2001 PNW Ski Rig and maybe a little overland...
 

Everyone loves a story, right?

My username dates back to 1999. I was just a young pup graduating high school and I finagled my way into a full academic scholarship. My loving parents decided I deserved a nice new vehicle to make sure I got to and fro safely. My dad was a GM employee and I was soon the owner of one of the first S10 Xtremes to land in Missouri. I felt fast and furious, but was really just... slow.

After some bumps and bruises, mods, repairs, etc. here she is in her heyday.

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And here is the last picture I ever took. A guy drove from Jersey, rented a Uhaul tow dolly one way, and headed out. The engine was seized but the body was straight. He had rolled his S10SS and was going to swap drivetrains. I asked for updates but never heard a peep. :(

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I took a break from modding cars. Then I moved to Washington state. I drove a stock Cherokee for a bit and it was an awesome rig. It's not worth pictures.

Then one day I bought a Miata. Not totally on a whim, but a bit of an impulse buy. The obsession spiraled from there. I modded my 96, bought a 91, modded the 91 some more, sold the 96, bought a 90, cleaned it up, bought a 99, sold the 90. Now the 91 is for sale and the 99 is just a clean daily driver. Here's some pics along the way...

The 96 pictures are on Photobucket. F that...

The 90 when I bought it.

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The 90 when I sold it.

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The 91 doing what it does.

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The 99 as it sits today, although the winter wheels and tires go on tomorrow.

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Now... how did I end up here? I went skiing for my first time a few years ago. I picked it up fairly quick and fell in love. I made friends and we do a yearly ski trip. Last year I took the plunge and bought a season pass. So... now I should probably have a ski rig. I like platforms I'm familiar with so the Jeep search has been hot and heavy. One problem... price. Oof. I've turned to Pathfinders, Blazers, and anything that was like $2k or less. Turns out most Blazers have the driver door striker ripped off and welded back from the bushings dying and the owner just smashing ****. Dummies.

Enter Wayne. Wayne listed his Blazer on FB Marketplace for $2k. A little research shows he listed it there and on OfferUp for $3k just 2 weeks ago. Interesting. I test drive it the same day. Body and interior are super clean and straight. The 4.3 is everything it's said to be. And then the test drive. It goes. It turns. 4wd engages. All that. But... there are 2 issues. 1 is intermittent rattle at idle. I'm guessing a bad cat or a heat shield. We'll know soon. Issue 2 is more concerning. It has a speed based groan. It starts at about 20mph and grows a bit louder at highway speeds. I'm guessing bad wheel bearings, bad pinion gear, or maybe the vacuum switch business. I have to get the other car out of the garage and then the fun begins.

Here she is at home.

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And some pics of the interior from the ad. So clean!

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It has 146k miles. All the LT options but no locking rear RPO code. Sad. And no tow hitch but I'll change that soon enough.

Outside of fixing the groan and rattle... plans are 30" tires, crank the torsion bars, and ski rack of course. It may become a hiking overland rig so we'll see where it goes...

Cheers mates!

Nice story and nice find. I have almost the identical Blazer, a 1999 LT. Mind does have the locker rear and tow hitch. Those should not be too hard to find. Does yours have the full skid-plate treatment? That is a nice option to have or to get.

I did the basic lift you want to do. I have a link to my notes on it in my .sig file.

As for the rattle, I had that for a while and it was the catalytic converter. If the cat is not integral with the Y-pipe (mine was not), it is a fairly straight forward job to replace.

Cheers!

Got the blazer out and went for a drive this weekend. The growling gets noticeably quieter when turning left so I'm going to start by replacing that side. And on that note... ordered my first parts: a pair of Detroit Axle hub assemblies. From reading around here about the Dearborn hubs I'm comfortable with this choice. The pair costs about the same as a single of the more expensive units. I may end up replacing both sides depending on what I find.

I'll also check out the ball joints while I'm in there, but haven't ordered replacements. I know it's inevitable. Shocks are on that list too.

Also picked out tires. Going with BFGoodrich KO2's in 30x9.5. They'll run me right at $700 mounted and balanced and, of course, taxed. I may add a 5th down the road, but have to decide if I'm adding a tire carrier from a 2 door first...

Got a question for you. In the cargo area on the passenger side, it looks like you have compartment under the window. What is in there? I don't have that on my 99 LT.

