Educate me on brakes and steering please.

[jmlcolorado]

I'm building on a '68 C10 chassis right now. I am about to do the disk conversion up front by getting '73 spindles, calipers, rotors and outer tie rod ends. My question is are the calipers meant to be used with a power booster? I dont plan on adding a brake booster until later.
I will obviously need a prop valve now but will i need a different one once i add assist?

Same thing with steering. For now I'm sticking with the manual box but later i will be adding a pump and power box. Is the '73 power steering box a direct swap with the 68 drag links?

Do you recommend that i upgrade to power brakes right away or can i wait till the funding becomes available? I'm working on a tight budget so I'm trying to take this one step at a time.

Thanks for the input.

[stich626]

the brake calp will work with or without power booster.
the 73 p/s box iirc you need spacers for the 67-68 frame..
someone will chime in..

[jmlcolorado]

Originally Posted by stich626

the brake calp will work with or without power booster.
the 73 p/s box iirc you need spacers for the 67-68 frame..
someone will chime in..

Ah yes...i recall that someone on the site here makes adapters for that. Captn something or other.

[jmlcolorado]

How bout a recommendation for a proportional valve? I know that front brakes needs to be at 70% and rear 30%. Is there a good one someone has experience with?

[SCOTI]

67 or before frames need an adapter for the pwr steering box from what I remember. 68 & later shouldn't.

Use a prop valve from a 71-80. CPP & Inline Tubing sell new factory style replacement prop valves.

[wiggins]

Why go with a 73 PS box. As far as I know you can still get a 68 box. Bolts right up. I did this abouot 12 years ago and I did not have to use any shims ect.

[jmlcolorado]

Originally Posted by wiggins

Why go with a 73 PS box. As far as I know you can still get a 68 box. Bolts right up. I did this about 12 years ago and I did not have to use any shims ect.

I was planning on using '73 spindles. I didn't clarify what year box to use, but you basically answered a question I'm sure i would have had eventually

[wiggins]

unless there would be a spacing isuue(not enough room) the spindles should not matter. The 68 box should mount up fine

[SCOTI]

73 up boxes would be easier to find 'slightly used' vs earlier models.

[lolife99]

Do you have 73 spindles already?
Or are you going to buy them?
You can buy spindles that will work with your 68 ball joints and tie rod ends.

[Mikedub82]

since we are on the toppic, How would the pitman arm on the power steering box work with the center link if you used the 75ish , would it have to be changed or would the pitman arm line up with original equipment. I have a 1966c10.

[jmlcolorado]

Originally Posted by lolife99

Do you have 73 spindles already?
Or are you going to buy them?
You can buy spindles that will work with your 68 ball joints and tie rod ends.

I don't have them yet. Local junk yard sells them with ball joints for $25 each. I will likely need new ball joints anyways.
Are these an aftermarket item your talking about? It might be worth it. What kinda cost are we talking about and where can i find em?
Thanks!

Originally Posted by Mikedub82

since we are on the topic, How would the pitman arm on the power steering box work with the center link if you used the 75ish , would it have to be changed or would the pitman arm line up with original equipment. I have a 1966c10.

Thats a darn good question! Something i didn't think of. From what i research you can use everything except the outer tie rod ends. Then you'd need an adapter to use the center links from the 68 with the outer rod ends of the 73. Or you can take the outer rods to a machine shop to have them mill and re thread reverse threads at the right size to use the original coupler, But the cost of that sounds impractical.

But i didn't think of the 73 box on the 68 center link.

[lolife99]

POL or www.PerformanceOnLine.com sells their spindles for $228.
(Standard or drop)
Most aftermarket suspension vendors sell "bolt on" spindles now.
No need to switch ball joints or tie rods.

The tie rod "conversion couplers" that you are talking about require, like you said,... to use 73-87 or 71-72 outer tie rod ends. (depending on which spindles you have)
They don't tell you that you also have to install new inner tie rods. (usually the 67-70 outers in the inner location,... to get the correct LH thread on the inner tie rod, to couple with the RH thread of the 71- up outer tie rods)

Check out this thread for spindle and disc brake info,...
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...68&postcount=4

[jmlcolorado]

Originally Posted by lolife99

POL or www.PerformanceOnLine.com sells their spindles for $228.
(Standard or drop)
Most aftermarket suspension vendors sell "bolt on" spindles now.
No need to switch ball joints or tie rods.

The tie rod "conversion couplers" that you are talking about require, like you said,... to use 73-87 or 71-72 outer tie rod ends. (depending on which spindles you have)
They don't tell you that you also have to install new inner tie rods. (usually the 67-70 outers in the inner location,... to get the correct LH thread on the inner tie rod, to couple with the RH thread of the 71- up outer tie rods)

Check out this thread for spindle and disc brake info,...
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...68&postcount=4

Well well well. You have made me do a forum first for me. I actually had to read that outloud to make any sense of it

SO, your saying that my old outer ends (from the '68) would need to be used now as inners to get the coupler to work, right?
All that is doing is changing the thread direction of the inner rod.

[jmlcolorado]

"67-70 truck with

73-87 Crossmember Not Yet Installed:

1) So to connect the 73-87 spindle to the 67-70 steering centerlink you must use a:
* 67-70 outer tie rod (LH thread) in the inner location.
* connect that to a tie rod "conversion sleeve". (these are sold by many aftermarket suspension companies).
* use a 73-87 outer (RH thread) to connect to your 73-87 spindle.
* Again,... it's much simpler to use all of the 73-87 steering components."

Okay. i didnt see the "not yet installed" version of that. I pretty much stopped reading after "67-70 truck with

67-70 Crossmember Installed:" section.

I really dont want to spend that kinda dough for specific spindles to keep from having to swap ball joints and rod ends. So far it seems like im still on track for needing 73 spindles, rotors, calipers, upper and lower ball joints and now rod adapters. Even if im swapping the location of the old outer and inner. Doing this i can still do this for a price of $120.

[lolife99]

$120 sounds cheap.
Tie rod adapters are around $50/pair.

[jmlcolorado]

Originally Posted by lolife99

$120 sounds cheap.
Tie rod adapters are around $50/pair.

Or so you thought.
Check THIS out:

Originally Posted by raggedjim

Have you bought the adapters yet? If not I can probably save you some money... I know these can be bought at most places for about $49 but this place builds race car stuff and makes those adapters for $14 each.

Just call and talk to Randy. Make sure to tell him the 11/16-18 is RH (right hand) and the 5/8-18 is left hand. The length for these trucks is 5-1/4"

One thing no one tells you is you have to use the 65-70 OUTER as the INNER or you will end up with 2 ends that have RH threads (they won't adjust that way!)

http://www.dcaracing.com/cat_steering.html

Rg

[lolife99]

Yep,... I remember that thread.
Good luck with your swap.
Check back in when you have completed it.
Don't forget the new master cylinder and prop valve, and new rubber brake hoses.

[jmlcolorado]

Right on guys! Thanks a ton for everyones input.

Can we backtrack to cover one last item? Mikedub82 asked a good question that we havnt touched on yet:

Originally Posted by Mikedub82

since we are on the toppic, How would the pitman arm on the power steering box work with the center link if you used the 75ish , would it have to be changed or would the pitman arm line up with original equipment. I have a 1966c10.

Are the splines on all the pitman arms the same throughout the years? How about the actual dimentions?