Question, are all full size square body Blazers referred to as K5 ?

Salty Crusty said:

Yeah, clever.

Actually, one is a '92 Blazer, two are '97 Hoes. All 4WD and lift gate "hecho en Mexico" models.
We have three grandkids that live in the foothills of the front range of the Rockies. Each of the kids will help build the engine and rework interiors as needed.
And each will have a much envied classic when they start driving.

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Funny you mention 92 blazer

my cousin and his girlfriend stranded their 92 blazer at my grandparents and refused to fix or get it
And my grandpa was still alive and i didn’t. Live here yet but needless to say I was asked to get it out of there


They had a coustom made bumper and a full gas tank

can someone tell everyone who breaks a gas line to please do it somewhere that can be accessed without dropping the tank and to leave only a couple gallons in the tank if they are gonna do that

just always drive near empty pls

I fixed it and the ground for the gas tank broke.
I fixed it but it was quite literally expressed they should really fix it properly when they got it. I gave them a half gallon of their gas back to and told them the nearest station was a 3 minute drive so don’t idle anywhere

I got yelled at because they ran out of gas 10 minutes away , two days later the fuel pump stopped working(the frame ground I slapped together), and then they got mildly rear ended and the bumper fell off(I told them I didn’t put the impossible to reach bolts back where carriage bolts should have been)

I didn’t fee bad

bucket said:

The fender emblem still said K5 in '88. Info on the title just confuses things sometimes and it also varies from state to state.

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Oddly enough the GM vehicle information kit lists the blazers, even in 1986 as K10/1500. https://www.gmheritagecenter.com/do...rmation-kits/Blazer/1986-Chevrolet-Blazer.pdf

Right there on Page 1.

I can't find anything for 87-89, but 90 just calls it the V Blazer... no series or anything listed in the vehicle information kit.

Yes, 2wd full size Blazers were also known as K5s even though the K signified 4wd.

To answer your question OP. Full size SQUAREBODY Blazers ran from 1973-1991. 1973-1987 2 wheel drive was C series and 4 wheel drive was K series.
In 1988 GM introduced the NBS or new body style pickups. These new style trucks got the C and K designations. Blazers, suburbans, and 1 ton trucks were still made as the Squarebody style up to 1991. GM gave these 88-91 squarebody trucks the designations of R for 2 wheel drive and V for 4 wheel drive.
With these older trucks, parts most likely have been swapped around so many times that you will need to verify what axles, engine, transmission xfer case it has before buying parts.

Do you or can you post pictures of the steering box? Is there an idler arm?
2 wd vs 4wd steering boxes are very different. Is there a transmission and transfer case present? The tail shaft on the transmission is also different.

77 K20 said:

It matched the dash- looked like this. (not my Jimmy)

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Too Bad it is not your Jimmy, that is nice! ! !

1979k10 said:

To answer your question OP. Full size SQUAREBODY Blazers ran from 1973-1991. 1973-1987 2 wheel drive was C series and 4 wheel drive was K series.
In 1988 GM introduced the NBS or new body style pickups. These new style trucks got the C and K designations. Blazers, suburbans, and 1 ton trucks were still made as the Squarebody style up to 1991. GM gave these 88-91 squarebody trucks the designations of R for 2 wheel drive and V for 4 wheel drive.
With these older trucks, parts most likely have been swapped around so many times that you will need to verify what axles, engine, transmission xfer case it has before buying parts.

Do you or can you post pictures of the steering box? Is there an idler arm?
2 wd vs 4wd steering boxes are very different. Is there a transmission and transfer case present? The tail shaft on the transmission is also different.

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While you are very right about almost all of this, despite the fact that C/K designated 2wd/4x4, all full size Blazers prior to the couple year run of GMT400 "Tahoe" body style trucks that were still temporarily named "Blazer" were called K5, even the 2wd ones. And to make matters worse, the chassis naming scheme was less than consistent so some states went by those codes which ended up in me having an '84 K5 that was registered as a 1984 K10 utility wagon. But even though pickups and 'burbs were C10/K10 (20, 30, etc) depending on 2 or 4wd, there never was such a thing ever sold known as a C10 Blazer.

RecklessWOT said:

While you are very right about almost all of this, despite the fact that C/K designated 2wd/4x4, all full size Blazers prior to the couple year run of GMT400 "Tahoe" body style trucks that were still temporarily named "Blazer" were called K5, even the 2wd ones. And to make matters worse, the chassis naming scheme was less than consistent so some states went by those codes which ended up in me having an '84 K5 that was registered as a 1984 K10 utility wagon. But even though pickups and 'burbs were C10/K10 (20, 30, etc) depending on 2 or 4wd, there never was such a thing ever sold known as a C10 Blazer.

