06 H3's Squeakin H3 Build

[06 H3]

​An update: I was chasing axle problems for years, from IFS to 1/2 tons to upgraded 1/2 tons but when I went to 1 tons my problems went away so a normal person would be happy and move on with life. I am an idiot, so lets take that reliable drivetrain and put it through more hell so I jumped from 40's to 43's. I may grab another set of beadlocks or put my 40in Cooper STT Pros on the H2 wheels I have laying around but I went with 43/15/17 Mickey Thompson Baja Pro XS (non sticky version since I still drive it to the trail) Cooper owns Mickey so I am still in the family....

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THEY ARE BIG!

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Weight is going up....

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134.7 to 173.8...39.1lb gain per corner

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Fender off to show the space in the front of the wheelwell. I dont think that will be an issue. The issues will probably be chopping that rear tube and possibly near the frame. We will see...

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Ride height clears the front and I think that is where it ends lol

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So now I have lots of trimming to do but it hasn't been started yet.

Took off to go see some dirt roads and some scenic views with another H3. I spent friday night busting my ass to get the 43s on for dirt roads where I dont need even 35's but that's ok, I couldnt wheel in the rocks with 43s before the trimming and I wanted to just get out a little and don't mind any time on the dirt.

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Topping off...

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It has been years since I have just gone out to put around on dirt roads and it was fun. Scenic views and had some optional climbs.

[06 H3]

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On the way home we stopped at Napa to get brake fluid, this has been pissing me the **** off. I have had this rear axle in for about 4.5 years now and its been problem free. About 3 months ago I sheered the brake caliper bolts on the passenger rear caliper on the rubicon. I ziptied it to the leaf spring and drove 500 miles home. I replace the pins and go wheeling locally in the rocks. I sheer the pins again, destroy the caliper as in completely sheer the bolt holes off and this time I bent the caliper mount. I cut it off, weld on a new one and replace the caliper again, now I am on a dirt road and sheer the ****ing bracket!!!! What the **** is going on????? The hub doesnt have any play but under load maybe the hub bearings allow enough play to cock the hub and misalign it with the brakes? I am not sure...has anyone had this issue before?

So I drove it back home and now have a lot of trimming to do along with brake caliper investigation and repair AGAIN.​

[06 H3]

​ The trimming continues, the rear isnt that bad. It will work and stuff 43s without issue, I will have to trim one tiny tiny section of tube but its basically good to go.

The front is a different story. First I pulled the springs off the coilovers and let the truck sit on the air bumps fully stuffed, after moving the axle forward about an inch, cutting the sliders as far back as possible (right back to the A pillar portion of the cage) and doing some bumper and fender trimming they fit in just under full lock with both sides fully stuffed. I think I would only ever be at this point doing go fast stuff and bottoming out the suspension head on at the same rate.

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Trimming the front of the body a little bit.

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So when I say I can almost go to full lock what is preventing me is the slider/a pillar, I can go further forward but I need to remove a good portion of the bumper which is where I have my questions.

The bumper is attached in 4 spots, all 4 are OEM, there are 2 bolts behind the bumper tow hook that go directly to the framerail. the other 2 are off the body mount offset outside of the framerails and behind the bumper...

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You can see I have had to patch up the mount before, I think there is a "prying effect" on the bumper I think having it there is important but if it isnt, I can cut up the bumper, push the axle forward a bit more and solve the full lock issue.

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After I got full bump resolved I found access to a forklift.

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The issues are amplified greatly when the tire comes in at an angle. At full bump like this the tire is full blown into the plastic fender, I can trim those, it also gets into the metal inner fender, it seems that they can just spin off of them because they are smooth but turning creates an issue at full bump flexed out like this....so back to the drawing board. End goal is keep the same up travel and ride height.

Would 1in spacers help get the space for inner metal fenders and turning radius or hurt? It will make the fender cutting greater but thats fine, its just plastic.

Here is a shot of the inner fenders

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[06 H3]

So, that's where I am at! Trimming continues, I may end up having to go back to a smaller size, 43s fits great in the rear but I will continue to think and find what I need to do to make it work out up front.

