04 blazer project

polishing headlights seems to make a huge difference, we'll see how long it lasts before clouding/yellowing again.



also, dont put cardboard under your battery and leave it there for whatever reason....
this happens if you do.

cardboard hols water and keeps the tray nice and wet aaaaalllll the time.

drove it to work today... my steering box preload adjustment didnt do enough. I'm buying a new box, hopefully today after work.
plan is to get a zq8 box, and we'll see how the pitman arm transfer goes.

stock pitman arm and idler arms are horrid. with the @ full droop geometry, pushing the tires in 'yaw' causes the center link to move vertically quite significantly, purely on 'flex' of the 2 arms.

That flex sounds a bit scary.

You probably know this already but some Jeep steering boxes are the same as the ZQ8s. They may be cheaper?
 
http://www.chevelles.com/techref/shea_3.html

didnt know, but makes sense, but not a big deal, found a zq8 box for $50 at the local yard. Picking it up tonight, we'll see how smoothly I can do this..... and if i can do this without making a huge mess of power steering fluid

I put a coffee can under the box and remove the hoses from the box first and it'll run around the box a bit, then rotate the steering wheel to push the fluid out of the box, gets enough that you can pull it off without it running everywhere.

yup, i'll try my best to guesstimate where the fluid dribbless off of.

I had some vague memories of this from my offroader reading. I had to google to find this internet forum knowledge on swapping in full size idler arms in place of another Zr2 idler.


http://www.s10extremist.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=18318
http://shop.synergyoffroad.com/Full-1-Ton-Idler-Arm-Upgrade-Kit-for-S10-Sonoma-Blazer-ZR2-4x4-Idlerarmbundle.htm

while swapping in the zq8 box, i decided i might as well swap the idler and pitman arm too. pitman wasnt too bad, but the idler was horrid. glad i swapped that out.

Al, I had looked into those 'kits' and was unimpressed by the engineering of them. they are simply, bigger truck has a beefier arm, therefore if i manage to cobble together some sort of mount adapter to bolt it to my smaller blazer, the blazer will obviously work better.

so for now, stock replacements should be fine for me, especially since i want to stay stock height

Sounds more than fair, good call IMHO.

The stock idler arms in these trucks are terrible.  I swapped mine out a long time ago with a moog arm.  the replacement arm is different than the stocker.

grr.
http://www.s10forum.com/forum/f19/zr2-rear-ujoint-problem-508683/

new yoke solved the problem.

anyone have a good source for 8 degree pinion angle shims?

The battery tray looks better then most I've seen so maybe cardboard helped...haha

never heard of more then a 3 degree shim but IIRC JTR's are stackable. I wouldn't do it...

new yoke solved the problem.

anyone have a good source for 8 degree pinion angle shims?

What dimension or feature of the yoke changed from old to new?

i have been known to make pinion shims in any angle

i ordered some from a 4x4 store, steel 8 degree ones for not too much.

hopefully the holidays dont slow them down too much.

th old yoke's "tangs" were measurably worn. one day i might take a picture.

put on the 8 degree shims and it looks and feels way better.
swapped out the rear shocks for some fresher bilsteins as well

Driving it on the road yet?

yup, it feels pretty good, i'd like to tighten up the steering a bit, havent figured out where it's bad yet.

still need to swap the front shocks,

got homelink to work, so that's a nice upgrade too.

man, I've never heard of an 8 degree shim.  I probably would have lowered the trans/transfer case. lol