62 chevy 4x4

[majorsjeffrey]

I have a factory 4x4 1962 chevy. I drove the truck in high school and am finally getting around to doing a restoration on it. I am looking for some new body mounts for it but all i find are for the 2 wheel drives does anyone know if they are interchangable. Also thinking about putting new leaf springs from a 70-80s chevy truck for a taller stance, has anyone done this and if so do you have any advice?

[DirtyLarry]

Originally Posted by majorsjeffrey

I have a factory 4x4 1962 chevy. I drove the truck in high school and am finally getting around to doing a restoration on it. I am looking for some new body mounts for it but all i find are for the 2 wheel drives does anyone know if they are interchangable. Also thinking about putting new leaf springs from a 70-80s chevy truck for a taller stance, has anyone done this and if so do you have any advice?

Welcome to the site buddy!

I don’t see why there would be any difference in body mounts between 2wd and 4wd trucks. I can’t help with the front spring answer but I don’t believe 73-87 springs will fit anything older than 67. You’re in the right place to get your answers though. Somebody with the answer will chime in.

[msgross]

Front springs on anything older than a 69 is tough. I think the spring width is one of the problems... Easier to find a local spring shop to re-arch or make you a set, then add blocks in the rear...

welcome to the board..

[msgross]

Front springs on anything older than a 69 is tough. I think the spring width is one of the problems... Easier to find a local spring shop to re-arch or make you a set, then add blocks in the rear...

welcome to the board..

[argonaut]

majorsjeffrey,
Hopefully I can offer some help and advice here.

Regarding the body mounts, they are the same for 4x2 and 4x4. Some of the 67-72 4x4 trucks actually use different cab mounts than the 2wd trucks, but not the 60-66.

Regarding springs:

Your stock springs are 2.5" wide all around. Fronts are 44" long and rears are 52" long. Later years have varying widths where the bushings are installed, but they all taper down to 2.5" where the axles bolt on. Later years also have varying spring lengths.

Rears: Technically speaking any rear spring from a 4x4 from 60-76ish will fit. They are all 2.5" wide all around and are 52" long. In the mid-late 70s some time they switched to a 56" long spring. Spring pack thicknesses and number of leaves and amount of arch vary from year to year and from 1/2 to 3/4 to 1 ton, so mix and match wisely.

Fronts: No stock front springs will work for you from the later years. Only the aftermarket springs, and only up to 72. 73 and up used a 47" long spring, whereas 72 and down used a 44" long spring.

You are in luck, because all the aftermarket spring suppliers make springs that are 2.5" wide all around, and they use wider bushings to make up the difference. What you want is aftermarket springs from a 69-72. You will have to do some custom fabbing/machining with the bushings to get them to work in your factory spring hangers and shackles. This is most easily accomplished by using poly bushings in my opinion. The 60-66 factory bushings were all bronze bushings with greasable bolts that had hardened bearing surfaces. Bronze is expensive compared to poly if you are going to make custom replacement bushings to fit aftermarket springs.

If you plan on keeping the stock springs, LMC offers replacement factory type bushings. I don't know how good they are. I've gotten some good and some not so good stuff from them before.

All of this info may just confuse you more. Let me know if you want to know more.

[63chevy4x4]

Not all mounts for the 60-66 chevy and gmcs are the same, I have a 61 gmc cab on a 63 chevy 4x4 frame and i had to weld the mounts from the gmc to my chevy frame in the front they were totally diffrent. not sure if its a gmc thing or what?

[argonaut]

No, its probably and early (60-62) vs late (63-66) thing. I forgot that the early cabs have wider mounts.

[b454rat]

If your gonna do fab work to fit the newer style springs, might as well go all the way and move mounts enough to put either 73-up style or rear springs up front. Rear springs up front will give you roughly 4" of lift, depending on the springs, and will ride better than it did factory, and probly any other springed truck. All that is required is to move the mounts, front mounts need to go forward, and the rear needs to go back, towards the rear of the truck. For the rear springs, use 88-up 63" long springs. These trucks are everywhere in junkyards, so getting a good set shouldn't be hard.

I had a 62 burban that was factory 4wd, and thought about doing this. But at the time I wasn't make great money and couldn't afford to do anything to it other than look at it.

[63chevy4x4]

Originally Posted by argonaut

No, its probably and early (60-62) vs late (63-66) thing. I forgot that the early cabs have wider mounts.

Thanks! I had wonderd what the deal was but had never asked!

[ChevyFreak60]

I'm having the same issues with my 65.. I would love to lift it a lil bit higher and a better ride. Are the 67-72 springs a good idea?

[vectorit]

Check out Deaver Spring to see if they can help, they will make spring packs to your specifications.

www.deaverspring.com

The 2.5" and 3" wide statement is correct, though what is done to compensate for this is a collared urethane bushing with a steel insert is used.

I spoke with them recently about this, and they can work with you on the details.

[RANDY COX]

where are your pics.me needs pics.Thanks,we Likes pixs......

[61K10]

if i raised my 61 4" more i would need a ladder to get in it. sits high with the stock 6 leaf setup.

[ChevyFreak60]

Your 61 looks a bit higher than my 65.

[chivy]

I bought my set of poly body mounts for my 62 4x4 from Classic Parts for like 60 bucks. My new cab isn't quite ready to go on the frame yet but I've just set them in place on my old cab that's still on the truck and they look like the will work just fine. The only thing is you will need to buy longer bolts to work for the 60-62 mounts. http://www.classicparts.com/

For the springs, the 73-87 springs should work for the back but not on the front. My 62 springs are 2.5" wide but taper down to 2" at the eyes/mounts. The 73-87 springs are 2.5" all the way around. If you want to run the 73-87 springs in the front you will have to either buy or make a new set of hangers and shackles/hangers. My plan is to build new front hangers and shackles for the front and replace the stock 44" springs with the stock 52"s that are in the back. For the back I plan on doing a shackle flip and using 56" springs from the back of an 80s 2wd. I'm hoping that this will give me somewhere around 4-6 inches of lift and should ride better than just getting the springs re-arched. But I've only seen this done on the 73-87 trucks so I don't know for sure. Here is a couple of links to some info that might help you out.
http://littlekeylime.com/MrN/mrnimages/leaf_springs.png
http://www.generalspringkc.com/default.asp

Hope this helps!

['63GENIII]

Good advice here on the longer spring swaps. I've been wanting to do that for years. Just seems like a little trial and error to get the right spring rate-ride height combo.