Overlandtowater’s solid axle suburban

[rayra]

Doing a lot of good work. I havent done any in weeks, been tied up building my back yard grill counter, trying to get it done before Independence Day.

Give me a heads up when you are ready to go after the actuators, I can try to be available for any questions / moral support

 

[Overlandtowater]

Thanks Rayra your help is always welcomed

4BT no I have not this has been on the end of my to do list Ive been getting 380-400 miles a tank (after the shift kit the millage went up which was a surprise) but I have not installed larger tires, bumpers, rack, or drawer system yet so those are the big ticket items I need to get to before I really start taking it out. Thanks for the interest though I do plan on it, I just have to find a 2500 in the junk yard.

 

[Overlandtowater]

100/90w HD wire harness and 100w high beams

HD wire harness from LMC, looks like something form Aliexpress but its all there and the harness is just long enough to run it in the factory position. pretty painless install, I also installed some 100 watt HELLA bulbs. I've heard goods and bads about the Korean Hellas for $2.50ea I wont complain but after a couple of hours of use they are still burning. I do need to adjust the headlights they are way high and I didn't notice until I installed the new high bulbs.

I fastened the harness to the main hot cable in the fuse panel, routed the relays beside the fuse panel and ran the wires along side the factory harness. zip ties, electrical tape and ribbed conduit. The harness had individual grounds for each headlight plug, I mounted them behind the washer fluid jug on the driver side and below the air box on the passenger side. I covered each headlight lead with ribbed conduit. the only thing that you can tell is different is the relays on the fuse box and the loud click they make when you turn the lights on, or swap between low and high. The relays are switched by the factory High low connectors on the factory harness they plug in where the Headlight bulbs plug in.

 

[Overlandtowater]

here is the reason why the harness swap.. both the low beam and the high beam plugs looked like this...the DRL sockets did too but those are not included in the headlight harness like the factory ones, but I have plans for them too.

 

[Overlandtowater]

so when I tied the factory headlight harness back I also tied the DRL harness back too.... Finally getting rid of those pesky Day time running lights...the bulb sockets for the DRLs are burnt and warped where they wont seal to the housing any longer. I ordered some park/signal sockets and soldered them in to the OEM wire to turn the blinkers and the DRL into one big signal/park light. I wired A to A, B to B, and G to G, you could wire the A to B and B to a to get the DRL bulbs to blink opposite the signal bulbs but that looked like too much chaos on the front that way so I wired them to blink together, also if you swap the a and b wire the DRL will run the brighter filament in the park position and I didn't like that they where brighter.... Now I know you are thinking the sockets and housing don't interchange, well you are correct but if you wiggle them enough you can figure out how to align them to work without any modifications. I also replace with all new amber bulbs, you could use clear but local laws may not like it. where I live they could care less.

 

[Overlandtowater]

Kind of hard to see in pictures but here is the 100w bulb test. I did see an increase in the brightness of my headlights with just the harness upgrade. I need to adjust the lights and I also should have put markers out in the field. The field was recently burnt off and the ground was black I don't know why I thought it was a good idea to shine across it.

Low/high/100w

 

[Overlandtowater]

looking at the head lights.

low/high/half/100w

 

[Overlandtowater]

the blower motor resistor was a no brainer, the plugs do not match so you have to cut the 3 wire plug off and solder them to corresponding wires on the new 5 wire plug, as easy as matching colors and it plugs into the blower motor no problem. Be sure to disconnect battery before you cut the plug off....its hot when switched off which I should have know because the blower was running even when the key was off...so I blew that 40amp fuse. yes I know the solder joints look like crap but my soldering torch was out of butane and my electric one I had to do in sections the wire was too thick so yeah it looks bad but I couldn't pull them apart, kind of like my welds

 

[rho]

We need to get you some crimpers, they're less of a pain for that kind of work.

Also, where did you get that headlight harness? My partners truck needs some headlight rewiring done and I don't really want to make one from scratch...

 

[60beforetruck]

Thanks Rayra your help is always welcomed

4BT no I have not this has been on the end of my to do list Ive been getting 380-400 miles a tank (after the shift kit the millage went up which was a surprise) but I have not installed larger tires, bumpers, rack, or drawer system yet so those are the big ticket items I need to get to before I really start taking it out. Thanks for the interest though I do plan on it, I just have to find a 2500 in the junk yard.

Duraburb was making a larger rear tank. It required the spare tire to be relocated. I believe it was a 30 gallon tank.

 

[Overlandtowater]

I also bought a Kreg joiner and hope to put it to work on my drawer project. I know most go with plywood completely but has any one ever don't he sides of the cabinet out of 1x8 or 1x10?

picked up a harbor freight 3 ton jack also.... its nice not to stack blocks to lift the suburban with the jack that is now in the scrap bin, I know a lot of people go ape over HF but hey I'm a cheap skate and if I can get it cheaper so be it. I might try and make a Jack skid and mount for the back of the truck it should be a good, cheap and easy project. besides I don't want to spend $260 on one but I would like to have one.

 

[Overlandtowater]

We need to get you some crimpers, they're less of a pain for that kind of work.

Also, where did you get that headlight harness? My partners truck needs some headlight rewiring done and I don't really want to make one from scratch...

I do have some crimpers but I prefer a solder joint, I had an old man wear me out over the crimps when I was a teenager and ever sense I always use the solder but to each there own. The harness came from LMC. I think it was $40~ with shipping.

 

[Overlandtowater]

To pull the condenser its a pain in the rump!....I think on the earlier models its not as big of a deal but on the 03 and later they changed the way the brace bolts to the radiator support. 1Remove grille, headlights, marker lights 2remove plastic pc above radiator and the hood latch. 3 remove top half of fan shroud and unbolt the 2 radiator bolts, lift up an scoot the radiator toward the engine as far as you can. 3 unbolt the brace from the front of the radiator support. Two top bolts you have to get from over the top of the radiator that you scooted out and then 4 bolts at the bottom under where the marker lights go.

 

[Overlandtowater]

step 4 unbolt condenser bolts, headlight support bolts, power steering cooler bolts. 5 lean the brace forward (not out its still connected to the trans cooler),
6 unbolt the condenser lines aluminum lines on top and bottom of passenger side of the condenser ( you know if its been evacuated in one way or the other. Oh and use your PPE.) don't lose the rubber O-rings, best if replaced. then wiggle the condenser out between the headlight braces on the driver side first not to break them then slide them out. Install opposite as removal.

 

[Buddha.]

I don’t know why gm can’t make a proper headlight harness. I’ve changed the sockets on my moms trailblazer three times, they keep burning up. I think I eventually found some ceramic units.