1986 GMC S-15

[givemethewillys]

lol, Admittedly I ran a yellow, got lost trying to find the Indian restaurant, turned right 3 times, and then left 3 times. I would have definitely thought I was drunk as well.

After staring at the explorer rear sway bar and trying to sort out packaging the shocks, pan hard and brake lines I've decided to change the plans. You can see here the explorer shocks are mounted more in board.

S10 shocks are mounted more outboard.

So I picked up a blazer rear sway bar. Now I don't have to mess with the stock upper shock mount. Should make for a nicer overall package. Also picked up an explorer front sway bar, it's a direct bolt on and beeeefy, 1 3/8" solid bar.

Rebushing the leaf springs was the task today,

This was one of better bushings

This little press is sure coming in handy

Pulled out one of the leafs from the pack. Not 100% if I'm going to keep it out, but I'll try it for now.

Not a fun job, but it's done now. Hoping to get the rear end completely buttoned up this week.

Did I miss where you said what press that was? It looks handy! I want a press, but not a monster free-standing one that takes up huge amounts of shop space.

 

[Andrew_S]

^It's a princess auto special, in the states I believe it's harbor freight. I bought it second hand for $40. Great little press for bearings, bushings, etc.

Is it still going to fit in the garage with the new axles and tires?? Looks like it might be close! Awesome write-up man, I am a hardcore Chevy fan. I had a 01 ZR2 and now drive an 06 Colorado Z71 daily. I just like the smaller Chevy trucks. I've also had a couple square bodies and a suburban.
Thank you for posting and updating, this is by far my favorite thread on the site, I don't get out much at all anymore, but I love your updates!

It will fit in the garage sans camper. With the camper I'll have to air down the tires fully or run the little donut spares. After this axle swap is complete, it will be an outdoor truck from now on haha.
Nice taste in vehicles! Sounds like we have a lot in common. I've had a few S10's, an '05 crew z71 colorado, 12 valve swapped square body & a blazer. Agreed, the 70's- mid 2000's gm trucks hits different for me.
Appreciate the good words, can't wait to get this thing back on the road.

We were up in Port Renfrew back in mid February. Weather was pretty decent for the winter. The roads up to Nitinat Lake were ROUGH from all of the rains. Some had landslides and were washed out. Love that part of the island.
Truck progress is awesome. I did an 8.8 swap in my Jeep Comanche as well as one of my Jeep Grand Cherokees. Good deal on a tough axle with disc brakes.
nate

That's we were afraid of, landslides/washouts. We were heading back up to Nitinat & Carmanah Walbran (SP?), then Tofino inlet. Hoping to go later this summer now. Agreed, the 8.8 is a great axle for the price.

Not much of an update, but gives an idea of the final package.
Loaded up the 4runner and headed over to a buddies shop

He has a massive shop with some pretty nice tools.

Not too many people I know can store a +30' boat in their shop.

Balanced out surprisingly good (very little weight required) for bigger tires

and the money shots

The front axle is literally floating in the air but this is pretty close to final ride height

It looks more proportional now I think? It's still a bit lower than a stock half ton.

Unfortunately I'm packing up and leaving for a conference today and won't be back for a week. Such terrible timing to be leaving for a work trip when all I want to do is finish this project.

 

[Kingsize24]

Are you thinking of pushing the axle forward a bit up front so you only have to trim the front of the fenders?

 

[ITTOG]

That looks awesome. I can't wait to see it finished. Too bad I can't crawl around it.

Sent from my Pixel 7 Pro using Tapatalk

 

[Andrew_S]

Are you thinking of pushing the axle forward a bit up front so you only have to trim the front of the fenders?

Yes, but I think it will be very minimal. The skinny 33's with stock backspacing don't look like they'll need much trimming at all.
Here's lock-lock

The nice thing about the long arms is I'll be able to move it around quite a bit.

That looks awesome. I can't wait to see it finished. Too bad I can't crawl around it.

Sent from my Pixel 7 Pro using Tapatalk

You & I both. Quite a bit of work to do but I'm hoping a month or so and it'll be back on the road.

Had to take a week off from working on it, here are some random photos from that time:

sportsman show in town

Unreal taxidermy

Spent a week in Nebraska/Iowa.

Omaha is a really neat town, such a blend of old and new

Check out the old rear chain drive on this Mack

Spotted this almost perfectly proportioned XJ on our tour,

 

[Andrew_S]

After a day of detoxing, back at it.Checking out the flex in the rear

Measuring for shock lengths,

I had pulled a track bar off a ZR2 S10 quite a while back. here it is in its stock configuration:

to make it work I turned this

Into this,
The SOA configuration required a much taller mount.

