I really loved this truck and had it through 1998 when I gave it away in a trade after the transmission went out for the third time. But don't blame the manufacturer in this case - it was the owners fault. Sometime in 1996 I decided to go all low-rider with it. This led to it's eventual downfall.
First step in low-ridering an S15/S10 was to simply switch the springs on the back axle from the top of the axel to the bottom and throw in a block to lower it 2-4 inches making for a 6'ish inch drop on the back axel. I rode around for a few days like that. Even had folks yell at me to "Hit the draulics!" cause they thought I had switches. They were wrong.
Next step in the ghetto method of lowering a truck of this type is to "chop" the springs in the front portion of the suspension. This takes some care as removing these springs is mildly dangerous as they are springs that are "cocked" if you will. Fortunately, we managed this just fine at Shane's house, no injuries to report. Springs were removed, cut with a saw-zaw and re-loaded as-is. The un-known factor at this point is that this places the tires (wheels) at a severe angle which caused me to run though two sets of used low-profile tires before I realized the error of my ways. Imagine that these slashes are my tires and that's how the front tires sat: / -- \ so it wore down the tread in a matter of months on the interior of the tire.
The other thing that happened due to this ghetto method was that the stock shocks were blown cause they couldn't handle the increased load from the cut springs. So, suspension was basically non-existent.
Ordered some "real" springs designed for this purpose and figured i'd just remove the shocks completely. Hilarity ensues. Sure, new springs bring the tires back to being flat and not angled so they last longer but suspension moves to a whole new level of non-existent. W/out shocks you could stand at the front of the truck and put one hand on the hood and bounce it till the skid plate started hitting the ground. So, finally spent some of my hard-earned Publix money on some real shocks.
Looked something like this(random image from Google Images "1989 gmc s15 lowrider":
NEON! Specifically from: Low Glow Neon whom at the time hooked me up since I a) had a friend that worked there and b) put their logo on the back window of my truck's cab. Started with 4 green tubes in the wheel-wells and one in the grill along with 4 purple tubes around the base 4 sides of the truck. Since i'd chosen to have my truck sit a bit lower than needed I was able to (literally) knock reflectors off the road which consumed the front most purple tube via collision. S'all good, ran without that front purple and it was cool.
What doomed this truck was the actual lowering of it. The stock GMC S-15 sat slightly higher in the back than in the front to allow for weight to be added to the bed. When I lowered the truck it became evenly lowered on both front and rear. You would need to understand the specifics of a GM transmission on this type of vehicle to understand what screwed me in this but basically: The drive shaft for the rear-wheel drive car connected to the transmission via a slideable portion at it's base (and/or front) that could adjust based on the weight placed in the bed. When I lowered it to even it placed said drive shaft directly against the seal in the back of the transmission which after anywhere from a few weeks to a few months would wear said seal (cause it spins at high speeds) out and all the transmission fluid would then run out. That's kinda bad.
It wasn't until the THIRD time I was having the transmission replaced that THIS mechanic explained to me what was happening. Honestly, had first mechanic in Orlando told me why it happened I might have never ended up in Troy, AL.
Go figure.
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