Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

I can't count all the times one of those left over brackets saved me a bunch of time.

Nick

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

So I had a couple free days and made some more progress. The pedals will wait until I have the front end off. and that's going to wait until things warm up and I can move the truck outside where I have more room. Figured it'd be a good weekend to change rear ends. The little 7 and 1/2 inch would probably get by with some wheel spacers. But I can't help but think the first time I get traction that 400 is going to make short work of it. I picked up a 77 Lincoln nine inch a while back for a hundred and fifty bucks. Complete rotor to rotor. rather than mess with it at home I loaded it up and took it into work. I was in a hurry that day and for some reason did not get a single picture while I was there but it's not a big deal. It was nice having all my tools there got it all tour down to a bare housing and all the leftover brackets cut off of it. The original Lincoln calipers have the parking brake built into them it looks like it would be easy enough to adapt. The rotors are I think 11 and 1/2 in. These are obviously toast but new ones are priced pretty reasonable. It's a lot easier to go with an existing system than trying to adapt something. As expected it had a 3.00 rear end gear. With short tires in a light vehicle that's probably not too bad. I have another third member sitting out in the shed that's got 350 years in it. The nice part with these is it does not take that long to change gears on a 9 inch if I want to try something later. Nice surprise was that it had a factory posi in it. Clutch kits for them I believe for under a hundred bucks. I can live with that.
With the rear end tore down inspected most of the way cleaned up and put back together The next step was pull the old one out of the truck. the leaf spring bolts all came out very nicely without any headache. I kind of wish the u-bolts would have twisted off. It would have made it a quicker process.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

A while back when I was at the U-Pull-It yard there is an extreme S10 up on stands that somebody had already pull the rear axle out of. The leaf springs and rear sway bar we're just hanging there. For around 60 bucks I had a pair of factory lowering springs and 1 inch rear sway bar. I put the rear springs in and then roll the rear end under it. I did not have any leaf spring pads laying around, and I had zero patience to make a temporary set so for now it has two pieces of pinewood and some repurposed 3/8 u bolts that came with an old air bag kit. It won't be seeing any power with the current setup. I still have not decided if I want to go simple with a lowering block, or float the rear end housing and use a torque arm. A lot of that will be determined by how low it sets and how much room I have. I have sway bar links ordered for the back. Once they show up then I can get the mounts made. The front will be really easy, I have a brand new set of GM mounts that normally would go over the 7 and 1/2 in axle tubes. But on this one they line up with the center section. a little reshaping and welding and they'll be just fine. Because it moves the sway bar back about an inch and a half it doesn't quite line up where it would on the shock mount with the factory style but I've got an idea for something that should be easy enough to Fab up.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

nice scores! that lincoln rear is a serious hoss.

someone told me that zq8 springs (on the extreme) were z85 high rider 3 leaf (not counting the flat overload) springs with the smallest leaf removed.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

Side by side I expected more difference between the stock spring and the lowered one. On the truck though it feels a lot softer than the old one. Both were 2 leaf plus the overload.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

have someone substantial sit on it, it will droop more. once you get some weight on it it will be fine. the zq8s got a hop shock to keep the softer springs from wrapping too badly.


there are three 2wd leaf packs, the regular 2 leaf +overload, the highrider z85 3 leaf + overload (1" higher ride than the regular), and the zq8 lowered (1" lower than the regular). I have been told that the zq8 is a z85 with the smallest spring out. my truck has brand new z85 springs on it so I am going to pull the middle leaf and the overload and see what happens. the western chassis drop leafs are two leafs with no overload.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

I have already decided that it's going to get other a single pull bar on top of the axle or a torque arm to keep wheel hop in check.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

