69 gmc dually soon to be 12valve

[72chevycamshaft]

Starting the build....swapped out the old eaton ho52 with a dana 60 front. Found a guy the had the military front end and rear. That made life awesome....the leaf springs are shot on the rear on this truck......I'm toying w keeping the air compressor on the motor (motor is out of a commercial truck). Anybody have suggestions for air ride for this project? Ive seen a few posts with guys on here going that route. The truck had and eby flat bed on it and I'm still undecided if I'm going to keep it. I'm planning on using this truck when I'm done. I haven't put new pair of springs order a one ton in years....I can only guess with what that cost will be.

[Vintage Windmills]

Sounds like a good project! You could keep the leafs and put on assist bags like Air Lift. I have Air lift bags on the rear of my 12 valve K30 truck.

Oh, and we needs pics!!

[Dieselwrencher]

If you want to ditch the leaf springs all together, I'd go with a 4 link with a pan hard bar. You say you ditched the Eaton for a D60 front? Are you going for a buggy or truggy out come?

[72chevycamshaft]

Little confused with the Truggy comment. The eaton front has drum brakes and is the old jeep style axle. Don't know the correct name for it. The steering linkage was also problematic for the cummins swap. The steering linkage just cleared the pan of the 350 that was originally in the truck.

[Dieselwrencher]

Originally Posted by 72chevycamshaft

Starting the build....swapped out the old eaton ho52 with a dana 60 front. Found a guy the had the military front end and rear. That made life awesome....the leaf springs are shot on the rear on this truck......I'm toying w keeping the air compressor on the motor (motor is out of a commercial truck). Anybody have suggestions for air ride for this project? Ive seen a few posts with guys on here going that route. The truck had and eby flat bed on it and I'm still undecided if I'm going to keep it. I'm planning on using this truck when I'm done. I haven't put new pair of springs order a one ton in years....I can only guess with what that cost will be.

The part in bold is what I was commenting about. An HO52 is a rear end. You said you swapped the HO52 with a dana 60 front. Then you say you found a guy with a military front and rear end. By military front end, do you mean chevy D60 and 14 bolt? Just trying to see what you have going on is all. Sounds like a cool build.

[Dieselwrencher]

Originally Posted by 72chevycamshaft

Little confused with the Truggy comment. The eaton front has drum brakes and is the old jeep style axle. Don't know the correct name for it. The steering linkage was also problematic for the cummins swap. The steering linkage just cleared the pan of the 350 that was originally in the truck.

I think I see where I was confused now. You said in this post the eaton front. Unless your truck was a napco conversion, it had a D44 with closed knuckles and drum brakes. When I read your original post, I read it as you were using a D60 front in the rear. The only reasoning I came up with was a truggy. Haha Any way, carry on.

[72chevycamshaft]

My bad....took me awhile to figure out what types of axles I had under the 69. I assumed that they would both be the same with the eatons. If it's not and ho52 for the front than would could it be? From the pics I've seen online with the bolt patterns and shape of the pumpkins they sure look like eatons. This truck originally was a brush truck for a fire company....the whole drive train looks like a conversion. What do you mean napco conversion? Anyways....military d60 for the front and 14bolt locker for the rear. Lol

[Vintage Windmills]

I'm betting this was a Napco or Marmon. Look for badges or labels Napco or MarmonHarrington. You couldn't get a dually 4x4 until 73 from GM. The Napco stuff is worth more than scrap FYI.

[72chevycamshaft]

It has the works....divorced transfer case pto winch to the front.......least it did. Maybe I should have left it together lol! Ill look and see if I can find any tags....I just figured the fd had put it together.

[Dieselwrencher]

Post up some pics and we can help you identify them. Sounds like it very well could be a converted truck.

[72chevycamshaft]

What's the trick to posting pics....do I need to take them from the phone to photobucket? I tried copying and pasting.

[Dieselwrencher]

I usually upload them to photobucket. Then I have to resize them to 640x480. Copy and paste the image code in your message, not the direct link. Photobucket can be a PITA some times though.

[72chevycamshaft]

[72chevycamshaft]

[72chevycamshaft]

There's the front and rears out of the 69 brush truck. I should back up and start at the beginning with this build :-)

[Dieselwrencher]

Well, you're correct, definitely looks like an eaton front. I bet that stuff is worth quite a chunk. I'd bet Jud can tell ya a decent market price on that.

[72chevycamshaft]

Yeah I'd like to know.....i stopped keeping track of expenses.... :-) I'll start putting pics up from when I started.

[72MARIO]

NAPCO ! That's a really rare conversion. The steering linkage would have been the 2 wd center link. As cool of a truck as they are the truck your builing will be much more practial. I was looking at doing the same thing to a 67 C30 but decided to just convert a longhorn frame to a Cummins. I can't wait to see your build progress

[72chevycamshaft]

[72chevycamshaft]

This is the day I drove the brush truck home.

[6BT 56]

That's a cool truck. Sure looks like napco stuff. I hate to see that kind of stuff get taken apart but really it's pointless to build a truck unless you can enjoy driving it . My 56 had all napco parts under it and it was no fun to drive at all. I now have a D60 D 70 combo under mine with the cummins and its like nite and day . Runs good. Stops good power steering and actually is good on fuel as well. Also can get pars anywhere now . I sold my napco front and rear, the trans and the t/c for $ 2500. Keep I mind the only rare parts were the front doff and the t/c. The rest was the normal stock stuff. I like where your,going here will be following along for sure .

[6BT 56]

Is that your farm ? Cool silo in the background. They don't build em like that any more .

[brimc]

Originally Posted by 72chevycamshaft

I should back up and start at the beginning with this build :-)

Please do !
Very interested to see more. Looks great. What's your plan for the drive train swap?

[72chevycamshaft]

Yup one of them. The tile silos are rare I agree.....yeah might have considered not tearing into a napco if I had known. Oh well...still going to move forward. I have a rebuilt nv4500 and tweaked the 241 transfer case to give me a right side drop. That might be a little problematic for my exhaust, but I'm confident I can work my way around it.

[72chevycamshaft]

New cab corners and new inner cowl.