dcairns

I have had an issue with my rear passenger side speaker distorting. For that last few years, I have just had the fader turned to the front speakers to mostly avoid the distortion. But you guys inspired me to pop the door panel and take a look at the speaker. Turns out the speaker has a plastic frame (basket) that has cracked a lot. So the coil no longer stays aligned in the magnet. By twisting the plastic frame, I could make is sound good. But it is highly unlikely that glue would fix such extensive cracking, so I bought a new speaker. Yeah, still using the stock system, but my ears are not that great anymore (can only hear up to 12khz), so it is good enough for me. And nobody wants to steal the stock stereo ;D But take care of your ears, you only get one pair and when you lose hearing, it is gone forever.

Looks like your truck is begging to stretch it's legs on that long straight road.

My 03 in stock form ran like this: 1/8 = 9.683 1/4 = 15.339 @86.27mph ============================= 1/8 = 9.703 1/4 = 15.466 @86.08mph ============================= 1/8 = 9.733 1/4 = 15.374 @76.90mph ============================= With the Magnacharger Radix supercharger: 13.92 @93.00

Nope. Just the silver/gray painted ones. Non stock calipers/rotors and shocks visible in this photo, but the wheel is stock.

Lowering can be hard on suspension parts as they are often forced to work outside their normal range of motion. Looks like your rear suspension "bumpers" are shot. I just replaced mine a couple months ago and the old ones were like yours. With a lowered truck the stock bumpers are probably too long. Take a look at what "04palass" used on his lowered SS : http://www.silveradoss.com/forums/topic/92062-2003-ss-building-my-dream-truck/page/5/ A little more than half way down the page, you can see the red bumpers he used. Probably Energy Suspension, also a comparison picture of the stock vs aftermarket "red bumpers".

Welcome to the site Are you sure you have an 03 ? As I recall, all 03's were AWD (like mine). I attached a couple photos of my original leaf springs, and it looks different than yours. Please note, these photos were highlighting an aftermarket rear anti-sway bar and helper bags I installed, so those bits won't match your truck. You have a squared off spring, with the plastic disk and pin going through the spring. I only have the plastic disk on the second largest spring, which has a somewhat rounded end. Also, it looks like your plastic disk pin may have broken the retaining bit and been replaced with a spring clip. Or perhaps it is a replacement that mounts that way. Your shackle looks freshly painted, if you did not do that, then it would say that it has been replaced recently. I don't recall the stock shackles having all those holes in them.

Not an expert on lowering, but I seem to recall that the amount of lowering will affect your choice in shocks. The change in the range of travel means different shocks. So I would finalize your lowering plans first, then look for shocks. Also decide if you want a firmer or more stock kind of ride.

You sure work fast on that truck ? If you got some spare time, I have a few maintance items that need to be done on my SS.... ?

Take care

I will have to check out youtube for a video on repairing that. Once and a great while I get the flashing cluster warning lights "ABS and Brake" and dinging that the ABS failed. I have heard it could be a bad ground. But I am handy with a soldering iron if it is just some bad solder joints in the ABS module.

I picked up some rear bumpers on ebay. They are surprisingly expensive for what they seem to be. This listing claimed to be genuine GM, but who knows on ebay. They looked legit when I installed them, ans so far, so good. Of course if you want real GM, then the dealer will have the real stuff, for more $$$ https://www.ebay.com/itm/Chevy1500-Silverado-OEM-Axle-Bump-Stop-Pair-LH-RH-Rear-99-07/133469413026?hash=item1f13659ea2:g:gagAAOSwCM5XP0iY

Are you running the stock wheels or larger wheels? With larger wheels, you get less rubber which can make the ride harsher. Is it lowered? These truck use rubber bumpers as part of the suspension and when you lower them, they ride even more on the rubber bumpers. I seem to recall some trim off one of the 'lumps' on the bumpers but forget if that was just fro lowering or better ride. Might research that. Might also check the condition of the bumpers. I just had to replace my rear bumpers( the fronts wore out a long time ago and were replaced), they had pretty much disintegrated and it was making a harsh bump when the suspension bottomed out back there

Are you going to paint the calipers?

It will be hard to see. It is on the top rear of the block, close to the firewall. It is behind the intake and on the drivers side corner of the intake. Get a haynes manual, it has a few clear photos of it and how to hook up a oil pressure gauge to get a clear reading. Another thing that could be wrong is the instrument cluster. I have read the gauges can get wonky and need repair. I have not had any issues with my gauges (original owner) other than the gear selector display going dim. I hear that is due to some solder cracks on some resistors on the cluster circuit boards.

I did not know they made a supercharged Impala. Very cool!!! I have an Impala as well, but it is a bit older. The first car I ever owned is my 64 Impala, got it for free back in 1982. I had hair back then... ? I took a picture of my 64 next to a 2014 Impala at the local Chevy dealer. They were nice enough to bring out a white 4 door to line up next to my 64, for a "50 years later" picture.

You have really done a great job on your SS. But what is that supercharger in the truck bed? looks a bit small, like V6 sized...

That is pretty ! ?

Sounds like you have it figured out. But when I did the 07 Tahoe upgrade on the front, I got Centric calipers and rotors to match, for the rear. Those were Centric 14766045R and 14766045L rotors on the rear and S4764 Calipers on the rear. This let me match the drilled/slotted rotors from the front as well as the red calipers.

I have an 03 AWD, and looking at my notes, I have Rear Pads as Centric 10508340. I did upgrade my front rotors with the 07 Tahoe rotors/calipers. And I agree, it can be frustrating finding the right parts at times. Not all parts lookup databases know about the SS variation.

In a lot of states (like my state, the Communist Republic of California), it is not legal to do fun stuff like that. As I am sure you realize, you would need to look into a lot more than just bolting a old school carbureted big block to the transmission. You would need to upgrade the transmission as well, the stock transmission is pretty weak. So putting a beefed up TH400 in there would probably mean drive shaft length adjustment. Fortunately, you don't have the AWD stuff to complicate things. Then there is all the computer stuff. You will have to somehow get some of the sensors working with the engine and fool the others into thinking everything is normal. Or just rip it all out and live with the stuff on the dash that no longer works. It would be awesome to see a project like that.

No crossover that I can recall. You can add one fairly easy if you want to do dual exhaust of any sort. Long ago I had a Magnaflow exhaust on my SS. I did not keep it on very long, the droning sound was too annoying. But it consisted of two smaller mufflers and then a Y to the single exhaust. Adding a crossover ahead of the mufflers would be easy. If you are thinking of having dual tail pipes, one on each side ahead of the rear wheels, then getting the pipe over to the driver's side might be difficult. The biggest obstacle would be the fuel tank, which occupies a lot of the area you would want to run the pipe. And you probably don't want hot exhaust pipe and fuel tank to be too close together. Dual tail pipes behind the rear tire would be easier. And dual tail pipes, both on the passenger side would be easiest.

Schwinn used to make some good 10 speeds ? But seriously, that would be a fun idea, but probably a lot of work, the most problematic being the computer setup.

I have one of Shopman's SS bow ties from many years ago. Still looks great. I can highly recommend them ?

The site limits my uploads, so I can only do a few at a time. let me try this another way Drivers Side And yes, that is my 64 Impala peeking around the tire.