06 H3's Squeakin H3 Build

[06 H3]

Time for an update:

I daily drove the Hummer for about 2 weeks. My wife’s car was hit in the parking lot when she was grocery shopping. So it went to the body shop…and we opted out of rental car coverage because it’s an unnecessary expense when you have a lot of NFT’s.

As a proud owner of 2 NFT’s having rental car coverage through insurance is just silly and a waste of money!

So we just picked up her car and ended up being without it for 2.5 weeks. She drove my work car while I got to drive either the F550 or Hummer. I drove the F550 for the first few days but switched to the hummer for the remainder of the time, which was about 2 weeks. It’s doesn’t require two parking spots, and is much more maneuverable then the F550. The Hummer also got a lot more looks.

It did the job well, even on 43s. I wouldn’t recommend it long term on 43s but for a couple weeks it went well.

During that time I also went local wheeling twice.

First time was more trail maintenance and was less fun and more work but the 2nd trip a week later was more fun and no work.


trail maintenance day:

Fun day, just wheeling.

Now it’s time for some changes. I gotta change up my track bar. My drag link and track bar hit into each other. They both had bends in them and weren’t an issue but with the new tie rod clamp bracket (since I can’t weld a clamp on the new tie rod) the clamp hits the track bar near full bump which deflects it into the drag link. I wasn’t fond of them to begin with and now I gotta make the change.


I bent up some tube and am unsure if I will go this route or do 2 more bends to make it follow the “hump” of a differential.

3 goals, I want this behind the drag link so they can never physically touch each other vs them being in the same plane.

I also want to make sure it’s stronger then before. Im pretty sure I bent the 1.5in .25 wall track bar once before. It is tough to tell as it had a bend in it on purpose but I may have bent it. I did reinforce the existing track bar with 1/4in plate and it hasn’t bent since, so maybe I’m wasting my time and should just replicate this with 1.75 .25wall or .375 wall.

The other goal is to make it “anti wobble.” Because it has bends in it the jam nuts can come loose and allow it to swing. Since everything under my rig is like 10 lbs of shit in a 5lb box I want to find a uniball weld on cup so one end is fixed. I need it to fit in a 2in wide bracket which doesn’t seem to be as common.

From there I can work on the drag link redo

 

[3Hummers]

Looks like some fun stuff. Cold but fun.

 

[06 H3]

An update: I got the track bar done and the drag link. I was able to shoe horn a 1.75in .25 wall track bar in there but it required a lot of work. I had to move the track bar hole down 1 hole (1in) to avoid frame rail contact, then it hit the diff cover.

So the covers off cut it, test fit.

It cleared the ring gear and the track bar. So welded it up. Gale banks wouldn’t like the fluid dynamics here but it’s a front diff with locking hubs….

I also went with a fixed end on the frame side (1.25in uniball) so it can’t wobble. It needs to be oriented a very specific way and jam nuts coming loose and be an issue. I am also neurotic about the small weld surface on a fixed end so I wrapped it in 1in .25 flat bar. It was welded completely after this pic.

I flipped the drag link under the high steer arm, had to drill it out and put an insert in it to go under the arm.



I need to run the numbers again to make sure I have no bumpsteer but so far so good on road feel. drag link starts higher and ends higher, track bar is on a similar plane but lower. With the bends it looks off but drawing straight lines from pivot to pivot it looks close.

Then had to redo the overly complicated suck down winch pivot/crossmember.

I couldn’t get it in front of the oil pan, it would have to sit too high up to avoid the track bar and hit the crank pulley.

So 1.75in .120 wall to start, slightly angled up and forward (towards front of vehicle) then transitions to 1.5in .25 wall with a bend that’s up and forward, and transitions back to 1.75in .120 wall. So compound angles on compound angles. It was a pain but it all fits.

So now I am sitting at the hammers ready to get my day started. drove 14.5 hours here on Tuesday. I probably spent 100 miles behind slow morons driving 10 or more below the speed limit for no reason.

Yesterday I was solo. I stayed to easier trails but it was a new experience. I have experienced a completely empty lake bed with a few friends and sometimes a large group, a somewhat busy lake bed with a few or a lot of friends, KOH, lots of people and volunteering or pitting for a friend racing, an empty valley but staying at a rental house 10-15 min off the lake bed.

