chevrol8t
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Well it's time for me to give this a whirl....
- Thread starter chevrol8t
- Start date
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Mudsport96
Full Access Member
I saw LT Tolman do it to his awd supercharged Silverado and it seemed that it is a decently smooth process.
Ok, now I am interested. I looked for Viking Performance for these kits to do the conversion you hint at. The least you could do is post a link. C'mon man....
mattbta
Full Access Member
Lsxmatt has a YouTube installing this kit on his NBS Tahoe.
Home - Atomic Fabrication
atomicfabandperformance.com
I watched the video and I am not a fan of having to use a sawzall and cutting away parts of the frame like that. Drilling the two holes for the upper bracket, I am ok with that but the cutting away, I am not.
mattbta
Full Access Member
Same. For now, at least.
I’m normally against things that cannot be undone as well but the steering and suspension is pretty much the reason I wouldn’t buy an 800. I despise torsion bars so much that I don’t think I’d have a problem doing this. Now, if someone would make a rack and pinion retrofit for the SUVs.
I have to agree with you about the steering and suspension compared to the newer rigs, BUT, I have to admit that adding those Helwig front and rear performance kits made a real big difference when you feel the improvement to the handling aspects of the 800's. Plus, I like comfort and the seats are the best, period.
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chevrol8t
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Okay as always (as it seems to be a habit of mines beyond my control) I apologize for dropping out for a while. Probably like a most of you, free time is something I don't have much of.
I was able to get this installed about a month ago. I will not say that the install was straight forward but all in all not bad. One thing I want to say first and foremost is that at least for me I did not have to chop my frame as severe that was suggest from LsxMatt, Lawrence LT Tolman and even from Atomic Fab. Granted I did have to cut a small section out (area in blue) so the spring would not hit and I was able to trim down the existing bump stop support to do the same. I have been driving my Tahoe for a couple of weeks now with nothing striking or the spring gouging on anything. In regards to the upper shock "cup" if you have a Dremel tool, I just whittled away at the side of the cup (in yellow) to just fit the bolt in. Just take your time and it can be done! like everyone else here I did not want to cut away at everything as I still wanted it to look stock. That was one of the reasons why this took me so long (and work primarily) I knew this could be installed without serious notching, cutting and grinding I just had to think about it.
Don't let the photo deceive you. There is just enough clearance between the bolt and the side of the shock cup that it is NOT touching, but still able to run the bolt through!
This weekend I will pull the tire off and give a better picture of where I cut to keep the shock from hitting the spring. The photos I included in this post is insufficient to show what I did to clear the spring.
I do have one issue that I had with this and I want everyone to know. Once I started the install of this kit, for the life of me I could not get the lower bracket to fit! (photo with white circle) No matter What I did the lower Atomic Fab bracket for the shock would not mount to the lower control arm! Half of it was go but not enough to get the bolt all the way through. After swearing, cursing and saying things that I am now ashamed of I grabbed my grinder and starting taking material off of the lower control arm shock mount. Then I calmed down, stopped before I did something stupid and dangerous and contacted atomic fab and told the gentleman about my issue. He stated that he did run into another client who had the same issue and come to find out not all control arms are created equal. He stated that the person had a lower control arm from Detroit Axle and it seems that his kit was having trouble with that brand and would you believe it my lower control arms were from Detroit Axle. He suggested that use either GM OEM or Moog. Well since my axle were old any way I decided to get a set of Moog lower control arms and sure as heck the Atomic fab brackets fit! So if anyone is still interested in this kit you really need to keep that bit in mind.
One last thing if you see the springs looking a bit rough that was completely my fault I got careless in my install.
Here are the pics.
I was able to get this installed about a month ago. I will not say that the install was straight forward but all in all not bad. One thing I want to say first and foremost is that at least for me I did not have to chop my frame as severe that was suggest from LsxMatt, Lawrence LT Tolman and even from Atomic Fab. Granted I did have to cut a small section out (area in blue) so the spring would not hit and I was able to trim down the existing bump stop support to do the same. I have been driving my Tahoe for a couple of weeks now with nothing striking or the spring gouging on anything. In regards to the upper shock "cup" if you have a Dremel tool, I just whittled away at the side of the cup (in yellow) to just fit the bolt in. Just take your time and it can be done! like everyone else here I did not want to cut away at everything as I still wanted it to look stock. That was one of the reasons why this took me so long (and work primarily) I knew this could be installed without serious notching, cutting and grinding I just had to think about it.
Don't let the photo deceive you. There is just enough clearance between the bolt and the side of the shock cup that it is NOT touching, but still able to run the bolt through!
This weekend I will pull the tire off and give a better picture of where I cut to keep the shock from hitting the spring. The photos I included in this post is insufficient to show what I did to clear the spring.
I do have one issue that I had with this and I want everyone to know. Once I started the install of this kit, for the life of me I could not get the lower bracket to fit! (photo with white circle) No matter What I did the lower Atomic Fab bracket for the shock would not mount to the lower control arm! Half of it was go but not enough to get the bolt all the way through. After swearing, cursing and saying things that I am now ashamed of I grabbed my grinder and starting taking material off of the lower control arm shock mount. Then I calmed down, stopped before I did something stupid and dangerous and contacted atomic fab and told the gentleman about my issue. He stated that he did run into another client who had the same issue and come to find out not all control arms are created equal. He stated that the person had a lower control arm from Detroit Axle and it seems that his kit was having trouble with that brand and would you believe it my lower control arms were from Detroit Axle. He suggested that use either GM OEM or Moog. Well since my axle were old any way I decided to get a set of Moog lower control arms and sure as heck the Atomic fab brackets fit! So if anyone is still interested in this kit you really need to keep that bit in mind.
One last thing if you see the springs looking a bit rough that was completely my fault I got careless in my install.
Here are the pics.
