What better way to break in new tires than by visiting the world class rock crawling/recreation park 10 miles from your house? At least it makes removing mold parting lines and those little rubber nubs more exciting.
Moments later I discovered why there are companies that make extra thick differential covers. Luckily I only pranged the bottom of the front diff and my factory stamped steel cover is fine. Well, perhaps I should backtrack a little. My last update said that a new wheel cylinder was on its way. It finally showed up this week along with the Daystar Stinger bumpstops.
Here's the backing plate stripped bare. This was after I'd already cleaned a lot of accumulated goop out. Looks like it'd had a leaking passenger side wheel cylinder for a number of miles on the C20 this axle came out of.
I made plenty of trips to the other rear wheel to ensure that all of those springs and plates wound up back in the right spots.
While I was in the vicinity, the new stainless rear axle hardlines found their way on. This of course necessitated more brake bleeding. I thought we had all the bubbles out yesterday, but the pedal went straight to the floor on the first drive around the block. Today I was helping a buddy of mine set the timing on his '91 Acura, so in return he pumped the pedal and we ran nearly the entire contents of a bottle of brake fluid through which helped immensely. With the brakes back to normal I drove the Suburban out on the highway and found some mile markers to re-calibrate the speedometer to the new tire size. Since I was already close anyway, a quick side trip to the recreation area seemed like a good idea. I had already started fabbing up the mounts for my Stingers with tube sourced from a local machine shop, so now I needed some definitive measurements for mounting height.
So I found a nice little rock to help in my quest for articulated enlightenment.
One of these days I'll get a new inner grille that isn't broken because mine flops around. Maybe I'll even bolt the front fenders on completely too. I digress though. I spent a long time observing, measuring and photographing the undercarriage in this position. This was the most flex I could achieve before the passenger side rear wheel started lifting off the ground (a fun feeling when inside the vehicle).
I had been prepared to tastefully slice and dice the front fenders if they made contact with the tires. From what I saw here and later in a sandy wash where I could get the driver side tire stuffed into the wheel well and then turn it back and forth, it seems there will be no need for front end metal surgery. I simply couldn't get the 35 inch tires to hit anything. Speaking of the tires, I noticed that the sidewalls flexed decently and those tread lugs seemed to grab the rocks pretty well.
This was still at the street pressure of 30 psi, so I can only imagine what kind of grip 18-20 psi would bring. Another new development was taking place in the rear. Even though these new tires are wider than the old ones, the new wheel offset meant that they could be pushed up a tiny little bit further into the wheel well in back.
If I was going for outright articulation then I might consider mini-tubs, going with a wider rear axle or at very least adding some wheel spacers and custom 56” Alcan leaf packs (after flipping the ORD shackle brackets from left to right). As is, I'm happy to compromise on flex in order to have load and people hauling capacity. With this in mind I measured for the final bumpstop compressed length to keep any wheel/body interference to a minimum in the future.
Everything else checked out okay. I'm nowhere near the end of the shock travel in the rear, and there are a few inches to spare in front also. Those stiff springs may never let me get close to the bumpstops up there though. The brake line lengths look fine so far, driveshafts seem okay at all angles and nothing else was binding. I was learning about the joys of factory steering linkage off road though. Now I know why those crossover kits are so popular.
It was time to try some other rocks.
It was fun getting back in the Suburban after that picture. The bottom of the door was at armpit height on me.
Moments later:
I made it up that rock just fine, it only required a little extra momentum. Lockers are on my wishlist but it'll be a while before they wind up on the havelist. First item of business is finishing all the small items the Suburban still needs, like weatherstripping (I have all new stuff in bags ready to go), interior, rust repair, etc... Then comes recovery equipment which I've been stocking up on recently, but more on that in the near future. After that it'll be an onboard air system and then locker time. So many plans, so little money, time, fill in the rest....
I was about ready to leave when I spotted a few local guys in a highly modified Bronco and XJ that were packing up to head home, so I stopped to ask for some pointers for areas to play on. We checked out each others rigs for a while (they dug the Suburban). The Bronco was running the same basic Dana 60 rear axle as me, so I quizzed him about his axle spline count. He was running 35 spline shafts in a non HD housing, something I've been wanting to do for some time. They clued me in that the same machine shop where I'd picked up the tubing for my Stinger mounts had bored out his axle housing to accommodate the 1.5” diameter shafts for about 100 bones. Now I know where I'm going when that time comes.
One last story for today. Since I got new shoes all around there was no need for the 10 year old BFGs on Dodge wheels anymore. They lasted a week on Craigslist before someone called me out of Vegas. He said they were coming my way and would like to buy the set. I got another call once they hit town and proceeded to give them directions from the Wal-Mart they were at to my house. Well, they looked over the set, didn't haggle over price and we made a deal there and then. Now, there were four 33” tires that weighed 83 lbs a piece which we rolled across the driveway over to a Chevy Cobalt filled with occupants.
Turns out they'd stopped at the Wal-Mart and bought a pack of 4 ratcheting tie-down straps. We threw all four tires on the roof and they ran the straps over each pair, down through the open door and hooked back onto themselves under the headliner inside. When they told me their plan to drive on to Ely, Nevada that night I told them “Well, it'll probably whistle like mad” which we all laughed about despite it being true. Too bad it was so dark out, or that really would have been a great picture of the little Cobalt with the smashed roof and four big 'ol tires on top.