I'm pretty much new to the fourwheel drive seen. So I want to know some of the ways to lift a S-10 Blazer so I can put 35's on it without trimming the fenders and without breaking cv axles.

Good luck with that venture! To clear 35s, you need about 10 inches of lift and they'll still probably rub. And you're going to be replacing components in your front end so often, you'll be ready to sell the truck. Read up on this little thing we call a SFA swap. ;)

Thanks for the info but this isn't going to be driven on the trail much. Mainly just a daily driver. I found a 5 inch lift kit from Trailmaster but really dont know that much about them. Could I do this swap for under $2000 and have really good quality parts. How about the 5 inch lift kit and a 3 inch body lift do you think that would clear.

Don't waste your money. Sell it and buy something else, your probably not going to find the answers your looking for here.

I would sell it but I've got a good bit of money in it. I also got some personal reasons I want to keep it. Thanks though.

I've got 31/10.50's on it now with just the torsion bars turned up. The biggest deal is the front the back isn't a problem. The problem is if I turn to sharp the rub as it is.

Do a SAS first "OR" throw cash at for no reason THEN do a SAS.. its your choice.. oh and PBB is more than lifts... if you want advice then listen to what is said. if your building a show truck with big tires go elsewhere.. :flipoff2:

and a 3 inch body lift do you think that would clear.


:shaking:

Dude I don't want a show truck I just needed some advice. Ok if I go with a SAS want are some of the best parts for this swap. Also the swap will also give me greater wheel travel than the IFS right?

im comin from experience i have a 91 s10 pickup with a 5 suspension 3 body with 33x12.50x15 i can fit 35s but i have cutout flares on it it dont matter if you go off road alot your gonna break stuff on the front end so far ive gone through 7 sets of wheel bearings 3 sets of upper control arms 5 sets of axle shafts and 3 sets of tie rod ends. that is why im gonna put a sas on it stock components will not hold up

I ran 35's with cranked t-bars and almost non existant front fenders, in the rear i had a spring over rear and no box. They didn't fit real well and rubbed some, they rubbed on inner fenders and took out the blower motor. I blew 1 cv shaft when i was on 33's and blew apart the front diff on 35's. It was just about as much work to do a sas then it would have been to swap the front diff out.

I used a jeep wrangler yj dana 30 set up spring under with 4" procomp yj spring, for steering i made a crossover setup and used a yj pitman arm though i should have used a waggy pitman arm because it didn't turn super sharp.

As long as you set up a straight axle right it will ride better, flex better and be much stronger then stock. Because this is pirate you'll probably be told a staight axle should be a dana 60 front with a 4 link and coil overs is the best way to go. If your on a budget and don't push it hard a jeep dana 30 front would be a good setup.

this is also coming from experience.....either do a solid axle swap, get a different rig, or just settle with 33 inch tires at most. IFS stands for Inferior Front Suspension because it truly is inferior to a solid axle. If your stubborn enough, your best option would be to take it to a professional shop and tell them what you want. They will fit the truck with beefy front suspension parts and charge you up the ass for it.....but hey, you'll have 35's on an IFS s-10 blazer.

suggested readings:
http://www.s10extremist.org


here is your starting point, read untill your eyes hurt. then once you've mastered the basics, come back to pirate, and look for some of the older S10 SAS threads, good info in them.

Thanks for all the info, I've already being looking for parts and thinking about going with a dynatrac Jeep Cherokee Dana 60 front axle. I also have another question will I still be able to keep my stock 4wheeldrive ingagement or will it be all time fourwheel drive? If not is there a system I can buy so I can go from 4 Hi and 4Lo also 2wheeldrive?

well if you can spend 3or4 grand on a front axle, lucky you. you could do a complete sfa swap for less than that using a f250 fron axle(dana44) and 4link the rear and still have a daily driver on 35s. its all about how you drive, where you go, and what you want others to see that you did.this one is on 38x15.50 boggers with 14bolt rear, 44 front, 454 out of a jet boat th350, np205, all for 3500.it is owned by a soldier serving in iraq. he is building it to be even better.

Do your homework, read everything that you can find or you will spend a ton of $$ and have a POS that breaks stuff every day. You are going to spend a ton of $$ either way.

Yeah, I found a local shop that said if I get the front axle that they would install if with leaf springs and all the fab. for $1800. I asked about a four link for the front and they told me that it would cost a couple hundred more. Does this sound about right?

