[tucsonjwt]

Many stock under mount spare tire assemblies have been removed in order to accommodate a frame mounted receiver hitch. This is why a lot of old trucks don't have a spare tire carrier. It is also hard to find the under mount hardware because people tend to throw them away. I spent the money to re-install the stock hardware and still kept my frame mounted receiver hitch by moving the long pivot bolt about 1 inch forward so the tire would just clear the hitch. Check under your truck to see if you still have the main upper cross member for the spare tire. You can then buy the rest of the hardware from LMC, or get the whole works from them if you need to. I did this and the parts were OK (all made in Taiwan). I would try to get the OEM GM part numbers and search for those parts on the net if I had to buy the parts again - maybe at Vintage Parts.
The cable set up would be better if you could get it to work. The advantage is that you don't have to muscle the tire under the truck to work it on to the carrier to remove and replace it. You would have to find a way to drill a hole in your bumper for the crank handle to engage the cable mechanism. I have a dump hoist conversion, so my bumper moves with the box when it goes up and down, so the cable system would not work for me without some cobbled up mod.
Here is a pic of the top cross member you need for a stock set up.