Yep, after 13 years of love 'n hard use, it's still my daily drive. Some people have asked why I haven't gotten a new vehicle yet. Well I owe nothing on it, pay $20 a month in car insurance and use $40 a week in gas. That's less than most people's car payments, let alone thier car insurance and then the amount of gas they use. Maybe I'm just waiting for a new Toyota diesel pickup to hit our shores.
Originally, I bought the truck with the intent on spending a little money on it and having a durable truck. Almost 10g's later, I have my reliable truck but I still have to give it love ($$) every now and then. The tale of a 4x4 enthusiest. I also have the knowledge of having put it together so I know what's up with it and how to fix periodic problems.
Here's the break-down of this page. It's still under constuction so bear with me.
Basic truck info |
The mill |
The suspension |
The tires |
Future plans
I think I have a solid setup. Chevy thoughfully put 1 ton parts in their Blazer's almost 30 years ago. I enjoy the benifits of having an SM465 transmission routing power to a NP205 transfercase. The SM465 is really a three speed with a 6.55:1 granny low gear. The NP205 has a 2:1 low range and I run 3.73:1 axle ratios. If you muliply a bunch of numbers together and make it look all formal, I'm running somewere around a 47.371:1 crawl ratio....Something like that. So with good drivetrain components, decent power, a medium lift, moderate fender trimming, and good sized meats I feel that I'm an owner of a perfect all around vehicle. It does well rock climbing, mudding (although more aggressive tires would serve it better), trail running and general 4x4'ing. As of yet I haven't taken it to any sand dunes so I can't say how it does there. The truck is my daily driver and it has suprisingly good highway manners. The gas mileage on the highway is not bad at around 16-18 mpg (about the same as todays 30 year younger SUV's), around town mileage is 12-14.
I had to replace the drive shafts and put a new rear-end on it. Hopefully my experience will prevent a similiar thing from happening to you if you're buying an older truck for the first time. Listen up. The pinion carrier bearing grenaded a couple of weeks after I bought the truck. Somehow the sludge I scraped out of the pumpkin afterwards just wasn't lubricating the gears and keeping them cool. The first couple of weeks I had been going through and doing a whole lot of neglected "routine maintance", i.e. oil change, radiator flush, new spark plugs and air filter, tune-up stuff, repacking the wheel bearings and hadn't yet checked the gear oil in the diffs. During that time I didn't drive it more than 5 miles a day. When I thought I was good-to-go, I took it out on the freeway for its first "road test" and got about twenty miles from nowhere. HOT TIP: the $75 you'll spend getting AAA Plus membership pays for itself the first time you get towed in from B.F.E.- for free (a $100+ price tag if you pay out-of-pocket) probably recomps the cost of your membership fees. Anyway, as I was saying, I got about 20 miles on the interstate and smelled burning gear oil and metal. Not a good smell. After pulling over I crawled under my truck to discover my rear driveshaft protruding oddly out of the pumpkin and smoke pouring out from where the seal should have been. After geting towed back, I was able to locate a used GM 12-bolt cheaper than getting new pinion bearing, ring and pinion gears the set up. Needless to say I made sure there was fresh gear oil in it when I bolted it in.
The front axle is a solid Dana 44. Steering is a pain with a locked front and I don't really see terrain where I would need one (knock on wood) so I've decided to leave it open.
However, a few years ago I installed a Lock-rite locker in the rear axle. While I had everything apart, I tossed in Mosser axle shafts and their heavy-duty bearings. 4X4 Power magazine had an article about it a few years ago. They said the axle shafts are like 7 time stronger than stock and the bearings give it 3/4 ton strength. Seems to be the case.
I have replaced the transmission and engine mounts with Energy Suspension poly mounts and went ahead and put in polyurethane body-mounts while I was at it.
Because of the hot-rod parts I was putting under the hood I thought a high performance fuel pump was in order. Six months later after swapping to a Carter electric pump I mounted on the inside of the frame by the gas tank, I was finally able to get rid of the gas smell- still don't know where it was coming from. High performance usually means high pressure, and sometimes you don't need high performance.
While the engine was out I decided to switch to power steering and located a four wheel drive power gear box at a junk yard, reasonably priced. Power steering is probably the best thing I've done on the truck. Turning 33's with "arm strong" power steering gets old real quick on the trail or even the parking lot.