Mocked up, checking for clearance.

Tacked into place on both sides. A bit more of a drop than what's ideal but the overall length is huge, over 4'. It'll be interesting to measure deflection at full bump/droop, I bet it's less than 1"

Mocked up the sway bar and shocks, looks like everything will clear just fine.
Once I get the actual shocks in the mail, I'll tack in the mounts for those and pull it out one last time to final weld everything.

 

[AJM]

If everyone will forgive the ignorance, what benefits does the track bar bring with leaf springs?


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[ITTOG]

If everyone will forgive the ignorance, what benefits does the track bar bring with leaf springs?


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Not ignorant, I was kind of wondering the same. I have never seen a track bar with leaf springs.

 

[Andrew_S]

If everyone will forgive the ignorance, what benefits does the track bar bring with leaf springs?


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This is a great question.
A track bar does a better job of keeping the axle centered when cornering or side loading (off camber flexing) than simply leaf springs alone.
It's not necessarily required but with a high center of gravity (camper) and a narrow track it's not going to hurt.
When I picked up the flooring a month or so ago, I had so much weight in the bed + the camper (combined 2k lbs), I could see the axle floating out from the truck body when cornering a solid 1.5-2". The axle was moving so much that the balancing weight on the side of the driveshaft actually nicked the skid plate for the fuel tank. It's a relatively easy upgrade, and extremely cheap in this case, less than $30.

 

[NORDFORD]

Oh man! I wish I knew you were in Omaha! I’m in Lincoln! I would’ve bought you a beer!

 

[Andrew_S]

^That would have been great. Far too many beers were consumed during that 6 days.


A couple of hours put in yesterday,
Rear bar & brackets cleaned up

U bolt plates modified,

Old sway bar mounts cut off, new mounts welded in place. tacked in the shock mounts as well.

Nice surprise, the 33" spare just fits in the stock location

Rear brake line bent up

Just need to find a flex line extension, rear sway bar links, weld in the rear shock mounts fully, paint everything and the rear is wrapped up.

 

[Ozarker]

I'd rather see that'55 five window Chevy PU!

 

[Andrew_S]

^ It's a pretty sweet truck, '50*.
He just finished a 10 bolt, 700r4 swap with a newer inline 6 cylinder.

Setting up the front end fully.

Setting caster and squaring it up

Every time I touch this truck another 10lbs of dirt falls out.

Coil bucket tacked in and sitting on it's own weight

Trimmed the inner fender and started cutting a splash guard

Started prepping the other side

Hope to make more progress this aft

A significant difference between these two now,

 

[Andrew_S]

Another trip to picknpull for misc stuff.
The sway bar saga continues, Crewcab S10 bar on top of a TJ bar.
The TJ bar would rub the tire far to much

S10 bar on top of explorer bar, S10 bar has a bit more clearance for tires and fits the 30 axle points better. I think the S10 ZR5 sway bar is the winner so far.

Picked some Timbren bump stops, thinking these will end up on the front.

Decided to modify the Astro van pitman arm, this isn't a permanent solution, just for mock-up.

I needed to pull 1" out of it, and slightly angle it up and over.

The final product is slightly up and over. Compared to a stock XJ & a drop pitman arm.

The reason for a slight rise is I'm trying to keep the truck as low as reasonable for the tires. Most sas S10's are sky high and require a drop arm or moving the box.

Next up was cutting and sleeving the drag link.

All welded up and ready to go. Should be substantially stronger than the stock tubing.

Lots of room for the track bar.

It's cool to see this coming together. Turning the wheel actually turns the wheels now.

Mocking up the track bar and checking my angles for bump steer.

Pretty happy with that. Have another mounting location on the axle (lower) and I'll make sure to have 2-3 holes for adjustability on the frame side as well.

 

[ITTOG]

^ It's a pretty sweet truck, '50*.
He just finished a 10 bolt, 700r4 swap with a newer inline 6 cylinder.

Setting up the front end fully.

Setting caster and squaring it up

Every time I touch this truck another 10lbs of dirt falls out.

Coil bucket tacked in and sitting on it's own weight

Trimmed the inner fender and started cutting a splash guard

Started prepping the other side

Hope to make more progress this aft

A significant difference between these two now,

The two trucks side by side blow my mind. The lift looks awesome.