1975 Chevy Stepside Truck - The Real McGaughY's

Once Steve removed the passenger-side caliper and disconnected the steering arm, he began to take off the disc backing plate.

Before attacking the passenger-side spindle bolts, Steve used a transmission jack to hold the lower A-arm in place. A skilled machinist and fabricator, Steve can use a trans jack safely, but hobbyists ought to use a spring compressor. He removed the spindle.

Steve took the tension out of the passenger-side suspension with the trans jack and carefully removed the original coilover spring. Notice the black lower A-arm. Prior to getting his truck lowered, John sourced a new front suspension rebuild kit from Just Suspension in Mooresville, NC.

The McGaughy's coilover spring is 2 inches shorter than the GM factory coilover. Steve installed the new spring correctly by making sure the end of the spring was seated in the notch of the Just Suspension lower A-arm.

The McGaughy's '73-87 2.5-inch drop spindle, as shown on the left, will provide a total frontend drop of 4.5 inches, since the coilover springs are 2.5 inches lower than stock. The spindle on the right is the original GM item. This '75 Chevy C10 came from the factory with HD (heavy-duty) brakes, which have 1 1/4-inch thick rotors. Make sure you specify the correct McGaughy's spindles for your application. The LD (light-duty) GM disc brakes have 1-inch thick rotors.

The McGaughy's Classic Drop 2.5-inch 4140 chrome-moly patent-pending CNC-machined '73-87 drop spindle went into place with aplomb....

...The tie-rod end and spindle have already been attached in photo 27.

Steve attached the disc backing plate to the passenger-side spindle.

We opened the door of one of the three CNC machines that McGaughy's utilizes to produce spindles. McGaughy's has invested over $3 million in their CNC machines to produce its award-winning, patent-pending spindles. From a 4140-chrome-moly-spindle spud, this machine is producing a '73-87 2.5-inch drop spindle.