70 K20 Suburban

[Rusty burbin]

I dream of building a Burb very similar to what you are doing. Great work.
Also how do you like the Eaton rear, and how is the parts support for them? All my GM buddies with that body style have gone to the 10.5" AAMs, so Im just curious.

Personally I love it. It has a 10.3 ring gear with a thrust pad behind is and a 3 bearing pinion... it's tough! It's also lighter and has better ground clearance than the GM 14 bolt plus it's all steel so you can weld anywhere on it and not have to worry about cast iron.

The only thing you'll have trouble finding is R&P's, bearings & seals are available for rebuilds and you can change out the inner axle for gm14b axles if you also change the carrier side gears.

I recently bought 3 complete Eatons so I'm gonna be good for a while.

 

[Rusty burbin]

Finished up my front bumper, wired up and spooled the rope on my winch.



Today a couple buddies and I went on a little trip over the Cleghorn Ridge. It was windy, cold and raining the entire time... my front driveshaft is at the driveline shop being lengthened since I put the new leaf springs up front. Before we left I was thinking this is probably not our best laid plan - 2 wheel drive in the hills in the rain.

 

[Chadlyb]

Finished up my front bumper, wired up and spooled the rope on my winch.



Today a couple buddies and I went on a little trip over the Cleghorn Ridge. It was windy, cold and raining the entire time... my front driveshaft is at the driveline shop being lengthened since I put the new leaf springs up front. Before we left I was thinking this is probably not our best laid plan - 2 wheel drive in the hills in the rain.View attachment 84521View attachment 84522View attachment 84523View attachment 84524View attachment 84525View attachment 84526

Great rig...

 

[Dilldog]

Personally I love it. It has a 10.3 ring gear with a thrust pad behind is and a 3 bearing pinion... it's tough! It's also lighter and has better ground clearance than the GM 14 bolt plus it's all steel so you can weld anywhere on it and not have to worry about cast iron.

The only thing you'll have trouble finding is R&P's, bearings & seals are available for rebuilds and you can change out the inner axle for gm14b axles if you also change the carrier side gears.

I recently bought 3 complete Eatons so I'm gonna be good for a while.[

Personally I love it. It has a 10.3 ring gear with a thrust pad behind is and a 3 bearing pinion... it's tough! It's also lighter and has better ground clearance than the GM 14 bolt plus it's all steel so you can weld anywhere on it and not have to worry about cast iron.

The only thing you'll have trouble finding is R&P's, bearings & seals are available for rebuilds and you can change out the inner axle for gm14b axles if you also change the carrier side gears.

I recently bought 3 complete Eatons so I'm gonna be good for a while.

Cool deal. I have always been attracted to that rear because being an HD truck mechanic its just a mini version of the axles I work on. I dont mind the 10.5" AAM (14bolt) as its internals are set up just like an HD axle. Really I just hate having to shim carrier bearings yadda yadda. Ive done it plenty but I dont like it, lol.

 

[Rusty burbin]

Cool deal. I have always been attracted to that rear because being an HD truck mechanic its just a mini version of the axles I work on. I dont mind the 10.5" AAM (14bolt) as its internals are set up just like an HD axle. Really I just hate having to shim carrier bearings yadda yadda. Ive done it plenty but I dont like it, lol.

Yeah man, threaded bearing retainers are the only way to go.

 

[Rusty burbin]

King of the Hammers 2019 was epic for me and my boys, the 3 that came. Top of the dunes, up some gnarly jeep trails that no full size rig has any business climbing and a little light treason to finish out our trip...

In our defense, that sign was face down as we drove in, I said to by buddy on the CB "I wonder what that sign says?" On the way back to camp I stopped and stood it up and was like oh snap!


Ps. obviously I'm kidding, I found those pictures on the innerweb because it would be really stupid to post something like that online if it really happened... it's obvious right?

 

[Rusty burbin]

These didn't come through on the last post.

 

[demulsion]

I love the old iron, custom fab work, and that your family is involved. Keep up the good work!

 

[ntsqd]

Great to see someone putting the time and effort into an old rig. Just because it's old doesn't mean it's anything else, or has to be.

That switch panel looks great. I would build an engine cage to tie into your shock hoops as this slows them to brace each other but also adds rigidity to the frame via triangulation.

With these C-channel frames the last thing that you want to do is create rigid section in it. Where the rigid to flexible transition happens will always crack. Some of the CK5 folks box their frames, but that presents a whole new set of problems because everything about the frame was designed with that flex in mind. You have to re-design how each cross-member is built and attached or they crack where they're joined to the now more rigid frame rail.

