?'s on older 4wd chevys

[Mike_HKmtrsprts]

has anyone built or seen older 4wd chevys straight axel built like say a 73' my friend wants to built one but I have no idea how much travel they can get and how well to do they do in the dirt and what you have to do to the front drive shaft to allow for more travel he wants to run deavers with a 2.5 bypass and air bump at everycorner, please give me some answers so I can relay them onto him thanks....Mike

[Waldo]

Dude, I see them all the time in Off-Road Mag or Four Wheeler...J/K

Aren't you pretty much limited to what the springs will do as far as travel goes? A friend of mine built a '69 Blazer. He put Nationals all the way around with Rancho 9000's and it worked "OK" in the dirt. It was handled pretty crazy when he tried to go fast in whoops. But for playing around and driving to Competition hill at night, the thing worked great!

BRAAAAAAAAP!

[JrSyko]

Mike Macomas over at Ace Motorsports used to race an older straight axle chevy 4x4. In fact it was out racing at Laughlin this year. It broke its transfer case the first day but they fixed it and it ran strong the second day. I'm not sure what place it finished but it looked good. A guy with the first name of Travis drove it but I can't remember his last name. You should give Mike a call. He owns a body shop out in Hemet and preps Marc Steins Expedition.

Lets F*%KING RAGE!

[Bob_Sheaves]

Hi Mike-

The short form answers (assuming a "street piece" and not a race car) are as follows:

Ft springs- Get Deaver's or Nationals at about 400#/in rate at ride height and a 4" lift at ride height.
Rear springs- Get Deaver's or nationals at about 350#/in rate at ride height and a 4.5" lift at ride height.
Front shocks- 3" Kings with their standard valving and bypass- 12" if mounting close to OE axle location
Rear shocks- 2.5" Kings w/std valving and bypass
Set jounce stops to bottom out with 1.5" travel left in shocks to prevent bottoming out the shocks front and rear.

Remove front (and rear- if equipped) sway bars if using above spring rates- do NOT remove if less rate in either location.

Fabricate left frame mount track (panhard) rod from Dodge BR/3500 and convert steering linkage to transverse links drag link with Haltenberger type linkage. for front axle.

More info if you need it-PM me.

Best as always,

Bob Sheaves

[Kritter]

Bob has it down. My dad used to have a 69, 72, and 79 Blazer when he was in a Blazer club and he had springs front and rear and a bilstein and I remember it working pretty good. It went anywhere. I dont recall any hi speed desert running but for playing around it was more then enough.


Kris

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.dmsrace.com>www.dmsrace.com</A>

[drtdevil93]

we have a long travel setup we do that works great. we have one at the shop right now if you want to come take a look at it. i might be wrong, but i think the truck you guys are referring to has our setup. we make the spring about 6" longer, relocate the shackle and box in the frame at the shackle point. we havent cycled it, but i believe it does around 12" of travel in front. and we did something similar with the rear, and it puts out about 16". weve done i think 4 of these now, so there are a few of them out there. come take a look, its pretty bitchin work.

erik

[drtdevil93]

you know, ill take some pictures tomorrow and post them. the truck is also being shot for a feature in off-road. the next one we do is one of our workers, lance, and him and i came up with some new ideas we are going to try to make it even better.

erik

[Bob_Sheaves]

Hi Erik,

Actually, the cars I was referring to were a couple of Scout chase trucks we had back at International Harvester in 77 or 78. We took 2 Scout 118" wheelbase (the Traveler for crew and the Terra for parts) and made a bunch of changes for the chase cars. As I remember, we also flipped the front springs end to end (put the end links at the rear of the front springs), used military wraps on the front end of the springs and did some other stuff like angling the rear leafs front to rear to decrease the oversteer from the revised geometry......I interpolated that information for the larger K5's.

We had about 12-13" of front travel and about 15 for the rear.

Also, on the front propshaft changes...grind away the cast in stops in the double cardan centerlink and on the shaft yoke/end yoke to increase the travel. One bit of warning- you WILL get more vibration out of the shaft at maximum travel, due to the increased limits

BTW- you guys DO make bitchin' parts!

Best as always,

Bob

[Flea]

there is a really nice chevy around where i live with twin traction beams and a set of coilovers and bypass shocks in front. the thing looks all mellow with no fiberglass, then you look underneith and its got long heimed radius arms and some nice shocks. Sweet truck! It looks like a 95 but I'm sure you can find a way to swap traction beams on a older chevy. Just a thought?