I wasn't sure so I went out and popped it open. Appears to be the OnStar electronics. The antenna is mounted on that window.

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Yep, that's the old analog style OnStar equipment. Completely useless now since they made the switch to digital back in 2007.

I've been trying to find one of thos compartments for a while now. Hard to find in my area. Good place for storage and and other mcgivers...

Hubs came in. I'll start the install this weekend if it's nice out. If it's crappy they may wait til next week. My Miata (that's for sale) is in the garage. I prefer not to park it outside because I don't trust the soft top 1000%. Really hoping it sells soon...

I'm picking up a set of stock wheels on Saturday. I like to keep rollers around and will be nice to have a matching spare... or something to mount different tires on. KO2's will be ordered in the next week or 2. Likely going with Discount Tire because they've got a bunch of stores, decent prices, decent warranty, etc.

Before I dig in... have to grab a new torque wrench and breaker bar. I broke the former by using it as the latter... doh! I'll also grab a 36mm while I'm at it since 32mm is the biggest I have now.

The hubs... not that exciting.

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Congrats and welcome to the club of hub replacers. I suspect just about everyone has had to replace their hubs at or soon after their Blazers get to the 15 y.o. mark.

Do you have the 4-button transfer case? It is worth experimenting with it to get a feel for how it works. I've done that by gunning it on my neighborhood street. I could see how the rear axle locked up (G80 rear end) and one of the front tires slipped.

If money was not an object, I think I'd like to have one of these locker front axles that work with the stock IFS. https://www.outfitterdesign.com/s10-...ferential.html

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It's a club I expected to join about 45 seconds into my test drive, lol.

Oh damn... those are pretty cool. I haven't looked into upgrading the 4wd much. Sadly I don't have the G80 so I'm trying to snag one from a junkyard. It's also too bad most of them are 3.73 since I have 3.42. I'd rather have the 3.73 gears but not sure I want to mess with swapping the front too. Blahblahblah... where's my money tree when I need it?

KO2's have been paid for. Should be in within a few days.

Now to decide... buy some soft 8's or D holes or just run them on stock wheels... Decisions, decisions...

I bit the bullet and ordered a new chunk of exhaust. After surveying the condition of my current setup and calculating the cost for having a shop weld in a new cat it just wasn't worth it. Why not just replace it? We'll see how it sounds and if I want to do a catback later...

So I ordered this: https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=1472680&cc=1371440&jsn=464

And it showed up on the front porch...
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Plan is to install it this week or weekend depending on the weather. Truck gets dropped off tomorrow night for new tires to be installed. Still trying to schedule it for an alignment and still waiting on my rear spacers. Damn you eBay!

I'll post up how the exhaust goes on. Hoping to not break any studs... <knocks on wood>

That is interesting. On my 1999, the y-pipe was not integral with the cat. I was able to replace the cat and the exhaust system to the rear of that separately without having to remove the y-pipe.

I'm guessing you must have emission tests over there. I still remember having to get the 68 Mustang tested back over 20 years ago.

Mine was also separate from the y pipe, and I dont have that front extra cat on mine...

I replaced that section of mine as well. The hardest part was the reaching the manifold bolts. The worst part of mine was the rear section was welded and not bolt on. I ended up replacing the manifold back on mine. Good luck!!!

Yeah... I've done enough exhaust work to know that those studs and bolts are a pain. I've broken like 6 catalytic converter studs on Miatas. UGH!

I'm not sure when or what changed, or what models have the big Y pipe versus just a bolt in CC. Definitely wish just the cat bolted in. Would be much easier.

But... now onto bigger and better things... literally. New tires came in and I was able to get them installed lickety split. Pretty excited that it looks a little chunky. Going to do the torsion bars when I do the exhaust, likely this weekend.

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And yes, I have the other center caps. They were just off from doing the hubs and I haven't put them back on yet.

Nice looking tires. What size?

Did you already install a longer rear shackle? If you do the torsion bar lift, consider getting different upper control arms so that that the angle for the upper ball joints is better. I used the ones from Rough Country that go with their 2.5" lift.

As for the y-pipe, I thought all 99's had the y-pipe that was non-integral with the cat. Hmmm. Having it all one piece will make it a greater hassle to replace. Good Luck!

