My trailing arm bushings looked good, great actually, until I pulled them out and discovered that they were full of sand, 50 years old, worn out, and in need of replacement. They may look good, but if they’re original, why not change them out?They need it. Plus, you have a lot of new stuff under there; it bugs me when I have old and new stuff mixed together....
Maybe this is why I’m so good at ripping trucks apart?! 😉
I was all set to replace the trailing arms about 4 years ago. I had new u-bolts made and was scheduled to have a shop replace them while I was working. They quoted about $300 for the labor. I bought trailing arms about 20 years ago from LMC for my other '65 C20, Mean Green. That truck got rolled in May 2005 and I now just have parts from that truck. Anyhow, since LMC at the time, and I just looked and it's still the same, they don't show trailing arms specific to C20 trucks. So I had bought them thinking they'd work, NOPE. After I brought the freshly made u-bolts home I checked them to the hole spacing on the trailing arms, and the holes are narrower than what it is for the HO52 axle, so that tells me the C10 trucks got the Dana axles with smaller diameter tubes. Since then I got married and the truck doesn't get worked on as much as it did previously. I mainly drive it and do preventive maintenance. I do have the trailing arm bushings, but they too, are not specified for C20 according to LMC. I may be SOL for new bushings if they don't work. New bolts would be a plus, though. What material are the trailing arm bolts made from? Stainless steel? Zinc coated steel? They have to be grade 8, at least I assume they would need to be that strong or stronger if they make stronger bolts than grade 8.