[Chris_Wilson]

What are the pros and cons of the military wrap design?

[Kritter]

less chance of failiure when the springs wrap.

Kris

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.dmsrace.com>www.dmsrace.com</A>

[Chris_Wilson]

And no penalty for this added strength? (Compliance, progression, stiction all the same?)

[Bob_Sheaves]

Hi Chris....

Basically, the wrap just affects the eye area. Instead of breaking one leaf to lose a spring, you have to break 2 leafs. there is a clearance gap to allow for motion (they are not tight to the main leaf).

Best regards,

Bob Sheaves

[ntsqd]

What a bonus !! I just bought a '79 3/4t 4wd Sub for hauling stuff around. It's dead stock, but not for long, I'm saving this thread for future ref.

TS

"Teach you all I know and you're still stupid"
-- Howdy Lee

[drtdevil93]

heres the frontend

[drtdevil93]

another

[drtdevil93]

and the rear

[drtdevil93]

sideview

[drtdevil93]

oh, bob, when i said the truck had our setup i meant the mike macoimas (sp?) one.

erik

[COChev]

i see you guys are running the rear shackle the stock way- tension. what do you think of doing a shackle flip -compression? would allow you to run springs that are less arched and therefore not as stiff.

[drtdevil93]

ummm.... we see things the opposite way. more arc makes a better ride. thats why we are doing reversed eyes on most of our new spring packs. in addition flat = no travel.

the truck is nearly finished now. we have the shock mounts all done, everythings about good to go. travel is about 12 in front and about 13 in the rear. we were kinda held back on the travel, since the customer didnt want to cut up the bed, and there isnt much space in there for shocks. if we were allowed to go a little further on it, i think 14" in front and 16" in the rear would be easily achievable. that will come in to play on the next one, lance's blazer. hehehe....

erik

[Bob_Sheaves]

Hi Erik,

I'm anxious to see photos of the completed project....hurry up and post 'em!!!

Best as always,

Bob

[Stan]

Can you post pics of the shock mounts?

"Rehabilitation begins at autopsy."

[drtdevil93]

itll be finished tomorrow. ill post pics tomorrow afternoon. i think it came out very well. and it was a nice looking truck to begin with.

erik

[drtdevil93]

and here they are

[drtdevil93]

next

[drtdevil93]

yet another

[drtdevil93]

last for now, ill put up some frontal shots monday, the truck looks real mean.

erik

[Bob_Sheaves]

YEEEOOOWWWWZZZZAAAAA!!!!!

Be still my beating heart-I think I'm in love! Gotta talk to momma about building another old truck!!

Best as always,

Bob Sheaves

[COChev]

so what are the specs on this bad boy? motor, trannie, t case? gear ratio? looks great!!!

[drtdevil93]

im not sure about all of that. i know its a warmed over 350, i believe a 400 trans, a np 205 (?) tcase, and the axle gears i dont know.

erik

[ntsqd]

Love the blue sticker on the support column. Does it race, and in what class ?

Truck is way too cool too. My Sub was just supposed to be the tow rig - people hauler, but after seeing those pics .......

TS

"Teach you all I know and you're still stupid"
-- Howdy Lee

[Kritter]

That thing is nice. Has it been tested yet with the new Deavers?

Kris

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.dmsrace.com>www.dmsrace.com</A>

[drtdevil93]

it isnt finished yet. it has only been driven from one side of the shop to the other. and the owner is more of a rockcrawler.

erik

[ntsqd]

Making this live again.

TS

"It only seems kinky the first time"
-- Bumpersticker seen in Lost Wages

[Donovan]

drtdevil93, Do you have any pictures of the truck done yet. How about flexing or wheeling pictures. I want some Deaver Springs for my Jimmy but I have not seen any of them on the trail working. Please post some. I would really like to see them in action before I drop $1200 on springs. Thanks

Donovan

[K5Blazer]

Deaver, how much would a similar set up cost for an '89 K5?

[drtdevil93]

the truck should be in offroad pretty soon. we have had lots of success with rockcrawling projects, our springs like to move a lot. we have a couple k5's out there, and they just twist like crazy. one of our workers, lance, has his k5 all setup, he is at most of the mdr races. its a primered k5 blazer.

erik