I have the trimming for the hummer, some wheeling to shake out any bugs, get my brothers jeep back up here for coilovers, get the F550 finished (disaster story) and get ready for KOH. I plan to be out there for 10 days.

[Big2dabank]

Nice to see squeaky putting in work and keeping up with some really stiff competition. Such a great rig and seems to be getting better all the time. We built a new house a couple of years ago, so I have been building a home automation system from scratch (no cloud stuff for me) and have been tweaking things to my liking. We haven't done much wheeling this year and my H2 is ready for its second life. Just not sure which direction to go yet. My sons are really into over-landing and camping more than just wheeling these days, so that's probably the route we will go with mods. Haven't used my mig welder in a while so I broke it out last weekend and welded some heavy duty wheels on a large metal work table and then now reading this thread and seeing squeaky again has got me inspired to start tinkering with the H2 again. Keep it up, love reading your adventures.

[06 H3]

Nice to see squeaky putting in work and keeping up with some really stiff competition. Such a great rig and seems to be getting better all the time. We built a new house a couple of years ago, so I have been building a home automation system from scratch (no cloud stuff for me) and have been tweaking things to my liking. We haven't done much wheeling this year and my H2 is ready for its second life. Just not sure which direction to go yet. My sons are really into over-landing and camping more than just wheeling these days, so that's probably the route we will go with mods. Haven't used my mig welder in a while so I broke it out last weekend and welded some heavy duty wheels on a large metal work table and then now reading this thread and seeing squeaky again has got me inspired to start tinkering with the H2 again. Keep it up, love reading your adventures.

Thank you! I appreciate it. I know the Hummer is not a competitive rig but I am trying to hold to the values and end goal of the Hummer. A rig that can drive 800 miles in a day on highway and then tackle some gnarly terrain and get me back home. Overlanding has become a very big scene and I think the H2 is a great platform, plenty of room, power and ability to tow a small off road trailer for long trips.

Hope all is going well on your end!

[MilamJR]

Thank you! I appreciate it. I know the Hummer is not a competitive rig but I am trying to hold to the values and end goal of the Hummer. A rig that can drive 800 miles in a day on highway and then tackle some gnarly terrain and get me back home. Overlanding has become a very big scene and I think the H2 is a great platform, plenty of room, power and ability to tow a small off road trailer for long trips.

Hope all is going well on your end!

I agree that the H2 makes a good overlanding vehicle but you don’t have to pull a trailer. Tent and awning on the roof and plenty of room in the back for the fridge.


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[jimmy p]

My VSS is in a similar position to factory, it’s in the tail housing of the transfer case. Most guys that have done LS swaps in their jeeps have this issue too so to remedy it they put the VSS in the tailhousing of the trans so it always reads 1:1. I don’t want to do that, gotta pull the trans apart, drill and tap the tailhousing, etc. It isn’t a big deal if your doing it during the swap but to pull it all back out is a pain. The issue occurs that the VSS is seeing reduction in the tailhousing because the tcase is in low but the computer thinks it’s in 4 high. It freaks the **** out and cuts power, shifts weird, almost like a limp mode.

My original plan was to just bolt the encoder motor off the frame rail, push the 4low button so the computer knows it’s in 4low and we move on. Well I got too excited and drove it around and broke my encoder motor because I didn’t mount it. I kind of forgot that I left it on a skid plate and it bounced around. Instead of buying a new encoder motor to play dumb I want to actually fix it with a real solution.

So I hit the interwebs and found there is a 4low signal (I’ll post the wiring diagram) how it works is the encoder motor has wiring that goes to the TCCM (transfer case control module) behind the glove box. It then has an output that goes to the pcm that says “hey pcm! I’m in 4 low” then an output/input class 2 data wire that goes to the DIC, from what I understand it illuminates the lights and shows your 4 low button lighting up, your traction control off and stabilitrac off on the DIC and the traction light on the dash.

