1997 gmc sas and other stuff.

[jb1016]

Nice! I'd be lost without my tool box. Sure is handy.

[rocking chevy]

yeah it is, now I have somewhere to put everything.

[GMC Guy]

awesome job man. i'm trying to gather information on doing a solid axle swap on my 97 K2500. if you dont mind me asking, how much you have into the swap? not including rear axle.
was there any complications other than the knuckle? or any parts that made you wanna

[rocking chevy]

The kit itself cost $600, the springs(which are 2.5 lift springs) $270, the axle was $600, the shocks $200, brake lines $50, I made the cross over steering myself $400 (thats including the new steering arm), and then I went through the whole front axle which cost $300, I also put new lockouts on it $140, so $2560. one other thing that we did was re drill the holes in the front crossmember because they were off a little bit. I am putting a cv joint on the front drive shaft because its at to much of an angle. And if you use a ford axle you have to get a double sized u joint for the front drive shaft to go from the chevy drive shaft to the ford axle. I didn't know when I bought the kit( its from off road direct) that its made of aluminum, and you can't put your tow hooks back on with this kit, so if I were to do it again I would only buy the shock hoops (because they are probably the hardest to make) and make the rest myself.

[rocking chevy]

It snowed so I went out and played in it, got stuck( I don't have my front drive shaft on so no 4x4 for me. I got unstuck after about 20 min. and digging a 15 ft. trench going forward and backwards.

[rocking chevy]

I got my front drive shaft made. I changed the yoke on the transfer case, but I had to have the inside machined some to fit like the original.


I also put a cv joint on it.



Then I put a deeper pan on the transmission.


I also have a problem with the engine. Ive put a computer on it multiple times and it says multiple misfire, but it doesn't say which ones.
My fuel pump was going bad so I changed it, but it still has misfires.




Sense that didn't solve the misfires, Im now thinking that its a head gasket. The reason why I think that is because I'm loosing antifreeze, and gaining oil. The radiator is new, and there isn't anywhere where I can see that its leaking. There is more oil in there now then there was before, but its not milky or anything, it looks pretty normal.

If anyone else has any other ideas of what it could be I would appreciate the input.

[rocking chevy]

I just ordered this.


To go along with my brand new vortec heads and performer cam I already have.
Im going to ditch the vortec fuel injection and computer all together, but keep the vortec heads.

[bpeters5814]

Nice looking truck. Where in Howard County are you? I'm over in the Worms area.

[rocking chevy]

Originally Posted by bpeters5814

Nice looking truck. Where in Howard County are you? I'm over in the Worms area.

I'm in st. paul.

[rocking chevy]

It snowed again so I had to go mudding...



Its on a trailer because either the power steering pump or the steering gear box went out. So instead of fixing it I'm going to start rebuilding it again, but the way i wanted it this time.
In the meantime I'm going to drive my suburban. Now that I think of it I'm going to go make a build thread for it too.

[rocking chevy]

it looks good clean...


a couple bad things, the tires must have hit at some point or another and my fenders got a little bent in the front. I know its not from driving, It has to be from off-roading, but I never did any big off-roading.
anyhow heres some pics





Now I've decided what to do with it. Ive decided that I'm not going to off-road with it anymore, mainly because I have a couple other vehicles that are more for off roading. So Its going to be a street queen once I'm done with it this time.
To start off I ordered new springs for it. 1. because the front springs that are in it now have sagged a little and I never liked them from the start, they seem thin and just lower quality. 2. I have 2.5 inch lift ones on it now, what I ordered are 4 inch lift so i'll be going from 6 inches of lift to 8 inches of lift. then I ordered 6 inch lift springs for the rear, the reason for going with 6 instead of 8 is I was afraid if I would have gone with 8 it would have ended up to tall then I wouldn't be able to do anything about it, so with 6 inch springs I can add a 2 inch or so block to get it to where I want it.


theres more 4 inch spring there than I need, because I also ordered a set of 4 inch springs for my jeep.

Then I also have this to show.


my plans for the engine are a 350 bored out a little(probably to a 355) and balanced with vortec heads, and a performer plus cam. and of course the tuned port fuel injection. I haven't decided on a transmission yet, but I think I'm going to go with a 4l80e but not sure yet. not sure on the transfer case yet either.

I got the front springs on this past weekend but still need to upload the pics to my computer, so i'll post them later.

[rocking chevy]

my dad needed the spacers on the back for his dually because their steel and hub centric. so he bought me so aluminum ones.


then sense the new spacers are a little narrower I changed the half inch spacers in the front to quarter inch ones.


I forgot the measurements but now the axle widths are even closer than they where before. It doesn't really matter sense Im going to do a disc brake conversion on it sometime and Ill have to change the spacers again if I want the axles the same width.
then the front springs went on, first thing I did was take a cradle type thing I made for the front off of the old springs and put them on the new ones.

now I know your not supposed to put blocks in the front of a vehicle, but I'm not just putting it there, I'm bolting it to the springs. and the reason of having it is because the ford u-bolts are wider than the springs so by putting this on it makes it the same width as the u-bolts, which i feel is safer. and it also ads another inch of lift, which is how I get 8 inches of lift out of it, the ord kit ads 3 inches, then 4 inch lift springs, then 1 inch with the block, which equals 8 inches of lift.
Then the springs go on. they also moved my axle forward about 2 inches, it wasn't in a bad place before so it didn't need to be moved(but I guess that now its a little farther from my fenders where it was hitting, so maybe it will help a little), but its still in a good place so It doesn't matter that they moved it.

heres the stance for now, until I get my rear springs on anyways.

[rocking chevy]

ok so I got the 6 inch spring on the rear, but I still needed a 4-6 inch block to get it to where I needed it.




so sense I needed about a 4 inch block to get it the right hight. I ordered a 4 inch shackle flip kit from off road design. hopefully it'll put it where it needs to be.

the only thing is the exhaust is in the way for the springs to hang lower so it'll have to come out. but I'm going to put true duals on when i put the new engine is so they where going to come off some time anyways.

[rocking chevy]

im also going to have to get longer rear shocks because they're pretty close to bottoming out now, but the front is still good.

[rocking chevy]

I started off by putting the shackle flip on with no blocks in the rear.
Before I could do that I had to get the exhaust out of the way...

Heres the factory bracket off,

Flip kit on, they said the open side of the factory shackle could go either way so I put it facing the front.

No blocks, and I had to put the u-bolt going back down because the plate for on top of the springs was going to hit the axle, I could have cut a pretty small notch out of it to make it fit but I didn't want to.

The rear was low.


I was going to buy a one inch block and try it, but I had a two inch block sitting here so I tried it.
I think it looks awesome! Its the stance I was trying to achieve.




I didn't get any good pics of it outside, but I will next weekend.