This was my first time being solo. It’s fairly empty. Maybe 25-40 trailers/rvs, so I could get help if needed but still desolate, it was a fun experience, very peaceful and makes you feel insignificant and small to the world at the top of a canyon overlooking a fairly empty place.

I explored and walked trails which I never do because in a group it’s go go go. I walked kings veto and walked a canyon east of the top of claw. Looks to be not touched much or at all? First 50% a built production 4x4 can do on your typical 1 tons 40s, the top is buggy rear steer stuff.

I ran turkey claw, chocolate thunder, clawhammer, then turned around and back down to go up nightmare. Hiked the 2 trails/canyons, went back to the truck for lunch. Ran resolution, then up boulderdash, back down and around and up lower and upper big Johnson. The Johnsons are surprisingly messed up right now, a storm or something must have moved all the rocks. That was an easy trail and maybe that’s why I think it’s messed up. For years it was easy.

I timed myself up clawhammer for fun, 14 min 58 seconds. First time I did it ifs, 35s, one locker, with trail traffic and a friend in a Chevy crew cab long bed 2003 2500 Sas on 38s it took us like 8 hours. Funny to reminisce on how it took literally 15 min vs 8 hours.

So far everything is working good, my only concern is how much 1in track bar being farther down on the axle changes my roll axis and roll center in terms of stability

 

[06 H3]

So day 2 was hanging out waiting for the rain to pass and a friend to show up, once he showed up we ran jackhammer in 19 minutes hitting the hard lines, not the race lines. From there we went up and down “jacks back” down jack north, over to bender alley, down bender alley and up wrecking ball.

Wrecking ball is a trail that has my number. That damn waterfall just fucking sucks lol. Last year on wrecking ball I broke my damn front Eaton e locker and then broke my main leaf. :mad3: This time I just had to winch but man, I want that waterfall bad and it just fights me.

After that we walked kings Veto again, it was late and not something we would want to even attempt so late.

Here we are at the top of jack.

After that we went back to camp to have make dinner and sit around the fire. Around 10:30 we got a call from our buddy and his dad that had a broken leaf on their trailer. So we loaded up my F550 and my buddy’s trailer (the one who’s already with me) and went to rescue them about an hour from the lakebed.

We took my bun trail welder and welded the leaf and ratchet strapped it up.

Got back to camp around 1, unloaded everything and got to bed by like 2am.

Day 3 was KOH OG13 course day. I wanted to start by 8 or 9 because it was going to be a long day but didn’t start until 10:39am (we wanted to time ourselves) our last buddy arriving was leaf spring trailer shopping for the broken leaf so that’s why we started a little late.

So we had some ground rules for us, stay as a group. Yes, we are “racing” the OG13 first ever king of the hammers 2007 race course but we don’t have the comms or support to handle breakdowns alone. So we stick together. Rule #2, we don’t take “race lines” over the years hammer trails have had burned in “race lines” from racers avoiding rocks to get through trails quicker. We enjoy rock crawling and while we want to finish as fast as possible it’s not at the expense of avoiding what we like to do, rock crawling….
Rule #3 no dilly dallying. Again, not racing but also not trail riding, so minimize stopping, taking breaks, bullshitting on the trail.

So we hit the lake bed at 10:39 and are off.

At 10:49, 10 minutes in, our buddy has a seized brake caliper, had to take it all apart, try and unseize it, all in all, we start moving again at 11:27. We get to the final turn off for outer limits (first rock trail) and it seized up again, this time we plug the hard line. I welded up some brake unions making them a plug. Quick and easy fix, in the end we lost a total of about 50-55 minutes between both stops.

We head up outer limits and I think for me personally I kicked this trails ass. Others kicked my ass but this one I moved quick. I had to stop for a minute as I bent a beadlock ring and hammered it into place. No real time was lost as no one was behind me holding them up. We did spread out a little on trails.

From there dirt roads to go get to the top of aftershock, so we go down aftershock, down sunbonnet, up devils slide and up hell to pay.

Going up devils slide

I thought sunbonnet and aftershock were a little more difficult then usual. I had to winch once due to a stupid line choice resulting me getting high centered.

Going down these trails in my rig is interesting, gravity likes to put the hummer where gravity wants, going up trails I am going against gravity so I have more control of where the rig goes.

