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Lowering my 72 c10 1/3 opinions

no one has said to check all the suspension bushings . . . . :surepal:

truck this old they might be shot and this will get you a ton of front end play and squshy felling .

I would do as some said and go factory springs . and since 1 guy said a full coil got him 2" drop I would do 1/2 a coil . I don't like drop springs . my 2wd I am building I did drop spindles of 2.5" .

also as said look at coil build style for variable rate or fixed rate . variable rides stuffer the more they compress.

if you do it right it should ride factory or better with todays products. and as said good shock is 1/2 or more of the battle .
 
sweetk30 said:
no one has said to check all the suspension bushings . . . . :surepal:

truck this old they might be shot and this will get you a ton of front end play and squshy felling .

I would do as some said and go factory springs . and since 1 guy said a full coil got him 2" drop I would do 1/2 a coil . I don't like drop springs . my 2wd I am building I did drop spindles of 2.5" .

also as said look at coil build style for variable rate or fixed rate . variable rides stuffer the more they compress.

if you do it right it should ride factory or better with todays products. and as said good shock is 1/2 or more of the battle .
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So you are saying I should cut the factory coils up front instead of buying lowered coils? Another question, what exactly are drop spindles? Sorry, this is the first 2wd I have ever owned.
 
6872xtc said:
I would be careful with that as after you lower it , you may find some bumps a little close. I don't know if you can see it in the picture of mine, but I have 3" with an X pipe hanging down. It then goes up to the mufflers and on out. I have touched it once crossing a V pan into a parking spot. The lip was rather tall from the asphalt.
I would hustle be concerned about the extra thickness of the mufflers hanging down.
But I hear you on the dollars! !! I did my system myself and ended up with $600 in it. But it's 3" mandrel bent all the way out! I wanted to experiment. And next time I won't use 40 series Flowmasters. .
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Yeah I'm looking to be in this exhaust no more than 200 bucks. I think I can do it. I will get a nicer full length system somewhere down the road in sure but this will have to do for now. What are your complaints with the flowmaster 40? I was planning to use the summit racing copy of it on mine. What do you wish you had done? I do not really like the sound of turbo mufflers, I like the chambered sound better.
 
My only complaint on the 40's are that I get interior resonance in a standard cab long bed with the tail pipes behind the rear tires. I get lots of comments on how it sounds, but quite often my wife can't hear me when I am accelerating mildly. ( when she calls me )
I would like to try 50 series. .. my turbo mufflers are ok on my big block, but it's a little tame.

SweetK30 is correct that you should check everything out. I didn't think to say that as you didn't say that it was wandering. These trucks have the metal, greasable bushings so when you said 'squishy' my first thought was shocks. But if it needs A-arm bushings, you can do them yourself. They unscrew out of the arms.
But if you are only looking for an inch of drop up front, I would save your money and use your existing coils. Put that towards shocks.
Drop spindles take the place of the original spindles. The center of the wheel (the spindle ) is moved up on the casting in relation to the ball joint mounting.
 
Oh, my experience with buying dropped coils back in the late nineties was that I didn't get the same spring rate as factory, but the set I tried only brought it down 1/2". They were supposed to be 2". And they were too stiff
Cutting coils only works for a small amount, and use a grinder with a cutoff wheel so that you don't heat the metal. That would lose the spring rate!!!
 
Flow40s are going to be even more loud with a short tailpipe. The interior noise will be up as well since the mufflers are sitting just below you. Consider cutting two 3" holes in the trailing arm crossmember to feed some 2.5" exhaust pipes though. This way you can run the whole thing above the frame rails. Here's mine https://ck5.com/forums/threads/1968-c10-dd-project-new-tricks.312450/page-23
I'm running Flow50s mounted up under the bed. I also don't have any interior noise dampening, other than a rubber mat. So when I say it's pretty quiet cruising down the road, take my word for it lol. It's a whole other beast when you open it up though.

My truck is 3.5" lower in front. I never really meant to sit that low. I'm considering throwing some stock springs under to bring it back to 2.5" with the spindles. If I feel like it, I'll start trimming the springs little by little to what I originally wanted, 3". My angled blocks in the rear are easy enough to cut down, effectively raising the back end. I don't have any rub issues that I know of, but I also drive it knowing I'm low.

PS) in the link, those pictures are of it at 4.5" lower in front. I've gone through 3 different front springs from two different companies. I don't think either of them have a good handle on how much the springs ACTUALLY drop the truck. I think cutting, while time consuming, is the best way to go.
 
Well, I can deal with it being a little loud but if it drones badly while at a stop we will have a problem. I'll let y'all know how it goes. Supposedly the H pipe is supposed to cut down on noise a little bit.
 
76k5blazerr said:
So you are saying I should cut the factory coils up front instead of buying lowered coils? Another question, what exactly are drop spindles? Sorry, this is the first 2wd I have ever owned.
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I would buy new stock and try them and if its to tall try the 1/2 coil cut off.

reason I say this the springs you have now are OLD as hell and whipped .

also droped spindles is a new knuckle the rotor / caliper attach to . then this gets bolted to the ball joints. but as far as I know they only start @ 2" of drop to 3" of drop .

flow master 40 is lots of inside cabin droan noise . 50 is a lot better . and get the tail pipe how ever long out from under the body so it exits outside of the body . this will also help with min droan sound in the cabin area.
 
sweetk30 said:
I would buy new stock and try them and if its to tall try the 1/2 coil cut off.

reason I say this the springs you have now are OLD as hell and whipped .

also droped spindles is a new knuckle the rotor / caliper attach to . then this gets bolted to the ball joints. but as far as I know they only start @ 2" of drop to 3" of drop .

flow master 40 is lots of inside cabin droan noise . 50 is a lot better . and get the tail pipe how ever long out from under the body so it exits outside of the body . this will also help with min droan sound in the cabin area.
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I'll just have to see how the exhaust is when I get it put on. The exhaust pic I posted was something I found on another forum and the guy said he loved it. I just thought it looked like something I could do on the cheap. I bought the summit racing version of the flow 40. We'll see how it goes I geuss. Mainly I just want something on there. It's open headers right now and is brutally loud and the droan at idle is unbearable, and the neighborhood is not happy, lol.
 
ya those turn downs under the cab OR box will create a droan in the cab for you . even if you did 2 90's 1 per side out to the sides of the box it will help a ton .
 
sweetk30 said:
ya those turn downs under the cab OR box will create a droan in the cab for you . even if you did 2 90's 1 per side out to the sides of the box it will help a ton .
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Well, we will see tomorrow what it sounds like and how bad the droan is. Got the exhaust all welded up tonight. Happy with it so far. Can't wait to hear it.

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I would try that, like SweetK30 said, it will help. My old '68 C10 , I did swept back pipes so they angled back like the trailing arms.
 
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