General vehicle thread

[Gman]

Is there Suburban a torsion bar front end? That's what all the Isuzus are.

I think it depends on the model year and if it's 2WD or 4WD. I seem to recall they got away from the torsion bars in the front, but I can't recall when?

[Irving]

If it's torsion bars, you shouldn't need extended anything. When you lift, you are just moving the resting point of the control arms up. So you lose down travel and gain up travel. If you go up too high (past 3" on my platform) the spring rate turns very harsh and your CV axles are at extreme angles and tearing boots will be common. At that point you can do a front diff drop that will lower your diff and give you better CV angles. On my platform, people do a ball joint flip where they install the upper ball joints under the upper control arm instead of on top where it is from factory. This is just to allow you to still get a proper alignment.

I wouldn't expect to run into any of these issues only lifting an inch, unless the ifs components on a Suburban are unusually short. You won't need longer shocks or anything because the shock travel doesn't change.

[ray1970]

I?ve seen more than a few broken torsion bars on the front of GM trucks when people crank them up lift the front end. I think the purpose of the offset torsion keys was to allow the lift without adding additional twists to the torsion bars.

[Irving]

I think I've read that somewhere. There are about zero, and dwindling, aftermarket parts for Isuzu stuff so those keys aren't available. I bought HD torsion bars for my Amigo and they were something like $400. The same bars for my Trooper are something like $650. Ridiculous when you can get stuff like that for an S-10 for like $150. I'm not going that route this time. If I decide to go big or go home, I'll just SAS it.

[Erni]

Thanks. Yeah, the torsion bars are on this model suburbans. With the minor adjustment I think CV joints should last, but the angle will increase.

Any issue with reducing the down travel for a 95%+ daily driver?

[Irving]

I can't see any. You probably have something like 4-5" of total travel.

[Martinjmpr]

I think it depends on the model year and if it's 2WD or 4WD. I seem to recall they got away from the torsion bars in the front, but I can't recall when?

Half ton (1500) Suburban/Silverado went to coilovers with the GMT900 platform (2007 for Suburban/Tahoe and I think 2008 for the pickups.) AFAIK the 2500/3500 (3/4 ton and 1 ton) trucks remained torsion bar.

[MrPrena]

I saw a red isuzu trooper with golf acura front logo near 120th yesterday.

[Irving]

Not me, mine is laid up in surgery. I do see more of them than I thought I would

[Erni]

Spent a day figuring out pn for front cv boots. Dude at ecs kept insisting its the non 'A' suffix pn. Finally found a knowledgable dude at the dealer. He said its the A suffix part. The non A suffix part is the rear boots. Same basic PN.
He also told me keep good care of inner boots, as some of those cv joints are no longer made and new ones require different output shafts. Wow. Good to know.