1998-2002 Blazer Dual Piston Spindle ??'s

[axisg]

posted this on one of the other Gbody forums as well trying to get some solid answers to what seems to be a great, quick, and cheap upgrade.

To anyone who has done the 98-02 Blazer Spindle swap with the dual piston calipers I have a couple questions.

I think that the 4wd spindle is different but how ?? Or are the 2wd and 4wd spindle the same with a diff hub ??

I would assume the Backspacing is different on the 4wd with the hub being further out ( as the 4wd wheels appear to have less backspace than the 2wd ) The 4wd hub itself would be different ( to allow the 1/2 shaft to come thru ) but I would assume it would be OK to use in a 2wd application?

In short could you use 2wd hubs on the 4wd spindle ?? Or can you run the 4wd spindle with a 4wd hub with less backspace on your wheels ?? Or just run the complete 4wd setup as is with factory wheels ??

I see 10 - 4wd trucks at the wreckers to every 1 - 2wd truck and would love to make use of these parts. Hopefully the info gathered here will help others as I already have all the pieces I need for my own setup from a 2wd

 

[axisg]

information has been gathered and compiled as follows:

- 4wd spindles do indeed have greater backspace than 2wd ( as much as 2" each side ) so if you try to use your stock wheels you will likely not clear the fender

- 4wd bearings will not interchange with 2wd bearings

- 2wd bearings are indeed very expensive ( I paid $ 190.00 each for the 2 I needed )

My experience was that we spent appx 2.5 hours on the swap which involved:
- pulling the old spindles
- installing 2 new lower ball joints
- installing the new spindles, bearings, and calipers and bleeding the brakes.

I re-used the g-body flex line and flipped it so it routed up towards the upper control arm instead of it facing down like it was with the orig setup and it's not rubbing at all and seems to have lots of clearance. No downside I can think of as the alignment still seems bang-on and I put my factory 15" monte SS wheels back on and they clear fine.

If you can get a good used setup this would be a quick cheap upgrade. It ended up costing me about $ 650.00 with the cost of the spindles ( $ 100.00 ) 2 new bearings ( $380.00) Service Duty Rotors and Ceramic Pads ( $ 150.00 ) + a full flush out of the old brake fuild and replaced it all with new DOT3 fluid for peace of mind.

At the same time I installed the LS1 rear brakes I had ( from a donor 2001 Firebird ) so my braking is much better all around and the front brakes should have a lot to do with that.

 

[cttandy]

More info on the rear brakes.

What needs to be done, anything specail or is it a bolt on deal?

 

[dwkohout]

http://www.thirdgen.org/ls1reardisc

 

[axisg]

http://www.thirdgen.org/ls1reardisc

yeah, that was my 3rd line of info ( first 2 were friends cars who have already done the swap ). They actually refused to help me change the rear in my car unless we put in no-hop bars and the ls1 rear brakes.

great swap BTW

 

[cttandy]

There is now a new addition to my list of things to do on my car.