We take the desert around the mtns, go up the sand hill, and to the top of sledge. We go down sledge, sledge has been tore up for years now, and it still packs a punch even going down it.

going down the sledge plaque line.

I had a near scare flop going down sledge but luckily it stopped before going any further.

From there we went up jack, jacks back, down bender alley, and up wrecking ball. Up until this point it was one of the best wheeling days ever. It’s about 7pm at this point? I am back at the bane of my existence, the wrecking ball waterfall. I am dreading it, we are so close to finishing and I don’t want a major issue here. I try taking a different line and as I back up, I smash my back window…and here I have a literal mental breakdown. I’m not proud of it, but I came unglued and probably I haven’t come unglued like this in 10 plus years. I think it was just a LONG day, with minimal sleep from the previous night with the trailer rescue, etc. all my anger came up. Originally I was going leave Friday because I had a prior commitment Saturday night. To accommodate others I said I’ll stay one more day and leave Friday night, knock 4-5 hours out of my drive and finish it Saturday AM. I know, trail days have the unexpected…but the late start due to no one’s fault and my hatred for night wheeling and now freaking out about when I’m going to leave, the broken back window, I lost it. So I winch up the waterfall and rip my fucking brake line. Came unglued a bit more. So in a rush I grab one of my homemade brake plugs, unplug the wrong hardline from the master in my raging fit of anger, and then couldn’t get it back in. So I plugged up that line and the ripped line. With 2 brakes we head down claw and back to the lake bed finishing at 9:02 pm. So all in all it took us 10 hours and 23 minutes.

Got to camp, had to pack up, eat and at this point I was exhausted from the little sleep the night before, I wasn’t going to knock out 4-5 hours. So I slept from 10:30 to 2am, started up the truck, by the time I got off of Boone road and on the highway it was 2:30am. Drove all day, got home just before 6pm Saturday night.

So the takeaway was that it was still an amazing trip, slightly hiccuped at the end. The hummer did amazing. No real carnage that I have seen yet, each night I got under my rig and checked for any issues and there weren’t any. I do still have to get under my rig for the last and hardest day inspection but no real carnage other then a window I need to replace and a brake line. She took a boat load of abuse and kept asking for more.

 

[06 H3]

This is a link of the course we copied. It is truly amazing how some of the guys finished is 4-6 hours. We were just over 10. While we wouldn’t have finished as quickly as them we also didn’t take race lines and stopped as a group for any repair. Staying as a group also slows you down as well.

 

[3Hummers]

What tires is the buggy running?

 

[06 H3]

What tires is the buggy running?

BFG KR3 stickies that aren’t DOT legal. I think they came off a desert race truck.

 

[06 H3]

Ok, time for an update.

I got my steering capable of 34-35* again. I built a new drag link and beefed up it to avoid it failing at the bend

Here is how much bend I needed.

I cut out 3/16x 2x2 box tubing and cut one end off of it and made it follow the radius.

I also welded it a straight piece of plate at the center of the bend that butts up against the end of the 2x2 on the inside if that makes sense. So if it does try to bend it will transfer the load.

So now I have 34-35* of steering I just have to get other crap out of the way so my 43in tires don’t hit anything to actually get added angle.

I then did a quick mission to sand hollow with @alrock

Overall I had a good time!

Then for the first time in my life I saw an H3 in the junkyard. I knew it was coming to the yard but didn’t know when, so I checked the inventory daily. I grabbed as much as a could. 3 fenders, abs module/brake booster/master combo. Those damn things are like $500-$900 depending on what brand. I got it for wayyyy cheaper then that. A bunch of interior trim, grabbed a BCM, ac condenser, compressor, lines, etc. I grabbed a ton of crap.

I hope to give the H3 a “2nd lease of life” from an aesthetic perspective. I’m still running my original fenders, they are all hammered and fucked beyond repair. This can give new life to it. From a drivetrain perspective it’s on its 10th life and running well but the looks need some help.

It was pretty complete until I showed up lol. I grabbed the headlight assemblies too.

Other then that I am just contemplating the next steps for squeaky.

 

[06 H3]

Went wheeling this weekend. Logged about 100 road miles and then some more wheeling.

