Man that's a cool mod! Looking forward to seeing pictures with the fullsize spare

 

Well, here's another quick update. I still haven't gotten my 31" spare tire mounted. Hopefully this week. I did however find a pretty good deal over the weekend. I found someone selling a Hypertech Max Energy power programmer.


Being very poor, I offered him $100 for it, and luckily he accepted. Now my truck is programmed with the correct tire size and gears, and the shifts are a lot more firm. I can't say that I've noticed any real change in power, and I haven't had it long enough to determine if it will affect fuel economy. It did make the shift points much nicer, and firmer, and it doesn't feel like the engine has to race before it shifts. All in all, it was a good Canadian Thanksgiving weekend.

 

i have a question about the diff swap that u did. did u use your cv axle or you bought the ones for zr2?

 

The differential that I bought is from a '98 ZR2, so I had to use '98+ CV axles. If my diff was from a '95-'97 S-series truck I could have reused my original CV axles. There's no difference between the front differentials from the regular S-series to the ZR2's, other than the manual transmission ZR2's came with an iron housing differential as opposed to the aluminum one used in the automatics and non-ZR2's.

Other than new CV axles everything else in the front end is original. Hope this answers your question.

 

yea that's what i was wondering and one more question is the zr2 front is wider than a non-zr2?

 

Yes it it. I believe that it has longer control arms, but I'm not positive of all the differences. I believe that the control arms mount lower on the frame of the ZR2 as well. I'm pretty sure that there was a thread posted a while back where a direct comparison between the normal and ZR2's were done.

 

Hey keep an update going Ive been thinking about getting mine changed to correct for tire size too. And being from the Edmonton area do you go mudding any where close to town, Awesome build so far also

 

As for mudding and trail riding in the area, the only areas that I'm aware of are the two off-road parks. If you go out towards the mountains there's a few open public areas where you can go. Have you checked out the Northern Alberta 4wd forum? They go out to the TORE park pretty often. I haven't made it out yet. I've only recently got my truck running decent.

 

Hey did you ever end up getting the ZR2 bars in? I have a line on a set and was wondering if you had do e this yet..
Thanks,

 

Unfortunately my ZR2 bars are still sitting in my yard. I tried twice to remove the old bars, but they are completely seized in the keys. I've been soaking them in WD-40 on a regular basis, but for now its too cold to tackle the job since I don't have a garage. Looks like its going to have to wait for spring. I really want to get it done though cause my old soft bars are really squishy, especially compared to the back where I have the add-a-leaf to firm things up.