$1800 to fab up brackets, leafs, shocks, maybe brake lines, steering, drive shaft mods, exhaust mods, crossmember mods, and steering it's a hell of a deal. Linking should be a lot more, a set of good leafs is $300ish, the material to fab up links that would hold up to hard wheeling is in the neighborhood of atleast $500 and then you still need either coils, coil overs, or air shocks. I would have the guy that you want to do your straight axle put your rig on his hoist and have him explain exactly how he is going to do everything. Also what are you going to do about a rear axle? I don't think you are going to find a front axle with the same bolt pattern as your rear.

yea, check your bolt patterns. afaik, there are no solid fronts with the 5 on 4.75 pattern. newer jeeps are the closest at 5 on 4.5. I would guess that a high pinion dana 30 out of an xj would be a good donar. Already setup for 4 link which would give you near ifs ride quality and you COULD use stock arms form the XJ.

seriously, don't waste a dime on an IFS. With stock 29 inch tires on an 89 s10 x-cab I had with no lift, I broke 3 axle shafts. luckally they were all lifetime warrenteed at carquest, but the messege there should be obvious. not to mention having to replace balljoints that get bent, and an upper control arm that buckled like a piece of toast (Ill post a pic of it). The nice thing about when the axle shaft break is that you can just crank the tire one way and grab ahold of it and yank it out. It ripps the boot but you can drive agian. The bad part either way is that in 2wd, you have to baja 1000 your way out of where you were. I had to hit some really nasty rutted muddy narrow tree lind snowmobile trail at 50mph to make it close enough to be pulled out. I will NEVER own another ifs 4x4.

Of course I have been wheeling in the U.P. of michigan (keewenaw to be excact) where things are a bit more rugged than out in cali.


has anybody read the new fj adds? "solid front axles sure had a good run. Then agian so did leaded gas" F-you toyota! That piece of crap does no justice to my FJ40!

That has to be the most retared add to run in an offroad magazine.

Yeah, I've thought about the whole back axle thing and I guess I could get both front and rear axles. I called a local junkyard and they have a jeep cherokee with both axles. I know they want $450 for the front and I didn't ask about the back but I suppose they would want near the same price. That would be awhole lot cheaper than the dynatrac dana 60 I was going to buy. That way I could use the money I saved to 4 link the front and the back. I also thinking of using fabtech coilovers. I really don't care I just want to be able to put somewhere around 35's to 38's and still have the durablity to do whatever I want to do as far as offroad use and power wise. It would really suck to spend all this money and have the thing break the first time out.

450 for 1 salvage dana 30 !!!!!!!!!!!!!
screw that!!!!
see if you can find an entire cherokee used for about that. an axle, ESPEACIALLY a dana 30 should run about $125 or so. try car-parts.com if you are wanting to go salvage parts, or just find a cheap broken down donar xj someplace cheap. thatted give you both axles, guarenteed same ratio. some wheels to get you started, a front cv driveshaft to work with, the links, springs and other stuff to you need.

Yeah, that is rape. You need to shop around. You can get a D44/9" or D44/D60 combo for under $400 most of the time.

i had a blazer with the torsion bars cranked all they would do and a 3 inch body lift and still couldnt clear 33s . in my opinion i would sas it and be done with all that IFS crap . cause you wont spend any more money than doing a IFS lift that will clear 35s

Here's one with 35's. We pretty much broke even on the build, might have spent about $100 or so after regearing with 4.56's. Has about 13-14" of lift. You're not gonna fit 35's without SAS, so either go with smaller tires, or start doing some research. If you have any questions about this particular build, let me know. More pics at: http://krazyk5.com/gallery/S10-SFA-conversion
http://krazyk5.com/albums/S10-SFA-conversion/DSC01279.sized.jpg

Oh, and if you want a bigger range of adjustment with your torsion bars, you can swap your bars left and right. IIRC, they're offset opposite of each other about 30*, which will change things plenty. Might have to do a balljoint flip to correct it though.

I've done some research and with everyones help have decided to go with a 4 link setup. I also plan on putting 38" Iroks and a 350 swap. If anyone has any suggestions on the best way to do this they would be appericated.

Let me give you a few suggestions. If your planning on running it on the street dont bother with 38's, 33" is as much as the wheel wells are going to support without rubbing. I'm running 35" tires and they do rub sometimes. You would have to lift the shit out of it to clear 38's.

Otherwise just get friendly with the sawzall its amazing the kind of work one of those can do. :flipoff2:

If you look, you'll see some pics with the 5" trailmaster and 2" body lift
Even then 33's barely fit
check this out >> http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=2118807176

Thats what I did to my 98 s-10 I replaced both axles with 73 bronco axles, converted the front axle to disc brakes, changed gears, and installed lockers that would be your best bet. I would skip the d30 idea and just go for a d44.
I picked up both my axles for $400 D44 / 9"

As for the trailmaster lift :barf: its crappy!! I had one, worst investment I ever made. Idler arms, wheel bearings, front drive shaft, passenger axle shaft. That was with mild 4 wheeling.

Straight axle all the way. Don't do a dana30 spring under.Go spring over front and rear looks like a better build. Wagoneer axles work the best.

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l308/ynotrusty/DSC00349Medium.jpg

Good luck on your decision it all comes down to money. :D

Here is a link to my build up.
http://bb.bc4x4.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=98928