The 65 C30 Farm Truck

[69 C10 LWB]

This weekends fun consisted of bending brake lines. I got a stack of brake lines from Car Quest and got to work. I cut the front brake lines so I could slide a socket on and unbolt them from the wheel cylinders and t fittings. I also removed the line that runs to the rear and moved it to the driver side of the frame. Surprisingly there was only one fitting that I couldnt get loose, the steel line that goes into the rear brake hose. I still need to make a bracket to hold the rear t fitting on the axle and some support for the front lines to keep them away from the headers and make the front brake line that runs to the passenger side.

[jdl71]

Are you doing your own flaring or using sticks with the ends already on? Looks like a little of both in your pic. I just replaced every steel line on mine, bought a 25' roll of 1/4in tubing and a handful of nuts. I'm curious how yours turn out, hopefully better than mine did. Multiple leaks.

[69 C10 LWB]

jdl71 -
I am using sticks but I flared one end of most of them. I got the closest length and then trimmed one end. I noticed a couple of the original ends looked a little off so I hope I don’t have any leaks. I have a cheap flaring tool and I am using Nicop? lines from car quest. It is all they had in stock and it is some kind of nickel copper mix that is somewhat soft. It flares and bends easy so hopefully any imperfections will seal with enough torque. If there are any issues I am going to buy a decent flaring kit off one of the trucks and redo them.

[69 C10 LWB]

I spent a good portion of yesterday trying to bleed the brakes on the truck only to realize I am an idiot. Hopefully someone can tell me where the problem is but I managed to find a good solution. I used a vacuum bleeder to get fluid to all the wheel cylinders but I still had no pedal. The last 3/4 to 1 inch of travel at the pedal would start to do something but not much. I pulled the master back off and plugged it to bench bleed it a second time and it seemed fine. That is when I saw the problem. The pushrod only sticks through the firewall about 1/4 inch. The master I got has about a 1 inch counterbore in the piston. The pushrod wasnt actually touching the piston until the pedal was almost on the floor. There werent enough threads to just adjust the pushrod out so I ran up to the hardware store and bought a coupling nut, a fine thread bolt and a tap. Trying to find a fine thread coupling nut late on a saturday afternoon the weekend before christmas is like trying to find gold. I bought a 3/8 nut and drilled it out and retapped it with the correct 7/16-20 threads for the pushrod. Then I cut the head off a bolt and threaded that into one end. I installed my new pushrod and I now have brakes.

Now for the question. When I did this on my 64 I just installed the new master cylinder. No work other than adding another brake line to the rear.

Is there a difference between the round and the square single master cylinder?
Is there something wrong with the new master cylinder I got? Is the piston supposed to be flush with the end of the bore? 67 C30 master cylinder.

[RDrancher]

Well at least you got it figured out so when it happens to me I'll know what I'm dealing with.

For your 14 bolt swap you may want to consider a swap kit from Barnes, or fab one up like it. The perches and top plates are predrilled for scooting the axle forwards or backwards. Might save you from having to make a new driveshaft for the axle snout difference. https://www.barnes4wd.com/14-Bolt-Ax...mbo_p_127.html

[jdl71]

I can't see a reason why the piston wouldn't be flush with the end of the bore.

[69 C10 LWB]

I have been looking around and it looks like there is a big difference between the round and square master cylinders. I didnt take a pic of the old one after I took it off either truck but I found a few online. Looks like the square master actually extends through the firewall and the round one sits flush.

The piston on my new master cylinder sits flush with the end of the body but it has a hole bored in the piston and the pushrod sits inside the piston about 1 in.

The difference in pushrod length was only about 1/2-3/4 in even though it looks longer with the extension I made. Most of the extension is threaded onto the old pushrod.

[Captainfab]

All of the '67-'70 truck master cylinders have the deep bore in the back of the piston. They are also designed to be used on a drum/drum braking system.

[69 C10 LWB]

Thanks for the reply captainfab. Is there a difference in the round vs the square master cylinders? When I did this swap on my 64 with the round master I didnt have to do anything other than bolt on the new 67 master cylinder.

[Captainfab]

I have never compared the two masters as far as direct interchangeability. But based on your experience here, they are apparently a little different.

[straight6chevyguy]

Cool truck.
Cool thread.

[69 C10 LWB]

Decided today was a good day to get the old rear brake line pulled off the frame. I ran the new line down the driver side frame rail since it doesnt split off the front line anymore. The old lines were pretty rusty but surprisingly they still held pressure. I finished cleaning the oil out of the valve covers today. I started scraping the oil out, then let them sit with some degreaser on the oil. Whatever engine they were on before obviously wasnt very well maintained. I filled a 5 gal bucket with hot water and dish soap (because my wife would have killed me for using the tub or the kitchen sink) and scrubbed them with a scotch brite pad. After about an hour of scrubbing this is the result. Now I just need to finish cleaning out between the fins and I think Im going to paint them chevy orange and leave the fins bare aluminum.

