It's my turn, 47 S10 build

[Cautrell05]

Originally Posted by Modsqaud69

Great work! Wish I had some of your skills. Would the rack work with the widened frame and stock s10 spindles. I know that's not what you're after but very curious about it.

Thanks.
The touring radius would still suffer. If i was going to do it again i probably wouldn't use a rack. The make faster ratio steering boxes that would bolt right in. That plus a better idler arm would be a lot less work. I'm pretty sure the wider frame would clear the stock 47 radiator. Maybe trim the mount a little.

Also, i would maybe only go 3 inches on the frame. At 4 inches it gets tight around the F-body swaybar. It clears but there not much extra room.

[Modsqaud69]

So only go 3 inches wider, better idler arm, quick ratio steering box and a g body center link? Thanks Cautrell05. I know spacers now aren't what they were 20-30 years ago but the thought of using them still bothers me. You've had some great ideas on this build.

[Cautrell05]

Originally Posted by Modsqaud69

So only go 3 inches wider, better idler arm, quick ratio steering box and a g body center link? Thanks Cautrell05. I know spacers now aren't what they were 20-30 years ago but the thought of using them still bothers me. You've had some great ideas on this build.

Thanks for the compliments. I appreciate it.

Sounds like a good start. As for center Link, it might be a toss up between narrowed G-body, narrowed F-body, or widened S10. If you can lower the inner tierods about 5/8-3/4" it will help with the bump steer.

For spindles there was a couple years that the 2wd blazers used a bolt in wheel bearing and the larger 2 piston calipers. That's a big upgrade from the stock stuff without having to buy high end stuff.

[Cautrell05]

Next up was the lower ball joint mount. Shop doesn't have a 10 degree reamer and I'm too cheap to buy one for one job so i used the lathe. Cut the 1x3 for both lowers, squared then up on the mill so that they were both identical and drilled a half inch hole where i wanted the hole. Piece of redibolt through the hole with a grommet around it centered a piece of 1 1/4" pipe which which was then tack welded on. Redibolt was removed and the pipe was then chucked in the lathe. Kept the speed low enough so the balance didn't affect it and used the compound slide set at about 4 1/2 degrees and slowly worked it in rechecking several times to verify fit.

I didn't want to just butt weld the lower mount to the back plate so i cut it so that the ear would go partially through it. Clamped the ear in the vice at a 7 degree angle and cut the top 3/8" so it was vertical. The end result was they would key in and hold together on its own. Made lining up for welding easier.

[Cautrell05]

I didn't get too many pictures of getting the top sections cut out but what I did was take a section of pipe with the ends squared and a washer welded on either end to keep it centered over a piece of half inch ready bolt. Tack welded the lower ear to the main plate so it wouldn't go anywhere and then bolted that together with the upper ball joint ear. That kept my kingpin angle locked in at 7 degrees and in line with the lower ear.

The upper ball joint ear was cut from a piece of 2-in round stock and then offset drilled in the lathe to cut the taper. From there I measured everything out and drew it up on graph paper so I can figure what I needed for angles for the short section up top. I knew I wanted it keyed in like the lower. Once I knew what angle I needed it was a semi sorta simple job of cutting out most of the material with a smaller bit and then Going in with a 2-in end mill bit that we happen to have and cutting the rest of the pocket.
I left the pipe bolted in between the upper and lowers through the whole welding heating and cooling process to try and keep everything where it was. It came out without any need to wail on it with a hammer and the hub still bolts in so I think I'm good.

[Cautrell05]

They might not be the rainbows and unicorns you see on Instagram but i feel pretty good about how they turned out. Definitely made for a long afternoon of welding.

[dsraven]

maybe check with the local colleges etc for some courses on this stuff....
kidding, you do very nice work. i wih i had a few tools like that at my disposal.

[Cautrell05]

Added a brace going out to the tie rod end and started putting together the caliper brackets. They originally came from ballistic fabrication but after seeing how much i had to cut them to work i would have been money ahead to make then myself.

[dsraven]

yup,, nothing like just doing what you need to do and getting it done. not remaking somebody else's stuff.
nice work man! keep posting up your pics, awesome work.

[Cautrell05]

Thanks. I'm happy with how it's turning out. Just wish it would go faster lol

[Modsqaud69]

Wow! Just wow! Just make your own spindles. Great work. Rob

[Cautrell05]

Originally Posted by Modsqaud69

Wow! Just wow! Just make your own spindles. Great work. Rob

Thanks.
Fabricator syndrome is real lol. I've got access to the tools and way more time than money. Plus it's semi therapeutic.

[Modsqaud69]

Believe me I understand "more time than money". That's why I've built 5 Harleys from parts I've acquired. Keep up the great work and pictures. Rob

[Cautrell05]

I'm really hoping to get some miles on it this summer but with what all i want to get done and how long it takes for me to get stuff done it might be next year.

[dsraven]

I get the fabricator's syndrome thing. my wife says I spend more time building tools to work on stuff than I spend actually working on stuff. haha
great woek, keep posting up those pics. love it.

[Cautrell05]

Originally Posted by dsraven

I get the fabricator's syndrome thing. my wife says I spend more time building tools to work on stuff than I spend actually working on stuff. haha
great woek, keep posting up those pics. love it.

I've built many tools that are getting used on this. Lot cheaper that way.
The nine inch fixture is a blessing and i made the tubing bender just for ac hard lines. There's a few more but those were the easiest to find pictures of

[Cautrell05]

Caliper brackets are done. Visually they're not as impressive as a knuckles but functionally they will work. Everything bolts up and clears and I'm very happy with the turning radius now. Before I had about 26° on the inside tire, driver side in the pictures. Passenger side has the new knuckle and I've got about 38° at full travel on the rack with about 3/4 of an inch to an inch clearance between the tire and the frame. I did end up having to run wheel spacers which I wasn't real excited about. I knew that I would lose about 3/4 of an inch of width from the ball joint center line to the hub face and the original idea was to extend the control arms and then that would move my pivot point farther in on the tire and reduce the scrub radius. But my inexperience showed up and reminded me that drop spindles and 15-in wheels do not always work well and the outer tie rod was directly in the way. Originally ordered 1.25" spacers and that still wasn't enough. Another half inch on top of that gave me just enough clearance so it just settled with 2-in spacers.

[Modsqaud69]

You do great work! Really sucks, with the frame mods and still have to run spacers. I just bought a 98 zq8 s10 frame, quick ratio steering, large sway bar front, rear sway bar, and factory lowered springs, so I'm just going to run spacers front and back. Rob

[6DoF]

are those the final wheels or can you just get something with 2" less backspacing now?

huge props fabbin the whole knuckle like that.