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Maybe never stock.. make a dream come true! I’m sure someone has a badge somewhere they created for fun

I have an 84 blazer that's listed as a K10 Blazer.
It's the M1009 CUCV military variant, so it has no K5 badging or badging of any sort, and the suspension has been factory upgraded to a K10 status. Almost as much as K20 spring wise, but still 6 bolt.

RecklessWOT said:

While you are very right about almost all of this, despite the fact that C/K designated 2wd/4x4, all full size Blazers prior to the couple year run of GMT400 "Tahoe" body style trucks that were still temporarily named "Blazer" were called K5, even the 2wd ones. And to make matters worse, the chassis naming scheme was less than consistent so some states went by those codes which ended up in me having an '84 K5 that was registered as a 1984 K10 utility wagon. But even though pickups and 'burbs were C10/K10 (20, 30, etc) depending on 2 or 4wd, there never was such a thing ever sold known as a C10 Blazer.

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we will just have to agree to disagree about all blazers being K5.
K series trucks in 1988 were new body style, not squarebody.

there’s even a previous thread on this site with the information

https://www.gmsquarebody.com/threads/c-k-r-v-what-do-they-mean.7283/

The K5 was different though. The "K5" was part of the actual name. All other models did not display on the body a "C" or a "K".

To put it bluntly, they were all "K5 Blazers". Various chassis designations and whatnot over the years did not change the name of the truck. That is through the '88 model year. I don't recall offhand what the badging and brochures said for '89-'91.

According to GM, the 1988 was a R or V series.

1979k10 said:

According to GM, the 1988 was a R or V series.

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Like I said though, the fender badge still said K5 right on it. There's no arguing with what the truck says on the fender. The "R/V" was just the chassis identifier to keep it separate from the new line of trucks. The series name is not the same as the model name. A K5 was still a K5, just like a Suburban was still a Suburban and a Jimmy was still a Jimmy.

Ok, I’ll take your premise on the above for 1988.
Now 1989-1991 did not have any K5 badges at all, so now what?
Not saying that I agree with how GM did things with NBS and square bodies at the time. Also 1988 sales literature has absolutely no mention of K5. It’s referred to Full Size Blazer and later in specs has V10 series. GMC truck literature lists the Jimmy as V Jimmy.

Anyhow, we’re not going to see eye to eye on this so this is my last post on the issue, no interest in seeing who can piss farther into the wind. * back into lurker status. I was just trying to assist the OP, which appears to still not have been resolved as he hasn’t responded with any new info or photos of the steering box/frame area.

1979k10 said:

Ok, I’ll take your premise on the above for 1988.
Now 1989-1991 did not have any K5 badges at all, so now what?
Not saying that I agree with how GM did things with NBS and square bodies at the time. Also 1988 sales literature has absolutely no mention of K5. It’s referred to Full Size Blazer and later in specs has V10 series. GMC truck literature lists the Jimmy as V Jimmy.

Anyhow, we’re not going to see eye to eye on this so this is my last post on the issue, no interest in seeing who can piss farther into the wind. * back into lurker status. I was just trying to assist the OP, which appears to still not have been resolved as he hasn’t responded with any new info or photos of the steering box/frame area.

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No pissing contest here, just a friendly discussion

As was stated before, the 'V10' series was not the same as a model name. I agree that the 'K5' part of the name was dropped in the later years and it was simply a full sized Blazer.

But the biggest thing that needed cleared up is that the 'K' in 'K5 Blazer' did not mean it was 4 wheel drive. 2wd's were also 'K5 Blazers'. Unlike the trucks and Suburbans, "K5" was a model name and not chassis series or weight class.

After looking through all the 70's brochures, I'd like to also point out that they were just called "Blazer" on the brochure cover. But they were actually a K5 Blazer, as everyone knows. They also have the "series" listed as C10 and K10, because that's what they were based on. They were not a "lighter duty half ton".

So to sum it all up, if you have a '73-'88, no matter what series it was (C10, K10, D10, V10...) it is a K5 Blazer. If you have an '89-'91, you can call it whatever you want. Blazer, Full Size Blazer, Big Blazer or whatever... most everyone is still going to know it as a K5 Blazer.