[69 C10 LWB]

I was finally able to make some progress on the truck today. With temps in the 60s yesterday and almost 70 today I had to spend some time out in the garage. I spent most of yesterday at the local junkyards searching for some dually rims. I walked the 3 biggest yards looking for some usable rims only to come up empty. I found a couple trucks that would have been good candidates but every one of them had rims that were dented or rusted. I did snag the retainer rings I will need and most of the lug nuts to convert to 9/16. I also put the final coat of paint on my valve covers.

I spent today trying to get the front tires off. The right front goes flat every couple hours so I wanted to swap it out with one of the spare tires I had. Should be easy right? Wrong!!! I had to pull the drums off with the wheels. The driver side came off pretty easy with a few well placed blows from a BFH and lots of penetrating oil. The passenger side was a different story. I beat the $h!t out of the hub and it didnt budge. I ended up cutting the rim in half so I could get it off. I need to order new bearings and seals but atleast for now I know the tires will come off when I get my non split replacement rims.

[straight6chevyguy]

Those valve covers look great!

[69 C10 LWB]

Thanks. They don’t look quite as good in person, they are kinda beat up. I cleaned them up best I could but there is still a little pitting I couldn’t get rid of. This isn’t going to be a factory resto just a fun toy so that’s good enough for me. I’ve got about $45 in them now so I’m happy with the results.

[jdl71]

Originally Posted by straight6chevyguy

those valve covers look great!

x2!

[69 C10 LWB]

1 step forward and 2 or 3 or maybe even 4 back. It started out as a good weekend. I found a set of tires and rims for pretty cheap. They are all chevy steel rims with decent rubber. I mounted up one front tire and everything was good. Tried to mount the rear tires and ran into an unexpected problem. Ive been reading up on rims for weeks trying to make sure I find the best ones for what I am doing. The most common thing I found was to check center bore of the rims. The offset with the single rear wheel hubs on my axle will make the truck 4 inches wider but that doesnt bother me. The problem I never saw any mention of was the fact that dually rims wont seat on single wheel hubs. There is a raised ledge at the flange that is just slightly bigger. Now I need to pull the axles and drums and split the drum from the hub so I can get the hub turned down about .08 in. No big deal, my boss has a lathe, just some extra work.

I decided to install my valve covers so I could say I accomplished something this weekend. Problem number 2. Turns out the breather is too far back on the passenger side and it hits the firewall, so I need to mount it in the oil fill hole in the front and plug the rear hole.

Working on some equipment today and found out that the welder we use it work is out of town for a month or so. Weather and scheduling have prevented any welding to the spring perches so looks like I will have to find a way to bring a service truck home so I can finally get the axle mounted up.

[LT7A]

Cool truck. Good project and nice valve covers.

I've only had Squarebodies and newer trucks. I knew you guys deal with something called split rims but I never imagined...

[69 C10 LWB]

I got the hubs off the rear end last weekend. I hope to turn them down .007 so the dually rims will fit this weekend. Dad said hes never had to replace the rear drums so that means the last time the rear end was this far apart was Nov or Dec of 1972.

[69 C10 LWB]

I took the day off so I could take my dog to the vet (she’s fine, just yearly shots) and was pleasantly surprised to find out a welder friend was free and would be able to come by and weld the perches on my axle finally. I’ve got the driver side hub turned down to fit the rim and just finished pulling the passenger side off. I’ve got a new found excitement, I may actually get to drive this thing this year!!

[straight6chevyguy]

Good going!

[69 C10 LWB]

Got my rear axle reassembled today. All new bearings and seals in the hubs since I tore them down to machine them. Found a fun shortcut for the seals, I didn’t have a seal driver but I discovered a piston out of a Kubota V3800 is the same diameter and works great.

[69 C10 LWB]

It took almost 4 months, but she finally moved under her own power again today. The axle is in, the u bolts are torqued, and the brakes work! Now time for new front wheel studs and license and insurance. Has anyone drilled out the front hubs for 9/16 studs? I found a few threads where people talk about it but I never found one where someone actually did it. I keep finding conflicting advice on whether or not I can drill or if I need to use a reamer.

[350TacoZilla]

I drilled out a older D44 to take larger stud's, not exact same project but same idea. I left 2 studs in per hub and bolted a wheel to them then used wheel as guide to drill the other 4 holes, put new studs in and drove old out then bolted wheel back on and drilled out last 2.


Congrats on getting it together man! Can't wait to see some pics of it on rd.

[69 C10 LWB]

Originally Posted by 350TacoZilla

I drilled out a older D44 to take larger stud's, not exact same project but same idea. I left 2 studs in per hub and bolted a wheel to them then used wheel as guide to drill the other 4 holes, put new studs in and drove old out then bolted wheel back on and drilled out last 2.


Congrats on getting it together man! Can't wait to see some pics of it on rd.

How did you drill the holes out, hand drill or drill press? Did you use a drill bit or a reamer?