Chevy K10 '78 LWB

[Antti]

No, it doesn't end!

I still need to redo some wiring. Horn, license plate lamp and instrument panel lights aren't working, and dome lamp only works when the driving lights are on. Couple of lights and passenger side flashers aren't working either, but that can be due to some bad bulbs. Speedometer isn't working either for some mystical reason. Temp gauge most of the time jumps to maximum, although the eng seems not to be heating too much.

I need to redo the exhaust and buy some seat belts. Got to swap the bed attaching bolts for the lock head ones. Some insulation to the floor and the carpet is a must, since the tremendous noise level really can hurt the hearing during a long drive. Another side mirror is missing, cause the legs of it need to be lengthened. Front drive shaft should be lengthened also. Rear bumper lacks the center most brackets, so the rear can't be jacked up from the bumper. Think I just have to make some mud flaps also, can't stand listening the occasional rock hitting those new rockers. Etc., etc...

I think the seat belts, electrics, speedo, and the rear lift and axle relocating are the most urgent.

Anyway, I'm happy that the welding and painting part is mostly done, and that I'm able to drive it!  Despite the noise, it was a nice trip of over 600 km (370 miles) last weekend. By the way, the brakes are working pretty well (a moose crossed the road).

I'll take some more pictures on some sunny day... 

[oldwhity]

"the brakes are working pretty well (a moose crossed the road)."

That was good! lol

[78 Chevyrado]

Nice build man!  I love white chevys, like my first vehicle was..

[friendlytruck]

This is a quick photoshop version about how it will hopefully look after I relocate the axle and put on some ~1" "blocks" I have. Just have to get new longer u-bolts...
[/quote] that fooled me good i was in that class and got an a just saying that to get an idea a cross

[luke6016]

truck looks great ive been thinking about doing the 52 front spring swap for a while and have been curious how they feel just driving down the road, or towing, i want my truck to work well off road but i dont want to loose towing ability, i use my truck to tow quite a bit and have been hesitant because of that, any info would be great

[Antti]

Yeah, I forgot to tell how it rides now, compared to the former stock-length 4" lift springs.

I don't have a stabilizer bar, and the steering is otherwise stock, but I've installed a raised arm and an ORD bolt-on steering box brace to make the steering box area more rigid. All the ball joints in knuckles, tie rod, etc. seemed to me to be in good condition.

Compared to the former springs, the 52"'s w/ long shackles are softer and the in-out flex movements are greater, so there is a bit more bump steer. I have a pretty new steering stabilizer shock, so it usually doesn't actually steer much, but the steering wheel tends to turn slightly when hitting a bump. IMHO this is not bad at all, usually just barely noticeable.

You have to be awake when cornering on a winding road, though. If you turn the wheel swiftly enough when coming to a tight curve, the softer springs w/o the stabilizer cause the body to roll slightly, which again causes kind of bump steer, so the truck can turn faster and more than you intended. Again, IMHO this isn't bad, and you can get used to it.

The good thing with the springs is that although they are not too soft, the ride is much nicer than with the stiff lift springs. Minor roughness and holes in the road don't feel much. Still kind of "bumpy", as I think lifted solid axle trucks are, meaning that as riding over a big bump, it bounces up and then down much more noticeably than a 2wd would. But still it doesn't feel bad, and I don't have to fear every bump and pot hole as I used to. With the old springs it felt like either the truck or my back was really going to fall apart, and after each bump it felt like free falling.

I've taken two 600 km (370 miles) trips with it now, and both times the truck got to deliver all kinds of stuff, but nothing heavy, though. Hadn't towed anything with it yet either. Anyway, I think it's good enough for now. I can't claim it to be great in on-road handling, but IMO it's a reasonable compromise in price, flex, lift, ride-quality and handling. Still, I must soon fabricate shackles of wider material, lengthen my front drive shaft, and move the axle a little bit forward to protect my springs from snapping. (Also intend to upgrade to crossover steering but that's somewhere in the future. Sturdier front hangers would also be cool.)

