Anyone familiar with mid-sixties Chevy trucks?

[buffalo bob]

Looking at a '65 Chevy Suburban w/4WD.  A friend recently swapped a disc brake front end, that is spindles, A-arms brakes and all from a old style '80s pick up to his '67 half ton.  I'm wondering if this is a bolt on with the '65 frame also?  Have my doubts as the '66 trucks & '67 sure don't look the same.  Anyone know for sure?  Like to get disc brakes at least on the Sub.  Thanks

[GPster]

I'm sure Enjenjo knows but unfortunately hhe's at Kzoo this weekend. Things may not be that far from working unless the 4 wheel drive screws it up. on the 2 wheel drives I think the crossmember will swap or you can get by with just swapping the spindles but you need to do some playing around with tie rod ends. GPster

[Fat Cat]

There was a major redesign between 1966 and 1967. I am sure that Enjenjo will have more detail on what you can do.

[entodad]

Looking at a '65 Chevy Suburban w/4WD.  A friend recently swapped a disc brake front end, that is spindles, A-arms brakes and all from a old style '80s pick up to his '67 half ton.  I'm wondering if this is a bolt on with the '65 frame also?  Have my doubts as the '66 trucks & '67 sure don't look the same.  Anyone know for sure?  Like to get disc brakes at least on the Sub.  Thanks

I've seen it done with a '67 where a later pickup cross member along with all the a frames, brakes etc etc were swapped from a late 70's truck.  Perhaps tha cross member swap will work for the 65 as well, but hmmm I just don't know.
My son and I are just taking a 75 truck frame and swapping it under a 66 truck body...Lots of refitting to be done yet....
Doug

[buffalo bob]

That was the other route I was thinking about.  I sure like the way the '88 & up GMs ride (brakes suck) but I can't imagine those chassis being remotely close to a drop on.  Yea, I know anything can be made to fit, but I consider myself a hot rodder not a creator like those guys that come up with these works of art I see at the Nats.

[OldSub]

The crossmember swap on the two-wheel-drive trucks is pretty common.  From 1963 through 1987 there is not much difference in the front suspensions and adapting the later ones to earlier trucks isn't a real big challenge.

However, since the four-wheel-drive front axle on these trucks is leaf spring sprung live axle and the two-while-drive is a coil sprung ifs it's not at all similar.

I would expect you can either swap a later front axle (up to before the independent four-wheel-drive era) under the earlier truck, or adapt disks from a 70's or 80's truck onto your existing axle, but I don't know any details about either approach.

[enjenjo]

You can install a two wheel drive front end on a 4x4 frame. The only problem is, there are no holes to use to reference the position of the crossmember. On a 2x4 frame, a couple of the holes line up to position the new crossmember. If you measure carefully, you should be able to do it sucessfully. You may need a spacer or shim here and there to make the crossmember fit the frame tight.

[47convert]

Never swapped crossmembers but I did install all of the front end components, upper and lower xontrol arms, brakes etc from a 79 Chevy 1/2 ton P/U on my 66 a few years ago. Everything bolted in like it was made for the 66 except I had to drill one new hole in the frame for one of the idler arm bolts because the 66 was L shaped, I think and the 79 was at an angle. I used Bell Tech dropped spindles for a nice drop and cut one coil. Everything worked perfect. The problem now was that I had 6 bolt wheels on the back and 5 on the front. Made myself a set of lowering blocks and sawpped in a rearend from a 71 Chevy pickup. Since my brakes were brand new just before the swap, I hung my backing plates from a wire, discarded the 71 brakes and bolted the 66 brakes to the newer housing using the 71 brake drums. Didn't even need to bleed the brakes! This is a great swap. You upgrade to 12" power disc brakes, lower the truck, and get 5 bolt wheels at the same time for very little money.

[buffalo bob]

A buddy did the same with a '67 and was quick easy and a great improvement in driving.  Wasn't sure how far back they would swap.