Mark Brown
Farmall Cub
No wonder you were surprised when I drove my POS up there!! I didn't realise you took from non-running to fully functional!!
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Old Iron shop truck
- Thread starter oldironoffroad
- Start date
J.J.
Lives in an IH Dealership
Bed, what bed??
Well, I do accept cash offers, you know, "fun coupons redeemable everywhere"
Does that price tag come with dinner?
We used to move vehichles around like this with a piece of stout chain inside a steel pipe, worked great.
JJ in TN
oldironoffroad
High Wheeler
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.
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.
was it like that then when you bought it? an that PO never told you?jeff
oldironoffroad
High Wheeler
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
Lives in an IH Dealership
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
Jeff
oldironoffroad
High Wheeler
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.
lev1a,aren't you the 1 that wrote the story about getting this truck,then you had to give the guy a ride?jeff
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oldironoffroad
High Wheeler
No Jeff. That is the guy I got it from you are thinking of. He also owns the Terra we just pieced back together.
oh , ok then thx. good luck w/your truck! looks good.jeff
oldironoffroad
High Wheeler
Couple more pics of the rig. I decided on an add a leaf for the rear. 2" was about all I needed to level it up and didn't really want to use lift blocks so I thought I would try a chevy add a leaf. I wanted to rebuild the leaf packs and go with new poly bushing , but I really couldn't find any with the proper OD and the correct sleeve. So After searching around I found the bushings that RUFF STUFF sells with their shackle kits were perfect bushing size wise, but the sleeves were for 9/16 bolt. I ended up ordering them anyway and taking the sleeves to the machine shop and having them drill the sleeves out on a lathe VS trying to drill them square in my drill press. With the packs broken down they all got cleaned and painted with EZ slide graphite paint.
The Add a Leaf was added with a new center pin, coat of black paint on the outside of them, the new bushing installed, and bolted back under the truck. Also threw in a set of pro comp 9000 shocks I had laying around bause these ended up being to short after the add a leaf.
While the rig was in it also got a new rear output seal on the transmission. Here it is back outside waiting on the new 315/70r 17 gaurddogs that are on the way.
The Add a Leaf was added with a new center pin, coat of black paint on the outside of them, the new bushing installed, and bolted back under the truck. Also threw in a set of pro comp 9000 shocks I had laying around bause these ended up being to short after the add a leaf.
While the rig was in it also got a new rear output seal on the transmission. Here it is back outside waiting on the new 315/70r 17 gaurddogs that are on the way.
TNSportTop
Farmall Cub
You Need a side by side shot to show the lift. Makes the truck look less tired when you give them a face lift.
oldironoffroad
High Wheeler
I will post up a comparison shot when I get the new rubber on it. They were 3 weeks out on the tires so I should have em in a few more weeks.
oldironoffroad
High Wheeler
Got new meat on the rig!!!
Before
After
Before
After
Had to clean my rims Yo..
And one more just cuz.
Before
After
Before
After
Had to clean my rims Yo..
And one more just cuz.
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Mark Brown
Farmall Cub
Hey, thought you were going with Guarddogs?? Maybe I misunderstood, looks good anyway!!!
oldironoffroad
High Wheeler
Mark these are the Treadwright Guard dogs. They just use the BFG at's for the core for the recaps. Look at the tread pattern in the 6th pic. 
Mark Brown
Farmall Cub
Look like good recap job!!
Monkeyplasm
Farmall Cub
Interested to hear how loud these are on the highway. They also have an AT tread, buit not in that size.
oldironoffroad
High Wheeler
Yeah Mark they are pretty nice and for the price you can't lose...... I don't think .
Toby I have gotten to drive it around town some and there is some noticeable tire noise but nothing bad at all. I actually wanted to go with the AT tread but like you noticed they didnt have them in this size and you know I wanted the biggest tire that would fit
.Toby I have gotten to drive it around town some and there is some noticeable tire noise but nothing bad at all. I actually wanted to go with the AT tread but like you noticed they didnt have them in this size and you know I wanted the biggest tire that would fit