

Thanks for the advice.