We had 4 rigs with us, an XJ of 36in iroks, a Tj based buggy on 42s, a K30 on 40s, and myself.

I am continually impressed with the 43in mickeys. I was in a deep section that they just churned through at about 5 psi that a buddy with 40in nittos couldn’t get through. With that said, when it was time to winch him out, it wasn’t a straight pull and when I was getting slid around while he winched to me I debeaded the inner bead. This happened 3 times at or below 5 psi. Which was frustrating. I do have gorilla tape on the inner bead.

These are battleborn steel beadlocks and bought them on the pre buy years ago so they are a gen 1 (if they even made changes?) I can’t say anything bad about them as your price per performance is amazing but I think there are better options when pushing the limits of beadlocks. I’d like to find a set that can go down to 1-2 lbs and not have this issue. I’ll also say that under 5 psi there’s so much sidewall that when turning it can be pulling on the inner bead.

Anyways, it was a fun day.

We played a race to get to the top of a hill.

I took the early lead, then the TJ got way ahead, then I caught back up. Then the TJ got up a try or two before I got up. The XJ got right up to the top before getting stuck and winched him over. In the end, we all were on the hook at some point.

Every time someone posts a picture of me on social media snow wheeling I get a ton of comments. My signature wheeling attire

From there my buddy in the k30 broke a Dana 60 spicer u joint which wiped out the inner shaft.

I had a spare set of shafts and a used Dana 60 spicer u joint….out came the premier power welder where we ran my angle grinder on it to cut the u joint out. We could have done it another way but with the additional tools we had it just made it quicker and easier. I only had 3 clips for the u joints and he lost the clips when it broke so we had to weld one cap in….it sucked but it was the only way. Premier power welder earning its keep again.

From there we continued on, and in about 100 yards the XJ lost a bolt for his ram assist. Luckily I had a big spare bolt that got him going again. I understand having like 500 lbs worth of crap isn’t helpful for performance but it is nice when shit goes south.

We headed down the hill and got to the little mtn town around 7:30, I aired up the tires, they loaded up their tow rigs and we stopped for dinner and then headed home.

Last night I started the tear down.

My radiator leaks and I’m going with an ECP radiator which is like double the capacity so it isn’t a bolt in deal unless you go with e fans. I like the fan clutch.

Factory sized radiator is 2 7/8 in between fan blade and rad.

New radiator is 1 3/4 inches away from the fan blade

These end mounts are removable, I will unbolt them, cut it off the mounts and section them 1 1/4in offset to get the distance I need. Then I will cut into the core support to get some more room to section it forward. I am basically copying @jimmy p

I haven’t welded aluminum but will probably pick up a spool gun today and learn.

I will throw in the lines, ac condenser and ac compressor from the h3 I found in the junkyard, they are in better shape, especially the condenser. I’m going to have to call up Steve to get the procedure on compressor oil for a used unit.

Next I gotta pull the pcm off the firewall and the tcm from the 6l80e and ship them off for tuning so I can start the 6l80e project. The 32 spline input for my 205 doubler should be here this week.

 

[06 H3]

Please delete duplicate post

 

[H3Hummer]

holly crab, what a bigfoot monster H3...but i think your tires are way too small man, what size are those M.T ?

 

[06 H3]

holly crab, what a bigfoot monster H3...but i think your tires are way too small man, what size are those M.T ?

43x15x17 Mickey Thompson Baja Pro XS. They are really like 18in wide.

Awesome off-road, extremely loud on road.

 

[06 H3]

Worked on the radiator last night .

Long story short, the radiator used to have 2in between it and the fan clutch and 2 7/8 between it and the actual fan blades. After trimming the core support 1in and trimming in 2 other areas I have it to where it is 1 5/8 from the fan clutch and 2 1/2. I think that should be enough to keep the fan out of the radiator.

Now I have to trim one more section for the little reservoir on the ac condenser.

Cutting out that spot is going to be structurally detrimental unfortunately so I plan to take a piece of tube, cut it in half so I have a half circle and weld it into that spot to give it rigidity back. In the end I always have something to worry about and now core support strength can be my new worry

Here is the offset I’m using. I will weld it up. Used bolts for now if I had to change anything.

