C10 front end under an AD Chevy truck

[Steve@OldSub.com]

Originally Posted by 63 & 64 Bowties

But, what are the problems that the stovebolt guy encountered? It looks like it would be a pretty straight forward swap.

I don't think he would call himself a Stovebolt'r since he is hardly ever there. However a number of people there reference his build and his published instructions when discussing this swap.

His problem was his placement of the steering box, which was based on the CPP type power steering conversion that uses a Chevy pickup box. He had converted to power steering before deciding on the IFS and didn't change the location of the box when he converted.

Since part of that kit is some weld on brackets I can easily see why someone might not want to change.

Because the box, or more accurately, the pitman arm and its pivot point, were not in the same relationship to the spindles as was originally designed by the GM engineers he ended up with a bad bump steer problem.

His write-up is here. His 1/31/2009 update is just a week or so after I toured his shop and told him how often I'd seen people on Stovebolt refer to his description of the process.

Andereggen figured out his problem and chose to go back to a straight axle as his solution because some of his thinking about what he wanted to do had changed. I believe he still very much believes in this swap.

I was aware of Robert's project when I was considering my own, but knew Robert was not finished yet with the project, and I believe still isn't really finished. I could not find the authors of any of the other IFS swap articles I could find on the web and like I said before, no one on Stovebolt, the HAMB or OldGMCTrucks responded that they had done the swap and had it on the road.

And that statement is not quite true. One guy on Stovebolt responded that we had done the swap for a customer about 20 years ago, and it was successful and still in use as far as he knew. Unfortunately he had no real pictures of what he had done, his memory of the details contradicted details in the one picture, and he no longer had access to the truck.

His example didn't seem helpful to me, and since he is located half way across the country from me it wasn't practical to go see it.

Last summer I discovered a guy in Northern California that had done the swap and loved driving the finished truck. By that time I'd already made my decision to go ahead and had just weeks before driven through Northern California collecting my daughter as she graduated from college. Her graduation ended my twice annual trips to California so I don't know when I'll be there again, but will try to see him and his truck when it does happen.

Today I pulled the IFS off my mostly bare frame and cleared all the junk stacked on and around it. I had already removed the rear axle and springs. Tomorrow I plan to tip it up on its side to allow thoroughly cleaning the bottom and to make enough room to store my Suburban in my shop.

Starting next week my butt belongs to the cancer docs and I won't have any shop time until July or August at best, so my project is on hold. I know I'm not the first to hit this kind of delay and probably not the last.

My primary thought this afternoon as I was working was will I be able to find this part when I need it in the summer or fall?