Well, I feel like a squirrel in the road...right, left, no go back. I guess at this point I will install OEM bearings because I have them already and will leave the tapered bearings alone. Somewhere I read (Brothers trucks site?) about the increased side loads that modern speeds create and the excessive wear on older ball bearings. Since I'm doing the pumpkin swap and 302 to allow for speeds of 65 or so I thought the weak point might be the bearings. Maybe not so much. Anyway, there are so many simultaneous tasks to address that I'd be happy to scratch the bearing mod off the list if not really a substantiated problem.
Thanks to everyone for the input and to Hotrod Lincoln for the offer to make the bushings for the tapered bearings.
On a related note and with that camper in mind, do I stay with the original single action lever shocks or retrofit modern shocks? So far I've been unable to find replacement lever action
shocks.
