Sullii the 72 GMC 1500

[hewittca]

After the first drive and discovering some items that need attention, I decided to hit the two most significant to me. Those being the steering and driveshaft. For the steering, I decided to go through and double check my alignment. The camber and toe were out a bit so I dialed those back in. I landed on about 0.2 degrees negative camber on both sides, and 1/8" toe out. I read, in detail, through all the alignment threads I could find and the consensus seemed to be that these trucks should be toed out 1/8", not in. I also checked to make sure the springs are seated properly since the driver side is rubbing. From what I can tell they are properly centered on top and bottom. I think my only solution to the rubbing spring is going to be to go back on some of my caster mod. Right now I'm 3/4" forward on the lower arm and I will probably have to go to 3/8" to give enough clearance for the spring.







For the driveshaft, I realized that I totally messed up on the angles. When I initially measured I figured I would need a half inch spacer under the carrier bearing. After measuring the current angles, I realized I would need a 1 inch spacer to get close to where I needed to be! The original goal was to raise the carrier until the first shaft was at the same angle as the pinion. With the 1 inch spacer I am within 1/2 degree between the two.



I was out of spacers and couldn't get it any closer so I figured I might as well give this a try and see if I've at least made an improvement. This did indeed improve the vibration drastically. There is still a brief shudder that has moved up in RPM from my first drive, but I feel like I can clear that up with another shim or two. As for the steering, I only made minimal adjustments to the alignment so I didn't expect much of a change there. I was mainly wanting to reassure myself that the alignment was correct and put more time in driving the truck to get a good feel for it. I was able to go out and drive around town for about one hour and under most circumstances I was ok with the steering. It definitely does track straight, so that's a positive. It's only when doing slow speed maneuvering, or driving around our downtown area that it becomes tedious to drive. For now, I am satisfied enough with it that I will keep going on other items that need to be completed before I can call this phase of the build complete. This time, my daughter came along for the ride and she loved it.





As a bonus, I also discovered a little something my kids did some time during the tear down of the truck. It appears that they both decided to carve their initials into the bed floor. Part of me was upset they thought this would be ok, but honestly look at the rest of the truck! I also figured it is now part of the history of the truck and a reminder of the times they helped me with it. They for sure though got a talking to that they are never to scratch their initials into another car!