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| Classic Performance Products |
| 1947-53 Chevy Truck Straight-Axle, Steering
and Brakes |
| By Grant Peterson |
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| As I delve deeper into the rebuilding of my '53's frontend,
I occasionally stop and ask myself, why am I putting all this time, effort,
and money into such antiquated mechanicals? For a few bucks more, and depending
on my fortune for the day, with an equal amount of added labor I could throw
a fully independent modern suspension under the truck-and in doing so gain
disc brakes and nice, smooth rack-and-pinion steering, as well. It doesn't
take long, though, to remind myself just why I'm sticking with a so-called
prehistoric I-beam axle (with drum brakes, nonetheless) in the first place:
because I vowed not to turn the Chevy into a contemporary concoction, but
rather make the best of what I had. Sort of like an old Harley-Davidson,
if you will. From the get-go, the job at hand seemed fairly straightforward
and just as easy to accomplish. Well, as most things go for me, simplicity
soon turned into a struggle. While everything I'd ordered from LMC was fine
and dandy, it turned out that many of the items it didn't offer (nor did
anyone,else, really) needed replacing. As you Jay have noticed in last month's
installment, the situation with the worn-out spindles was overcome thanks
to Bowtie Bits well, it also came to the rescue when I realized that my
steering arms had the pivot balls welded on at some point back in time,
making removal nearly impossible without ruining the tapered ends. |
With a set of good, used steering arms, I could now proceed
with the remaining work that followed the suspension portion, the steering
and brakes. To the best of my knowledge (which isn't always saying much!),
replacement tie rod ends aren't available for AD Chevy trucks; besides,
I'm not sure I'd want to keep those archai joints in use to begin with,
All manufacturers today, including LMC, offer the updated tie rod end similar
to what you'd find in a Ford, which means you also have to swap out tie
rods to accommodate it. Same goes for the drag link, but if you're dealing
with a modified setup (i.e. lowered) and want to adjust appropriately, you
might have to get a little creative, which is just what I did. Typically,
heating the steering arm on the spindle to correct drag-link geometry is
the common way to go about it. Since I didn't have a torch at the ready,
but did have a shorter pitman arm from a later Chevy truck (which was used
with an adjustable drag link from CPP), I decided to give that a try. While
this indeed will level out the drag link, obviously a shorter pitman arm
will have a somewhat ill effect on the driver in that the steering throw
will be increased-more turns of the steering wheelock-to-lock compared to
the stock setup. Knowing this, I made sure I was comfortable with the added
chore behind the wheel before moving forward (and turning!). |
The extra effort isn't really all that much for me, but for
those accustomed to the way their truck steers with the stock pitman arm,
you may want to consider the previously mentioned method. As for the brakes,
well, even if you've never done a complete drum rehab before, these relics
are easy to rebuild. When it comes to replacing the drums, though, you will
have to perform a little additional labor, as the stock ones are riveted
to the hubs. If your drums still have a decent amount of meat left on 'em,
just send them out for a quick turning before replacing the bearings and
races. And speaking of which, since LMC offers the old-style caged wheel
bearings, if you're in the market for a sealed Timken-type setup, try CPP
for a conversion bearing kit. And with that, my non-IFS frontend venture
was complete. While I'm not making any claims that my truck rides, handles,
steers, or stops like it would had it been equipped with a Mustang II-type
suspension, it does ride, handle, steer, and stop way better than it did
beforehand. Plus I have a few extra bucks in my pocket left over to put
toward rebuilding something else I could just as easily replace with something
more expensive and modern!
(Note: After putting a few miles on the truck with the new steering setup,
I started to notice more of a difference with the shorter pitman arm. As
such, I will be looking into "reducing" my added steering
wheel rotation in the near future, most likely with heating the steering
arm and or modifying the stock pitman arm.) |
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