Shock mounts were cut off and mounted new towers with Bilstien 5125 shocks also made some boots to help keep some mud out.
Turning the Snow Cruiser into a Snow Bruiser (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter Snow Cruiser
- Start date
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Also did some frame prep with POR 15 since it was a little rusty.
Here is a shot of the exhaust with the new crossmember. It is running a 2-1 Flowmaster with Hi-Pro cats I had the original modified X-member in there but it didn't give me enough room for the exhaust so out it went.
and here's one with the dash installed and the truck running. The check engine light is on due to a misfire on #6 which cleared after break in.
So here is a comparison pic right before I went on a test drive. The Snow Bruiser will ride on new 35's and black steelies. Mine is SOA on 4" springs and 38.5's. It also has an 6.0 LQ4 so when Mark arrives will let him drive both and then decide if he wants his back or needs to add the cam package. 
Will update this further once I wrap everything up but so far it's looking good and running good just doing final touch up and shake down so it can go home and start making some memories for Mark and his daughters!!
The reason you need a painless switch.
Exhaust and new crossmember and parking brake setup
Can you post up a closer pic of how the two rear brake cables are joined to meet up with the single e-brake cable coming out from the body?
Sure can! I pulled the yota cable back through the housing and cut liner to leave enough room to actuate the brake then left extra on both ends for later adjustment. I would have liked the crimp style but to adjust those doesn't make it easier later.
Sweet. Thanks! About to do the same thing for my AAM10.5 rear axle, which uses one cable per side, like your setup.
Its a super easy setup and has plenty of adjustment for the parking brake. Just make sure the cable ends match the calipers
Yup, all covered. I was most concerned about how you terminated / modified the stock e-brake cable to work with the rest of the system.
Thanks again!
New KM2 meats are on and got a bath today with a road test!!
TLC Norway
woodwelder
So happy to see this build almost complete!
I remember seeing this years ago, being glad on your behalf of the progress, and your wife lifting the engine out single handed!
I'm so sorry for your loss...
And happy that you still continue to do your thing!
Thanks for sharing!
She's still probably giving you a helping hand when in need
Cheers from Pål, Norway
I remember seeing this years ago, being glad on your behalf of the progress, and your wife lifting the engine out single handed!
I'm so sorry for your loss...
And happy that you still continue to do your thing!
Thanks for sharing!
She's still probably giving you a helping hand when in need
Cheers from Pål, Norway
One thing I found on the El Dorado calipers that may not have been pointed out. The pad to rotor distance was excessive to the point I was off by .030 and the rear brakes would not engage correctly. I also was having trouble getting the park brake to work properly. So I bleed the system again and then took the calipers off and gravity bleed them. Then I made a .020 shim for the pad to piston. Then I actuated the parking brake lever till the piston came into contact with the rotor. Once I did this to one side I did the other side same way. Once that was done I applied the park brake and holy crap it holds great. Brakes are working good as well. Previous to this I could actuate the Parking brakes to near full travel and get nothing and have no rear brakes to speak of. Just thought someone might want try this with their brakes if they were having issues.
In the picture the park brake is fully locked and applied. Maybe 3/8" off the lever stop so I am happy!
In the picture the park brake is fully locked and applied. Maybe 3/8" off the lever stop so I am happy!
So if you had to put a .020 shim in for the e-brake to work properly, doesn't that mean that when the pad wears .010 from each side that you're back to where you were before?
Yes as the pads wear that would increase my distance and I would be back to step 1. But the calipers are supposed to sense and adjust as it goes to maintain the set distance. My problem was the calipers never adjusted or actuated correctly from the start due to the large gap so they never set correctly. These are new not rebuilt. So I started digging and went through the whole El Dorado bleed procedure along with the 200 other suggestions on these calipers and the one thing that was common was the starting gap distance on the rotor to pad. So I fixed that and the brakes started working correctly.
NOTE After posting this you will want to make sure your pads have the appropriate shim installed on them. Hence the reason I was off on rotor distance. Damn VatoZone.
NOTE
After posting this you will want to make sure your pads have the appropriate shim installed on them. Hence the reason I was off on rotor distance. Damn VatoZone.
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