So to trigger the pcm 4 low signal it needs to be grounded out, so I bought a 2 prong switch, tapped into the wire between the TCCM and PCM and ground it out.
So I flip the switch and nothing on the dash lights up. I figured that may be the case. Since I tapped into the 4low switch in front of the tccm so it can’t trigger the DIC so my question is, does the pcm see a 4 low signal and cut out stabilitrac and traction control too but doesn’t illuminate it because the ground is after the TCCM? Or does it tell the pcm “use your 4 low shift tables” but leave traction control and stabilitrac engaged? I hope it disables it but doesn’t illuminate because I don’t want that crap on when in low range and the factory shuts it off in low range anyways.

With all that said, I would like to get the lights to illuminate when it’s all said and done so it looks factory but for next week I just need it to work whether the lights show up or not. I will be doing 3 days of backdoor KOH recovery. Rolling rigs over, and extracting broken ones out after the race. Then multiple days of wheeling.

Did you ever figure this out? I am looking into the 4wd low signal for my engine swap and tune. I am wondering why our factory calibrations allow us to swap the 2.6:1 tcase to a 4:1 and back without any issues? Seems like it should cause the same issues you mention above.. I am trying to run a factory trailblazer ss 6.0 tune and not sure how it will react when i switch to 4wd low. I know the tb was offered with a 4wd low case, just not in the ss form....hoping the 2.6 ratio 4wdlow tables are turned on in the background.


Btw thanks for the thread and documentation on your build, it is the inspiration for my build.

[06 H3]

Did you ever figure this out? I am looking into the 4wd low signal for my engine swap and tune. I am wondering why our factory calibrations allow us to swap the 2.6:1 tcase to a 4:1 and back without any issues? Seems like it should cause the same issues you mention above.. I am trying to run a factory trailblazer ss 6.0 tune and not sure how it will react when i switch to 4wd low. I know the tb was offered with a 4wd low case, just not in the ss form....hoping the 2.6 ratio 4wdlow tables are turned on in the background.


Btw thanks for the thread and documentation on your build, it is the inspiration for my build.

Thanks! I’m glad it is. I wired in a 4 low switch as well as the encoder motor using factory functions. I have used both. Normally I just flip the switch, it’s quicker but both the switch and factory buttons work. The computer doesn’t seem to care and shift ok whether I’m in 1.96:1, 2.72:1 or 5.33:1

Hope that helps

[3Hummers]

So Chris, when are you going to start building a true rock buggy?

[06 H3]

So Chris, when are you going to start building a true rock buggy?

I’ve gone back and forth. I’m not sure. I need to finish the F550 first since that would be a trailer queen.

I’ve also thought of a tube chassis and slapping an H3 body on it.

[06 H3]

Ok, story time! KOH was a blast as usual and it had some unforeseen issues as always lol

It was my first trip with the new to me truck and we rented a trailer to sleep in....It was nice to have shelter on the lake bed for the first time ever! I will never go back lol. I love camping but KOH camping is usually miserable. To be honest, if there was one year to camp, this was the year to do it. It is the nicest weather I have ever remembered.

Here was out setup.







We hope to purchase a trailer in the future for trips like this.

We arrived Friday night and on Saturday we just wheeled Chocolate, so not much wheeling, we were helping everyone get camp setup and people were arriving throughout the day.

I have gotten so bad at taking pictures, he is a picture of me on Chocolate.



Sunday, we ran turkeyclaw and Blueberry, we spent a good chunk of the day getting my buddy's car ready for tech for the EMC race, he was in the 4500 class.

Sunday evening we went back to Chocolate and I helped recover a toyota with a broken output shaft from his trans. I pulled the dead weight up the top of chocolate and to the sand hill. As we hit the sand hill I pop a front 1350 u joint. I wasn't too mad, that u joint was 6 years old and I even thought about replacing it before this trip....I had a spare driveshaft and a single spare u joint. I just swapped the u joint when we got back to camp.

