It's my turn, 47 S10 build

[Cautrell05]

So I managed to get a few hours in this weekend. Next on the list was the steering column. I opened up the hole in the firewall and moved the bottom of the column up a little over an inch and about 2 inches to the left. Originally I figured I would have to run 3 u-joints to clear the exhaust but I managed to make it work with just two. Couple things worked out in my favor. I had some left over steering shaft pieces that I used to extend the bottom of the column 2 1/2". That combined with moving the column to the left gave me just enough room to clear the exhaust. The other thing that worked out really nice was that the Ford ranger lower steering shaft fits over the standard double d shaft. I cut up the steering shaft that came with the van column and used the upper u-joint. That fit over the piece I used to extend the column and the cut end fits inside the lower steering shaft. If I ran different exhaust I could have had a bolt in steering shaft with no welding but I like these manifolds.

[Cautrell05]

Top of the column was pretty straight forward. Centered between the gauges, all the way up and as far forward as I can and clear the shifter. Now that I have the general location hammered out I'll start making mounts to hang out from the dash. I can't count how many times I have been in and out, sitting behind the wheel making sure everything feels right.
Legroom feels pretty good. Maybe a little less than my Yukon but not cramped. The current pickup seats I'm using are fairly this in the back compared to the original seat. That helps a bit with the legroom.

[Cautrell05]

Better picture of the GM to Ford adapter joint.

[Cautrell05]

It's hard to see in the pictures but the factory shift linkage is going to clear the clutch linkage and the chassis braces I added. Straight shot from the column down to the frame. That's another advantage of the van column. The shift linkage runs down the outside of the column away from the engine instead of on the inside like most do. That would have run the linkage right through where the pedals move to.

Even though nothing is bolted or welded yet, there's something about turning the steering wheel and watching the front wheels move for the first time that really feels like progress. I've still got a long way to go but at least I'm making progress.
Nick

[joedoh]

thats the important thing, to get in and out as many times as it takes haha

[Cautrell05]

I got the steering column temporarily mounted over the weekend.I don't know about you guys but anytime I come up with leftover brackets I have a hard time throwing them away. I have a drill press, cop saw and a welder but sometimes it's faster and easier to take an existing bracket cut an ear off and use that. It lucky and had two matching brackets already been and drilled that I think should work. The 89 Chevy van column I'm using has 4 threaded posts welded to the column already. The right one bolted up to the upper hole and matched the curve of the dash perfectly. The left one was close and just needed a little tweak. I don't have a good vice at home and making precise bends in 3/16"x1 1/2 strap isn't easy so I just used my cut off wheel and cut about half way through on the back side where I wanted my bend and then folded it. it'll get welded up later once I'm positive that's where I want everything. for right now the upper mounts are only using two of the bolts. when I get ready to finalize the mounds I'll add in years so that it's attached to both bolts on each side. The firewall will probably just a standard flange mount with a band clamp to hold it in place.

[Cautrell05]

I also got the pedals halfway stuck in place so I can get an idea how that's going to work out. Right now everything is looking like if I notch that tube then it's sitting on and sink that sleeve about half or two-thirds of the way through it it'll end up being exactly where I need to be and just clear the exhaust manifold by about a half an inch while still traveling in the proper ark so it doesn't drag on the floor. I don't remember exactly how high the pedal set originally when I first got the truck. But it seems like if I pull the brake pedal far enough to be contacting the switch it sticks way through the floor to the point that it's almost uncomfortable to get my foot on it. I can play with the pedal ratio when I run the linkage from the pedal down to my brake booster. but it seems like about two-thirds of the way up is where it would feel natural. I'm going to wait to mount the pedals though until later this spring when it's warm out and I can roll it outside and pull the front clip off of it. Even with the motor in it, with the outer and inner fenders removed there area for the pedals will be wide-open where right now is just kind of a pain to get to. It is nice that so far everything seems to be coming together right as I had planned. I'm sure at some point that will stop being the case but for now I'm happy.

Nick

[dsraven]

I think the old pedal lever had a rubber bumper on the engine side of the firewall so it would contact the firewall at the top of the pedal return stroke and set the pedal height that way. not totally sure on your truck.

