I played around awhile today moving the control arms up and down trying to get that z-height and seeing what would happen with the tubular upper control arm. The first pic below shows about how far I'm willing to go with that upper arm. In that location it looks to me like the ball joint would have a short life and the lower arm is not even headed toward the z-height that GMfullsize.com poster stated.
If I put the stock upper arm on (which I can't do unless I notch the frame) it would be about where I started out in this thread. The bottom 2 pics show the before and after ride height of my truck from where I started in this thread to where it sits now with the upper arm positioned as in the first pic. Lower arm is angled down just a few degrees past level. The truck frame is 3.5" lower measured just behind the lower control arm.
So to my thinking at this moment (disregarding the r&p and springs questions), I have 3 choices. 1) Notch the frame and put the stock upper arm back on. 2) Using the tubular arm set the lower arm level which will fix the upper at a better position. 3) Leave the threaded rod in and do nothing until I get the truck all together then revisit the whole subject. I keep making comparisons to the donor Blazer setup but I don't think that can be duplicated in this application so matching it or using those geometries ain't gonna happen. I just need to get it safely functioning within tolerable parameters. What say all of you?
In the late sixties, in the summers I worked with two friends of mine setting up and pouring concrete foundations for steel grain bins. We went to work each day in an 50s vintage pickup that was worn out to begin with. We loaded it down with steel forms a good 3' longer than the bed plus tools and equipment. Driving down the road you had to constantly turn the steering wheel at least 1/8 of a turn left and right to keep it going straight. We called it the "Hugger" cuz it didn't hug the road.
Point is, I can tolerate things that aren't perfect and I can live within the bounds of certain limitations. I don't think I'm creating a death truck but I also know it's not going to be track ready.
