[Dark_Knight_Coli]

***EDITED ON 9/16/19... REAR DISC AND H3 DIF SWAP IS POSSIBLE SEE POST #19 FOR THE WRITE UP***

Hello i am new on the forum and will be doing a write up on everything you need to swap your front suspension and brake set up to the h3 setup. I did a lot of reading on here before attempting the swap, but based on my reading i am in the first to actually attempt this swap. Doing this swap gives you about 2.5in wider stance, bigger brakes and 4 piston calipers, more travel, and my favorite, non captive rotors lol. Also now after doing the swap my tires no longer rub, (I run 35s with no lift, and before doing the swap even after a lot of cutting, pre runner fenders, and BFH still rubbed quite a bit, especially with 2 inch spacers.) So here is a list of the H3 parts that are needed:
Upper control Arms
Lower control arms
Steering knuckle and hub bearing
inner and outer tie rods
shocks
cv axles (u may want to change the axle seals as well while everything is apart)
upper ball joint bolt
lower control arm hardware (i.e. shock bolt, frame bolt that goes behind the torsion bar, etc.)
pads and rotors
calipers
caliper hoses
sway bar and links and bushings (if you are still running one)

:emoticonwithoutpics:emoticonwithoutpics:emoticonwithoutpics:emoticonwithoutpics:emoticonwithoutpics

i attached all the pics i took during install and also the stance after

A few other things i had to do is cut the bump stop perch off the frame to clear the shocks , im not sure if this is because i went with fox shocks and they have a large shock body so if you go with a more stock shock u may not have to. i also had to change the connector on the h3 abs sensor (my abs light is on not sure if its because the computer cant read the different style sensor or because the sensor r bad being that i got my knuckles with the hub bearing and sensors from a junk yard, so im still working on the abs). I definitely recoment this upgrade, my truck handles and stops much better and i can turn all the way left and right. Also aesthetically, the h3 stuff looks much nicer. Hope this is helpful

 

[GregDAP]

There are 1 or 2 guys on the Facebook group who are doing this. Are you one of them?

 

[WV NATIVE]

Very cool project. Glad to see the effort and research paid off for you.

Now the question of the day. How much money did it end up costing you for your parts?

 

[NVR2LOW]

How did the wheel alignment go afterwards?

 

[Dark_Knight_Coli]

There are 1 or 2 guys on the Facebook group who are doing this. Are you one of them?

No I don’t have Facebook

 

[Dark_Knight_Coli]

Very cool project. Glad to see the effort and research paid off for you.

Now the question of the day. How much money did it end up costing you for your parts?

After everything parts cost a little under a grand, but I splurged a little on fox shocks (I think 270 for both), lower control arms, axles, spindles, and upper control arms (even tho I ended up using new ones) I got from a junk yard for 400.

 

[Dark_Knight_Coli]

How did the wheel alignment go afterwards?

No problems with the alignment at all, it was nice having fresh grease on the Camber bolts so they were easier to move with the truck on the alignment lift.

 

[litlspiffy]

This is amazing. Will you let us know what you figure out with the ABS?

 

[Dark_Knight_Coli]

This is amazing. Will you let us know what you figure out with the ABS?

Yes will definitely keep u updated

 

[joncanyon1]

following

 

[Frankencolly]

Could this be done using the stock hubs and Rancho 4" lift knuckles if you keep the Colorado brakes? If so, it may be worth it to get the extra stance and travel. Also, I think heavy duty cv axles are available for the H3 off-the-shelf. Lastly, it looks like this set-up is more conducive to a coil-over conversion down the road since the LCA is "beefier" and the UCA is "skinnier".

 

[coronadomarine09]

Could this be done using the stock hubs and Rancho 4" lift knuckles if you keep the Colorado brakes? If so, it may be worth it to get the extra stance and travel. Also, I think heavy duty cv axles are available for the H3 off-the-shelf. Lastly, it looks like this set-up is more conducive to a coil-over conversion down the road since the LCA is "beefier" and the UCA is "skinnier".

I was wondering the same thing. Maybe keep the rancho 4" lift knuckle and just change out the hub because the hub design we have is absolutely stupid.

 

[Frankencolly]

I was wondering the same thing. Maybe keep the rancho 4" lift knuckle and just change out the hub because the hub design we have is absolutely stupid.

It does not look like the hub for the H3 will bolt into the Colorado carrier. I think Rancho used to make a lift for the H3. So if you have the Rancho lift, and wanted to do this conversion, you
might be able to use the hub carriers (knuckle) from those H3 kits. If these are not impossible to find, the swap would be worth doing to get the beefier H3 cv axles, imo.

 

[BigA24]

Not trying to hammer an old question, but did you figure out the ABS yet? I am seriously considering this upgrade for my truck. Also did the 355 sway bar work of did you replace that also?

 

[caliheat]

Yes!
What’s the good word on the ABS?!

 

[ncohandy]

Nice work on the swap. Any updates on the ABS?

 

[BCJC]

Anyone have more info on this? OP hasn't updated.

Google didn't turn up much...

 

[Turkishfried]

I can tell you if you splice the H3 ABS sensor into the 355s wiring the truck WILL read the H3 sensors just fine. You wont have a light on the dash.
I cant tell you if the ABS will actually work cause my control module has been bad for a couple years.
Also on mine I had to notch the diff mounts, I have a diff drop and the longer bolts on the lower control arm were rubbing the mount and squeaking.

 

[Dark_Knight_Coli]

I apologize for not answering about the ABS i have not looked into that much. But i was going to add another write up on this thread. I just swapped my rear diff out for the h3 rear diff with 4.56 gears and disc brakes. I did not take any pics unfortunately because it was pretyy much bolt in. Here is a parts list:
H3 rear diff (all h3s with I5 have 4.56 gears v8s came with 4.11s i believe)
h3 rear pads rotors calipers and outer brake hoses
h3 u bolts
h3 caliper bracket bolts
h3 u joint straps (ac delco part #45U0503 found on amazon)
Spicer conversion u joint #5-648X

other than the parts listed the swap was bolt in i DID NOT have to modify an of the stock mounting points on the dif or stock colorado anchor plates. The only thing i had to do was bend the u joints with a c clamp while putting them into the anchor plates. For brakes i used the stock Colorado brake hose that goes to the diff and the stock h3 brake lines that were on the dif when i got it from the junk yard. I did not a proportioning valve or anything to get the rear brakes to work i drove it around today and they deem to be working fine as i definitely have more stopping power than with the rear drums. The new gearing helps turning the 35s but the power of the I5 is just abysmal. It seems to be 10x better on the highway but have not taken it on a long enough trip yet to truly test it or to see how it performs using cruise control. (Before it was almost impossible to maintain speed on the highway in overdrive). I will upload pics in the coming days of the stance and stuff and of the brake lines to clarify what i said. Up next will be front dif swap (pulled the front drive shaft for now), then 6.2 swap.

 

[Dark_Knight_Coli]

I can tell you if you splice the H3 ABS sensor into the 355s wiring the truck WILL read the H3 sensors just fine. You wont have a light on the dash.
I cant tell you if the ABS will actually work cause my control module has been bad for a couple years.
Also on mine I had to notch the diff mounts, I have a diff drop and the longer bolts on the lower control arm were rubbing the mount and squeaking.

I tried splicing the abs sensors and still got a light. I figured it was because i used the sensors that were in the hub that i got from the junk yard. When u spliced them did u do black to black and white to white on the connector? I would love to get my abs light off lol