[joedoh]

man I have buckets of brackets too haha

nice work!

[Cautrell05]

Originally Posted by dsraven

I think the old pedal lever had a rubber bumper on the engine side of the firewall so it would contact the firewall at the top of the pedal return stroke and set the pedal height that way. not totally sure on your truck.

There's still one on the clutch pedal but if I pull the brake pedal up that high it makes it awkwardly high.

[Cautrell05]

Originally Posted by joedoh

man I have buckets of brackets too haha

nice work!

I can't count all the times one of those left over brackets saved me a bunch of time.

Nick

[Cautrell05]

So I had a couple free days and made some more progress. The pedals will wait until I have the front end off. and that's going to wait until things warm up and I can move the truck outside where I have more room. Figured it'd be a good weekend to change rear ends. The little 7 and 1/2 inch would probably get by with some wheel spacers. But I can't help but think the first time I get traction that 400 is going to make short work of it. I picked up a 77 Lincoln nine inch a while back for a hundred and fifty bucks. Complete rotor to rotor. rather than mess with it at home I loaded it up and took it into work. I was in a hurry that day and for some reason did not get a single picture while I was there but it's not a big deal. It was nice having all my tools there got it all tour down to a bare housing and all the leftover brackets cut off of it. The original Lincoln calipers have the parking brake built into them it looks like it would be easy enough to adapt. The rotors are I think 11 and 1/2 in. These are obviously toast but new ones are priced pretty reasonable. It's a lot easier to go with an existing system than trying to adapt something. As expected it had a 3.00 rear end gear. With short tires in a light vehicle that's probably not too bad. I have another third member sitting out in the shed that's got 350 years in it. The nice part with these is it does not take that long to change gears on a 9 inch if I want to try something later. Nice surprise was that it had a factory posi in it. Clutch kits for them I believe for under a hundred bucks. I can live with that.
With the rear end tore down inspected most of the way cleaned up and put back together The next step was pull the old one out of the truck. the leaf spring bolts all came out very nicely without any headache. I kind of wish the u-bolts would have twisted off. It would have made it a quicker process.

[Cautrell05]

A while back when I was at the U-Pull-It yard there is an extreme S10 up on stands that somebody had already pull the rear axle out of. The leaf springs and rear sway bar we're just hanging there. For around 60 bucks I had a pair of factory lowering springs and 1 inch rear sway bar. I put the rear springs in and then roll the rear end under it. I did not have any leaf spring pads laying around, and I had zero patience to make a temporary set so for now it has two pieces of pinewood and some repurposed 3/8 u bolts that came with an old air bag kit. It won't be seeing any power with the current setup. I still have not decided if I want to go simple with a lowering block, or float the rear end housing and use a torque arm. A lot of that will be determined by how low it sets and how much room I have. I have sway bar links ordered for the back. Once they show up then I can get the mounts made. The front will be really easy, I have a brand new set of GM mounts that normally would go over the 7 and 1/2 in axle tubes. But on this one they line up with the center section. a little reshaping and welding and they'll be just fine. Because it moves the sway bar back about an inch and a half it doesn't quite line up where it would on the shock mount with the factory style but I've got an idea for something that should be easy enough to Fab up.

[joedoh]

nice scores! that lincoln rear is a serious hoss.

someone told me that zq8 springs (on the extreme) were z85 high rider 3 leaf (not counting the flat overload) springs with the smallest leaf removed.

[Cautrell05]

Originally Posted by joedoh

nice scores! that lincoln rear is a serious hoss.

someone told me that zq8 springs (on the extreme) were z85 high rider 3 leaf (not counting the flat overload) springs with the smallest leaf removed.

Side by side I expected more difference between the stock spring and the lowered one. On the truck though it feels a lot softer than the old one. Both were 2 leaf plus the overload.

[joedoh]

have someone substantial sit on it, it will droop more. once you get some weight on it it will be fine. the zq8s got a hop shock to keep the softer springs from wrapping too badly.


there are three 2wd leaf packs, the regular 2 leaf +overload, the highrider z85 3 leaf + overload (1" higher ride than the regular), and the zq8 lowered (1" lower than the regular). I have been told that the zq8 is a z85 with the smallest spring out. my truck has brand new z85 springs on it so I am going to pull the middle leaf and the overload and see what happens. the western chassis drop leafs are two leafs with no overload.

