Old Iron shop truck

[Mark Brown]

No wonder you were surprised when I drove my POS up there!! I didn't realise you took from non-running to fully functional!!

[J.J.]

Originally Posted by lev1a

Hmmmm. JJ didn't you say you had a nice bed.

Bed, what bed??

Originally Posted by Mitch Neal

I want the bed floor, if you get him to part with it!

Well, I do accept cash offers, you know, "fun coupons redeemable everywhere"

Originally Posted by Mitch Neal

From reading about it, this company will do that for a few hundred, and let you know what your truck/car will look like with the modifications you are wanting to do.

Does that price tag come with dinner?

Originally Posted by lev1a

Since we are on the subject of the shop truck. Here is a shot of it in action pulling Mule duty offloading the latest project. The front cross member of the Scout sat perfectly on the rear bumper and didn't hit the tailgate. Was a little worried about getting this one off as it has no brakes or steering.

We used to move vehichles around like this with a piece of stout chain inside a steel pipe, worked great.

JJ in TN

[lev1a]

The rig has just received some love. The timing cover was leaking like crazy so that was addressed, as well as a new 2210 carb that I frankenstiened together out of a couple I had laying around all was good. Until the last parts haul to Lebanon which is a bout an hour and a half away I noticed something just didn't feel right. Really shaky ride and very lazy steering. Upon return I inspected things to find the steering box cradle was about to fall off , and this.





Yup, broke front main leaf. Kind of scary to think I was just running 70 down the interstate. So this led me to a decision. Replace the bad leaf with a used factory pack , or go ahead and lift the pig like I have been wanting to. Lift it was decidedly going to be the repair. It seems that the later chevy springs seem to be the norm, but since this was a 74-75 chassis there was no 2wd shackle location on the frame to use to compensate for the longer spring. A problem that could be solved if need be, but with some research I found that the 68-72 chevy front springs were just 2" longer than factory and I felt that they could work with the use of a slightly longer shackle. So I ordered up a set of 4" 68-72 chevy front lift springs.



And so it began.



Here are the springs bolted up to see what needed to happen.



First thing I noticed was the front spring hangers need to be wider if I was going to use poly bushings in the springs. My solution was to unbolt the inside spring hanger plate{which were already loose} , weld up the old holes, move them inboard a tad, redrill new holes, bolt them back down and weld the hanger into place. Now this really isn't a perfect solution because technically without moving the outer frame plate out abit the springs are actually bolted in like / \. I figured they are running roughly an 1/8 of an inch closer in the front than the rear so not a huge amount to worry about , but I was trying to keep this as simple as possible so I went with it. I also redrilled the front hangers to use 9/16 hardware.



Now the rear of the spring was pretty straight forward. I installed the supplied bushings with the springs , but added a different sleeve. The supplied sleeve is for a 7/16 inch bolt but we wanted half inch hardware. Also the bushings had a huge shoulder so they were trimmed down to 1/8".



Here are the poly bushings that can be used to replace the frame shackle hanger rubber units.



The shackles I used were a set of my standard HD 3/8" plate with 5" eye to eye length. I also used the factory offset spacer.



The draglink had already been replaced with a DOM unit with some hiems, but they were lacking safety washers. So after the lift I had to place a slight bend in the bar, and added some safety washers so if the hiems ever let go they cant fall off the bolt.



So after everything was torqued I backed it out to check out its new look. May just leave it like this......... not. The plan was to do the front and adjust the rear to match as I wasn't sure how much lift I was going to get. It ended up with about 3" of lift. I am going to just block up the rear to match for now but later down the road some heavier lift springs will be added . Also on the list is a new set of treadwright 315/70r/17 guard dogs.

[jeff campbell]

was it like that then when you bought it? an that PO never told you?jeff

[lev1a]

No Jeff. Zach the po had actually done alot of things to help this truck. When Zach got the truck it had four inch lift blocks in the front. I guess that stressed the springs and one finally let go.

[Jeff Jamison]

Those hemis you have on the front are not legal to run on the road in Pa,you might want to check in your state.
Jeff

[lev1a]

Yeah well technically it is illegal in Tn to modify the stock steering setup period. The laws even state a minimum diameter for steering wheels, but the rod ends are 7/8 shank with a 3/4 bore and have a radial load rating of somewhere around 45,000 lbs. With the addition of the safety washer I am more than comfortable running them regardless of laws.

[jeff campbell]

lev1a,aren't you the 1 that wrote the story about getting this truck,then you had to give the guy a ride?jeff

[lev1a]

No Jeff. That is the guy I got it from you are thinking of. He also owns the Terra we just pieced back together.

[jeff campbell]

oh , ok then thx. good luck w/your truck! looks good.jeff