1989 Suburban 2WD 3/4 to 1/2 Swap?

[mr48chev]

Since you already have the 1/2 ton crossmember unbolted you should be able to unbolt the engine from the mounts, and lift it up and if needed make a bar that holds it up that sets across the lips of the fenders much the same way one does when you hold a transverse engine up to swap transmissions. Then drop the crossmember out and raise the 1/2 ton unit back up in place and bolt it in all cleaned, painted and ready to go.

Remember that if you swap A arms, spindles and springs you have to:
Take the spindles off.
unbolt the UPPer A arms.
Remove the springs
unbolt the lower A arms.

^^^^ Twice

Bolt the 1/2 lower A arms to the Crossmember
Bolt the upper A arms on
fight the springs back into place (easy for me, hard for some guys)
bolt the spindles back on,

A quick check of the upper control arm bolts will tell the story there.

You may want to replace all the bushings and ball joints in the 1/2 suspension and that makes the bolt and unbolt a moot point.

No photos but 20 years ago my son and I swapped front subframes under my wife's 76 Cad Seville by jacking the car up pretty high and blocking it up , using my gantry and chain hoist to hold the engine up. dropping the bent subframe out, sliding the good one in and raising it up and bolting it back together. It wasn't easy but we had it done in a weekend and my wife drove it to work on Monday.

[Crank]

Originally Posted by mr48chev

Remember that if you swap A arms, spindles and springs you have to:
Take the spindles off.
unbolt the UPPer A arms.
Remove the springs
unbolt the lower A arms.

^^^^ Twice
A quick check of the upper control arm bolts will tell the story there.

You may want to replace all the bushings and ball joints in the 1/2 suspension and that makes the bolt and unbolt a moot point.

I am planning on doing drop springs and spindles while I do it, and swapping in new Moog upper control arms and rebuilding the steering linkage while I do it, so it’ll al be fresh. Just really need to rebuild the lower control arms as I can’t find replacements.

I should just bite the bullet and yank the motor, it’s a slimy bastard and could stand to get some leaks fixed but it’s just me and I don’t want to yank it all apart and never get it back together. I’d like to just get it riding right and play with the motor another time. I might do like you said tho, just lift the motor and swap the crossmember. Heck who knows
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