New Guy with the wife's Burban

[Girth]

The wife had a hankering for something "beastly". With three kids, coaching one kids soccer team.....well, a Suburban is kinda THE thing. (She threatens divorce when minivans are mentioned). She had a newer Burb ('04) that she HATED..... but she seems in love with this new beast, but then she hasn't really lived with it yet. lol

Drove it home last weekend. First square body for me. I've owned older and newer GM trucks, but never a square body. 1989 V2500, 5.7/400/241, 4in lift. Overall pretty straight with very little rust. Interior is pretty darn clean, minus the front door panels being a bit beat up, and the missing headliner. Some teenagers have been driving it for a couple years, so I have some work to do. Supposedly the engine was replaced with a Summit long block some years ago, I have receipts for the TH400 being rebuilt, and the steering box was replaced. Steering feels a bit light/twitchy/likes to wander though.... although better now that the tie rod is straight. lol

Froze my butt off yesterday swapping the taco'd tie rod and adjusting some doors/fixing strikers so they shut right. New master/booster sitting in the garage, since they suspicious paint on the one in the truck sure did turn out to be a leaking master. Has rusty Hedman headers on it, with what sounds like a WICKED exhaust leak. Hole in one muffler (true duals, home brew, the mount that was welded to the muffler ripped a hole out of it), but the tick sounds like it's closer to the front. Kinda dreading pulling the headers.... but we'll see. One of the rear seatbelts has a restractor that doesn't retract the shoulder belt, but the lap portion works fine. Temp gauge is mostly inop? WAS stuck around 150*, even with the truck off, though this morning I noticed it started out bottomed and then slowly rose to around 125*. Curious. Still has that load sensing brake valve inline in the back, which I'm gonna bypass..... once I figure out how I wanna do that. With the dual exhaust, one pipe is RIGHT there where I'd put the adjusted line.

Overall.... just hoping to get it reasonably safe and solid, since the wife wants to bomb around town in it. THEN.... now that she knows it IS a thing, she's wanting to do a dually conversion to it.

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[Italianwagon]

Sweet Burb.

 

[animal]

 

[WFO]

Welcome from the Texas Panhandle.

 

[Frankenchevy]

Steering feels a bit light/twitchy/likes to wander though....

Check the rag joint, drag link, ball joints and steering component angles due to the lift.

Still has that load sensing brake valve inline in the back

Just bypass it by hooking the soft line from the axle directly to the hardline before the load sensing valve.

 

[ali_c20]

Welcome from Austria.

 

[Shorty81]

Welcome from Ohio

 

[Girth]

Check the rag joint, drag link, ball joints and steering component angles due to the lift.

Just bypass it by hooking the soft line from the axle directly to the hardline before the load sensing valve.

Haven't dived into the steering shaft yet, beyond just looking at it.... rag joint LOOKED ok, but I'll have to dig more. The drag link has a bit of an angle to it. Not much, but I'd say its an inch lower in the back than it is at the pitman arm. Looks like a Rough Country high steer arm on the knuckle (Rough Country lift I think, at least the shocks are), but I have a Superlift arm that looks to be a tad taller.... should level out the drag link? All the joints seem to be tight, but I'll probably replace the drag link when I have it off to do the steering arm.

Bypassing that valve won't be quite THAT easy. Was eyeballing it earlier. I'd need a longer soft line to reach the hard lines, even flipping the block on the axle, if I just did the usual remove and direct connect. That won't really work either though, because with the dual exhaust, the pipe is RIGHT there. Too close for comfort. I'll probably just leave the lines in place as they are and tie them together after removing the valve. Might redo that later.... since I'm looking at replacing the exhaust anyways. One piece at a time....

 

[Terry Wilkerson]

Welcome fron KC

 

[Frankenchevy]

Bypassing that valve won't be quite THAT easy. Was eyeballing it earlier. I'd need a longer soft line to reach the hard lines, even flipping the block on the axle, if I just did the usual remove and direct connect.

Yes, you’ll definitely need a longer line. I picked one up from Napa when I bypassed mine. Since then, I bought the SS braided Crown lines from ORD for everything.

 

[Grit dog]

Check the rag joint, drag link, ball joints and steering component angles due to the lift.

Just bypass it by hooking the soft line from the axle directly to the hardline before the load sensing valve.

I’m gonna look at that. If my new rear flex line is long enough…
Been wanting to bypass this one as well. With the big heavy tires, it can handle full rear brakes pretty well even when empty. And stops amazingly with all the juice.

 

[Grit dog]

Welcome! And nice mommy missile!
Great way to combat the onslaught of Priuses, Teslas and minivans at the coffee stands and school drop offs!

And old squarebody burbs are such a good value around here…

And the paint looks original too. A real bonus knowing what you have wasn’t covered up or prepped improperly for a repaint.

 

[geocrasher]

Sounds like you've got a couple of keepers: The wife and the rig! Welcome.

 

[Corvette Ed]

Welcome aboard from East Tennessee.

 

[Lorrie]

Welcome from Washington.

I just celebrated 24 years with my burb. My husband jokes that he goes before my burb does!
Minivans (shudder)!