[Cautrell05]

I have already decided that it's going to get other a single pull bar on top of the axle or a torque arm to keep wheel hop in check.

[Cautrell05]

Small update, been busy with usual life stuff and combined with the fact is really hot outside right now and my garage is not air-conditioned.the rear sway bar is officially done other than finish welding the mounts on the axle housing. I'll do that later when I have it out to weld the spring perches on.
The 91 S10 never came with the rear sway bar that I am aware of. The sway bar I used came off the rear of a two-wheel drive 2nd gen extreme S10.I have seen kits that you could buy that had the upper mounts but after mocking everything up in place I just made them myself out of some inch and a half by 3/16 angle iron. Cut them, round the corners and drill a hole. Simple enough. There's a nice flat spot on the back of the factory shock mount that they welded to. For the sway bar links I used a pair of rear sway bar links for a 2000 through 2006 suburban just because I had them already.
The axle mounts took a little bit more work, but it was really not that hard. The stock S10 sway bar mount attaches to the axle with a u bolt and a saddle. my cost on those saddles brand new through the dealership was about five bucks a piece so for that price I wasn't going to mess with Rusty ones. A little bit of time spent with the angle grinder and a flap wheel to readjust the radius for the Ford rear end and from there it was just tack it together and bolt it up.
Next on the project list is to pull the front end off again so I have access to get my pedals mounted and get my steering shaft hooked up. from there it's on to transmission linkage, get the master cylinder mounted, the fun stuff that I can actually see progress and feel like I'm getting something done.

Nick

[Cautrell05]

Couple more pictures.

[99 to Life]

nice job

[oldman3]

Looks great, nice work...Jim

[Cautrell05]

Thanks for the replies everybody. I really need to get better about updates. The project is still moving forward, actually made some decent progress. Pulled it out of the garage a couple months ago and actually got the box set on it for the first time in a couple years. Nothing attached yet, just sitting in place so I can start planning mounts. also it looks like I'm farther along so it makes me feel better. Ride heights are pretty close to what I had in mind. Don't want to go to much lower because it's static height and I live in the country with kind of crappy roads at times.

The more I look at it with the steel wheels in the center caps the more I like the look of them. Whenever I get around to painting the outside of it I'll go with something different but with the current patina they blend in pretty good. In the pictures the fronts are 215 60 15 and the backs are 255 60 15. I'm probably going to go 255s all the way around. I plan on driving it a lot and being an alignment tech full-time I know that rotating and makes a big difference on how well they wear. It is been a lot more difficult than I thought it would be trying to find tires for mock-up purposes. It's way too early in the build to buy new tires because one I'm not 100% sure what size they want to go with into it might be a couple years before it hits the road. I got lucky when I found the 255 at work and a couple weeks ago I found a set of 275 60 15. I wasn't sure if I was going to run anything that big on it but I had a pretty good feeling I was going to have to get the rear end cut down to fit and I figured if I'm going to get it cut down and might as well make sure they fit later. The 255s are currently mounted I set a 15 x 7 with about 3 and 1/2 or 4 in of backspace. The 15 by eights or a 4 inch backspace. And a suspected the 275 on the 8 inch rims are a bit wide to fit under the back so it looks like I'm getting a rear end narrowed. Not really a huge deal, machine shop in town gets a hundred bucks to narrow the housing and I can buy axles online for 300 bucks. Better to find out now before it's all painted is the way I see it. That four hundred bucks would have covered my tires or half of my fuel injection though.

[Cautrell05]

Couple more pictures. Some of them from this past weekend when we pushed it out to clean the garage. The box is very crooked at the moment. I noticed coming out of the garage that it pushes really hard and it was shoving the front tires. Evidently I couldn't read a tape measure last time because it was toed in over an inch. My youngest enjoy sitting in there and pretending to drive. I enjoy sitting back watching.

Nick

[joedoh]

looking really good! I like the steels over the old centerlines too, if that is what you were saying.

[oldman3]

I also like the wheels, need a close up of them when you get time...Jim