69 C10 swb stepside project 45 ACP

[raggedjim]

Glad you are still at it, it's looking good.

[68 TT]

Thanks, I have done a ton to it but have just been up to my eyeballs with moving twice and four job changes in the past few years that I just haven't been on here in a while.

I took a bunch of pictures a while ago to kind of replace the ones I lost when I had a hard drive failure. I will start putting some of them up soon with some info on what I did along the way.

[68 TT]

I upgraded to the long water pump and aluminum mount bracket serpentine accessory drive system on my 400 small block from the short water pump and V-belt accessory drive so I could more easily run A/C with the parts I had.

I ended up putting the factory A/C cab from my 69 C20 onto the stepside and the heater only cab from the stepside onto the 69 C20 that I am in the process of converting to 4x4. I figured the A/C would be better for the summer vehicle so it made more sense.

As part of the accessory swap I upgraded from the light duty lower output CS-130 alternator to the heavy duty 140-amp CS-144 alternator. The unit I used was from a 1997 Tahoe with the police package. It bolted right on in place of the CS-130 with no changes to the main bracket but needed some mods to the rear steel bracing as the larger alternator didn't align with them and the mount pads were in different places.

Biggest change was that it needs substantially larger wiring to handle the output. I ran 1-gauge power and ground wiring for it back to the battery with an additional ground to the frame.

I also have 000-gauge battery cables and military type battery terminals with 3/8" bolts for cable attachment. The battery tray is reinforced with steel angle and the battery is held down with a secondary steel trap tied to the core support in addition to the stock type base clamp.

[68 TT]

Part of the rebuild of the front suspension on the stepside was the conversion to 5-lug disc brakes. I found some square body 5-lug parts on an early 90's G-series van that were in great shape as well as some square body A-arms and the matching center link.

The square body A-arms were rebuilt with new bushings and ball joints and installed with the larger square body U-bolts after drilling new alignment pin holes as far rearward as would clear for better caster.

Rebuilt brake calipers and braided flex lines were installed along with new wheel bearings and seals.

The square body center link was installed along with the matching larger square body inner & outer tie rods, idler arm and a square body power steering gear box to replace the original manual steering gear box.

I also found a square body 1-1/4" front sway bar so that was also installed with shorter sway bar frame mounts to go with the lower ride height.

[68 TT]

I rebuilt the best set of trailing arms that I had and reinforced the top, back & bottom surfaces with 1/8" steel flat bar. I also reinforced them with a few 1/2" bolts along the center web to help keep them together as I have had a few come apart in the middle.

I have built full tail pipes out the back since these pictures were taken but don't have any new one yet.

I also had to remove the trailing arm mounts and panhard bracket that I had installed years ago as the pinion angle was off too much with the lower than stock ride height. I set the proper pinion angle and installed new trailing arm mounts and reinstalled the panhard bar bracket formerly from a spare Eaton HO52 housing I had sitting around. The rear axle brake line was also relocated out of harms way too as it was OK with the stock ride height with H.D. leaf spring suspension but not with the lower ride height of the trailing arm conversion.

The rear sway bar is from an OBS 1999 Suburban and fits perfectly. The NBS version is far too wide and does not even come close to fitting.

Those exhaust clamps suck and I have V-band clamps to go in their place when I finish weld the tail pipes.

[68 TT]

While I had the rear end out during the trailing arm mount removal and angle correction process I installed some new parts into the OEM Eaton positraction unit that came out of my old 67 Suburban.

I installed a new Strange Engineering solid pinion crush sleeve eliminator designed for a truck 12-bolt to replace the car 12-bolt version I had in there so I could put it back where it belonged in my Camaro 12-bolt. I also replaced the stock 55+ year old positraction preload spring setup with a new Eaton preload spring and plate set. I had previously rebuilt the clutch set with new Eaton factory replacement clutch friction discs and steels and used GM friction modifier.

I also built my own case spreader to ease in the re-installation of the carrier into the housing with proper bearing preload. I set axle backlash with new side gear shims as well.