The crossover steering is an expensive mod, but it should improve handling, and w/ it you wouldn't have to relocate the axle as I did. That's weakening the springs so I can't recommend it to anyone. Also, maybe even less than an inch would have done it, I relocated it more than was necessary, thus increasing the risk of spring failure. That was because it was impossible to measure accurately beforehand.

By the way, as I said, I've done two longer trips with it now. Yes, we made a trip to my parents' summer place again last weekend. This time the drive back was, well, more adventurous...  I'll try to write a post about it during this weekend!

[Antti]

Hi Y'all! Promised to tell something about last weekend... Don't be surprised if I'm not so undersandable tonight. It's 00.16 right now, and I got plenty of alcohol in me.

Typical Finnish summer saturday night; sauna hot as heck, swimming in a freezing water, and then lots of BBQ:d sausages and even more beer. Nice sitting outside, since it doesn't get dark at all this time a year this close to the arctic circle.

Anyway, when the truck didn't have the bed on it yet, I noticed that the rear axlw pinion was pointing pretty much up, and the angle of the rearmost u-joint was pretty big (due to the shackle flip). I thought that I must look at it closer after the bed is on. And then I forgot about it. Last weekend, we started our 300 km way home and everything seemed to work ok. At some point, the truck seemed to vibrate when accelerating and made pretty bad noise.

I gussed it was the u-joint, but hoped it would last all the way. It got worse and worse. I tried driving with front wheel drive only (which is possible 'cause of the twin stick setup), but it vibrated also pretty badly, since the shaft is too short and stretched so far out. So I switched back to rear wheel drive. Finally it got so bad that it felt that the driveshaft would break or just completely stop rotating. We were at a small town far away from anyone we would know.

I pulled down beside a gas station and parked so that the truck was facing downhill to avoid oil from flowing out from the transfer case, if I removed the rear drive shaft. The driveshaft was still in one peace, as well as the pinion yoke, but the rear u-joint seemed completely busted. Fortunately I had a screwdriver set, a socket set and pliers aboard. It was just a small station without reapair service, so we were pretty much on our own. 

I removed the front drive shaft. Then I removed the lock rings of the frontmost u-joint of it by the pliers I had. The joint was removed by using two of the sockets and a rock as a hammer. Then I removed the rear drive shaft, the busted u-joint of it, and put the u-joint from the front shaft to the rear shaft. Here you can see the tools:



And this is how the burned up joint seems:

We were relly fortunate, since the driveshaft still seemed ok, and only a little piece was broke off from the pinion yoke...

It seemed to work okay, so we could carry on our way to home. This week I measured the angles, and noticed, that the angle of the rear u-joint was about ten degrees! The front u-joint angle was about 2.5. Then I calculated how great shims I would need to make to get the angles of the pinion u-joint and the transfer case u-joint to be as close to each other as possible. I made the shims out of old lift blocks. They also lift the rear a bit and take the rar axle a bit rearward.



Now the angle of the pinion joint is pretty near to zero, while the angle of the trasfer case joint is about 1°. So it wasn't a comlete success, since the target was to get them bot to about 0.8°... They should be as close to each other as possible, and the zero angle is bad, since the joint will not be moving and the oiling will not be working. Anyway, I think it's pretty close, and a hundred times better than it was. And maybe the rear joint gets its movements in bumps.. The bad thing is that after moving the axle back, the rear driveshaft is a little too short also. This is how it looks now.



The truck is still in the garage, so I don't have pictures about how it affected the looks, but it's better now than it was, I assure you! Will post pics soon! 

[Antti]

Did I say I was gonna come back soon? 

Well, I'm sorry, guys. I was very busy in June. Then, when on vacation in July, I didn't much touch the computer...
Couple of weeks ago we made a trip to northern Norway. Had a great time trekking and fishing. I know this doesn't have anything to do with this topic (we even went there by two cars, not my truck), but wanted to share a glimpse of it:


I drove the truck pretty much during the July, but didn't do much else with it. Anyway, here's one picture: