1971 4x4 Suburban Project - the 'Family Adventure Wagon'

[ManNamedJed]

Originally Posted by allchevy58

Nice looking Suburban, like what you've done to it. Maybe we'll see you around town.

Thanks. Cool to see there are several Reno area members here!

[ManNamedJed]

Added some slip on seat covers today. My seats are actually very nice and the front has been reupholstered by the previous owner. But I've got kids and a dog, so I wanted to protect the seats.

I would have loved to find some that resembled the 'highlander' plaid, but didn't find anything. So I decided to go with traditional horse blanket. They certainly look period correct. Reviews for the $40 ones on Amazon weren't encouraging, so I got these from FIA out of Canada. I'm pretty happy with them. They are certainly heavy duty.

My back / middle seat is from a 74ish suburban so it is a 70/30 split. Good luck finding anything to fit that. However I realized I'll usually have the small seat folded up, so I got a small bench seat cover like for an old toyota and it did pretty good for the long section, just a bit long.

[ManNamedJed]

Still struggling with my vibration. Put it up on stands today and found this. Driveshaft has some up and down motion. Not sure if it is the shaft or the axle. Axle was used, driveshaft got shortened when it was all installed.

Emailed the company that shortened the shaft and will see what they say.

Can't figure out how to embed the video, but here is a link:
https://youtu.be/hykrsMDBKdg

[ManNamedJed]

Longer version, in case anyone is that bored....

https://youtu.be/IF4LGGbXGSE

[Ol Blue K20]

Subbed to watch!

[CG]

I should have picked up a bunch of those when I was up there. Stupid Stupid Stupid lol.

Im not sure if you can even get them online anymore.

[mrtoni]

The shipping was the killer. $12 bucks

[mrtoni]

So they’re 16.99 plus 11 shipping ouch! Good news. I bought an extra. $25 and I’ll drive it over from sparks. Or google northern cascades institute

[ManNamedJed]

Thank you, I appreciate that.

Here's the link for anyone interested:
http://north-cascades-institute.shop...r-14-x-22.html

Yeah $17 for a 14" poster is pretty steep. Too bad it isn't blue!

[ManNamedJed]

I had decided that my 'vibration' might actually be a very obnoxious exhaust resonance / drone. The vibes are the same frequency as the exhaust note. It had straight back dual exhaust with no cross over and straight through mufflers, which from what I've read, would be prone to such things.

I'd already bought some 2.5" 'ram's horn' manifolds to replace the stock cast iron truck manifolds, so I decided it was time to put them on.

Not sure it makes a big difference in performance, but they look nice.

[ManNamedJed]

Took it to an old school exhaust shop and talked it over with the old guy who's been doing it for 50 yrs. Told him I wanted it quiet. Got it back with a 14" magnaflow that was NOT quiet.

After some back and forth they agreed to make it right and got this set up. Dual 2.5" pipes to a single muffler with a 3" output. Sounds nice and mellow.

[ManNamedJed]

However it has NOT fixed my vibration. So still working on that.

[Ol Blue K20]

Looks good, nice job. I love your game collection

[FLYNAVY30]

Very cool. Any chance we could get some additional detail photos of the mounting of the square body second row? I've read HO455's thread numerous times now, just curious how the PO mounted the seats in your truck.

Thanks!

[ManNamedJed]

I'd be happy to. Unfortunately everything is put back together now. If I have it apart again I'll sure take some.

You can see in some pics there is a plate attached from the floor to the inner body area just under the window. It has the three bolts in it that mount the seat latches. Its probably not as robust as it should be.

[FLYNAVY30]

Thanks very much....no hurry at all. This is one of those "some day" projects for my truck....at 6'6, being able to fold the bench flat will afford me the ability to sleep comfortably in the back with the wife and dog on camping trips.

[ManNamedJed]

This weekend I decided to take on doing a new harmonic balancer and adding the serpentine kit.

I scored the kit on the Summit scratch n dent rack for $380. It included all the brackets, bolts, as well as a new water pump, power steering pump, and alternator.

One issue I knew of was that my AC pump is V belt and I didn't want to have to change it as its only a year old. So I got a new serpentine clutch. The swap wasnt too bad. Having the special tools and puller would make it go pretty easy. I had to improvise a bit, but got it done.

[ManNamedJed]

Once I was sure that was going to work out, I pulled the radiator and the rest of the accessories off.

This project has had a lot of 'do overs'. This is the third or fourth time I've had the radiator out, and second time I've had most of the front of the engine stuff off.

Looks familiar:

[ManNamedJed]

Mounted up new balancer and timing tab.

[ManNamedJed]

Fuel line is in the way, so that will have to get relocated.

FYI - if anyone else does this, the instructions say to mount the water pump first, but it would go a lot easier if you did it after mounting the AC brackets

Another issue, the new bracketry is for a R4 type compressor and I have a Sanden 508. There are some adapter kits out there, so I gave that a try. Here is initial mock up.

[layinrocker65]

This is a great build.

[LT7A]

I think it's very cool that you're building an adventure rig for your family. Priceless time with your boys working on the truck. Literally, even if you get nothing done. I'll bet there are many who would give anything they have now to go back and have that time again. In fact, my dad has told me that exact thing. Since your boys are working on it with you, the adventure of the adventure rig has already begun. Thanks for telling us about it. PS, I like the truck too.

[ManNamedJed]

Thanks for the comments. Unfortunately other things have come up and haven't started the trans swap yet. I think I may have to take a few days off work to dive into it.

[ManNamedJed]

My old man claims to be bored and needs a project to 'fiddle' on and offered to do my trans swap. He is a retired mechanic who specialized in big rig trans and diff rebuilds so he'd done about a million trans installs.

I think he took pity on me seeing I was buried in other projects and would not have gotten around to it anytime soon.

Popped by his place to help with a few things. Trans is out, thankfully didn't have to cut the new exhaust.

[ManNamedJed]

Snap on wrenches after 40yrs of use - the logos have gotten faint: