Hello

[71WarWagon]

Im not sure if I'm posting in the right spot (newbie here) but I figured I'd post an introduction and try to gleen some info from you guys.

First off: I have trolled this site for a long time. I had a 70 c-10 as my first truck (ever). Originally it had the 2bl, 3-on-the-tree, and only a heavy duty spring package from the factory. Very VERY basic but i loved it....loved it soo much i spun a bearing playing around in high-school and parked it for a while. A long while. Eventually I had some extra income coming in and had a great neighbor that loved to feed me scraps from his hot rod projects. He had a 68 or 69 ( I think...hard to remember now) Chevelle SS. Apparently the P.O./ O.O. had purchased it new and ordered a second motor so he could build a race motor out of it. Fast forward many many years and my neighbor aquired both the car with the raced out motor and the stock numbers matching motor that had been packed in cellophane for the last 30+ years. He pulled the worked 396 motor and sold it to me for pratically nothing...something like 300-400 bux...running mind you (and running VERY well I might add) and then found me a sweet deal on a T-400. That was a very very fun truck! At least until I grenaded the rear 12 bolt.... It got parked, then life happened, and it got forgotten, then marriage happened and it got sold.


Sooo....for 6 years I have been working on my wife to let me replace my old rig. Every conceivable scheme was concocted in order to fool her into letting me pick up even a cheap, barely running truck. Let me just say, my wife is very wise...and mean.

Well, eventually she slipped up! She started talking about having a third little nugget and thats where I found the chink in the armour. I told her before we ever got married that there will never be a minivan in our driveway...ever. So she tried to suggest a suburban or tahoe. Being the non-conformist that I am I agreed to a 67-72 era suburban. I stood my ground and she finally let me win, with the agreement that if I bought something that needed work that it would be done by the time the baby was born and under the price of a newer sub.

So, thats the long and the short of it. I found a 71 3/4 ton 4x4 with a decently fresh 350-th400-np205 combo that has had alot of body work done (see 95%) and wasnt too badly mangled by the P.O.'s.

Now: I have read through alot of different areas of this forum and have used the search button alot but have turned up short on a few things I'm ironing out right now...

First: The column is trashed. I have about 1-1.5 inches of play side to side and at least an inch of play in and out. I remember my dad and I rebuilding the 3-on-the-tree linkage/ column when I first got my old truck but i havent had any other columns of this vintage apart before. Its the auto/ non-tilt version. The detents seem to work ok and the turn signal cancels ok in both directions but the slop is scary and I havent found a very good break down for that particular column on what to buy to rebuild it. So any help is good.

Secondly: I have some horrendous bump-steer. I'm not sure it it is a 4" or a 6" inch lift but it is lifted. It seems to be a quality lift from what I can tell by looking at parts and their construction. Any large bumps in the roads will jerk the wheel pretty hard in hand and typically sends the truck jerking to the left.

Besides a small tranny leak that I have yet to find and a pleasant header gasket leak it seems to be a nice rig that has had alot of the hard work done already.

Well, thats about it, and any help is truely appreciated.

Charlie