To get out I backed all the way up to the rocks in 2wd double low and banged through every gear into overdrive carrying speed to the sandhill. It is bad enough that I have seen guys in 4wd not make it up, but with the 43in Mickey "paddles" and a 6.2L she cruised on up, I was told I hit on rock on the sand hill and caused me to lift my front tire and carry it in the air for 6 feet or so. I really need to get better about pics and videos and that was a moment I wish I caught.

Monday, I left the lakebed. My buddy's 4500 car bent and tweaked the front housing, cracked the truss, rosette welds and completely ruined the diff. I took my truck and UA trailer back to his house. They tracked down a G2 housing and got to work. I didn't get back to the lakebed until Tuesday early evening.

We had our share of issues getting the new axle to work. My buddy was running a JK44 under there and 30 spline shafts, the G2 44 housing was built around 35 spline shafts. We were SOL on getting that axle to seal up but with some time and research I found that a 1972 Ford Bronco SMALL bearing rear 9 in axle seal MIGHT work. That ID of the small bearing housing and the ID of the G2 housing were the same, the shafts were 31 spline vs 30 so we ran 2 seals per side and had speedi sleeves on hand to bring up the OD of the shaft. We didnt use the speedi sleeve but could have solved any potential seal issues.

I was impressed with the G2 housing, I thought it would be garbage but it isnt, it has side adjusters, big bearing caps, bigger tubes, its a nice housing. My job was to do gears and seal issues along with axle removal and teardown.





Trying my best with the time crunch....

Wednesday was prerunning. We pre ran the desert section from Cougar Buttes back to hammertown. The course was much rougher in the desert then 2019 when I preran. It was much more choppy. My front 2.5 coilovers did great but my rear cheapo bilsteins got wrecked, I have never seen them get so destroyed before. They were billowing white smoke and lost all the oil. I will get back to that later. After prerunning we went back to camp and watched the shenanigans at backdoor and chocolate. I ran up chocolate again but with 5 of us in the car, and 5 in my buddy's 80 series cruiser. We were having fun and laughing as we had a big group watching all these people crammed in there. The hummer used to get so much crap from hecklers but no one gives me **** anymore. A toyota behind me rolled on the line I made and I turned around to roll him back on his side.



Thursday

We helped fix a UTV that bent a crossmember into his driveshaft, after all other methods were attempted with no success we rolled it over and winched it back. Worked out perfect.



After that was fixed we ran over to watch our buddy do some minor shock tuning, unfortunately the legit shock tuning with tearing down shocks wasn't going to happen with time lost from the axle housing ordeal so they did external bypass tuning.

After that we had to go "sweep" the course for the UTV race to make sure the racers were all accounted for. We ran down spooners and then up outer limits. We got 1/4 way through when we got the call everyone was accounted for. It sucked! I wanted to finish outer limits so bad, I have run the first portion countless times but always turned around due to someone breaking. My buddy I was with wanted to turn around because we had a long day tomorrow with our other buddy racing. So we went back to camp.

Friday

Race day, our buddy had some fuel and electrical issues early in the day but other then that he ended up finishing the course!!! He didnt get an actual finish because he timed out but he did in fact finish! Now he just needs to get faster! lol

Setup at the main pit....





Saturday we just sat back and watched the race, then packed up and drove to Santa Clarita CA to drop off the rented trailer, stay at the in-laws house and sunday AM we took off back to Idaho!

All in all it was fun as always, as for changes on the hummer I was very happy with it. I need to really figure out a shock setup for the rear. I am still running stock leafs sprung over and just regular ole shocks. I cant take advantage of the badass 2.5 fox coilovers up front until I do something in the rear. My options are 3 link it and do a coilover or keep the leafs and do a quality 2.5 shock (basically what I have up front, minus the coilover) or a bypass out back but I don't think I have enough up travel (4in) for bypasses.

I also need to go through my driveshafts, I had one u joint failure, which isnt a big deal but I have cut, lengenthed, changed yokes, etc. numerous times on both front and rear shafts for all the changes in the 6+ years, at this point most of the splines are hammered, some u joints are old....I just need to get a fresh set and keep these as spares.

[Can007]

Great story!!!