Help from anyone who has had a Chevy before

HI, newbie from Seattle here, with some questions.

So, I may need some help from you that may have had or still has a Chevy before.

We have a 41 Chrysler Street rod that needs a front end rebuild.

I contacted the guy that built it, 30 yrs ago and he said he made it with the front suspension of a 70 Monte Carlo, I never believed that as its way too narrow.


I called him the other day and he said it may be 69 Nova, can any of you guys help?
I googled the part number of the Pitman arm pictured and it comes up as a 68-69 Chevelle/Firebird/Camaro, so possibly a Nova too,


I tried the caliper pictured but it didn't come up as anything, do the pictures look familiar to anyone?

I also tried posting on a few Nova websites, any ideas, thanks everyone

 

Caliper LOOKS like a 72 Camaro caliper that I have on my rod

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=788729

Do a proper intro and read rules before you get flamed on here!!!

 

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=44274

 

Heck I'm not even convinced the car is a '41 Chrysler. The front clip sure isn't.

 

72 & down Chevy's had bolt-on steering arms on the spindles. That is not a metric caliper, so my guess, 73 - 77 GM

 

Its a 41 Chrysler Business Coupe actually with a 37-38 Chevy nose on it. Pretty original for sure.

The guy who built it was a body and paint guy, its got 10 coats of hand rubbed Candy Apple Red and Silver on it, he leaded the bodywork and made the front end himself.

He built it 30 yrs ago, has diabetes, and got sick, he had it sitting in his garage for 5 yrs, I bought it 3 yrs ago, rewired it and put a new interior in it.

I called him to ask what he used to make it, he has 20 other cars, so he wasn't really sure.

 

rp23g7...did you click on the link posted by Upspitate????...DO SO..

 

Damn, Newbie! Why'd you want to go and post all of those useful pictures? Now the HAMB police won't have anything to gripe about. I suppose you should do an intro, but it's mere formality for people to bitch about if you don't. Nobody really reads them, fewer people actually have anything to say in them and 4000 posts later, no one cares.

 

Roger that, taken car of, sorry guys

 

roger that, did so, sorry

 

Be careful when checking calipers....the first I thought I had from chevlle,lemans etc had the hose coming out at a different angle....same casting # etc,but they were different

 

I think he hit it just about on the money. As far as I know the one piece Spindle/caliper bracket on that size of car started in 73. 64/72 Chevelle size cars you could unbolt the drum brake stuff from the spindle and bolt on Disk from a 71/72 Chevelle or Monte Carlo. I think I remember the car from rod trots 20/30 years ago but never paid any real attention to it.

 

It was owned by a man named Jim, (Indian Jim, to his friends), Grey Eagle), he lives in Everett still, would have been cruising it 20 or so yrs ago

 

Now we feel better about giving you the proper care & love.

 

I don't have a lot of experience with Chivvies, but the frontend in the '67 Chevelle I had when I was a kid looked a lot like that. Other than the disk brakes.

As said before, the whole spindle/brake assembly may be from a different car.

I suggest popping out the bushings and ball joints and taking them with you to the parts store to match up to the new pieces. Take a caliper (the measuring instrument) and compare old to new. Even if the exact year is off a bit, the part may still fit.

You may get lucky and find a common car the parts all match to, and be able to work backwards to find the clip's identity.

 

that crossmember is fairly unique with the center bumpout try googleing different cars front suspension and look for the x member bump.

 

The frame does kind of look like a NOVA. It could be a pre-72 drum brake chassis with later 73 spindles, disk, & upper a-arms.

Check the lower a-arm bushing in the frame & see if they are round or oval

 

Didn't some GM's have front steer and some rear?

Nova and Camaro were different if I recall,but don't remember which was which

 

Weren't Camaros thru 69 and Novas thru 72 (I think) rear steer. That looks like a front steer setup.

And you might be suprised how many suspension parts the Camaros and Chevelles/Monte Carlos share if you look in the book.

 

Is that a crack I see in the steering box?

 

Yes, the first gen Camaros and the Novas thru maybe 74 even were rear steer.

 

...I noticed that too.!? ...67-9 Camaro/F-bird and 68-74 Nova /clones were rear-steer so it's not one of those.

 

My vote is a 73-7? Camaro The rear steer stopped in 72 Nova's. 70 1/2 was the first Camaro for front steer.
I thought that was a crack in the box too, but I think it's just a stain or something!

 

While your in there...you need to take the rubber brake hoses loose and unwind them. It ain't good to run them all twisted like that.

 

The Pitman arm part number is for 67-72 Lemans, GTO, Tempest, Chevelle, Cutlass, Buick Special etc. The date code is from July of 67, so I'd say the steering box and Pitman are 68-72 GM A body as they had probably already shifted to 68 production by July

 

Thanks for everyones help.

I got under and took some measurments and part numbers if that could help.

so here are some measurments and numbers.
Calipers have two hex hold downs, 3/8 hex, the
left caliper has P/N 18002328 with a 28 8L on it and a G286 on it
right has the same number
the rotor has
337226 with a 866 and a GM 68 on it
Lower Control Arm measurments
from center ball joint to the rear attach mount is 16 inches, the front mount to the ball joint is 18 inches
Upper Control arm rear bolt to upper ball joint is 12 inches
the center link is 17,5 from center of Pitman Arm to inner tie rod and 23 inches to the idler arm.
Frame is 26 inches wide at the front, its been cut so don't know if it gets wider in a area that's further forward
the Cross member has the lower control arm mounts 15 inches apart.
the spindles have 371676 13 and a 211 on them
the bleeder on the caliper is 3/8, the castle nuts on the ball joints are 3/4 and 7/8th and the upper CA bushing has 9/16ths

 

We went to a show today, some late 60s Novas and Chevelles there, looked at a 68 Nova, it looked nothing like the street rods steering, neither did a 69 Chevelle. There was not a 2nd gen Camaro there, but there was a 75 Nova across the street, went to look at it, Perfect Match, WOO HOO

 

I vote 70 ish monte carlo

 

I would suggest that you see if you can figure out why there are so many spring shims sitting in there. That's not good for front end geometry. If the steering box is cracked and there's a need for those spring spacers, you might consider an MII kit or something.

 

So you didn't read the post directly above yours?