The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop 66 3/4 ton disc brakes?

im new to stovebolt and just got a 66 c20 that was sitting in a barn for a couple years. aside from the smell of mice i love driving it every day. i have a 366 big block i want to stuff in it but was wondering if anybody makes a front disc brake conversion for eight lug or can it be done with later model spindles and such. appreciate any thoughts. p.s. i bought this truck to drive for the winter while i repaint our 86 vette but keep finding myself drawn more to the truck. go figure!

The best thing to do is swap out the whole crossmember w/A-arms & spindles, or just the A-arms & spindles from a 73-87 Chevy C20. I'm doing this to my 66 C20 (A-arms & spindle). It's a toss up on what would be easier. If you swap the whole crossmember, you have to remove or support the engine. I think the crossmember to frame holes have to be enlarged.
Since I'm doing just the A-arms, I just have to enlarge four holes to 9/16" on each side on the crossmember for the lower A-arm. I have the '82 booster/master cyl & brake lines to install. Looks like they should install with no problems.
The GVWR on the '66 is 7900 w/drums & the '82 is 8600 w/disk (heavy duty JB7 or JL7). The truck should stop much better. If you want some pictures, PM me w/ your email.
Scott

that acually sounds pretty easy. im not worried about the weight as its just a driver not a hauler but i do plan on dropping it a bit and replacing the straight six with a big block. i still ant to keep the eight lug so its still a c20. thanks for the info!

a guy i work with has a 71 3/4 ton he is parting out. will the front a arms and spindles off of it work?

Yeah, should be the same. Just make sure all the bushings & balljoints are in good shape or replace them. Get the master & brake lines if you can. The lower A arm on the '82 has two Ubolts that bolt the round bushing bar to the crossmember. My '66 has 4 bolts that bolt a sorta flat bar to the crosmember. I had to drill out one hole on each end of the bar out to 9/16" and the other holes had to be re-drilled about 9/16" closer & out to 9/16". I hope this makes sense. It might be easier to swap out the lower bars if the '71 is round. Especially if you replace bushings. I don't know what the '71 looks like. Maybe you can just swap out spindles?
I didn't check just swapping spindles, because my bushings & balljoints were good & I wanted to mount the swaybar.