I decided to reply over here. Not sure how this forum is about all the chatter in the newb section. :)

They are quite similar! I wish I could go back and tell Chevy how I feel about this terrible wheel well trim. What were they thinking? Ugh!

There are so many Wrangler variants. I didn't realize how inexpensive they could be. My big requirement was an all terrain that was 3 peak snowflake rated since I'm calling this my ski rig. Almost bought Cooper Discoverer AT3's for a decent deal but talked myself out of it.

I actually still have 2 Miatas right now - a 91 and a 99. The 91 was a track car but is now mostly stock and for sale. Really hoping to sell it soon. About to slash the price just so I can move on. The 99 is my daily but I'm getting sick of blinding headlights in my rear view. Not sure I could sell it but that might mean a different daily...

Days like today I wish I didn't work on my own things. Cars are dumb.

I realized after unbolting everything it wasn't going to be possible to get the exhaust out in one piece. I may have been able to finagle some crossmembers down or out and have better luck but I didn't want to. Good thing I have a sawzall.

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The bigger downside to this is cutting the new exhaust in half. Ugh. I grabbed a connector and a couple of U bolt clamps from the parts store. This will be temporary until I take it into an exhaust shop to have it welded back up. I feel sorry for that guy, lol.

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Turns out the ol girl does weep a bit. Probably won't tackle the oil leaks until after winter when I can have it down for a week or 2.

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But there was one other project while I was under there. Gave the T bars 5 rotations to level things out. Here are my measurements before and after.

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And the aftermath. The money shot. They payoff. My driveway is sloped a bit but the numbers don't lie. Looks much better now.

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Cheers y'all. I'm tired. Time for a bath followed by a nice steak dinner.

Looking good!

The Manga flow cat for my 2001 ZR2 was a two piece unit. I was able to put it in fairly easily. It came with a clamp so I left it there. Made removing the trans a few months later much easier.

Looks good.

Thanks! And I wish I could have found more info on that. If I knew there was a 2 piece option I would have bucked up the cash. Luckily I should have a buddy welding it up Thursday.

Picked up a stupidly large accessory today. This thing is seriously big.

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Wellllllll... got the ol rig on the rack today and found one really ugly ball joint and a little play in the pitman and idler arms. Dammit! Another $200 to Rock Auto and I should have parts this week. I suppose that's better than having a ****e alignment done today and paying for another a short time down the road.

Also should be welding up my exhaust on Thursday. Hopefully my buddy just does it and doesn't hand it to me to burn a butt-ton of holes in, lol. I've got an SES since the coupler I threw on as a bandaid has a pretty significant leak.

And lastly my spacers for the rear should finally come in Friday. Took a few annoyed messages with the vendor to make that happen. The first tracking number stayed in "pre-shipment" status for 2 weeks.

The real bummer in all these little issues is that my normal daily (Miata) decided to leak and soak the driver floorboard. I've had a heater and a fan on it all day...

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Oh what a week it has been. My front end parts came in and I took Friday off to work on the truck. Then the wife reminded me we needed to drive it on Saturday. Ugh.

Let a buddy try and weld the exhaust. It's far from pretty but mostly functional. That's a problem for future JR.
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Parts...
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Spacers...
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Reason for spacers...
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YIKES!
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So much better!
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Wife's work's Christmas party decorations. UGH!
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On the way home Saturday the SES flashed a few times. That was good for a scare. Ran the codes. Already have a new thermostat on the shelf. Another Rock Auto order and I've got a cap, rotor, plugs, and wires on the way.

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I haven't had a chance to run down all the vacuum lines and see why my Service 4WD light comes on when I try to go into 4WD. It was working just fine before. I wonder if I banged something when messing with the exhaust. Time will tell...

Until next time... cheers!

Did you install 4 spacers? I only installed two on the rear, 1.25", to square up the stance. What size(s) did you use?

Also, your comment from before made me laugh. I sometimes think being able to work on my own truck is like a curse; knowing I can do it means I can definitely do it for less money (but for the cost of time) and sometimes better than a shop could do it. LOL

So I'm not always good about updating... especially when it's nothing exciting.

Rock Auto order included upper and lower ball joints, inner and outer tie rod ends and sleeves, pitman arm, idler arm, and new CV axles. The axles were cheap enough. 1 had already spewed grease all over many moons ago and the other decided to after cranking the T bars.

I bought a couple of new drill bits for operation rivet. That was enough to make me lose my damn mind.

