1971 Chevy Suburban - Project SuperBurb - Part V

Power-steering hoses also presented a slight challenge. Our original '71 Chevy box uses standard fittings, but the newer style pump that came with the serpentine system is metric. The folks at Orme Brothers in Northridge, California have hoses and fittings for just about any application and were able to build us a set of hoses with the appropriate fittings.

Moving underneath the Suburban, we can see how the new NV4500 five-speed manual transmission from Advance Adapters mates to our original crossmember. We played with several transmission mounts for some time, but they all required us to space the crossmember downward to let the transmission clear the body. For strength and ground clearance, we wanted to avoid this and finally came across this smaller mount from Energy Suspension.

The smaller mount also meant that the transmission, and therefore the transfer case, would sit a bit lower. Therefore we needed to grind part of the crossmember to make room. After some grinding, we finally got the proper fit.

Our NP205 also used this side mount from the factory and we wanted to keep it. The mount also had to be moved back 2 inches, just like our crossmember, since the new drivetrain combo was 2 inches longer. It took a bit of work, but we finally got everything to fit.

A small detail that reared its ugly head later is that we lost the original clutch rod while doing the swap. We made a new one by using some all-thread and a rod-end on one side. Since all-thread isn't the strongest of materials, we sleeved it with steel tubing.

New driveshafts were also needed for our Suburban, since everything had shifted 2 inches toward the rear. We turned to Jesse at High Angle Driveline in Paradise, California for our shafts. Jesse 'wheels, so he knows what 4x4 guys need when it comes to driveshafts. This was readily apparent when he asked us questions like what size tires we are running, how much horsepower we have and the intended use of the vehicle.

Since our 'Burb is lifted just 6 inches, Jesse didn't use a CV joint for the rear axle. When Off Road Unlimited built our rear 14-bolt, they installed a 1350 U-joint, so our shaft comes equipped with 1350 joints front and rear.

Our front shaft from High Angle uses a CV joint on the rear. If the 'Burb had a ton of articulation, Jesse would have equipped our shaft with one of his long-travel slip-shafts. However, since our suspension is fairly standard fare, this was not needed. After talking with Jesse, we decided to keep the 1310 U-joints. They should hold up fine, since our 'Burb is not going to be a hard-core trail rig.

After getting our front shaft in, we noticed that it was a tight fit with our Hooker Super Competition headers. We also noticed that the header was very close to the spring shackle. After looking at part numbers we discovered that we had received the wrong headers and were immediately sent the right set.

With the new headers on top of the wrong headers, you can see how the new headers made for a 4WD have the collector farther forward and up higher. This should alleviate our clearance problems.

You can see how the new headers, once installed, fit better than the first set did. With the collector moved forward and up, there is no longer a clearance issue with our driveshaft or spring hangers.

After throwing on our headers, we were ready to bolt on our exhaust system, which also came from Hooker. It features all mandrel-bent tubing. However, we discovered that again we got the wrong part-this one was for a two-wheel drive. The system would not fit and unfortunately Hooker has ceased building 4x4 exhaust systems for out application, which means it is off to an exhaust shop for us.