Ol John Lee gets a new rear suspension

[Sharps40]

What a great day with bigten (nchuntandfish.com) and his Son on Saturday. I'd posted a trade for help installing a new rear suspension on my 64 C10. bigten offered sportsman to sportsman and I couldn't resist. So, a nice country drive to his shop on Sat AM and 6 hours later (bigten working faster than I could figure out what was going on!) Ol John Lee is riding 2" higher in the rear on new OEM coils and every bushing and bolt has been replaced in the suspension. 16 bolts to get the job done and I'd been previously defeated by 250 ft lb torque rateings and 47 years of rust (only three needed the flame torch and only one needed a bit of heat to release.) So, teh entire job was 2 OEM coils, coil clamps and bolts/washers, truck arm bushings/bolts/nuts/washers, track arm bushings/bolts/nuts/washers, shocks, break cable bolts/nuts/washers, truck arm shackles/nuts/washers and a whole lotta good time!

With the right tools for the job, bigten had the old suspension off in under an hour and was pressing new bushings while I wirebrushed parts for a coat of primer paint. We even put on new shackles for the truck arms since the old ones were worn nearly half way through. Sure am glad to have met this bigten. Took a whole saturday off to help a stranger. As for the ride? Much smoother. Less roll. No squeeks or bangs. Now to get the bed off and replace the rotted wood and spend some time with the wire brush getting the rest of the rear half of the frame into black paint. Although, I think some of the major paint work needs to occur between removing and replacing those 47 year old break lines.

Thanks bigten! Couldn't have done it without you. What a great learning experience, thanks for shareing.

[Sharps40]

A bit of a scuffing noise in the front end. Not sure if its a break shoe or a bearing but figured 47 years old, might as well as open up the front spindles and inspect and repack the bearings. Here's the right front, left front is coming after the paint dries. Bearings and races are fine, shoes are great, just a bit of tip contact between the shoe and drum, no worries and its high time to replace that old greese in the bearings anyway.

Jack it up, pull the wheel, drum and bearings. Make sure you use two points of contact for support with the wheels chocked, break on and in gear, ignition keys secured. 4000 lbs is a heavy truck.



Got some greese on my Motors manual. About time! Got to get a truck manual but wheel bearing adjustments and packing are about the same, just have to make sure ya have the one to eight thousands end play upon retorquing the bearings.




Clean and inspect the spindle shaft. Gauling or straw to black discoloration indicates overheated bearings and imminent failure. Replace the entire spindle unless it looks smooth, silver and like new. This one is fine.



Inspect the inner and outer drum bearing races as well. Same, discoloration and gauling indicates failure. These are in good shape and will be left in place pending an entire front suspension overhaul.



Bearings get cleaned in solvent (I use gasoline) to get out all the old grit and the greese in these was black and stiff as a board. Allow them plenty of time to dry, shake the solvent out or gently blow it out with air but don't spin up dry bearings. These are reasonably good condition, could be left in or replaced. I'll leave em in, they are American bearings, not discolored or falling apart or gauled. No flat spots on any of the rollers.



Now is a good time to clean up the drum. Wire brush is fine to knock off loose paint and rust. Incidentally, the inner diameter is smooth as a babys butt and mikes within specification. I'll reuse the drum, prolly for years yet. Rags keep grit and paint off the bearing races.



A light coat of dark automotive primer. Not looking for Class A restoration quality, just rust prevention.



After repacking the bearings with fresh greese, by hand, greese up the inner bearing race and drop in the bearing. The original seal and greese "Slinger Catcher" is ready for install.


[hr]
Using appropriate sized drivers, PVC pipe section, Socket, etc, gently tap the rear seal back into the drum untill it just bottoms. Don't crush it, don't get it bottomed unevenly. Then the greese slinger catcher is gently tapped into place with a rahide mallet. Again, bottomed evenly and gentle, gentle, don't crush it.



Partially install the drum on spindle and greese the front bearing race lightly. Gobbs of greese just gets slung off. Its needed in the bearing for the most part. Packing bearings by hand is messy and I kinda clean up as I go, lots of old Tshirts are always helpful.



Seat the drum, install the outer bearing, keyed bearing retainer washer and castle nut. Run the nut up by hand. I turn the drum while wrenching the nut up tight but not so tight as to bind the drum, running it in tight and loose several times while spinning the drum. At the final run up I back off the castle nut to the nearest slot and install the cotter pin and the greese cup.



Primer is dry and a coat of black spray paint to top it off. As soon as the paint dries, a dab of greese on the lug bolts, reinstall the wheel and off to the drivers side to inspect and maintain.

[Sharps40]

Heres a chance to see a bit more of bigtens work on Ol John Lee's rear suspension. I got a set of four blackwall tires in the original height/width to mount on the factory rims. Cleaned up the rims....one was too bent to use, and one rim seems to be perforated somewhere, leaking real slow (it leaked with the original tire on it too, so I suspect the rim). So, I have to hit the junk yard for 2 replacement rims to remount some tires but for now....several orders of magnitude easier to steer...very much quieter on the road....bumps no longer hurt and without the equivalant of 8 tires worth of rubber on the road, it should get better mileage. Oh yeah....Ol John Lee now looks much more like he did in 1964 (except the paint ) and the original hub caps, though a bit cracked around the edges, fit tight and seem to stay on well enough. 24 new lug nuts, 4 tires and some more of that wonderful black spray paint later....

Rusty drums, so I wire brushed and painted them up. Can ya see in there good? Thats what Bigten and his boy did for me on a Sat afternoon! Great ride and I appreciate it more with every mile.





Here's the first new rear tire going on with shiny new lug nuts and that spiffy original hub cap. The dents look just right on this truck. I filled em up to 36 psi. Anybody got a reference for the right tire pressure for a 64 C10 with 225-70R15 meats on it?





Gettin ready for the first ride on the right sized wheels and tires.





I sure do love Ol John Lee....got him in and out of the garage, around town all with one hand...no drumming wide tires and no more sore arms trying to steer him in and out. It ain't no NASCAR Rig but it sure rides and handles with better manners with the right size wheels and tire on it. Resting comfortably and ready for AM trip to work.