1970 K20 Axle Swap 3/4 to 1 ton CUCV

[jeffahart]

I completed swapping out my Dana44 drum and Eaton with CUCV Dana60 and Corporate 14Bolt.

I took on the axle swap because I wanted disc brakes and I needed to rebuild Axles anyway. So after trying to locate d44 with discs and looking into rebuild costs... The old front drum 44 and eaton did not seem like a good idea to put money into based on parts availability. And for cost of d44 axle with rebuild I decided to get a setup I would really be happy with. I purchased axles as 16,000 mile take outs from Boyce Equipment.

The truck rides much better, almost like new. The brakes are almost touchy, a little more sensitive than I would like.

Here's the rundown on how it went.

FRONT d60:
Front bolted in with no axle mods. Truck has a 4" lift so I bought a 2" drop pitman arm from Off Road Designs. I also purchased front soft lines from ORD. I pulled the Residual Check Valve out of the front reservoir. I also purchased a steering stabilizer. And I had to purchase 32 9/16 lug nuts. That was pretty much it for the front. I put new bushings all around. The 9/16 lug nuts had to be the long ones because the extra thickness would not allow my thin wall socket to fit in the rim slot.

I will hang my head and admit I made a bone head mistake. I ordered the ORD soft lines for 3/16 lines. No biggie right, just get a 3/16 to 1/4 adapter! Well, that worked on the passenger side. But guess what, on the driver side there is an inline T in the frame rail. It is one of those crazy ones with the banjo bolt. So what happens is the banjo bolt bottoms out in the adapter before pressure is put on the copper washers. I got fatter copper washers and there was very little thread left for tightening. I went for it anyway, it leaked. I tightened more and it stripped, luckily the adapter stripped not the bolt. So I stacked the original brake line on the ORD line with the adapter. So it's drivable. I need to get rid of the old T and get a new one.


REAR 14ff:
Rear axle bolted right in with only a minor Axle mod needed, which was to grind off original shock mount tabs and weld on new ones.
I bought the shock tabs from Barnes. I purchased the soft line from ORD. I also purchased a shackle flip from ORD and a zero rate leaf. I purchased a Driver side e-brake cable for a 1985 K3500 to put on passenger side because the driver side has a shorter cable. Almost worked but the free ends of the cables are about 4 to 5 inches longer than the eatons'. I used cable clamps to shorten on the passenger side only. I now have a rock hard e-brake. Yes I am keeping the drum brakes so I can have an e-brake. I put new bushing all around. Biggest problem with the rear was I used the 1970 style bolt from top U bolts and bent the cheap Rancho Plate http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=638867 . So I ordered new over the spring bolts from bottom and used the 1985 style bolting. Now torqued to 150 ft lbs.

The truck sits level and no longer squats in the rear with the shackle flip and zero rates.

All in all I am happy with the results. Here's some pics. First one below is with squatting rear end prior to swap with shackle flip and zero rates.