91 Suburban Shopping Category

[91blueburb]

I have a 91 R1500 Suburban.

I'm researching lowering kits and rear disc brake conversion kits. When I put in the 91 burb information, I get directed to OBS parts. Looking at the dimensions the wheelbases are different between the 91 burb and the OBS burbs.

I can't find any documentation that lists the changes that were made other than body style between 91 and 92.

My question is should I look at 87 burb lowering kits and disc brake conversions.

 

[Grit dog]

While some parts carried over and you could likely interchange things like leaf springs and rear axles / diffs (different mounting), yes you’re looking for squarebody parts and “most” chassis parts/applications remained unchanged throughout the 3rd generation lineup.
As evidenced by many hard parts being applicable from 1973 -87.
Not ware of any chassis changes on the holdover models (88-91) and it would be counterintuitive that there would be any hard changes on an outgoing model.

 

[TotalyHucked]

Yep, easiest thing to do for suspension and driveline stuff is just shop for '87 parts. There are some interior and exterior trim differences for the '89-up trucks but otherwise they're the same as '87

 

[YakkoWarner]

i have a 1989 Suburban and always run into that too - looking for 1987 parts almost always gets me where I need to be. I think there were some under-hood changes in 1990-1991 but the majority of the time looking up based on 1987 parts gets me where I need to be.

I did have a parts store guy argue with me that GMC never badged their vehicle as a Suburban...he was convinced they were always Yukon from the beginning. So even though the emblems are all GMC and its a 1989 I just tell them 1987 Chevy to avoid arguments.

 

[gmbellew]

I have a 90 burb, and find that if I search the whole designation of 1990 v1500 suburban, I get pretty good results. so you might try the same.

 

[Jawzjeep]

I'll second or third or fourth or whatever it is the comments made here. Part of the battle is just knowing there is one.

I have a 91 Suburban and go through the same BS. Just take your time when you're looking at parts. Some stuff I can look for 73 and up, some 87, some stuff is 89-91 specific it just depends on which parts I'm looking for.

Most part stores I talk to I don't even say Chevy or GMC I just say 91 Suburban and let them draw their own conclusions. It hasn't mattered yet which one it was.

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

i have a 1989 Suburban and always run into that too - looking for 1987 parts almost always gets me where I need to be. I think there were some under-hood changes in 1990-1991 but the majority of the time looking up based on 1987 parts gets me where I need to be.

I did have a parts store guy argue with me that GMC never badged their vehicle as a Suburban...he was convinced they were always Yukon from the beginning. So even though the emblems are all GMC and its a 1989 I just tell them 1987 Chevy to avoid arguments.

The Suburban nameplate was used by GMC and Chevy through the OBS/GMT 400 models, through the 1999 model year. The 2000-up Suburban is a Chevrolet nameplate (starting that year with the new GMT 800 models) and at that point, GMC started calling their largest truck based SUV the Yukon XL. Fast forward to the current generation, they're all Yukons, Tahoe size or Burb size.....
When we had our '90 R2500 Burb, we'd run into the parts store issues like the OP and other contributors have had. I've also had them with my OBS '99 Burb since those are also carryover models.
We get people on gmt400.com who have the 88-91 Burbs and Blazers/Jimmys that joined that forum because of the year range...I try to refer them to this one as well since they actually have a square body truck.
We got to explain to these kids at the parts stores who are much younger than our trucks, how things were "back in the day".......

 

[Bennyt]

Only chassis/ drivetrain change on the 2wd for 89-91 that I am aware of, and it wouldn't affect anything, was the spline count on the rear axle went from 28 to 31 on the 10b.

Also, electronic speedo on the burb and blazer but I find that to be inconsistent as my '89 GMC Jimmy had a mechanical speedo and so does my '90 R3500.

There are some axle shafts that have larger flanges that you have to machine on a lathe to fit in the rotor hat on disc conversions. I don't know the rhyme or reason other than possibly a different vendor for GM. I've had to machine one time on my friends '89 and saw it again on a late '80 or early 90's Caprice. Tons of Caprice taxis and police cars 20 years ago at junkyard so just swapped shafts.

 

[TotalyHucked]

i have a 1989 Suburban and always run into that too - looking for 1987 parts almost always gets me where I need to be. I think there were some under-hood changes in 1990-1991 but the majority of the time looking up based on 1987 parts gets me where I need to be.

I did have a parts store guy argue with me that GMC never badged their vehicle as a Suburban...he was convinced they were always Yukon from the beginning. So even though the emblems are all GMC and its a 1989 I just tell them 1987 Chevy to avoid arguments.

I hate that. I've gotten into several arguments at parts stores because the kid behind the counter was insisting I was wrong about my own vehicle or my buddy's vehicle.

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

I hate that. I've gotten into several arguments at parts stores because the kid behind the counter was insisting I was wrong about my own vehicle or my buddy's vehicle.

Yup....and y'all can imagine how much fun it is, to be a woman in this situation!
I was looking up car parts in these things called "catalogs " way before you were born....so don't tell me I don't know what I'm working on!

 

[Bennyt]

I hate that. I've gotten into several arguments at parts stores because the kid behind the counter was insisting I was wrong about my own vehicle or my buddy's vehicle.

Yeah, my '90 CC confuses the parts stores. I just got a new windshield and had to talk to the owner to make sure he knew what I had.

Had a kid at O'Reilly's a few months back super confused when I said I had an Oldsmobile. "Is that made by Ford or Chevy?"

 

[Hunter79764]

Yup....and y'all can imagine how much fun it is, to be a woman in this situation!
I was looking up car parts in these things called "catalogs " way before you were born....so don't tell me I don't know what I'm working on!

Side story, my mom's first car was one that her older brother-in-law had worked on. It was a '65 Mustang that he swapped in a DZ302 and I think a Muncie 4 speed from a Camaro he wrecked. So my mom, a 17 year old blonde in 1975 had to deal with every guy she met insisting that it wasn't a 302 because they only did 289's in '65, and that it was a Ford motor, because Mustangs were made by Ford. Then she would have to pop the hood, point out the exhaust spacing and the distributor location, and tell them she had a slightly unstable hotrodder brother-in-law. I think she traded it for an avocado green 72 Torino, but I wish she had kept the Mustang...

x8 or whatever, 87 parts lookup should be fine, but if you see the R/V designation for those years, that means squarebody, C/K is the OBS style. Not everyone breaks it down that way though, so it's still a crapshoot.

 

[91blueburb]

Thanks everyone for the replies!

 

[Strick]

I started work in the parts house when turning 18 (1992). There were plenty of new-ish RV trucks on the roads then. When dealing with the CKRV issue I would often ask if their vehicle had a vent window. If you could only imagine the look that folks give when they're asking for a clutch and I ask "does your truck have the vent window"? Once I offered the explanation that the vent would dictate the RV trucks then the owners usually understood. This was a time when GM had 6 lug 2500 trucks as well and that added to the confusion even more. Sometimes getting the right parts was a pain in the posterior because even the catalogs would not be correct.

HS

 

[Keith Seymore]

It was confusing back then, too.

K

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