1997 RCSB build on 4dr tahoe frame

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tommypvt

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Cant be tight if you’re liquid. Welds arent perfect due to the limits of welding in the pocket but they just need to keep it from spinning.


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tommypvt

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Cabs on the tahoe frame.

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Back mounts are spaced out farther on the tahoe frame. Had to plasma cut some washers to move the mount holes inward. Truck rear mounts seem to be 52” apart. Front mounts are the same.

I had some boat roller on hand to make spacers as i think the tahoe mounts are about 1 3/4” low. I am going to get a couple 2” talk universal body mounts because i would rather have a 3” diam instead of the 2.5” diameter ones on there now.

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Spent most of the day today working on the drivers side rocker pulled the carpet and found some rust in the floor so patched that. Will have to do some more floor repair down the road. This rocker was much farther gone than the passenger but headed in the right direction now.
 

tommypvt

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Everything taking a bit longer than it should. Just addressing some more rust issues. Cut some solid mounts out of the truck frame and used them to reinforce the front radiator mounts. One was trashed the other was ok. But i just plated them both.

Had to fix the bottom of the radiator mount it was rusted bad. Plated it and had to make a new pad.
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Doesnt look like it but its moving along well.

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Fenders on soon

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Mount reinforced i wish i had access to those big washers that people use will get some and keep them on hand.

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98chevy2500SS

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This is some amazing work! Looks like it is going great! :D
 

tommypvt

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This is some amazing work! Looks like it is going great! :D

thanks! It's going lol. Hopefully have it moving under its own power this week. Pretty close to patching it all up now and getting ready for the issues that will arise. Ran the passenger brake line tonight and messed with the steering shaft was traveling the last couple days so not much energy to work tonight. Will hopefully hammer on it tomorrow. I am going to have to do some more rust repair on the fenders especially where the inner fenders mount to the cab. It really needs new fenders but just no time right now to track down a good pair. I bought new inners but I am not going to separate the current inners and the fenders. most of the fasteners are frozen up and they aren't all that far gone. I will wait till i find a nice pair of fenders and mount the inners to them.


Fitting the bed and getting the body lines straight will be a bit of a challenge I think. Going to put the fenders on it tomorrow to test fit things and see what I have to do with the rear cab mounts. but with both the rear cab mounts and the bed mounts in play there is a bit of room for error.
 

tommypvt

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3” blocks are better than 2.5 boat roller for sure. I cut them down to 1.75” height.

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I don’t always flare brake tubing but when i do i forget to put the fittings on.

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Getting there.

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Didn’t have the door on when i did this side cab corner. Not the best idea. Will have to cut and tweak the bottom.

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Lower ball joints. No fun. They are like frozen in there. Going back at them tonight. Have a ball joint press but it is totally useless taking them out.

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Keeping on keeping on. Brakes are in and bled. List of things to do is shortening quickly.
 

Old77

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I've always had issues with ball joints and those ball joint presses you rent from the parts store are hit and miss for me. I just chalked it up to user error but I'm glad I'm not the only one that finds the process painful! LOL
 

tommypvt

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I've always had issues with ball joints and those ball joint presses you rent from the parts store are hit and miss for me. I just chalked it up to user error but I'm glad I'm not the only one that finds the process painful! LOL

Yeah, Then I googled around and realized that you can just beat them out if you put a jack under to support the arm. Yeah so did that. not budging. Added a little mapp torch to the outside of the control arm and wack fell right out. So support + heat + BFH = happiness. It really is simple of you do that.

I just thought well you could press them out with the ball joint press which I have done for other vehicles. Oh well learn something every day. They go in fine with the press though. I bought the ball joint press from Harbor Freight. I am pretty tired of renting stuff. Just buying it now when i need it plus stocking most things that I tend to use often (brakeline, fittings nuts and bolts). Also got the HF hydraulic 5 ton gear puller. That thing is pretty sweet I wish I had it years ago for stuck stuff. Used it to press out one of the axles that was stuck in the hub.

Put a bunch of time in the past couple of days. I am off this week from work so hopefully it will be buttoned up by the end of the week. Front fenders are on, everything on the engine is connected, Just need to put fluids in and complete charging the battery and I think it should fire. Have to test the fuel lines under pressure just to make sure there are no leaks.

Need to attack the bed and the back end but will start that tomorrow.
 

tommypvt

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Today was fun. Realized that the 97 had the thermal 4x4 actuator and my 99 frame has the electric. So had to put together a little harness. The white plug runs the 4x4 indicator it is a switch that is closed when the actuator is in. It has a separate switch on the older trucks. The newer electric has just one wire coming from the actuator. I know the adapter harness just run wires but I wasn't exactly sure how that worked and didnt want to mess it up so I threw a small relay in there. Now when the wire off the actuator fires it closes the relay and the closes the indicator circuit like the original switch would do.
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If you dont own non insulated splices buy them. They changed my world. So much nicer than insulated but you do have to heat shrink.

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I had to pull power from the 4wd circuit to keep keyed 12v to the electric actuator. The brown wire people tap off the transfer case. I ran it from the convenience center because i wasnt running one wire down the passenger side.

I saw online where people were pulling power from the center prong of that plug spot but the right one tested as connected to the 4x4 fuse for me.

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Used a connector off an aftermarket fusebox space was tight a regular female spade wouldn't fit.

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The other wiring was pretty easy. The Grey wire is connected to the Grey power for the thermal actuator. It is used to control the switching. Where the wire from the convenience center provides a constant power. I combined the grounds from the relay and the actuator and ran that ground with the light blue to the thermal connector which i cut off the old actuator.

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tommypvt

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Top part is the original connectors white to indicator black to activation. Then the little relay and i put a weather pack in for the constant keyed power to the actuator.

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The other end goes down to. the actuator. I hope it all works but i don't see why not.


So got everything connected, put the battery in and went to turn the key and nothing. Just the fan worked in the cab. Went through all the grounds seeing if i left something off. Nothing.

Yea I never screwed together the drivers bulkhead connector. Got that together and all works as it should.

Need to get some gas and see if it will fire up. Fuel pump makes noise so i am thinking it will be fine. We had to make a harness to extend wiring to the pump because it is in the back but that seems to be correct. My son built that little harness. I hope he can get three wires to work.

Couldn't bring myself to put crappy shocks back on the front so order some bilistiens to match the back. They should be here tomorrow. Hopefully will have the bed on and mounted tomorrow. Get this thing wrapped up.

Wiring diagram for the electric actuator plug showing the right pins and colors. Brown keyed 12v+ on the 4wd circuit. Grey the switching wire Black white to the indicator. Hopefully this helps someone I had to search all over and watch some bad youtube vids to figure out how I was going to do what i needed which just turned into basically the same as converting from thermal to electric but the lack of the 4x4 light switch presented some issues.

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