The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Best way to remove cab

I am a new member and have a 1965 GMC 4 on the floor on the floor v6 engine long bed I have removed the dog house, motor which I will take to machine shop to see if they can rebuild it Hope I can still get parts for the motor as I would like to keep it in the truck any suggestion on best way to remove cab do I have to take the entire steering colum out I do not have many heavy shop tools I used my tractor and boom that I used to remove the motor and dog house

I have a 59 apache, this is how I removed the cab.Removed steering wheel from column, steering box and column from the frame and out from under the truck. All wires and other misc. things connnected to frame, Used a floor jack and some 8ft. long 4x4's with some cinder blocks ( building blocks) for suport. Jacked the cab up, slid the 4x4's under the cab, making sure that the cinder blocks are outside of the wheels, and then rolled the chassis out from under the cab. Sounds simple, it is , just be carefull and work slowly.

There are many methods. Another method includes friends and a few beers. Remove 4 cab bolts. Disconnect steering at the rag joint. Four or five guys to lift cab. Make sure 1 friend is available to steady the lift. In my case, we also lifted and rolled chassis out from under-neigh. It is nice to craft a dolly to mount cab on. We made quick work of it and then enjoyed the beer.

Best is a cherry picker engine hoist, with an attachment made from 2x6's or 2x4s. With the box off you could probably leave the steer column in, but easier with it out. Lift at the door sills, with doors off.

Hambone you say remove at steering wheel at rag joint is that just before the steering joint mine is total rusty it looks like it is two round plates with two pins through it does it come apart there can I use a chisel to try to separate the two plates
Thsnks for your help Bob May

I will have to look again to see where i detached colunm. In my case it was not complicated.III

I used a skid steer with a large strap through the doors.

Last time I took the cab off my '63, I was replacing a bent frame.

I pulled the bed, then put the truck into the garage and yanked the front clip so the only thing on the frame was the cab.

Next I disconnected the steering at the rag joint, pulled the plugs from the firewall, and made sure all the wiring was disconnected from any clips attached to the cab and disconnected the shift linkage and speedometer cable. Also make certain you have disconnected the fuel lines so they don't hang you up.

Now for the fun part. Remove the 4 cab bolts. Jack the entire frame/cab assembly up. Build an A-Frame through the open windows, pull the tires and wheels, and put empty rims (no tires) on the truck. Lower the frame down onto the rims and roll out from under the cab.

In my case, I pulled the engine/tranny as an assembly, moved to the "new" frame. Same thing with the rear axle. Since I got a frame with the front and rear suspension intact, it was easy to put the rims on the new frame and roll it back up under the cab and reverse the process to reassemble the truck.

I hope this helps you.

Well I think I have everything ready to lift the cab off the frame maybe next week I did get the steering colmum lose so with a little luck and a few beers I will be ok then onto the bed removable then the frame will be sandblasted and painted

The only thing I'll add is that because I was working alone and even stripped my cab is fairly unwieldy I set some 4x4 posts in to support the rafters in my garage and then wrapped rope through the open doors and around a couple of the rafters.

I used my engine hoist to raise the cab. Every few inches I would take up the slack in the ropes so if anything shifted it would help keep the cab secure - or at least give me a few extra seconds to get out of the way ;')

It worked so well I used the ropes to suspend the cab from the rafters while I welded brackets onto the frame (hoist still raised).