The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk 65 front suspension

My 65 C-10 has been upgraded to disc brakes and power steering by a previous owner. My problem is I can't tell where the later model parts end, and the original parts begin. My front crossmember has three bolts holding it to the frame on each side, and the steering box fits to the original steering shaft without modifications. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Does it look like he swapped out the entire crossmember? That is the easy swap.

3 bolts?? It should have about 14 IIRC. Brian

I think the whole crossmember was swapped, i can't really tell though, because I've never seen what one looks like originally, and the lack of a sway bar threw me off too.

Eric, it can be swapped over to discs by swapping crossmembers or just the A-arms/spindles/rotors can be swapped . Does it drive OK? Brian

Right now its stripped down to a bare frame, because I'm doing a total resto, if memeory serves me correctly, it rode and drove pretty good, but it is in need of new bushings and other parts, and in other areas, the PO's work wasn't too sporty (rear end with no mounting brackets, just welded to the U-bolts, and ugly welds at that) and I need to know what to buy parts for.. I'll post some pics tomorrow so ya'll can see what I'm dealing with. Thanks so much for your help, I really appreciate it.

When i built my truck i used a complete front end out of a 1986 chevrolet pickup.

I put parts of a 84 in mine. Swapped out the spindles, ball joints and tie rods. Everything else is 65. My truck doesn't have a swaybar from the factory.

I have an 80 model truck that I am going to use the rearend from. Would it be best to go ahead and use the whole front suspension as well? This way I would know exactly what I have under there and would know exactly what to get parts for

Use 'em if ya got 'em Eric. That would keep it simple & easy to remember. If you want the swaybar, its real easy to add on. Just a matter of drilling the holes for the bushing clamps. Do you have any pics of your build?

Right now its completely disassembled. I had taken a couple dozen photos of my tear down, but a week later my computer crashed and I lost them all. I'm going to take a bunch more so I can see how my everything looks before and after.