Friday I am going to seal the deal on a 97 Jimmy 4wd with only 50k miles on it! I was looking for a little info on these trucks. Please dont be to harsh, I am VERY new to the offroad scene. I have been offroading a few times in my Bronco II but never had any upgrades.
Now, What is the best/cheapest suspension upgrade for these? I was thinking 3" coils for the front, and I havent decided for the back yet. Mabey 2" blocks????
Also, When putting these in 4wd, should I just put it in neutral then press the 4wd-lo button? Is this the safest way for the trans or does it really not matter?
Last, What is a comfortable tire size for there stock gears and not beating up the axles?
Anything else I need to know, just let me know!

 

Couple problems with your ideas:

4wd blazers/jimmys use a torsion bar suspension system for the front end...meaning no coils to upgrade. As for blocks, the rear leaf springs are below the axle, so if you did add a block, you would be lowering the back end. Spring over axle flips are do-able, but that gives you ~5' of lift back there.

As for the 4wd, if you have the electronic push button switch on the dash, you can put it into 4hi at any speed, but I always keep it under 10 mph before I switch it. 4lo you need to be stopped in neutral.

 

So for a 3 inch lift, I could get the torsion keys on ebay, and what would you recommend for 3" in the back? Also, With a three inch lift, could you keep the stock shocks on it or would you have to upgrade to longer ones?

 

the torsion bars should only give you 2'. If you go with new keys to get 3', you'll be looking at a very harsh riding blazer. Also the CVs, ball joints, etc....

The $450 kits for 2' give you entirely new upper control arms to try and help with the balljoints, but your CVs are still pretty steep.

As for rear end lift, you're going to need shackles to get the lift, or Add-a-leaf kits...or a combination of the two.

 

So if you were trying to go the cheapest route possible, what would you get for the front to get 2-3 inches out of it? and with a 2-3" lift, would the stock shocks work?

 

for chepest i would go with a torsion bar crank and shackles in the rear. that will get you around 2" of lift. if you want more you could get a 2" body lift. with that you could fit 31" tires. anything bigger and your gonna do lots and lots of trimming or your gonna need a 5" bds or 6" superlift which in my opionion is a waste of money if your going to do much hard off roading. you will tear the front end out of your rig very fast with anything over 33's offroad.

 

Go with the 2' tbar lift and 2' shackles in the rear, then you can clear 31s, which give you another inch of clearence from the tires. That's your cheap 3'. Other option is a 2' body lift ($220) and 1' shackles ($60) and 1' up on the t-bar.

 

Would I have to upgrade the shocks to compensate for the 2" lift or would the stock ones work?

 

You don't need new shocks for 2', but part of the driveability issues from going 2' up on the tbars is that the actual 'lift' obtained from the tbars is in the suspension flex. You essentially put the front suspension in a flexed state, so you risk topping out the suspension going over bumps (I top out dropping off nastier speed bumps with my 1.5'). Longer shocks can help with driveability, but you still risk ball joints and CVs as any search on this matter will prove[&o]

 

i need new rear shocks with my add a leaf and 1.5" shackles. mine work but they are completely topped out and have about a half inch of up travel. if i hit a pot hole my whole shock vavling is gonna just blow out haha