60's chevy C10 truck questions

You could either swap the entire front crossmember, control arms and all steering linkage as a unit or just unbolt the control arms and swap em, easier to do when you have an engine and trans already in place...that'll give you better bushings and cheaper parts for the 73-87 front end as oppose to the 63-72 parts. Once you put in the new disks up front there is one modification you have to do which involves remounting the ilder arm, two new holes basically after the centre link is parallel and square.

The 5 bolt diffs from the 71-72 are 1.5" wider, this was mentioned, you have to roll or cut the lip out of the fender on each side. But you will have the proper sping mounts on the axle and chance of a posi.

As for lowering it, my 64 has 3/5" drop springs and it aligned easily. Plans are for airbags, in the stock location front and rear which will put me around this height. (my buddies truck)

 

http://www.ifcustom.com/projects/projectspages/a-d/chris.htm

 

so how much can you lower them without C-notching the frame and other modifications like that? I'm looking at spring/spindle set-up for my '66 fleetside, but not sure how low I can go without other problems.

 

Remember if you swap out 73'- 87' arms and spindles you HAVE to make sure and change over to newer tie rod ends and stuff because the old ones have the wrong taper on them and they will break after a little time. Just because they bolt up doesn't mean they will work. Like the other guys said, it's better to just swap out everything from a junked newer truck. There are way more options for spring, spindle, brake, and control arm setups for 73-87. I swapped my 70' Burban over to newer front end.
As for lowering... Any body need any Air bag Info? let me know and I will send you pics of my 70' That lays Rockers on 22" wheels. I can't get the pics to load up on the site.

 

I hope this helps. www.LMCtruck.com is a good source of parts for all chevy trucks. They have a lowering kit for my 68 that is around 500 bucks. complete with new A arms. You can pick how low you want to go everything from stock hieght to ground s****er.

Jonney

 

If you need any questions or ideas PM me. I have a 66 Chevy stepside. I swapped the front crossmember with a '72 front end with disc brakes and 5 lug rotors. Then I got 2.5 in. drop spindles and 1.5 in. lowering springs from www.earlycl***ic.com I also ordered 4 in. lowering springs from earl cl***ic ent. I also made my own 2 in. lowering blocks for the rear. Then you just have to relocate your panhard bar and shock mounts. I did those things myself and made my own brackets, but you can order easy bolt on kits

 

thanks for all the info< I've been out of town so I havent been able to log on, and i missed out on the '66 i was looking at. It was a panel truck, which is what I'm looking for right now, and I p***ed on the last one cause of the big block, and I'll be driving it far too much with gas prices the way they are now. It looks like i wasn't the only oneon here with questions about em though, so thats cool. Still looking.....

 

I think my buddy rolled around on a 6/8 static drop for a while but trashed a set of control arms and the ride ****ed. That truck has a dropped/sectioned crossmember (1.5") and 3" dropped spindles then airbags, the back has a section of frame cut out and a section of pipe the width of the frame rail as a notch and some home made drop blocks. It sits plenty low with the bags in the stock location. Any more notch than this and the diff hits the bed floor.

 

those trucks are easy and there are tons of parts to make 6 to 5 lug conversions easy. Do your home work first.

 

In the LMC catalog they claim that you have to C-notch the frame if you are going to lower the truck more than 5" in the rear. Is that true?

 

George - my dad put additional 1" blocks in the rear of his to get it down some more, and it started hitting. So if you want to keep a little bit of ride quality, I think thats about as low as it gets. He's got 2" springs and 2" spindles in the front to.

Did you see this thread?

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=80063