Small update, been busy with usual life stuff and combined with the fact is really hot outside right now and my garage is not air-conditioned.the rear sway bar is officially done other than finish welding the mounts on the axle housing. I'll do that later when I have it out to weld the spring perches on.
The 91 S10 never came with the rear sway bar that I am aware of. The sway bar I used came off the rear of a two-wheel drive 2nd gen extreme S10.I have seen kits that you could buy that had the upper mounts but after mocking everything up in place I just made them myself out of some inch and a half by 3/16 angle iron. Cut them, round the corners and drill a hole. Simple enough. There's a nice flat spot on the back of the factory shock mount that they welded to. For the sway bar links I used a pair of rear sway bar links for a 2000 through 2006 suburban just because I had them already.
The axle mounts took a little bit more work, but it was really not that hard. The stock S10 sway bar mount attaches to the axle with a u bolt and a saddle. my cost on those saddles brand new through the dealership was about five bucks a piece so for that price I wasn't going to mess with Rusty ones. A little bit of time spent with the angle grinder and a flap wheel to readjust the radius for the Ford rear end and from there it was just tack it together and bolt it up.
Next on the project list is to pull the front end off again so I have access to get my pedals mounted and get my steering shaft hooked up. from there it's on to transmission linkage, get the master cylinder mounted, the fun stuff that I can actually see progress and feel like I'm getting something done.

Nick

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

Couple more pictures.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

nice job

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

Looks great, nice work...Jim

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

Thanks for the replies everybody. I really need to get better about updates. The project is still moving forward, actually made some decent progress. Pulled it out of the garage a couple months ago and actually got the box set on it for the first time in a couple years. Nothing attached yet, just sitting in place so I can start planning mounts. also it looks like I'm farther along so it makes me feel better. Ride heights are pretty close to what I had in mind. Don't want to go to much lower because it's static height and I live in the country with kind of crappy roads at times.

The more I look at it with the steel wheels in the center caps the more I like the look of them. Whenever I get around to painting the outside of it I'll go with something different but with the current patina they blend in pretty good. In the pictures the fronts are 215 60 15 and the backs are 255 60 15. I'm probably going to go 255s all the way around. I plan on driving it a lot and being an alignment tech full-time I know that rotating and makes a big difference on how well they wear. It is been a lot more difficult than I thought it would be trying to find tires for mock-up purposes. It's way too early in the build to buy new tires because one I'm not 100% sure what size they want to go with into it might be a couple years before it hits the road. I got lucky when I found the 255 at work and a couple weeks ago I found a set of 275 60 15. I wasn't sure if I was going to run anything that big on it but I had a pretty good feeling I was going to have to get the rear end cut down to fit and I figured if I'm going to get it cut down and might as well make sure they fit later. The 255s are currently mounted I set a 15 x 7 with about 3 and 1/2 or 4 in of backspace. The 15 by eights or a 4 inch backspace. And a suspected the 275 on the 8 inch rims are a bit wide to fit under the back so it looks like I'm getting a rear end narrowed. Not really a huge deal, machine shop in town gets a hundred bucks to narrow the housing and I can buy axles online for 300 bucks. Better to find out now before it's all painted is the way I see it. That four hundred bucks would have covered my tires or half of my fuel injection though.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

Couple more pictures. Some of them from this past weekend when we pushed it out to clean the garage. The box is very crooked at the moment. I noticed coming out of the garage that it pushes really hard and it was shoving the front tires. Evidently I couldn't read a tape measure last time because it was toed in over an inch. My youngest enjoy sitting in there and pretending to drive. I enjoy sitting back watching.

Nick

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

looking really good! I like the steels over the old centerlines too, if that is what you were saying.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

I also like the wheels, need a close up of them when you get time...Jim

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

The guy I bought them from said they were from a police car. I would believe it, they aren't light. 15x7, 5on5.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

I have used a similar shaped part from a muffler clamp before for the stab bar mount, less work. sometimes gotta tack a piece of flat bar onto it for extra width though.
nice progress, keep the pics coming.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

That's the main reason I like looking at build threads and car shows. There is usually multiple ways to get the same result.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

