My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU

[aerotruk63]

Are you going to get rid of a few leafs for a better ride?

[jonzcustomshop]

Originally Posted by Bomp

With moving the springs back and up will it drop the rear or will that matter? Great Build

I think it dropped the rear a few inches .I am going to do a "flip kit" and I have a C notch to put on, so that should get the back way down... my only worry now is that it might be lower in the back than the front..

Originally Posted by aerotruk63

Are you going to get rid of a few leafs for a better ride?

for now I am going to leave it, but I bet I will in the future. we'll see how bad it is first.

as of now the bottom of the spring hangs 1/2 inch below the frame rail, and with measuring the bottom of the spring pack is about 1 1/2 inches above the bottom of the backing plate... that puts the bottom of the backing plate 2 inches below the frame rail as of now. so I will be real curious to see where it actually sits when I put it all back together...

[jonzcustomshop]

more frame shots of yesterdays work:
today I got those brackets cut off the back, fitted the front cross member, and cleaned up the bottom of the frame.

[CHIZZLER]

Looking good.

[piratexpress1369a]

wow what a massive job ..i like what i see going on here ..stay at it

[jonzcustomshop]

got the frame painted today,- the bottom 1/2 I'll have to flip it and get the top still.
I also pulled the rear cab mounts off, they were the vulcanized rubber style, I will be switching to the c/10 style, and moving them 30 inches to the rear to accommodate the crew stretch.
I cut the trailing arm mounts off the rear (quite a job! I need a plasma cutter!, I used a combo of cutoff wheels a sawzall and a grinder...)
the rear is a 65, and the code shows it is a 3:73 posi!
https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=9169a...5CFC6D79%21354

also since I moved the springs back 10 inches I will have to extend the rear of the frame 10 inches, I am tempted to cut the rails just in front of the rear bumper mounts and put the new pieces in between so that I still have have all the factory mounting points.

.

[jonzcustomshop]

alright! up on wheels. I got the front suspension all assembled. I have a 2 inch pancaked cross member, 3 inch dropped springs, and 3 inch dropped spindles. I am a little worried about the spindles, I am running 15's, and the wheel is awfully close to the lower control arm. it does not touch though.

I was wondering if the back was going to be too low, and end up lower than the front, but fortunately as assembled right now the center of the frame rails are level. so I should be able to get just the right amount of rake with the tire size. I assume that the front will come down a bit more with the engine as well.

I have a "monster C notch " left over from an air ride kit that I bought for another project. The bottom of the frame rail is just touching the axle right now. so hopefully I can mount the notch a little farther down, and not lose too much bed space.

how much room do I need between the top of the rear axle and the bottom of the notch?

[66-PMD-GMC]

I leave 3 inches... fully assembled and aired to ride height.

[Dinos63]

man aton of super nice work kat

[jonzcustomshop]

some progress:
the spindles I got were used , and had been drilled out to use with a dropmember and a rack. I was able to get a kit from these guys: http://www.ruffstuffspecialties.com/catalog/34SET.html
and then bought some tube and had my friend josh from runninlowcustoms run them in his lathe and weld them up to the stock inner tie rods.

next was to mount captainfabs power steering bracket 1 inch forward and 2 inches up. he supplies this great template with his kit, and not thinking I measured 1 inch forward and 2 inches up off the template and then drilled some holes-whoops the frame is curved and that was not right!
so after a minute of head scratching I leveled the frame , clamped the pattern on and drew a level line on it,,Then marked and drilled the correct holes... turned out only two go through the frame , the other two are above it.

you can see the correct holes marked they are the hand drawn X with the circle around it.

after I got the box on I was able the see where I needed to chop a 2X11 chunk out of the frame to make room for the steering linkage.

I also needed to trim a tiny bit off the front radiator core support mount to clear the box as well.

*** can any one coach me on this steering box??
it sat out for a while and I think got water in it , I pulled the top off, and drained it, the fluid was thin, but there was no rust on the gears, but now I might have messed up the adjustment nut in the center of the cover (by messed up, I mean just that it is probably not replaced in the same spot that it was...)
any tips would be great, or if needed I have about 4 4X4 73-87 boxes that are still hooked up and complete, if they interchange with the 2wd box..?

[jonzcustomshop]

you can see that 1/2 of the power steering bracket sits above the frame rail.
I stitch welded the bracket to the frame and then added gussets to the portion above the frame.

next I cut and bended some 3/16 steel plate and welded in the notch for the steering linkage.

after that I got started on the "massive C notch" in the rear:
I was originally just going to do a deep pipe notch since there was room to do it, but then I remembered that lakeroadster had done a post on the strength of various notches: http://talk.classicparts.com/showthr...964#post96964/ after reading through his post I decided that the tube type C notch was the way to go.
if I was running a coil spring setup and all the rear of the frame had to do was hold up the box and bumper, then I would have just done the pipe notch, but since the rear of the frame supports the leaf springs I decided to go with the stronger notch.

as of now I have 6 inches of clearance between the rear and the notch, and the notch just goes 3 inches above the frame rail, so I might only lose about 2 inches of box space.

[joe231]

Nice progress Jon!!

The 2wd and 4wd boxes don't interchange

Here is the procedure for the sector shaft adjustment

"GM procedure

Disconnect the pitman arm from the sector shaft, completely back off the sector shaft adjusting screw on the sector shaft cover.