@jimmy p did you have to cut into the core support down below? I have had to do a decent amount down below and now even more for the AC condenser tube

 

[06 H3]

Worked on the hummer more this weekend.

The radiator is in! I had to do more trimming, and more trimming and more trimming. Getting this big radiator in was a PITA but it’s basically done. All that I have left is the top mount. I’m going to take some 1x1 square tubing weld it to the core support and then tap it so the bolt will attach like factory. I still need to gusset the core support where I notched it but I need to gusset the front side so the bumper has to come off. I was going to take 1.75in tubing cut it in half and weld it in but there’s not enough room. It’s super thin material so I’ll just weld some 3/16 to it on the front side to give it strength back.


Photo won’t load on the radiator installed pic but I did do some aluminum welding on the side piece relocation. First time welding aluminum, it’s wayyyy different

I also pulled my old ac compressor, lines and condenser out and swapped it out for the newer stuff I got off the junkyard H3. I just need to charge it and I’ll be good to go.

Then I worked on the 6L80E.

the seller told me there’s about 100k miles on the trans. The fluid wasn’t bright red but still red, just a little dark. No chunks or crap in the pan so I’d say it looks solid overall!

Next step is to pull the pan, filter and valve body.

Separated the valve body and tcm. Tomorrow I’ll ship out my PCM and TCM to the tuner so he get it all tuned up for the 6l80E.

Next weekend I’ll probably pull the t case and trans.

I have also been playing around with the new link calculator. It’s so cool I can see the load on the links. It’s helping me decide what I think I can get away with in terms of load and determine a 3 link or 4 link. That’s next, I’m trying to get the trans, bigger radiator and rear suspension projects done this year.

Lastly, I’m looking into how to get a high idle switch for my premier power welder. I’ve been using rocks or sticks between the pedals for years to adjust my idle when using the welder and I’m tired of that method, it’s a pain in the ass. I looked at a diagram and wonder if I can use a 0-5v potentiometer with off (0 volts) and then a dial that goes up to 5 volts. I assume the pedal position sends a 5 bolt reference to the pcm?

It’s just weird it’s got 2 5V references from the pedal. My buddy mentioned maybe it’s for a fail safe? If the pcm doesn’t read 2 identical inputs it goes into limp mode?

 

[jimmy p]

I think one signal goes from 0v to 5v and the other goes 5v to 0v as the pedal moves or something along those lines, as you mentioned as a failsafe. I think it is worth a shot but I expect you will get a pedal correlation code and probably limp mode. Buried in code somewhere are idle speed adjustments for ac on and ac off and a few other features not used on h3. It would be cool to hack those and be able to tap into it with a simple toggle switch. I expect the signal would need to come from a bcm though over the serial data line, probably not something the h3 bcm is capable of.

 

[jimmy p]

Oh and to give you some piece of mind I have since modified my core support so the top section near the radiator unbolts so I can lift the radiator straight up if I need to service it without having to pull the fan clutch. Granted I don't wheel as hard as you or do as much flexing but I have flexed it out on a ramp in every way possible and not noticed any unusual shifts in my core support mods or body alignment. My thought is that the h3s frame is so stiff that it doesn't rely as much on the one piece core support design as say the colorado. The full size trucks of this era had bolt in core supports, inner fenders and fenders too.


Nice progress, really excited to see how your trans project comes along.

 

[06 H3]

Thanks! That makes me feel better about the core support, I’m not as nervous about the top as I am the bottom but I’m sure it will be fine.

I’ll talk to the guy doing the tuning on my trans. He has me sending both the PCM and TCM and he did my v8 engine harness, I’ll see if he can do an idle adjustment off of a factory setting vs tapping in a potentiometer.

 

[atvspeed4]

GM SUV & Work Truck - Off Road Engineering LLC

Text Goes Here

www.offroadengineering.com

Never used them myself but worth looking into

 

[06 H3]

Got the trans and t case out last weekend.

Sent this picture to my parents and said don’t you miss these days? Lol

This weekend I probably won’t get much done, going to a concert and it’s my dads birthday but after 3 weeks of crazy travel I’ll have some time at home to work on this during week nights.

things to do is modify the harness for the 6L80E, swap inputs in the t case and change the rear main seal

 

[CaseyS]

Some things you may want

ICT Billet cooling -AN cooling line adapter

-6 AN hose and fittings

I think the ECP radiator has 3/8" inverted flare fittings. Get some adapters to go to -AN lines. In think I got mine from summit. There should be enough spare hose in that kit to make a spare trail cooler hose.

