C-body and D series trucks suspension parts Interchange?

[savoy64]

well for parts availability i would check with the parts house-----as for being stronger i am sure they are------i am not advocating reaming out a bigger hole for the upper ball joint------and chrysler did play around with the truck stuff on the police cars---started with putting truck brakes on a 57 plymouth and calling it the police taxi package---and the 3 inch (truck) drum brakes on the fuselage police cars were so good they delayed entry into the disc brakes for a year------i think the truck and van stuff stayed in production past the 1978 formal years----when i couldnt find the 73 set up i wanted i went looking and found that 72 D100---then i started looking up all the part numbers on the upper and lower ball joints to see what the progression was....

 

[savoy64]

after i took the spindles rotors calipers off the 72 D100---i put the 69 drums and stuff back on it so i could roll it around------my son saw the D100 and liked the retro look to the paint and said he wanted to build it------so i went to a pick-c-part and bought the spindles rotors caliper and upper control arms off of a 74 fury because they were exactly the same as the D100 and they made the truck roll straight again ....

 

[savoy64]

and hey on that spindle hole idea----the tapered bearing and race are made to fit together--sometimes truck drum brakes have 2 different bearing and races to fit 2 different spindle gvw size and they fit into the same hole in the drum----cuts down on inventory---

 

[JGC403]

I think the suspension parts are the same from 1972-93 for the D-series trucks. Of course all of the tubular upper control arms that are made for C-bodies are up to 1973. 1974-up C-bodies have the bigger (truck size) upper ball joint?? I'll have to see if I can remove the smaller ball joint in the control arm and swap in the larger one.

So the research that Savoy64 has done (correct me if I'm wrong), looks like if you wanted to convert a 1965-73 C-Body using 1972-93 truck parts you would need to get the spindle, bearings, rotor, caliper bracket, calipers, and upper control arm to do the swap.

 

[savoy64]

when i first started out i bought weld in bungs for the larger balljoints from speed way-----i got a hole saw that would fit exactly over the small ball joint----using the top/screw in part of ball joint as a jig i put the hole saw (without the pilot bit) to work grinding out the hole needed for the larger joint (it basically just cut the old threads off)---then i put the bung (the bung is made with a step in it) over the hole and measured where the bung belonged in the hole--it needed to be 1/8 inch taller----so i cut 3 small nuts in half and used 3 parts to space the bung (step)---then welded it down-----it was at this point i made another run at the old junk yard----noticed that the 74 upper control arms looked the same----pulled them off---cut that adjusting bar out and pressed in new 73 control arm bushings-----thats when i measured the 4 different control arms i had by putting them on my welding bench and sliding a 1/2 solid rod through all the upper bushings thus stringing them up----thats where i found the variance .....i decided to use the 74 upper control arms at that point----the ones i welded are in a pile in the corner of the shop...

 

[savoy64]

in 1957 chrysler decided to pursue the police market---they developed a heavy duty suspension and brakes---they put dodge truck brakes on the plymouth----the taxi police option was born---through out the 60-70 dodge and plymouth were running heavy duty truck drum brakes----by the same token corvettes were running a 1953 sedan brake------corvettes were wrecking every where---yeah they looked cool and went fast but you could over drive them to a fault....

 

[live4theking]

I find this all intriguing... @savoy64

i have upper control arms from a 72 D100 with the D100 spindles rotors and calipers--on my 69 fury----- made a jig and measured upper control arms from 69 fury 72 D100 73 fury and 76 fury-they all measure with in 1/16 of an inch--the 76 fury and D100 have bigger ball joints.....

How many miles have you put on your Fury with this setup?

 

[savoy64]

probably 1000 miles..

 

[live4theking]

probably 1000 miles..

Thanks