suspension swap

[kiles_2001]

Hello all I am pretty new to this site but I love it already. I have 2 1969 c10's one a short bed the other a long bed, I have been wanting to swap the upper and lower A arms for newer ones because the newer ones have rubber bushings as opposed to the old ones not having it, can I just swap the A arms? if so from what year trucks? or do I need to swap the cross member as well? if so what year trucks?

my short bed also comes with 3.73 posi rear end but it is a 6 lug that I want to convert to a 5 lug, I know there is after marked axles but I was wondering if I could swap them from a newer truck?

[Jeffs70]

Originally Posted by kiles_2001

Hello all I am pretty new to this site but I love it already. I have 2 1969 c10's one a short bed the other a long bed, I have been wanting to swap the upper and lower A arms for newer ones because the newer ones have rubber bushings as opposed to the old ones not having it, can I just swap the A arms? if so from what year trucks? or do I need to swap the cross member as well? if so what year trucks?

my short bed also comes with 3.73 posi rear end but it is a 6 lug that I want to convert to a 5 lug, I know there is after marked axles but I was wondering if I could swap them from a newer truck?

Welcome to the board, If I am correct I believe its up to 88' that will fit on these trucks.

If it was me and I wanted to convert to newer with 5 lug then It maybe easier to find the whole cross member and slap it in. and a rear axel to match. but I am not to sure. correct me if I am wrong.

[treveiger]

73-87 chevy trucks you can swap the front crossmember completely. Im talking to a guy that might be selling me his front end off his 79 truck. Theres a thread on here about it i printed it out but ill try to find it for you.

[kiles_2001]

that sounds good, I would really appreciate that.

[dave2953]

You can swap the arms from a 73-87 truck and 88-91 'burbs. They will work with the existing crossmember. I would imagine you'll want to upgrade to disc brakes as well, correct? If so, you can swap the entire crossmember from one of the aforementioned trucks/'burbs or you can swap the arms and move everything else over. When I swapped to 5 lug, which was just done recently, I changed out the entire rear axle. I obtained one from a '79 half ton truck.

[treveiger]

Originally Posted by dave2953

You can swap the arms from a 73-87 truck and 88-91 'burbs. They will work with the existing crossmember. I would imagine you'll want to upgrade to disc brakes as well, correct? If so, you can swap the entire crossmember from one of the aforementioned trucks/'burbs or you can swap the arms and move everything else over. When I swapped to 5 lug, which was just done recently, I changed out the entire rear axle. I obtained one from a '79 half ton truck.

Is your truck coil or leaf? dont you have to modify the axle?

[dave2953]

My truck is coil. The only thing I had to do was weld new perches onto the new axle since it came from a leaf truck. It was pretty straight forward...

[myoldchevytruck]

Mine was a leaf spring GMC. I changed to 6" drop coils and added trailing arms (found a great deal at a swap meet for the trailing arms) I also converted front 6 lugs to 5 lugs and used the rear axle and front spindles from a 72 3" drop springs in the front). Easy as Pie, It was like it belonged there. As far as tie rods, those needed to be swapped out to be year specific (71-72) AND also used the year specific (71-72) drag link (tapper is different from the earlier years (67-70)

[treveiger]

Originally Posted by dave2953

My truck is coil. The only thing I had to do was weld new perches onto the new axle since it came from a leaf truck. It was pretty straight forward...

So a later coil rear end will fit on our coil rear ends without any mods?

[dave2953]

The later trucks (post '72) were all leaf spring suspension as far as I know. For my application the perches had to be swapped and the way in which the drive shaft attached was also different (straps vs. u-bolts)

[kiles_2001]

my 69 short bed is leaf springs and it came with 3.73 posi and that is the reason Id like to keep the rear end and just swap the axles, it has the ideal ratio and its posi so it is perfect for the set up I want to run. so does anyone know if I could just swap axles from the junk yard? or do I have to go with after market axles???