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Being on a budget when I started working on the truck I was only gonna put minimal work on the engine. When I bought it, there was a 305 in it and I then learned from the V.I.N. that it originally came with an inline-6! However, that crapped-out and I had to replace it. I chose to swap in a rebuilt stock 350cid and put some upgrades on it. Not knowing enough about engines at the time to work a block myself, I chose to go stock because they use guaranteed components that work together. When I pulled the heads on the old 305 there were parts of a (I think) shop-rag in a few of the cylinders. Not healthy! The Quadrajet carb had been worked on previously by someone who knew exactly squat about working on carbs and had problems. So right off, I decided to top the engine with a new carb and was advised to go with an Edlebrock. The way the floats are side to side, instead of front and rear like Hollys, it's less prone to dump gas going up extreme angles or descending. They look cool too. Doing some research, I went with an Edlebrock performer 600cfm and performer intake to match. Switching from a 305 to a 350, the old exhuast manifold wouldn't fit (something I didn't realize before hand) so I decided to go with
Flowtech headers. Besides being a performance upgrade, they were cheaper and lighter than going with new cast-iron manifolds. I ran dual exhaust with no cross-over through 2-1/4" pipe and Turbo mufflers. If I could have afforded Flowmasters at that time, I would have gone with them. I also slapped in a new alternator, starter, battery, and switched from points to HEI ignition. I had my radiator taken apart, all the seems rebrazed and then presure tested. New wires, plugs, hoses, belts, caps and filters top off the list. I had to replace the clutch, clutch fork, presure plate, realease bearing and front bearing on my tranny. SECOND HOT TIP: do all that when the engine's out for any other reason- you'll save $$$.
Since then I've again upgraded the ignition by adding an MSD-6AL. For cosmetics and beef I went with March billit aluminum brackets to hold on the power steering pump and the alternator.
But Wait, there's more!...
Almost a decade ago, I replaced that engine with a small block 400. After several happy years with the 350, I managed to crack the block...(don't ask- it takes talent).. I scored a screaming deal for a race ready 6.6liter (400cid) with cam and other internal goodies. Just had to swap tin and put on a new fly-wheel and balancer and vrrrrrm we're off! Nothing like cubes, carb or compression to make horsepower! For cooling I had to anty-up, so I got a Griffin aluminum racing radiator and a Flex-o-lite black magic electric fan. Since I had several electrical acessories sucking juice, I beefed up the electrical system with a 140amp Summit Racing alternator. While I was changing things, I up-graded to 2-1/2" aluminized pipe and 40 series Flowmasters. Zoom-Zoom! With dual cat's I even pass emmissions in Portland!
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The truck rides on a plain vanilla Rancho four inch lift. It has lift springs in front and blocks in back. The ride is cushioned on Rancho RS5000 Shocks. Originaly I was told the truck had a Rancho lift on it, but then when I went to replace the worn (read that as missing) front spring bushings with Energy Suspension poly I found out that they weren't Rancho springs up front but some unidentifiable unknown brand springs. So with a little fear of the unknown and sweat equity I installed the Rancho 4" lift I was told I already had. The springs came with polyurethane bushings like what I was origianally going to put in. They also ride better than the other ones did. The shakles got replaced while the springs were out with new ones. The old shakles had developed a bend to the left on all of them that was caused from the springs moving around in them with out bushings to hold them in place. (so I was told) This was reason I was installing bushings and got all this rolling in the first place. Loose springs created great axle articulation off-road, but was hedious on road. This also caused the rearend of the Blazer to dog-leg while going down the road. Something I didn't notice (inside the truck it felt like you were going straight) but was unnerving to drivers following behind. Problem solved.
I also had to replace the rubber body mounts with Energy Suspension poly mounts. The old rubber was worn and I could feel the body shifting ever so slightly as I make turns- not a good feeling! I've replaced the sway bar bushings already and recently added Off-Road Design quick disconects.
This about does it for the suspension. I've replaced just about everything and hope I'm done with that area of the truck.
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The truck rides on 33X12.5/15 Dakota All-terains wich have the same tread pattern as BFG All-terains. They are mounted on 8"x15" steel American Racing rims. I ran into some difficulty repacking the front wheel bearings and discovered I had one 1/2 ton spindle and one 3/4 ton spindle on the Dana 44. I ended up replacing the 3/4 ton spindle with a Jeep Dana 44 spindle. GM quit making parts for my truck in 1990 (or so GM tells me). While I had it all torn apart I also replaced the rotors and brake calipers. The right rotor had a serious gash in it that was beyond turning- part of the reason I had a serious pull to the right during braking. I also upgraded the plastic 1/4 turn hubs for Mile Marker Supreme hubs. These hubs have all metal construction and are 3/4 turn engagement.
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