This past week I've been working on a few mundane tasks that needed to be done. My starter was going out so I replaced that. While I was under there with the starter out, I decided it was a good time to investigate my oil leak issue that I've been putting off. In the last week it was starting to get worse, so it was time. Turns out, the front two oil pan bolts were completely missing! After replacing those my truck no longer marks its territory. I was pleasantly surprised to find such a simple fix.
The other thing I did was replace the shocks and relocate the mounting positions. I used the typical KYB 344068 fronts and 344055 rears. The fronts only had 1" of travel left and the rears were leaned over more than 45 degrees so I knew I had to relocate them. For the fronts, I did not like the available relocation bracket so I made my own out of 1 3/4" square tube so that the shock is close to its original angle and travel range. For the rears, I was initially going to use the No Limits kit that puts the shocks outboard and behind the rearend, but after studying photos of the kit installed I realized that the geometry is fundamentally incorrect. Essentially, the shock does not pivot in the same plane as the trailing arm which puts a lot of stress on the mounting points. Several users have raved about how the kit "improves" stability, but what is really happening is the whole system is binding up as you go through your suspension travel. Anyway, I instead decided to use a modified version of lakeroadster's method (
here) for the upper mounts, and SCOTI's method (
here) for flipping the lower mounts. There was a significant improvement after doing this mod. The truck now handles as good, if not better, than it did stock (which is all I was looking for).
Since I had the wheels off while doing the shocks, I figured I might as well knock out repainting the wheels. I liked the white but it was a bit too bright for me and was difficult to take a good photo against the dark green. I ended up painting them "dull aluminum" by Plasti-kote which is a near identical match to the original argent silver color. So far, I'm pleased with the color.
I'm really trying to get this thing ready for the start of cruise in season. We have a couple excellent ones in my area and they are always a lot of fun to attend. The last time I actually brought a vehicle to one, though, was about 5 years ago when I had my Malibu. I'm looking forward to being able to bring the truck out this year.