If an engine cage is built it should tie to the frame with urethane bushings. That relieves some of the stress from frame flex. The best way to stiffen the frame is a well designed and built cage that attaches to the frame, but such a cage will get in the way of normal use of the vehicle.

I am concerned a bit about the doubler cross-member. The original powertrain mounting was 3 points for a good reason. With three points bending and torsion stresses on the power-train assembly from frame flex are almost impossible to have. With 4 points three will carry the weight and the 4th will add twisting or bending stress to the power-train. The usual place that this shows up in GM auto-trans' is that the output flange on the trans case cracks loose from the rest of the case. If this happens consider going to a single engine mount under the crank pulley.

 

[Rusty burbin]

Great to see someone putting the time and effort into an old rig. Just because it's old doesn't mean it's anything else, or has to be.


With these C-channel frames the last thing that you want to do is create rigid section in it. Where the rigid to flexible transition happens will always crack. Some of the CK5 folks box their frames, but that presents a whole new set of problems because everything about the frame was designed with that flex in mind. You have to re-design how each cross-member is built and attached or they crack where they're joined to the now more rigid frame rail.

If an engine cage is built it should tie to the frame with urethane bushings. That relieves some of the stress from frame flex. The best way to stiffen the frame is a well designed and built cage that attaches to the frame, but such a cage will get in the way of normal use of the vehicle.

I am concerned a bit about the doubler cross-member. The original powertrain mounting was 3 points for a good reason. With three points bending and torsion stresses on the power-train assembly from frame flex are almost impossible to have. With 4 points three will carry the weight and the 4th will add twisting or bending stress to the power-train. The usual place that this shows up in GM auto-trans' is that the output flange on the trans case cracks loose from the rest of the case. If this happens consider going to a single engine mount under the crank pulley.

All good points and I can attest to there validity... my stock engine mounts tore apart in about 6 months or so which tells me there's a lot of twisting that's trying to happen but can't and thus the mounts tear...

I do have a crossover bar between my shock hoops attached with urethane bushings. It made a huge difference!

 

[Rusty burbin]

I was rippin through the hills near my place and as I drifted around a fairly smooth curve my tire blew out !POW! I limped out to the pavement and called a buddy to help me out... my spare was at home (I wasn't planning on romping around that day) by sheer coincidence he was less than a mile away.

I dropped the tailgate, sat and waited a few minutes for my friend and as I sat, I car went by with a chubby faced kid in the backseat that shouted "LOSER" at me. All I could do was laugh and think to myself "spot on kid, spot on!"

So about 20-30 minutes later were back with all the necessary ingredients to change a tire, it takes only a few minutes but once it's off I'm started by the carnage. I know the tire was toast but I didn't consider that my rim would be totally obliterated too!

My tires were a couple months away from being replaced and one of my rims was bent so I've been mentally preparing to replace all of it... so all and all TOTALLY WORTH IT!

 

[Rusty burbin]

Oh, and I used my front hitch for the first time the other day. If you don't have one get one! It works so good in tight spots!

 

[Dilldog]

I miss steel wheels. I dont know how many times I have used a hammer to "correct" trail damaged wheels. I even had a rock peel a wheel off of an Interco TSL bias, yes you read that right, the tire was fine, the wheel was effed. But a little hammering and some air and on we went, lol.

 

[ntsqd]

I don't miss steel wheels at all. For my type of use the difference in unsprung weight is significant. At a speed well above the norm somewhere in NV last week:

 

[Dilldog]

I don't miss steel wheels at all. For my type of use the difference in unsprung weight is significant. At a speed well above the norm somewhere in NV last week:

True, it all depends on the use, like most things, theres no such thing as a one size fits all. Everything is a compromise in one way or another.
To your picture, I used to LOVE riding roads like that on my motorcycle. It doesnt get much better than sliding the tail around a dirt corner at speed...

 

[Rusty burbin]

I passed by the hills this afternoon, I thought I'd look for the blown off chunk of my rim and found it. [emoji2]

 

[Rusty burbin]

Power steering went out so I thought since I'd have the pump out I may as well pull the box too, rebuild it and do some upgrades... I drilled and tapped it for future ram assist steering. I have a dana 60 in great shape that I'll be putting under the truck soon. I'll do the hydro assist then.

 

[Rusty burbin]

I went a different route with my pump. Since I'm going to run a remote reservoir, inline filter and cooler I realized that I don't need two return ports into the pump reservoir so I got a new one.

But after getting it put back together the stock cap couldn't hold the increased pressure and flow so I TIG'ed a bung onto the top of the pump so I can use a threaded cap.

 

[Rusty burbin]

Here's some pics

 

[SLPNBG]

1st. Awesome build, great thread.
2nd. Can I go for a ride?