KingBird's Build - 2002 Oldsmobile Bravada

[KingBird]

2002 Oldsmobile Bravada SmartTrak

Drivetrain Specs: Selectable 4wd 3.73 gears, G80 "locker"

Suspension Modifications: 3" lift/leveling kit, flipped UCAs, replaced air suspension with stock Tahoe springs, rear sway bar disconnected.

Exterior Modifications: Custom Roof Basket, Custom Lightbar with LED floods and spots, Custom rock sliders/step rails, Custom rear step hitch

Engine Modifications: '06 Ranier 4.2 I6, PCMofNC tune

Interior Modifications: dual guage pillar pod housing transfer case switch and transmission temp gauge (work in progress)

Recovery Equipment: 20' tow strap

Electrical Modifications: Rooftop LEDs, spliced wiring harness with TB harness for 4wd conversion

[KingBird]

Where it all began: A shiny, unmolested Bravada, or so I thought...

In this pic, you can clearly see there is a discrepancy with the rear end. Also, the front diff is dry and there's no front prop shaft.

I started by attempting to get the awd working, rebuilt the entire front end, including new bearings and seals for the front diff, which I removed from below in three separate pieces. What can I say? I usually end up doing things the hard way. I also purchased a new propshaft and installed it.

No go. Nothing but a faint whirring noise from the front. Upon further investigation, I found an intermediate shaft with stripped splines and an AWD sleeve in the "disconnect" to match.

After replacing the "disconnect" with a new unit, and replacing the intermediate shaft, I had functional AWD!

It worked well in mud, but come first winter here in Lubbock, we literally had sheets of ice on the roadway. Since the rears have to spin a little before the fronts kick in, we had a few nervous scares on the crowned roadway with other vehicles. Because of this, I decided the AWD had to go.

Then I looked into what it would take to convert a Bravada to selectable 4wd, and quickly decided against it.

[KingBird]

Instead of tackling that project, I added a set of four Hella 500s to the roof, installed my lift, and added the roof basket.

They provided quite a bit of light, but more is better right? At that point, I traded out the regular H3s for 100 watt H3s.

They provided ample light, but it was yellow, and, well, just look at them...

So, since I'm a redneck and I don't have a ton of money, I logged onto Amazon and got busy checking out LEDs and reviews. I settled on two wide beam 24 watt pods and two spot beam 24 watt pods. I mounted these kinda screwed off but bear with me. My two wide beam pods were mounted to the INSIDE of my light bar, and my two spots, I mounted on the OUTSIDE of my bar. With the wide beams pointed towards the barditches and my two spots basically pointed directly forward over each seat, I had wonderful spread that gave me ample vision at night from telephone poles to telephone poles. As you might imagine, this gave me a bit of a dark spot in the center. To rectify this, I installed a 7" spot beam pod.


Before:

After:

These were taken with my cell phone, so naturally, they aren't great, but you can see the vast difference between headlights only and the addition of the roof lights.

Anyway, while making some ruts in the mud one night, my engine started stumbling and knocking. Due to an oil pressure switch which failed "on" I couldn't figure out what was going on, so I tried to limp her home. I almost made it too. I ended up pulling into a parking lot to pop the hood when she gave up the ghost and locked down. I can only guess that the oil pump failed. I'm still not sure what happened.

After weighing some options, we decided to replace the engine. I found a Ranier in the junkyard that had front-end damage, but it was clean inside and out, had "Scoggin Dickey Service Center" decals on the windows and a few custom goodies so I figured it was well taken care of. We got a plan together and one Saturday morning, my father and I hit the junkyard early. Ten hours later, the fruits of our labor were revealed.

Yes, that's the serpentine belt lifting that engine. Like I said, redneck.

[KingBird]

So began one of the longest months of my life working until dark after work on this d@#$ed truck!

Yeah, that pretty much sums up jerking engine and tranny from a GMT360.

Since everything was out of the way, I decided to tackle the 4wd conversion. If the glass-eyed geeks at GM could do it, so could I!

I jerked the transfer case from an '05 TB, along with it's TCCM which is calibrated for 3.42s but it will work for the time being, you just have to be stopped for 4lo, but I'm getting ahead of myself...

Using this wiring diagram that I found on the net from a once-great forum, I began tying wires in where they go.

OK, now to some, this may look difficult, but it's actually quite awesome because, electrically, this is our 4wd system.

If one wishes to partake in this endeavor, remember to get BOTH "data" pigtails from the donor TB TCCM harness, and for time's sake, it's easier to just remove the entire wiring harness that runs from the ECM down along the driver's side frame rail, all the way back to the trailer plug. Once you get home, you can cut out what you need. You WILL need to run a few wires into the cab through the firewall grommet. I found that a cleaning rod to an AK works wonders here for fishing through it.

Use heat shrink on all your splices and wrap generously with loom tape or electrical tape, then replace the plastic loom.

I also gave myself an extra six inches for the encoder motor plug.

Once we got the new motor installed, which was incredibly easier than removing it I got everything plugged in and we started testing. My TC switch indicator lights flash in any selection other than 2hi, this is because I do not have the disconnect solenoid hooked up yet, but everything works as it should!

Now, for those questions that may arise about the '06 into '02 swap.

The mass air sensor wasn't used. I did not re-wire my entire vehicle to accommodate the '06 computer, so it's an '06 engine being ran by an '02 ECM. This caused a small issue that others may not have. It's a slight stumble on light throttle application. It falls flat on it's face and then picks back up immediately, like a carbureted engine with too much accelerator pump. An updated stock tune has fixed this.

Also, all you '02 guys out there, swap your fuel rail with the new engine while it's out so everything hooks back up correctly.

Next up, are spacers, tires, body lift, and MOAR LIGHTS!!!

[KingBird]

I decided to remove my squishy rear springs. One or both of our rear shocks failed which caused a rather unsettling sway on the highway with crosswinds and since wind is a normal thing in west Texas, we deal with crosswinds quite often. I figured that since I was going to be back there, and I already had the stock Tahoe springs gathered up, might as well switch them out. I grabbed some Z71 shocks as well. With the three inch lift in the rear, this put my rear one inch higher than my front (it was one inch low with the squishy springs).

Of course the ride has changed, but it's not bad and I'm sure my payload capacity has been changed, which is good, because I'm working on a roof-mounted solar panel set-up that will charge three AGM batteries, wired in parallel, which will be wired to a 4,000 watt inverter and will also have a switch to momentarily connect to the front battery in the event that a boost is needed to start the engine. All of this will be mounted on the passenger side of the cargo bay with a 100 pound winch on a receiver hitch mount on the driver's side. That should distribute the weight evenly, until the winch is needed of course...