Cautrell05, thanks for the pics...Jim

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

No problem

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

Started working on the mounts for the fenders and radiator support. Seeing a couple different ways to do them from looking at other builds and mounting off of the side of the radiator support to the top of the S10 frame seem to be the easiest. I wanted to stick with an OE style bushing and mounting on the sides would eliminate the need for the braces under the hood. I looked around and found these on summit website made by resto parts. on their website they show them discontinued but there's a factory application so that helps if I ever need a replacement or want to buy another set. There's two bolts side by side near the bottom of the radiator support and one farther up that I used. I used 1/8x3 all the way around. Drilled a 1 inch hole in the bottom piece for the bushing and on the three holes for the side I welded the spacer on the back to clear the ridges in the inner fender. A couple gussets up two sides to keep it from folding and that was about it. Pretty simple. Nothing too elaborate.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

That’s a very nice setup you came up with.:metal:

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

Thank you.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

Small amount of progress. Have the upper mount bolted in and started cutting out the piece for the lower amount. I don't have a bender that will gracefully bend 3 in by 1/8" So I cheated and cut a notch on one side, been it where I need and I'll just weld a gap shut. Need to trim it down a little bit so it fits better on the frame and then move over to the other side.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

I had been looking into options for the wipers for a while. They make kits but I didn't really want to spend that much. Also, I wanted to use the GM wiper switch on the column. All the conversations say they won't work with the GM switch. I took it as a personal challenge.

This is the motor I used.
Wexco 4R Wiper Motor-4R2.12.R110D... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G1G1FXI...p_mob_ap_share

It's a semi universal 2 speed self parking motor that looks identical to what all the conversion kits come with. I used a piece of 3/4" tubing welded to some 1/8"x1 inch strap but you could use angle iron also. The rubber grommets are optional, none of the kits I saw came with them but I wanted to try and help keep noise down. I still need to make a small bracket to hold the other end of the motor steady but that's an easy one.

I bought a 1/2" collar from Menards for about $2.50. It measures .505 inside. The splines on the motor are about. 550. Ran a 17/32" drill bit through it and then took a small triangle file and cut splines on the side opposite of the set screw. After that I took a Dremel and a grinding Stone and opened the rest up until it was just big enough to for over the splines of the motor.

I reused the wiper arm of the original vacuum motor. Just ground the end of the shaft where it was staked and then pulled it off. Centered it on the collar and welded it on.

That's really about it too mounting the motor. It can point down and hang between the column brace and cowl vent bracket or point to the left above the column brace. Still clears the defroster ducts and the cowl vent linkage.

Just watch when you make the mount. Try and keep the wiper arm the same distance from the mounting holes as the original motor and the same height when you look from the end. That should help keep the wiper linkage from hitting stuff.

The wiring wasn't that bad to get worked out. The factory GM system uses constant power and switches the ground for high and low speed. The conversion motors are grounded all the time and switch the power between the park circuit, low speed and high. Wiring them backwards isn't a good option. Tends to let the smoke out.
For the two speed GM switch without delay there is three wires going to the motor. Low speed, high speed and park. You need power to one of the three. There might be a fourth wire if it doesn't ground through the case.
What I did was use two 5 pin relays and use the ground signal from the GM switch to control them. One relay switches between low and park. The other relay switches between high and the first relay. Hopefully the diagram makes sense.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

Some more pics of the conversion. More to come

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

Anybody ever thought about using a wiper set up from industrial equipment that runs on the roadway? They need wipers and are set up really basic, like a rubber tires backhoe. It's what I used on a rail buggy years back. Easy to find, mount and wire. Swap a lever on the end of the shaft instead of the single wiper arm they usually have.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

That was some of the applications for the motor I used. It crossed to several John Deere numbers and I think bobcat also.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

One of the better conversions I'v seen through the years. I did one on my 49' years ago and I'll have to dig up the part number, but the motor was less than $100, although different than yours. For $170 bucks you can get one from classic parts with a switch. (imported) The usa made motor is 230 which is a bit of a jump. The wiper swap cost was always a nail biter for me early on in my building experience. Though well worth the money, its still something most of us guys on here wanted to tackle or see whom else can do it on the cheap. I think with more sourcing on motor and your setup, it can catch on quick. Great job. Here is a pic of mine. I had shannonpanel (ya'll remember him on here!) make me the milled out adapter he designed.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

That's a nice looking bracket. I need to get some new arms and actual wiper blades and see how my travel is. The nice part about this motor is that the travel is adjustable internally. I have to pull the motor out of the truck to do it but it's a really easy process on the bench. This one was about $110 with tax.

