Had a quiet winter of not doing much with the truck till spring, then comes tragedy... First session on day 1 of the Pro-touring Truck Shootout, felt and heard something wierd on a tight hairpin at the end of the course then when I hit the brakes in the stop box, a loud bang and the truck drops onto the rear axle. The threaded joint of the wishbone upper link broke causing the pinion to rotate up and cutting the driveshaft on the crossmember. I was able to get the truck off the track and on the trailer but my weekend was done. Luckily it broke when it did as it could have been a lot worse if it had broken on a highspeed curve.

 

After getting it home and torn apart, discovered very poor weld penetration on the threaded bung. I did extend the threads about a year previous to fix wheel base and pinion angle which likely put more leverage on that joint.





I still feel this was unacceptable from the manufacturer but I really had no recourse since I had modified the part. I did let them know about the failure and of course got the "the is the first we have every seen this" response. I had considered reconfiguring the entire upper link with an offset third link and panhard but had another event quickly approaching so I just repaired the wishbone adding some gussets for extra lateral strength. I would have liked to have taken the gussets all the way to the end of the threaded bung but these were the longest pieces of thicker scrap I had.



I still had my stock driveshaft so I thru some new ujoints in it and slapped it in. I'll get another 4" aluminum made up later.

 

Headed out to Texas for LS Fest and was pretty nervous at first and was hyper sensitive to every little output from the truck. First day went well but first session of the second day, the rear end felt loose laterally. Ran back out to the paddock for inspection and found the R-Joint came apart. I didn't notice it when I put everything back together but the spiral lock that holds everything together was cupped and would not sit in the retaining groove. I took it apart and tried to straightened it out the best I could to finish the weekend.







Working in an open asphalt parking lot in Texas, got to have a little shade...


Made it thru the weekend but came apart shortly after returning home. Called Ridetech to get some rebuilt parts and they sent me a whole new R-Joint so that was pretty stand up of them. I have not had any issues since replacing the joint (two events and good bit of street driving) but still have plans to get rid of the wishbone setup as I just don't trust it anymore.

 

I had a 10% Summit coupon from the shootout so decided to pull the trigger on the Wilwood Aero 6 14.25" front brake setup I have been contemplating for a few years. The 05+ OEM brakes were doing ok but the heat checks in the rotors were starting to grow and wanted to see if the smaller piston volume would help the pedal feel.



Stock caliper vs the Aero6 on the 14" rotor...


All done... Notice I removed the brake shields completely. Doing it this way required no shims to center the caliper. Instructions call for trimming the shield and shimming the bracket at the knuckle.


The kit went on great and seems well designed except for two things. I feel they could have used longer bolts to secure the hat to the rotor. (See detail...)


...and the recommended brake line kit has a straight fitting out of the back of the caliper. Using a 90* fitting here would have made line routing much cleaner.

 

I did not have a good showing at LS Fest East in September. Don't know if it is the tires starting to age out as they are nearly 3 years old or I just couldn't get it together behind the wheel. The truck seemed to do ok other than the lack of grip and my confidence to push it hard into the corners. Straight line traction is still abysmal. However I did give the new brakes a good workout. The pedal feel was a bit firmer and I didn't need to apply the brakes near as hard to stop. Once the BP20 pads warm up they have excellent bite and I experienced zero fade. They are some dusty bitches though. This is after loading up at the end of the weekend...

 

Made a return to C10 Nationals in Nashville to defend my title but could not get it done. Me and a buddy were neck in neck all weekend with me having the fastest time but Brian Finch was running the autocross and likes to do shootout style eliminations. Unfortunately he and I made it to the final round and I drove it too cautious he drove his best lap of the weekend taking the win. Still had a great time and it is one of my favorite events of the year. Another buddy was on track taking photos and sent me some great action shots...











And just a cool still after the final with the speedway stands in the background...

 

Since rebuilding the rearend back in 2022 using some axle-saver bearing/seals, it has leaked at the ends. The oily rotors along with the extra volume from the GMT400 calipers are what I felt where contributing to the soft pedal I have been fighting for years. So I decided to ditch the 15" drag wheel brake setup for the OEM style rear brakes while replacing the axles, bearings and seals to remedy the leaks. I used the Powerstop powercoated calipers, Dynamic Friction metalic pads, new pb shoes and turned stock GM rotors.



I would not advise using the axle-saver bearing/seal combos. Garbage seal design IMO.


Stock backing plate, new shoes, bearings and conventional seals...


New bearings needed new axles as the original axles were grooved...


Back to stock'ish...


Although they are an inch larger than the GMT400 rotors, they still look small behind the 20's. I considered using the Baer Eradispeed+ kit for the larger rotor but couldn't justify the cost for just that. I wanted to keep a floating caliper due to the c-clip axles and pad knockback. Maybe one day when I go to a full floater 9inch, I'll get the matching Aero4 setup.


After beding in the pads, it did confirm my suspicions of the caliper volume causing the soft pedal. I still have a short slack at the top of the pedal but I think this is slack between the booster and master cylinder. Once the slack is taken up, the pedal is nice and firm. The truck stops great now once the tires and pads are warmed up.

 

Ouch on that driveshaft, lot of good work done and it seems like you are happy with it. Certainly looks like a blast.

 

My stock seats were in need of repair and I had been wanting something a bit more supportive. I found a set of used Sparco R100 locally on marketplace for a decent price so I picked them up. These are one of the few seats I have found that have tall enough backs to get the harness slots above my shoulders. The backs feel good but they are a little tight in the thighs for casual driving but are ok in performance driving posture since I two foot drive. Since I street the truck a good bit, I wanted to keep the sliders and recline for storage accessibility. The structure, mainly seat pans and retractors, of the stock seats were broken so I decide to try and use the stock bases and sliders with an adapter. I am pretty pleased with the results.

Stock base with back and recliner removed...


Trimmed base with seat bottom template for adapter mockup...


Adapter template on base...


Cutting the adapters out of 3/16 plate...


Finished adapters before paint...


Assembly...


Seats installed with bases/adapter visible...


With stock trim installed...


Currently harness is bolted to back wall but next project is a harness bar for more secure mounting at a better angle. Attaching the lap belt to the OEM points makes for a much more comfortable and secure fit. They were previously mounted to the rear seat bolts between the base and floor.
I do sit a bit higher now but presume that is due to the driver seat pan being cracked and torn with broken webbing. I actually like the higher position for driving.

 

Those tires look pretty worn...

As for the rear brakes, What about a dual piston set up like the SS trucks used? same as what's on the Suv's.