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Presto... like magic. All done.

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I greased it all up, gave it a toe and go, and been driving it a little since. Should be getting it aligned next week.

The important part... I did the pitman arm in the truck. I know you hear different opinions on whether it's possible or not. I took the 3 bolts to the power steering loose and was able to contort it around to get a socket on it. I was able to make a 32mm work (that's all I had on hand). The nut never came out of the socket until it was reinstalled, lol. Also put a pitman arm puller on it in the truck. It wasn't the easiest, but I'm a fairly decent contortionist. YMMV.

After all of this, 4wd still would not engage. I wasn't expecting it to, just hoping for a little luck. I was still getting C0367. I made a post about it and swartlkk came through like he always does. I first replaced the actuator solenoid on the firewall. No change. With the help of a friend, I finally got my TCCM picked up at USPS. MAGIC!!!

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This little light of mine... I'M GONNA LET IT SHINE!!!

Too bad I got it fixed AFTER all of this snow. :(

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With 2wd, open diff, and not nearly enough ground clearance... I managed to get stuck in my own tiny driveway, lol.

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PS: doggos love snow too...

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Getting the old girl pointed straight down the road again. My toe and go alignment wasn't the best... wasn't my worst either, lol.

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Took the old girl up north a couple weekends ago. She did great. Didn't get into as much snow as I had hoped but still found a little. For those in the area, we took the Mountain Loop Highway up to where it's closed for winter.

A quick stop by the river.

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Super cool dam we drove across.

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Our homeboy Norris came along too!

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Snug as a bug in a rug...

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I'm guessing this is the last dust up we'll get this year. :(

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And this is why I bought the damn thing... to get to places to do this thing...

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Damn, our rigs are almost twins except mine has running boards. Mine is not for skiing (my legs just can't be pointed correctly!) but rather for hunting, fishing and hauling my boat.

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This has been a beautiful weekend outside here in the Seattle area. Decided to clean up the whole stable. Blazer cleans up quite nicely!

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Now I'm trying to decide the future of my automotive stable. I made a couple of moves for some Miata parts but I'm not sure what's staying or going... decisions are hard.

Wife's car looks great all waxed up. Mazda knows how to do black very well. Also nice to get the winter wheels off.

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Nothing too exciting... but I picked up this hitch and bumper a while ago and I was tired of tripping over it in the garage. Since it came attached to a decent white bumper, I just swapped the whole thing over. 8 nuts in total, 4 on each side. Having a stubby ratchet really helped navigate around the tail pipe, and having ratcheting wrenches was nice too.

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And all done. I haven't wired up the lights yet. I don't have the heavy duty package so I need to grab a 4 pin to wire in. The 7 pin was already on there so I just left it for now.

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Great thread man. Love the Blazer, super clean. You're build is basically the same route I'm going with my Jimmy. You like the KO2s? Also are you on the Overland Bound forums?

Funny I also have a new Mazda sharing the garage with my Jimmy. It's totally a personal goal of mine to own a Miata one day. Rented an ND Miata a while back for a week on business and absolutely loved it. Handled amazing and was 100% livable and comfortable during my commute. Obviously was an auto but even the trans wasn't awful.
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My brother isn't a member on the forum but he has a similar pair haha. His Sonoma is on 30s as well. MS3 he autocrosses, bolt ons, tune, TE37s and racing rubber.
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Anyway sorry to spam up your thread with my pics. I'm subbed for more updates!

Mazda content is never spam! Hah! Glad you liked the ND. I’ve driven a few and they’re an amazing chassis. I’d gladly have one but I’d want the RF for sure.

The KO2’s have been awesome. Haven’t really had them off-road yet and not as much time in the snow as I’d hoped. I also don’t have the g80 so there’s no help in the rear. Might be going to an ORV Park next weekend. Will report back if so.

The only other 4x4 forum I’m on is pirate. Just a bunch of Miata forums otherwise.

Glad Mazda content is welcome! That rental was an RF. Gorgeous in black.
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My 6 year old Michellins were scary last winter, the KO2s are definitely my top choice for replacements at the moment and a G80 is also on my list of wants. Definitely report back on the ORV park!

Overland Bound is a pretty great community, lots of good info on gear and camping stuff too. I think I have a profile on Pirate but their mobile site sucks so I don't frequent them much. I do lurk some on Mazdas247...