Project 59 GMC 4X4

I found the bearings and I am waiting on the wiper seals. For the time being I'll keep the closed knuckle but if I keep this truck I might trade for some later model stuff.
I did find out why the drag link was hitting the U-bolts. That top block was not designed for my spring. There is really nothing keeping it centered and it walked over to one side. I have some pictures I'll post up later that show what I'm talking about. Anyway I got some 1/2" steel and will make a new plate with a hole to keep it centered on the spring. That will save me from needing to change the steering arm and give me a few inches of wheel travel to boot.

Here are the bearings that came out of the passengers's side steering knuckle. Still waiting on wiper seals for the knuckle.



I know this is not exactly scientific but setting the angle finder on top of the bearing cap you can see the caster is about 2 degrees angled to the front when it should be angled back about 4 degrees on the top. I beleive I know why it is this way. It does have tapered shims under the springs and they are in backwards. I could not see them untill I took one side apart.



After removing the blocks from the top of the springs I transfered the hole pattern to a peice of 1/2" steel I picked up.



Since the cast iron block had no way of centering them selves on the spring the one on the left side had walked over and was colliding with the drag link from the steering box. After what seemed like a marathon session on the band saw I ended up with new upper plates. There will give me some wheel travel and keep themselves centered.





I'll get some picture of them installed later.

Those look nice.
As if I didn't already want a bandsaw...

[cl[P

-Chaz

My bandsaw is an old Kalamazoo cut off saw that can be turned up 90 degrees and used like a band saw. It don't have much depth but works pretty good for small items. I had to make the plate for it but it was pretty easy. I'll try and post a picture of it. To have an actuall band saw would be sweet!

As promised here are a couple photos of the new U-bolts plates. I have to admit removing the nuts from the old U-bolts was quite a challenge. I cut most of the excess from the ends before I started. My impact gun was useless in that endeavour. I also turned the shims around and got the caster headed in the right direction.







Here are the trouble makers I removed. Good to see them gone.



Also here is my band saw. I found out you can put a pillow on the non bussiness end and ride it like a horse for long jobs. LOL!



Next up will be those nasty looking front shock mounts. Later.

Cool stuff, and nice story.

After removing the lower shock mounts with the hot wrench I made a couple new mounts from some 3/8 steel I had lying around. I decided to make them single shear and just re-use the stud mounts it already had hence the 3/8 steel.



One of the problems I'm going to have is that the steering arm will hit the shock in this location and there are is only one other answer but I could not live with the old under the tie rod mounts so I'm back to shortening the steering arm like I had planned earlier.





Another thing is that the drag link was shot on one end and it was a solid piece. A new one is about 100.00 bucks and you still have no way to center the steering wheel which drives me crazy. A friend of mine was cleaning up his scrap iron pile and came up with this tie rod assembly that is from a 1 ton Chevy truck. It has the same size tie rods and is in good shape. I can shorten it a little bit and get my steering wheel centered





It's ugly but it will clean up and I can put new boots on it.



I think I can shorten the steering arm about 1". I have a 7 degree reamer that I can use to create a new tapered hole. I'm going to think this all over
before I do any cutting. It should make it turn a little quicker and tighter which won't hurt. Later

Could you move the shock to mount inside the frame? That would give you room on the steering interference.

Bamamav said:

Could you move the shock to mount inside the frame? That would give you room on the steering interference.

Click to expand...

I looked at that also, it opens up a whole other can of worms plus it puts the shocks quite a ways from the end of the axle. I've already modified the steering arm with good results. I shortened it 1". I'll put pictures up later. Right now I need to find a 3/4-16 die as I am working on the drag link. The stock drag link was too long and worn out. You could not center the steering box or the wheel. It would turn left farther than right. From my preliminary mock up shortening the arm and building a new drag link will correct the turning radius issues and let me put the shock where i want it. That steering box has 5 and 1/2 turns to it. It seems odd when the rack on my 53 only has 2. LOL!

It's been a little while so I thought I would update on the 59. I had camera problems so there will be a few photos missing but I'll give a quick run down of what I have been getting accomplished. After getting the rear brakes done I was able to get the air bled out. Afterwards I replaced some u-joints and took it for a test drive. One thing became obvious it was jumping out of gear in the high range only. So I dropped the transfer case and took a look inside. Without ever having any experience with transfer cases I was able to determine that there was a washer missing on the back end of the input shaft. A quick look at an internet diagram confirmed this. I fabricated a .125 thick washer to test my diagnosis. Sure enough it solved the issue. I'll need to find a hardened washer but for now it will be fine. The nice thing is now that I know what the deal is I can replace that washer without dropping the case.

Here is a picture of the new tail pipe along with a muffler I scored for 10 bucks I made the tail pipe from some bends I picked up at Oh reallys (pun intended) and a piece of 2.5" I bought and had a couple bends put in. Turned out pretty good I thought and only cost me about 60 bucks and some time.

I set the bed on so I could see about where the tail pipe should land. Check that nifty stainless tip that I took off the muffler that I reconfigured! I just had to lose that annoying stack it used to have on it. It sounds great now with just a slight growl.

Here is a shot of the truck to give you an idea of how it will look with the bed on it.

Although it's really hard to see in this picture the frame is bent at the middle point between the rear leaf springs. I know this because i talked to some of the previous owners and found out a local farmer had installed a hay bale spike on the truck with out the bed. A round bale is about 2000 lbs and all the weight was centered right there without being spread out. One good bump and it tweaked the frame. I have a plan to fix this issue and I'll share it with you next time.

Thanks for looking!

That's a good looking truck! Keep up the good work

What he /\ said. I dig the vintage 4x4 look.

The early 4x4 conversions are stupid expensive.

Looking good!

That's a good lookin ole truck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So after setting the bed on and discovering how bent the rear frame horns were I came up with a plan to straighten them. The 1st thing I had to determine was how much they needed to move. I strung a string line down the side of the cab at the apex then I put a mark on the bed at the rear. The right side was about 1" and the left was almost 2".



I placed 2 heavy duty Jack stands just in front of the axle and made sure it was level then I removed the rear wheels. I also put a level at the rear and took some measurements to the floor for reference.



I then enlisted the help of my Son-in-law and his Skid steer loader. Starting on the left side I placed a block under the bucket and applied some weight from the Bobcat. Using the torch I was able to get the frame to move down 1 3/4". I then reversed the procedure to the right side and moved it 1 1/4". This gave me a nice level reading at the back.



The next step will be to set the bed back on and check the results. Once I'm satisfied I'll add some boxing plates to the affected area to help keep things in place. Thanks for looking!

Improvise adapt and over come [cl

Great work.

That looks good to me. I'm pretty sure that's how Jay Leno does it too.