Hey guys - I eat, sleep, and breathe Jeep, so forgive my lack of knowledge when it comes to my Chevy.

I have a '96 Suburban my family has had for years - it was my first vehicle at age 16, and the family used it for tearing down old barns and hauling the wood/timber. For the last 3.5ish years, it has been parked at my parents farm, withering away. I took it off of my mom's hands to use it as a tow rig for my '08 Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon.

I know I'll need to replace the spark plugs, wires, distributor cap and button, rotor, battery. I'll buy a new set of tires, check the brakes after replacing the brake lines.

I remember it had a problem with starting for awhile before they stopped driving it - it turns over, and over, and over, and then finally starts with many kicks of the gas pedal. I assumed it was the fuel pump, but thought I'd ask y'all if I should look for something else.

The push button transfer case had issues with engaging the 4wd - not sure how the chevy's TCs work, but assume there is some stupid actuator that goes bad and costs a lot of money for the replacement part. Any ideas?

Any parts on these suburbans that are notorious for wear? Certain bushings I need to pay special mind to? Anything I'm overlooking?

For the record - it has 213,000 miles. Probably 20K miles of heavy hauling, and years of trips from ohio to michigan, ohio to florida, ohio to georgia, etc.

Any input is greatly appreciated

Here is the Suburban, for the record



And the Jeep it will tow

 

everything you mentioned sounds good. nothing quite like a old 454. fluids, tires, plugs, wires, I think you've got it all covered.

nice rubi btw.

:chug:

 

Thanks brother - start up issue sound indicative of the fuel pump, to you? Any idea what might cause the issue with 4wd engagement?

My parents were going to sell it, and I quickly squelched that Hell of a lot cheaper than buying a Sierra to tow the Jeep, and a good bit more comfortable!

 

A bad encoder motor on the transfer case is what I have gathered should be the culprit for the 4wd issue...

 

Alright - I bought denso plugs, a dayco serpentine belt, a stant 195* thermostat, K&N air filter, dayco upper and lower radiator hoses, airtex electric fuel pump, purolator fuel filter, purolator PCV valve, autolite spark plug wires, Accel vortec rotor, and an Accel vortec cap.

I want to order a 4wd actuator...but have no clue which to look at...from what I have found, there are several exact fit 4wd actuators for the 96 K2500, and they range in price from $20-$130 - no idea what the differences are or what I need, exactly