96 2 door Tahoe ls swap

[ovaddiesr]

I decided to park the old girl for some necessary rust repair. I’m not a pro by any means. It’s my work truck so it was a rush job

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[TheAutumnWind]

I used a late gmt400 suburban sway bar. I think it was like a 98. All I needed was the frame brackets and made my own mounts on the axle. I used a 99 Escalade rear end later on and installed the true trac in it.the Escalade rear had the mounts already from factory

There are some threads on this forum where guys like @sewlow have used HD 3" exhaust clamps. This is my plan.

Found it
https://www.gmt400.com/threads/rear...them-and-what-didnt.50151/page-4#post-1114429

 

[TheAutumnWind]

I decided to park the old girl for some necessary rust repair. I’m not a pro by any means. It’s my work truck so it was a rush job

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I love that youve done all this to a work truck. It looks great. I find it tough to do too much on mine as I use it as the daily also.

 

[ovaddiesr]

There are some threads on this forum where guys like @sewlow have used HD 3" exhaust clamps. This is my plan.

Found it
https://www.gmt400.com/threads/rear...them-and-what-didnt.50151/page-4#post-1114429

I saw that as well but I wanted a oem look and fit. Exhaust claps also may shift under a lot of stress

 

[ovaddiesr]

I love that youve done all this to a work truck. It looks great. I find it tough to do too much on mine as I use it as the daily also.

I decided to knock this out during the summer because I daily my motorcycle. During bad weather I drive my Escalade or 2500hd.

 

[sewlow]

I saw that as well but I wanted a oem look and fit. Exhaust claps also may shift under a lot of stress

Actually, with the U-bolts mounted in between the shock mounts & with the clearances in there, the fit is really tight.
If there's a weak point in a driveline or suspension, with what I put my trucks through, I will find it!
How are you supposed to know where the limit is if you don't go out & find it?
Lol!
I'm under my trucks checking things or just fixing things that just don't need fixing all the time.
9 years of the sway bar on my '97, with U-bolts, & I never saw any evidence of it moving.
All the aftermarket suppliers, such as Hotchkiss, Adco, BellTech etc, all use the U-bolt method to mount their bars on non-factory equipped vehicles.
Plus, many of those aftermarket bars can be much larger/stiffer than the OEM GM SUV rear bars, which creates much more stress on the mount points.
IMO, the weakest point of the sway bar is the upper & lower bolts that go through the sway bar ends/uprights/frame mounts. Especially that bottom one as it has the sway bar only mounted to one side of that upright, instead of like the top one that's straddled on both sides by the frame mount.
With the stresses I put my truck's suspension through, I could see those lower bolts pivoting on the bushings & maybe bending. Or snapping when the suspension loads & unloads when the rear end breaks loose & starts bouncing as it kicks out. (Downshift, hammer down, steer into it & drive through the bounce!)
Those bolts had me keeping an eye on them more than anything.
So to ease my mind, I swapped out all four for for Grade 8. Probably overkill, but one less thing for me worry about.

 

[ctallessi]

I HAVE A 1997 TWO DOOR TAHOE, IS THE REAR QUARTER PANEL GLASS SAME AS A SUBURBAN, THANKS CHUCK

 

[ovaddiesr]

Actually, with the U-bolts mounted in between the shock mounts & with the clearances in there, the fit is really tight.
If there's a weak point in a driveline or suspension, with what I put my trucks through, I will find it!
How are you supposed to know where the limit is if you don't go out & find it?
Lol!
I'm under my trucks checking things or just fixing things that just don't need fixing all the time.
9 years of the sway bar on my '97, with U-bolts, & I never saw any evidence of it moving.
All the aftermarket suppliers, such as Hotchkiss, Adco, BellTech etc, all use the U-bolt method to mount their bars on non-factory equipped vehicles.
Plus, many of those aftermarket bars can be much larger/stiffer than the OEM GM SUV rear bars, which creates much more stress on the mount points.
IMO, the weakest point of the sway bar is the upper & lower bolts that go through the sway bar ends/uprights/frame mounts. Especially that bottom one as it has the sway bar only mounted to one side of that upright, instead of like the top one that's straddled on both sides by the frame mount.
With the stresses I put my truck's suspension through, I could see those lower bolts pivoting on the bushings & maybe bending. Or snapping when the suspension loads & unloads when the rear end breaks loose & starts bouncing as it kicks out. (Downshift, hammer down, steer into it & drive through the bounce!)
Those bolts had me keeping an eye on them more than anything.
So to ease my mind, I swapped out all four for for Grade 8. Probably overkill, but one less thing for me worry about.

Good to know. My 408 was at 503 before the detune. Right now it’s dialed in with a tbss cam for a nice DD. So far my setup has been great but next weak link will be the trans/transfer case. I might modify a support to run a 6l80e or 4l80E. Whichever route I go it will have to keep 4x4

 

[ovaddiesr]

So it’s been a while and I decided to build a nice unit before my oem one craps out. It’s a 4l65e and I’m rebuilding it with a nice kit and I also just finished rebuilding a transfer case. I’ll mount the two when the weather gets better or I can move things around in the garage to do it indoors

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[Silvio Iacuone]

Nice build. Any pictures of the axle mounts you made for the Burb sway bar?