Center steering on the "high point" then attach an inch lb torque wrench to the steering wheel shaft, the torque required to keep the shaft moving for one complete turn should be 1/2 - 2 in lbs.

If the torque is not within these limits, loosen the thrust bearing locknut or tighten valve sleeve adjuster plug to bring the preload within limits.

Tighten the thrust bearing locknut and recheck preload.
Slowly rotate the steering shaft several times, then center the steering on high point.

Now, turn the sector shaft adjusting screw until a steering shaft torque of 3 - 6 in lbs more is required to move the worm through the center point.

Tighten the sector shaft locknut to 35 ft lbs and recheck the sector mesh adjustment.

Total steering gear preload should be 14 in lbs or less.

Install the pitman arm and replace back in vehicle.

NOTE: To try and adjust the sector shaft screw without doing the preceding will DAMAGE the steering gear.
Most of the play is not in the sector shaft adjustment, it is the spool valve area.


Other way:
now comes the tricky part, time to adjust the shaft. I looked at my 4wd shaft to see how far out the stud was from the locking nut, this will get you pretty close. GM states that you should use a torque wrench to find all these measurements but I found it easier to do it by feel. grab the rag joint and turn it lock to lock like you would with the steering wheel. If you do not feel any resistance when your steering is in the middle. Loosen the locking nut and using a allen in the top of the stud turn it a few turns clockwise, tighten back down the lock nut. Turn the rag joint again from lock to lock until you feel it get tight in the middle. Once you feel it get tight back off the stud just a little at a time locking down the lock nut after each adjustment test until you cant feel it get tight anymore. This is when you know you have it adjusted correctly. Make sure all of the bolts are tight and you are ready to go."

[CHIZZLER]

Looking good jon. Should be able to get back at mine once the porterbuilt stuff shows up.

[jonzcustomshop]

thanks, joe, does that non torque wrench method still have the pitman arm removed?

here are a couple pics of the front notch clearance.

and I had an hour today, so I was able to get the insides of the c notch mounted.

[jonzcustomshop]

just about done with the notches, all I have to do now is weld around the perimeter..

[piratexpress1369a]

looking good stay at it

[Lokin4AReason]

nice progress =0)

[66-PMD-GMC]

I guess I'm not paying attention. ..
I thought you were building 2 trucks on this thread... a crew cab and a lowered frame dragger...
After re-reading the last couple pages... I see you're building a crew cab frame dragger... :-)

[jonzcustomshop]

Originally Posted by 66-PMD-GMC

I guess I'm not paying attention. ..
I thought you were building 2 trucks on this thread... a crew cab and a lowered frame dragger...
After re-reading the last couple pages... I see you're building a crew cab frame dragger... :-)

yep, actually just doing one build right now. not the usual 3 at once!


I am hoping the stance turns out like this:


http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...328048&page=11 -post # 253

[jonzcustomshop]

getting behind on pics..
here is the frame mostly done- I still need to extend the rear 10 inches, and drill it out for the 1/2 ton style rear cab mounts.

I decided it would be easier to pull the suspension out, and flip the frame on its side to weld everything up, then I was able to finish up the front notch as well.

thanks joe for that detailed description on how to fix the steering box!
that made me look harder for an easier way!
I did some research (thanks, capt.fab!) , and found out that the 4X4 box (which I have plenty of) is different, but I did have a 3/4 ton 2wd box laying around, and they are the same, so I cleaned it up and installed it instead.
it had something interesting: instead of a cotter pin holding the bolt on the portion that goes through the center link, it has a nut with an indentation in each side that makes it tight on the threads. came off easy , but quite a challenge getting it back on and tight- the stud/ ball joint kept spinning- I was finally able to tighten it by just turning it with a wrench a 1/4 turn at a time!

another question: I will set the 73-87 front sway bar after the cab and motor are back in, but I noticed one of my parts suburbans (an 84 4X4) has a rear sway bar!
it is bolted to the frame and uses some rod like links to connect it to the spring /rear locator plates.
would I be able to use it on this frame? should I?

[Palf70Step]

The frame is looking good. Can't say I have ever seen a swaybar on the rear of a Burb, but I would imagine you can make it work and it should help with the handling I am sure.

[jonzcustomshop]

I got the engine in-
I had to put it in to see if the steering center link would hit on the harmonic balancer- (remember the steering is now 2 inches up and 1 inch forward)
when I put the engine in it did hit.
I was able to space the motor mounts up a 1/2 inch and it now clears.

I think I will make some sort of 1/2 inch tall block, that spaces up the mount, and has a provision for the upper cross member bolt holes.

I used the stock style mounts, mainly because they were what I had, and the rubber part bolted to the motor are brand new. I might still look into a limiting strap for the passenger side just in case.

the mounts bolt to the rear holes of the frame and are slotted on the top, and then on the bottom they have a hole , and the cross member is slotted. since I had moved the cross member forward the new hole would not be able to be a slotted hole, so I just slotted the bottom hole of the mount, and drilled a new hole in the cross member 1 inch back.

the manifolds that came with the engine are 2 1/2 inch manifolds, but the date code looks to be 7-9-90, are they off something new?
I had assumed they were a corvette, or older hi-performance manifold.

[jonzcustomshop]

I also got my grille cut down and mostly done:
here is a separate thread I did about that:
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=677145

[Palf70Step]

I really like how your grill came out. It should be really good looking in the truck.

[YOLO]

Sweet! You always do cool stuff.