Like I said earlier, I wanted to use the GM wiper switch so paying for the kit that came with a harness and switch I wasn't going to use didn't appeal to me.

The big thing that I wanted was to have all the factory features of the gm switch work just like original. Wash, mist, low, high and delay. It took some wiring changes to make it happen but I managed to make it work. I just need to get the wiring diagram for the delay wiper switch on something shareable.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

hello
nice work on the truck. your ideas to solve Problems are reallx grate. nice work on the steering system.
so Long
Arnd

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

nice tech on the wipers, I wonder if its the same for 98+?

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

I'd have to look up a wiring diagram. What wiper switch were you thinking?

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

I use 98+ s10 on all my swaps. current one is a 2001, I like using the whole shebang, HVAC, distributed electrical system, drivetrain. every part of the buffalo.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

Kinda bouncing around a little bit depending on my schedule. Took a little time this past week and got the front bumper mounted. I used 1 1/2x1/4" strap for all four. I don't have a heavy enough vice at home to bend it accurately so I cheated and cut 2/3 of the way through where I wanted the bends, shaped as needed and then added a couple heavy tack welds to hold it for now. I'll finish weld them when it's apart. Right now it's held on with 4 #12 self tapping screws. They worked well to hold it in place for mock-up and my pilot holes are already drilled this way.

I ended up with a white bumper from being cheap. Searching through Amazon and eBay they were all either chrome or black primer. The painted one from LMC was $6 cheaper so I ordered that one. Turns out the painted one from LMC is white. Thank God for spray paint.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

ha, good tip on cutting the strap. I have built rear brackets from 11ga (vice limitation also) but they are mostly aesthetic, 1/4 is a better choice especially on the front. I think the oem brackets are 3/8!

nice work!

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

Thanks. I was really happy with how well they turned out.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

With the radiator support mounts built and the front bumper on it was a good time to pull the front clip for the winter before I have to deal with snow outside. I normally use my engine hoist but it was buried in the back corner of the garage and I didn't feel like digging it out. I picked up a hoist for the tractor a while back that works great for this stuff. Got it put on my thrown together car and it fits well between the camper and the garage. It'll get snowed on but it's out of the wind and away from vehicles. With the front end accessable now the next step is finalizing the steering, then on to the pedals and the transmission linkage.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

This week I started reworking the steering shaft. The first version was functional but it sat really close to the manifold and had the bottom of the column kicked out to the point it looked off. The first version used the ranger lower steering shaft adapted to the gm column. Problem is that the slip yoke and the U-joints are kinda fat. To do it right would need 3 joints and a support bearing. Before I spend the money on that I figured I'd try something cheaper. I cut the end off the ranger steering shaft, combined that with a piece of 1 inch 1/8" tubing and a short piece of double D shaft and made an extension for the input shaft of the rack. That combined with a different steering shaft pushed the lower joint out far enough to get decent steering shaft clearance with the column lined up better.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

The steering shaft is a bit of a Frankenstein job. The main part of it is actually from a 2007 Mercedes SUV. One of the younger kids at work stripped out the pinch bolt so they put a new one on. There's nothing really special about it other than it was a free, low milage slip shaft. The lower half fit the smaller double D shaft with a little grinding. The other half was nowhere close to fitting the gm column as expected. Originally I was just going to cut the end off weld the other one on but then I started looking at the actual steering U-joints. The more I looked at them the more they looked pretty close in size. Half hour at the vice and I had the Mercedes and GM joints out. Both measure exactly 15mmx37mm. Reused the Mercedes joint because it was newer and it pressed in to the GM yoke just like it was made for it. I would have never guessed that would work. In the future if I ever need to replace the steering shaft I'll just buy two joints and a double D slip shaft but for now I have a total of 0 dollars in the upper shaft. Can't complain there.