Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

Ahhh, OK, that is good to know. Thanks again for your help!

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Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

Posted via Mobile Device hey guy I just got this xmember yesterday $100 at my local,junk yard from a perfect 1977 c10 and a 1" swaybar too. I have a question my rear end 10 bolt leaf spring on my 65' gmc long bed I saw a donor Chevy 65' with a rear end 12 bolt but with trailing arms could that one be a bolt on for my gmc or do I have to stick to leaf spring ? But its a 5 lug and my truck its a 6 lug:ito:
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Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

The 12 bolt fronm a '65 Chevy with trailing arms, won't just bolt up. There will be cutting and welding involved. Why not get the rear end from the same '77 C10 you got the front suspension from? Or are you going to convert the front to 6 lug? If you need a leaf spring rear end that simply bolts up, you will need one that was originally for a leaf spring truck. Either a '63-'70 C10 Chevy or GMC with leaf springs, or a '63-'87 K5/ K10 will be 6 lug.

Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

thats a great I dea ima go ahead and get that rear end from the donor. Is there gonna be any diffrence in the lenght of the rear end? . Whic one is better going 5 lug or 6 lug ?
How can I convert the donor (1977 c10) 5 lug rear end to a six lug ?
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Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

The '71-'87 rear ends are 1.5" wider than the '60-'70 rear ends. 5 lugs or 6 is a personal preference, or to accomodate the wheels you want to run. If you need a 6 lug rear end, look for one in a K5 or K10.

Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

Ok ill just keep,it simple and stay with the 5 lug front and donor rear end .. Since its 1.5" wider will my tires still be inside of the back wheel well ?
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Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

That depends on what size tires and wheels you run on the back. You will just have to choose those accordingly to the room there is available. There are many guys here that run the wider rear differentials. You might try a search to see what backspacing those guys are using. I'm thinking you will need 3.750" +

Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

What do,you mean by 3.750 " ???
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Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

Wheel backspacing. Of course this depends on how wide of wheels and tires you are wanting to run.

Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

Im thinkinh of going 15x7 steelies on BFGoodrich t/a
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Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

So those im thinking on running .. So what demention aim I looking for tires and rims u have any pics of some good ones.
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Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

Well I read through the thread, and maybe I missed it....Will 66 control arms accept 71-72 ball joints?

Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

Yes they will as long as you stay within the same series. By that I mean C10 ball joints in C10 arms, C20 joints in C20 arms, etc. In fact the ball joints thru '87 will fit the '63-'66 control arms.

Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

I was wondering if the brake calipers off my 79 1/2 ton 4x4 suburban are the same as the 2wd calipers?
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Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

Yes those are also D52 calipers.

Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

Thanks
That is good to know.
That'll save me some money.
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Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

You can also buy rebuild kits for them, and rebuild them yourself if you want. They are not expensive to buy already rebuilt, but every $$ counts.

Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

hey captain fab you wouldnt know from the top of your head a thread thats shows a rear end swap like the one im going todo on my 65 gmc?? the rear end is coming from the 77'' donor. its going to be my first swap and i wanna know what to look out for u know what measuremnts i ned to look out for :lol:but my original mounts were my leaf springs are bolted are rusting out were could i find some were i can buy them??? im going to keep the 5 lug bolt pattern.. thanks

this forum rocks !!!!!1:metal::uhmk::devil:

Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

No I do not know of any threads here on swapping the rear ends. If the leaf spring mounts on your original rear end are rusted, that shouldn't matter since you are changing the rear end. Or are you talking about your U-bolt plates? If so, then just use the ones from the '77. The '77 rear end will bolt right up to your leaf springs. Really no measuring required. The only thing you might have to measure is when changing your shock mounts.

Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

Ok sounds simple.. Well heres the pics to,show you what im talking about : ) I dont know were to start looking for them .. Just to be right what bolts up to the leaf spring and then to the mount to the frame (what im looking for) is the shakles correct.
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Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

Sorry if u have to tilt to see it lol
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Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

OK, so it's your spring hangers that are rusted, and not the spring perches, like I thought you were talking about. Is it just that one hole, or are they basically completely rusted? If it's just that one hole, that should be able to be welded. If they are completely rusted, you will need to replace them with good used originals. I'm not sure just what all years will interchange. You might try looking in the 60-66 classifieds here on the forum. If you want to post a WTB, you will have to become a suporting member to do that.

Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

Oh ok thanks captain ..
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Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

Theyre completly rusted who might sale them,? Whats a wtb? Sorry,im new
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Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

You sign up here to be a supporting member.
You then get a title under your username that says Premium Member.
Then you are allowed to post in the Market Place section of the forum.
Then you start a WTB Thread.
WTB means Want To Buy.
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Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

If you can't find some originals to replace those, you might consider using the ones from the '77 donor truck. You might have to change both front and rear hangers along with the springs. I can't say for sure, but it is an option for you. You will just have to make some comparisons between the 2 types and see exactly what would have to be done.

Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

Subscribing, need to go back to page one, and read through...
great thread, thanks for all the effort

Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

Guys, I did some writeups on my original website about how I did my swap. I used a '75 truck as a donor. I bolted the crossmember up and washed all the brackets off the '64 rear and welded them on the '75 rear. Here is the link:

http://home.mchsi.com/~bkndsdl1/front_end_page_1.htm

Hope this helps!

Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

Just spent the last couple hours going through this thread from the beginning, and copying everything relevant to me into a word doc for future reference.

A huge thank you to everyone who contributed questions and answers to this thread. I have been schooled in 66 C10 front suspension:ito:

Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

so i have a 66, i have an ece 4/6 drop spindles and all. can i get the control arms off a 73-87 and bolt right up to my suspension amd use balljoints for a 66? will steering still be the same for 66?

Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

I am not familar with what ECE offers in dropped spindles. You need to contact them to find out what ball joints and tie rods to use with the particular spindles you have. Then you will be able to determine if you can use the '7-'87 lower control arms, and if the '66 tierods will work.

Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

New member here, spent sometime reading thru this thread and all i can say is wow. Nice work! Thanks for taking the time to put this together.

Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

Its been awhile since i have been on here. However i have found out the following by doing a search on Rockauto as well as the MOOG website. The 71-87 C20 models and C30 models use the same upper and lower ball joints. As i mentioned before i know where i can get my hands on basically a complete C30 dually donor truck. So im going to wind up going one of two ways. Either pull the entire front suspension and rear diff from the C30 and make my truck into a C30 or pull the entire front end from the C30 and the front end of my C10 and do a full a cross member swap with the 2500LD spindles and rotors. Unless i can pull just the Upper and lower control arms from the C30 and bolt them to my C10s existing front end. But to be honest i would rather pull the entire crossmember assembly since that will also give me the proper engine mounting points for the 6.2 Diesel. Unless of course the mount points are the same between cross members.

Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

Welcome to the forum!

Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

You can install the C30 control arms onto your C10 crossmember. But if you are going to be changing engines anyway, it may be a little less work to just change the entire front suspension. Although I believe the holes in the crossmember for the motor mounts are the same.

Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

Good to know. I cant really see why GM would have changed things much if at all when it comes to the engine mounting. There was a member on here who put a 6.2 Diesel in his 1 ton that was an I6. I think he had to do some searching to figure out what mounts worked but thats about it. I may go hunting in the yards to see if i can find any other C20/C30s to pull arms from since the Donor i mentioned is a lil more complete then i would want to break down into a donor. It was a guys resto project.

Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

Are '71-72 C20 spindles the same as C10 for the same years? There is one at the Pick in Pull I might grab if they will work on my '65 C10.

If they will work, I'll just buy new rotors and calipers, etc.
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Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

No, the C20 spindles are different.

You do not have to use '71-'72 spindles to put disc brakes on the front of your '65. The '73-'87 spindles and all front suspension parts will work just as well and are much easier to find. That is all I have ever used to convert to front discs.

Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

Ya, I've done the swap on my old '68. Not sure why I thought the '71-72 spindles would be better.

Half price this weekend, so I'll probably go get what I need.

Thanks,
Brian
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Re: Disc Brake Upgrade Reference Thread
 

There isn't anything better about the '71-'72 spindles, or any of the front suspension, versus the '73-'87. In fact I prefer the '73-'87 control arm rubber bushings over the '72 and earlier steel control arm bushings. Also the '71-'72 upper ball joints are more expensive than the '73-'87 uppers.

Around here the '67-'72 trucks have been popular for over 30 years, so used parts used to be hard to come by and expensive when you did find them. That is one reason I always used the '73-'87 parts.