Crossmember swap worth it

[upon1]

I’m looking to change my 68 to disk brakes and 5 bolt pattern. Is it worth doing the crossmember swap or can I just get new drop spindles(which I’m getting anyway) and a disk brake kit from cpp? Can I use a power steering box from a square body on the 68 suspension?

[siggyfreud]

I did the crossmember swap. It was pretty easy. I think I had to elongate one bolt hole on each side minimally. This was on a 66 though, so may not be an issue on a 68.

If you're doing drop spindles just ensure you either get them for your balljoints, or get balljoints that match the drop spindles.

[gmc684x4]

You can swap spindles 67-70 or 71-71 or 73-87 set
Use stock a arms and cross member need to use matching ball joints and steering linkage

If everything is old and worn i would go for the 73 up style as new parts are cheaper then a two year 71-72 setup and bigger then the 67 70 set

Steering box will bolt in if you have the 4 mounting spots on your frame

If your frame has 3 mounting holes there are several threads on this site how to create a recess in the frame to accommodate the power steering box

What style of acc belts ars you using ? Some of the aftermarket ps pump kits do not fit out of the box as advertised

[HO455]

As far as I can see (And some days it's pretty foggy here) the reasons to swap that haven't been mentioned are.
Going to 73 and up will give you rubber lower control arm bushings which have less NVH than the earlier bronze bushings.
#2 if you have a bad center link it is easier to get a replacement 73 and up version. The 67-72 center links are no longer available new.

[gmc684x4]

I was wondering about bushing differences too being its been 3 decades since my truck was 2 wheel drive
Getting parts together myself to make it back into two wheel drive
I have donor rear truck arm suspension and 72 front crossmember setup and have a arm setup from a 95 g20 van same as the 73 87 setup though van crossmember is different brakes a arms spindles are the same
Have not found a 73 87 cross lynk yet

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by HO455

As far as I can see (And some days it's pretty foggy here) the reasons to swap that haven't been mentioned are.
Going to 73 and up will give you rubber lower control arm bushings which have less NVH than the earlier bronze bushings.
#2 if you have a bad center link it is easier to get a replacement 73 and up version. The 67-72 center links are no longer available new.

Bronze? I thought it was a rubber lined steel sleeve?

As far as the later model bushings being 'better', it depends on what perspective & driving style you have. Earlier bushings are less compliant (increased NVH) vs the 'car-like' later bushings but those car-like bushings deteriorate faster & allow for increased deflection.

78-87 parts are easier to obtain.
Using the 73-87 parts still does not require swapping the main crossmember structure. All that later model stuff can bolt right on to an earlier cross-member.

The only reason I see to swap the cross-member is if the original is suspect (rust/damaged) or you have a fresh/rebuilt/clean different set-up & are swapping the entire assembly of parts as a whole vs. doing things in smaller chunks of time/work effort.

[Big Kev-O]

I just rebuilt my stock 68 LCAs and installed new cross shafts & bushings. Word of advice be very careful not to put too much torque on those bushings when tightening them down. The YouTube video I watched (paulk_c10) said to torque them to about 100 pounds. Well that worked great on the first arm then stripped out the threads on the third arm. I would suggest using a 12” ratchet To snug them up tight and some high strength loctite To keep them in place. My 18” torque wrench stripped it out at about 85lbs.