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Newbie with a 86 K10

2K views 20 replies 9 participants last post by  RADRICK 
#1 ·
My wife found a truck she really wanted because it was older and lifted. So I bought it for . Now I need to make it as reliable as possible for her before she starts driving it on a regular basis.

Generally I like to build cars and not trucks, so this is my first lifted 4X4 that I have owned. I was told it has a six inch lift on it but I am unsure if it is or not.

Its a 1986 K10 short box with four inch blocks under the rear leaf springs, 350chevy with a th350 trans bolted to a 208 transfer case, on 10 bolt axles running 35X12.5X15 tires.

The shocks were not working at all and I took them off to get new ones but I want to make sure that I am getting the right ones for the vehicle. The fronts shocks were Rancho's 13 1/4" collapsed and 21" extended. The rears are 16" collapsed and 26 1/4" extended.

Now after alot of searching I could not find what shocks would work the best for this truck. Its not gonna be seeing alot of off road use because the wife is gonna be driving it but I also want it to be functional and be able to get the full travel of the suspension if i need to.

Does anyone know what size shock I will be needing?

I am also open to suggestions to if I should put a OD transmission in this sense she wants to drive it as much as possible and as soon as possible lol
 
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#2 ·
Use a floor jack,or fork lift and stuff a front tire up as far as it will go untill the other tire comes of off the ground.now measure the distence between the shock mounting holes on both sides,use those measurements to determine shock length.keep im mind that you dont want to bottom out your shocks, you can limit the travel with a strap if you have to keep them from over extending.
If it has stock gears (probley 342) with 35s it will get decent milage without overdrive,but it will be a turd off road in high lock.the wife will love iton the street im sure.if money allows build a strong 700r4 and put some 411s or 56s in it or better yet look for a twelve bolt rear axle as the 10 bolts are not the strongest with a 35 on them.
 
#3 ·
Im sure those are the shocks are the lift kit came with. I would replace them with the same length as you took out. rancho makes some decent shocks. bilsteins are good too. As for the od trans it will cost close to 2000$ to build a 700r4 to hold up the that truck with that gear.tire combo.
 
#5 ·
Thats the drive for the OD trans. (pardon the pun lol)

I'll be out there as soon as the rain quits to check the suspension this morning. I'm just worried that the front shocks might be wrong because the guy we bought it from had broke the right front shock somehow? So unless the front moves alot less then the rear the shocks on it might be right then.

I'll also be pulling the diff covers off and counting teeth today too.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Look and see if there's any # on the front leaf springs @ all. When i put my 4" lift from rough country there was a part # on them. So i gave them a call and they confirmed that it was a 4". You don't have to count the teeth, there should be a # on the ring gear itself. It should look like this 49:12= 4.08 gears
 
#10 · (Edited)
I found the numbers for my shocks the fronts are RS 5001 and the rears are RS 5112. Now the fronts have 5" less travel then the rears, is this normal or do I need something different up front?

No numbers on the leaf springs that I could see, but I did notice one of the (for lack of a better word) clamps around the leaf springs is almost all the way off. Plus it looks like the leafs are seperating just past the axle? Or is this normal?
 
#20 ·
I wrote Rancho for recomendations on shocks for my truck and this is what I received back...........

Thank you for your interest in Rancho products. Unfortunately, we do notoffer Rancho shocks for a Chevrolet K10 truck with six inches of lift. For further questions or assistance, please contact technical assistance at734-384-7804 M - F 8:30am - 5:30pm EST. Rancho Team Member, Joe


Any suggestions anyone????
 
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