Shifter cable you will need to turn the transmission side upside down to poke it on the arm. It will feel like the cable is twisted but I haven't had any issues with it.

Sent you a PM on the tap shifting stuff.

 

[06 H3]

Progress has been slow, I was out of town the last 2 weekends helping a friend move a Duece and a half military vehicle and then camping the other weekend. I was also out of town for work during the week but I’m back at it.

I still don’t have the pcm/tcm yet.

I got the right input with the correct bearing width so I put that back together. the input snap ring seems to have lost its spring pressure and is loose! I ordered a new one, I’d take my chances if it was something more accessible but given it would require pulling the driveshafts, t case, etc. it wasn’t worth it and I’m still waiting on parts.

You can see the small gap between the shaft and snap ring on the left.

I assembled my Yukon super joints into the chromoly shafts.

I broke 1 u joint in 5 years which wiped out a factory 35 spline inner and 35 spline outer, I’m hoping this will hold up for much longer. The super joint deletes the needle bearings so the cross is larger and it’s made of a harder material. The shafts are chromoly. The one downside to super joints is that there are no needle bearings they are not maintenance free. They rely on grease as the “needle bearing” to resist wear on the cap. These are not full time 4wd friendly due to their maintenance interval. Luckily I have locking hubs and they even provided a little grease gun to grease them with ease.

I also installed the new 6l80e shifter shaft, this is a genius idea and a new product so you probably haven’t seen it before.

This is totally unnecessary for non GM factory integrated builds but for GM vehicles swapping in a 6l80e you historically had to do all sorts of relays and wiring to get the reverse lights to work and the gear indicator light on the dash.

Those 2 functions were done off the transmission range switch which the 6l80 doesn’t have. This shaft is slightly longer and machined/indexed to just slap a 4l60 transmission range switch on a 6l80 plug the old plug back in on the range switch and bam, you have those 2 functions back without all sorts of tricking the computer and added relays/wiring. 2 roll pins and it’s out, then put the new one in.

Todays project is bringing tap shift wiring up to the cab and swapping out the rear main seal.

 

[atvspeed4]

I love that idea for the shifter let us know how it works out

 

[06 H3]

Do we have a 6l80 guru in here? @atvspeed4 or @CaseyS

I can post up the info later of last weekends work of getting the trans in and stuff but right now I’ve got other crap to figure out.

Tuner emails me the vin from the trans so I have a reference for hard parts if I need them in the future.

I do a vin look up and sure enough the fucker I bought it from lied to me, not 90k on it, it’s got 160k on it. I bought it 2-3 years ago so there’s no tracking him down now. I also told him I need it to work with an 08. He said its 07 and 07-08 work together.

Well 07-08 was true, they do but in my case I got unlucky. it was an 07 but it was such an early 07 that it was built in 06 and for a short time they had tcms that were 06-07 specific, not 07-08. The tuner said he doesn’t like to do this but changed the vin in the tcm to a later model. He used an 09 vin. It accepted it and now my pcm and tcm are talking. His fear is that the 09 tcm controls may be different because there’s different hard parts or internal things that may not jive with an 06-07 trans and an 09 tcm.

I guess I can ask him to try an 08 vin but same potential problem. Maybe it won’t jive with an 06-07 trans. Does anyone have insight on year to year changes?

 

[atvspeed4]

From memory I do not think any of the hard parts would have issue with vin swap but it would have issue with tune. No matter what, I strongly suggest getting a tune done after swap the 6l80/90 is awesome but the lifespan is greatly effected by the tune. This is the pdf I went by to learn of the changes over the years maybe it will help? https://atracom.blob.core.windows.net/webinars/gm/6l50_80_90_updates.pdf

 

[06 H3]

I am definitely going to get it tuned and I am on the fence about getting it rebuilt.

I finally got my new input snap ring and deal for the t case so the t case is 100% done!

Tcm and pcm are shipped out and en route to me. I figured I’ll get it running, make sure I have no problems then pull it back out for a potential rebuild. I just don’t want to chase too many problems at once.