Will 1980 Suburban disk brakes work on my 66 Chev?

[Steve Schmidt]

hey all,
I have found a 1980 Chev Suburban as a donor vehicle. It has a 350 requiring a rebuild, 400 trans, and disk brakes for $200.
My question is will the disk brakes work/transfer to my 66 Chev fleetside pickup without issue or? Any suggestions you can offer would be greatly appreciated.
thanks,steve

[Fred T]

Easiest thing to do is swap the front cross-member. You will need to drill some new holes. Hopefully you want 5 lug wheels.

[bpmcgee]

You certainly won't be able to just bolt them on -- your 66 has drum brakes. Fred is right about the cross-member swap. If you don't have vacuum assisted brakes now, you'll need that converted. Also, you'll need a proportioning valve to balance the braking pressure -- disk and drum brakes require different pressures. If you swap front crossmembers, you'll also have the steering issues to resolve, I believe.

All in all not a trivial task.

Brian

[zenish]

i have a 1980 c10 crossmember and brakes and steering in my 64.

[Fred T]

What did you have to do to install it?

[Steve Schmidt]

Wow, I was not counting on the cross-member as being required in the change. I'm aware of the change from manual brakes to that of a booster with master to include the proportioning valve.....not a big deal, just a little time consuming. I am not aware of the requirements for swapping a cross-member. Can anyone elaborate what it takes to do this. Is it a unbolt and rebolt process or cut and re-weld? I have yet to actually physically examine the cross-member on my truck. If its cut and weld that is out of my area of expertise; I'm sure that would cost a few shiny pennies to have done.
steve

[bpmcgee]

Steve,

The cross member bolts in. You unbolt the old one, then have to put the new one in. My understanding is that some of the holes will line up, and some won't.

The thinking goes like this -- the spindles are designed to take the discs and calipers, so you want the spindles. The spindles won't work with the existing A arms, so you want them too. The upper A arm bolts to the frame -- the lower A arm bolts to the cross member -- so you need that too.

That brings up another question -- since the upper A arm bolts to the frame, the distance between the outside edges of your frame rails has to be the same as the donor vehicle, or you have to MAKE it the same.

Are you sure you don't want to buy a disc brake kit? These just replace the spindles with custome spindles that will work with the existing A arms.

Brian

[zenish]

the crossmember bolts on with fourteen bolts.ten line up,four will line up once you run your drill through them.the later steering will work if you drill two holes for the idler arm.make a templete from the later frame to locate the idler holes.buy the rez kit to use a 73-87 steering box.

[Steve Schmidt]

Ok, so doing the cross-member swap is not all too crazy. You broght up an interesting point Brian,"Are you sure you don't want to buy a disc brake kit?" Any guidance on what company/product you would recommend for a disk brake kit...........?

[bpmcgee]

Check out www.gmcpauls.com, they have the kits.

They also happen to have a deal right now that will save you 5% (I think). Check out the general forums section.

Brian

[64fleetside]

you can also just swap spindles+upper & lower a-arms if you don't want to do the whole x-member,,steering can also be dealt with using an odd combo of inner/outer tie rods or adapter tie rod sleeves from CPP. cheapest route is drill for later drag link like Z posted. An Early Classic or other kit is a bolt on but spendy,,I used a 1980 C10 for everything ,was a running driving truck w/new pads/rotors ,350 & 700r4 for $400. body was trashd. brian

[jeanzamora]

Originally Posted by Steve Schmidt

hey all,
I have found a 1980 Chev Suburban as a donor vehicle. It has a 350 requiring a rebuild, 400 trans, and disk brakes for $200.
My question is will the disk brakes work/transfer to my 66 Chev fleetside pickup without issue or? Any suggestions you can offer would be greatly appreciated.
thanks,steve

spindle , upper ball jts , center link, inner & outer tie rods, idler arm
if you do not want to use whole crossmember .

[ratfreak88]

check the sticky post at the top of the page, it says no crossmember swap needed

[mikes64fleetside]

hey guys i got a question. i've got a 64 fleetside and a 87 donor van. if i replace the whole cross member to get disk brakes the width will be 3" on both sides wider. so if i just take the upper and lower control arms this will work, right???????????

[mikes64fleetside]

thanks guys i appreciate the advice.

[mikes64fleetside]

hey guys, will a rear gas tank out of a 87 chevy van bolt up on my 64 chevy with or without modification? i haven't measured it yet just thought i would ask /

[javanaut]

Originally Posted by mikes64fleetside

hey guys, will a rear gas tank out of a 87 chevy van bolt up on my 64 chevy with or without modification? i haven't measured it yet just thought i would ask /

I don't have an answer for you, but you'd probably be more likely to get a response if you started a new thread with these quesitons instead of adding a comment to this one.