Square body idler arm placement on 65

[bigmoe]

I bought a complete square body crossmember and it's steering linkages for my 65. Does anyone have measurements to locate the idler arm attachment to the frame? If not I suppose I could go to the local wreckers to measure one.

[Chevy Fleetside]

You need to mount the steering box first. After you do that the idler arm will be easier to place.
You might have a problem with the truck turning left more then right. You will have to line up the pitman arm with the steering box and adjust tie rod ends. The left might have to be trimmed about an inch. You will know if this needs to be done when you install everything.

[bigmoe]

Thanks CF. That’s good to know. I’ve got the steering box adapter plate coming from Captainfab as well as some new tie rods.

[LostMy65]

Here's a similar thread.
63-66 frames are the same.
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...ighlight=Idler

[Captainfab]

I will be offering a template for this as soon as I can get someone help me with putting it into the correct format so that I can print them out.

[LostMy65]

Originally Posted by Captainfab

I will be offering a template for this as soon as I can get someone help me with putting it into the correct format so that I can print them out.

Is there something I can do to help?

[Captainfab]

I'll send you a PM

Originally Posted by LostMy65

Is there something I can do to help?

[gulfcoast66]

Hey BigMoe I don't Have the measurements anymore but I have a Pic how I mounted mine... Hope it Helps you out..
Once I got the PS Bracket for the frame put on, I mounted the Centerlink and power steering together at one time..
Did away with the 66 Centerlink... I only had to drill one or two holes on the Passenger side, dont remember..

[whateverpratt]

One thing I found when doing my conversion was that the original idler arm works with the squarebody draglink. I actually ended up retaining my original manual steering box with the original idler arm for simplicity's sake. It works just fine; however, the powersteering box might throw all of that off.

[bigmoe]

I’m going with all 85 components. Just waiting for replacement parts to arrive. Going with new bushings in the a arms as well and I’ll paint them up nice while apart. Sounds like I’ll need to shorten a tie rod from what others have done although I’m not sure why given the frames are the same width.

[Chevy Fleetside]

Originally Posted by bigmoe

I’m going with all 85 components. Just waiting for replacement parts to arrive. Going with new bushings in the a arms as well and I’ll paint them up nice while apart. Sounds like I’ll need to shorten a tie rod from what others have done although I’m not sure why given the frames are the same width.

The reason for this is. When you put the adaptor plate on there are spacers so the newer steering box will clear the frame. This moves the box to the left about 3/4in. It took me a while to figure this one out as my truck turned more left then right. Was driving me nuts. My truck has all components from a 75.

[whateverpratt]

Originally Posted by Chevy Fleetside

The reason for this is. When you put the adaptor plate on there are spacers so the newer steering box will clear the frame. This moves the box to the left about 3/4in. It took me a while to figure this one out as my truck turned more left then right. Was driving me nuts. My truck has all components from a 75.

That’s why I ended up going with the original manual steering box on my swap for now. Less fabrication

[62chevy302]

If you are careful you can dimple the frame like the newer trucks and will not have to adjust tierod ends uneven. I wonder how close the one tie rod end is from unscrewing from the sleeve when using an adaptor plate?

[AcampoDave]

Instead of splitting the difference, I just left it with the sharper left turns. I'm glad now because we have a lot of streets in town with center medians and not a lot of room for swinging a U-turn at the traffic light.

[bigmoe]

I got my Captainfab bracket and mounted up the ps gearbox. I have some new steering gear components but took the original stuff that's all one piece and mounted it up. I've got the idler arm clamped where I think it should go, ready to drill the holes. After levelling the frame I lined up the drag link level and parallel to the crossmember. Parallel to the frame is tricky because there's no where obvious to measure from. I ended up measuring from the slotted holes for the engine perch.

[Captainfab]

That looks like it is very close to where it needs to be. As long as it is parallel to both the frame and the suspension crossmember, it should be fine.

[30fathoms]

Howdy all, sorry to revive an old thread but had a couple of newb questions re the front cross swaps. We're doing a '79 C20 cross onto our '64 C20; along with the '79 steering components, PS gear, and CaptFab bracket. We ordered a re-man gear which came "centered" according to the paperwork. Our asks relate to the idler arm placement and tie rod adjustments.
1) When installed, the idler seems angled toward the driver's side (pic); I assume this is due to the offset created by the PS gear bracket?
2) When compensating for the offset, is there a minimum thread engagement we should worry about when adjusting the tie rods? Right now it seems the driver's side will have to be cut/shortened, and the pass side extended a fair bit in order to set proper toe.
Thanks in advance!

[Captainfab]

The draglink being offset to the drivers side is a common occurrence when upgrading to power steering. Yes this is due to the addition of the adapter plate. This should be able to be corrected when doing an alignment. It was done on my '66 suburban about 28 years ago with no issues.