84 C20 Suburban steel brake lines

[84BurbOwner]

Hello all - new Suburban owner and new to the forum. I picked up an '84 C20 Suburban a few weeks ago that had been sitting for awhile. 454, turbo 400, 14 bolt rear. Very rust free but needs refreshing since it sat so long. Has around 109K miles. Brown/Yellow, which the wife loves. Tailgate. Would prefer the barn door model but it is what it is.

Have 2 questions:
1. The steel brake line that goes from the proportioning valve to the back brakes - there is some sort of junction box back there where the aforementioned steel line goes to it, then out of it another steel line goes to the rear rubber hose. The lines are all rusty and crusty and I cannot remove them from that junction box. I also cannot get any of the 3 steel lines out of the rear rubber brake hose. Question is - do I need that junction box or can I bypass it?

2. I removed the front wheel on the front passenger side and the lug nuts were all "locking" nuts - meaning I had to crank them all the way off. Could not turn them at all with my fingers except for the last 2 or 3 threads. The lug studs are fine - not stripped. It appears to be this way for all 32 lug nuts. Does anyone know if it was this way from the factory? I order a new set of lug nuts and they are not the lock type. The new lug nuts will hand thread all the way.

Thanks in advance for the replies. Excited about this rig. Should be a nice tow vehicle for me.

Thanks,
David

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

Hello all - new Suburban owner and new to the forum. I picked up an '84 C20 Suburban a few weeks ago that had been sitting for awhile. 454, turbo 400, 14 bolt rear. Very rust free but needs refreshing since it sat so long. Has around 109K miles. Brown/Yellow, which the wife loves. Tailgate. Would prefer the barn door model but it is what it is.

Have 2 questions:
1. The steel brake line that goes from the proportioning valve to the back brakes - there is some sort of junction box back there where the aforementioned steel line goes to it, then out of it another steel line goes to the rear rubber hose. The lines are all rusty and crusty and I cannot remove them from that junction box. I also cannot get any of the 3 steel lines out of the rear rubber brake hose. Question is - do I need that junction box or can I bypass it?

2. I removed the front wheel on the front passenger side and the lug nuts were all "locking" nuts - meaning I had to crank them all the way off. Could not turn them at all with my fingers except for the last 2 or 3 threads. The lug studs are fine - not stripped. It appears to be this way for all 32 lug nuts. Does anyone know if it was this way from the factory? I order a new set of lug nuts and they are not the lock type. The new lug nuts will hand thread all the way.

Thanks in advance for the replies. Excited about this rig. Should be a nice tow vehicle for me.

Thanks,
David

On the wheel studs, I'd wire brush them before installing new lug nuts, just in case there's rust/corrosion/other icky stuff on the threads. The threads can get messed up if there is debris on them, or if the stud or nut has a bad spot.
I had two tires replaced on my daily driver one ton,and fortunately I had some extra brand new lug nuts as two of the left rear were bad. They were acting like what you have, and the road service tire installer didn't want to reuse them unless we had to.
I think those are 9/16 SAE with a 7/8 hex...be sure you have the correct size socket. My truck has metric studs and nuts that use a 22mm socket...but some 7/8 fit it better than some 22mm. I would figure this is true in the square body trucks too.
I'm not sure what the brake line fitting/box is, our '84 Burb was a C10 so I don't think it had that.

 

[84BurbOwner]

On the wheel studs, I'd wire brush them before installing new lug nuts, just in case there's rust/corrosion/other icky stuff on the threads. The threads can get messed up if there is debris on them, or if the stud or nut has a bad spot.
I had two tires replaced on my daily driver one ton,and fortunately I had some extra brand new lug nuts as two of the left rear were bad. They were acting like what you have, and the road service tire installer didn't want to reuse them unless we had to.
I think those are 9/16 SAE with a 7/8 hex...be sure you have the correct size socket. My truck has metric studs and nuts that use a 22mm socket...but some 7/8 fit it better than some 22mm. I would figure this is true in the square body trucks too.
I'm not sure what the brake line fitting/box is, our '84 Burb was a C10 so I don't think it had that.

I wire brushed the exposed threads before I tried to remove the lug nuts. I ran a thread chaser on the studs after the lug nuts were so tough to get off. I was able to run it down to the base with my fingers. The threads are clean. The truck had brand new tires on it when I bought it. I guess the tire installer didn't mind reusing these lug nuts?

I found out what that brake line fitting/junction box is. It is a "height sensing proportioning valve". Some of the hard line replacement kits state they won't work for a vehicle with a height sensing proportioning valve. I also found a thread on here from around 12 years ago that shows GM had a TSB on this and it was recommended to remove the height sensing system.

Thanks,
David