In the grand theme of things it has been opinioned one of the big distinctions between styling philosophies guiding General Motors' truck and automobile designs of the '50s and '60s was the annual model change where GM cars got a major facelift while the trucks received a few new emblems and that was it. Putting styling aside and moving on to a discussion purely of truck engineering advancements brings us to the second installment of the brake and suspension modifications we've been making to our '66 Chevy C10. For those of you who missed the first installment we joined forces with KA Custom and Early Classic Enterprises to make our upgrades using a hybrid mix of Early Classic's high-quality lowering springs, trailing-arms, and spindles combined with '73-87 Chevrolet C10 heavy-duty F44 brakes. Because of General Motors' practice of including interchangeability into the plan the 5- to 6-lug bolt-pattern swap we made up front was in the cards for the rear end as well. The '66 C10's 12-bolt differential that left the San Jose, California, GM truck plant in'66 at the core of this conversion is retained thanks to a pair of 5-lug axles from Early Classic Enterprises. Once the axles were in place the next step for Steve at KA Custom was to install the bigger F44 drum brakes also sourced from Early Classic's catalog of new parts.
Beyond the motivation of being able to select from a greater choice of wheel designs with 5-lug bolt patterns, the adaptation of F44 drum brakes with their greater surface area than stock '66 brakes means the truck will be able to stop faster. It's one of those an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure situations when one weighs the cost of stopping in time, or having to pay up for compacting someone's car into an accordion. Sleazy PI attorneys, and missed days at work in court aside the ability to stop on a consistent basis makes a classic truck much more pleasurable to drive.
In addition to installing Early Classic's 5-lug big-brake conversion kit with 5-lug axles, we used Early Classic's 6-inch drop kit that is engineered to increase the handling of our '66 thanks to a full-width Panhard bar (also known as a Panhard rod, or track bar) and relocated shock absorber brackets that mount the shocks in a more upright position to enhance function. Check out the last photo in this article and you will see using Early Classic's 2 1/2-inch drop spindles with 1 1/2-inch drop coils up front (Covered in the March issue) along with their 6-inch drop kit for the rear laid our bad boy '66 down on the ground with a 4/6 drop.
Here's the stock '66 rear...
Here's the stock '66 rear suspension complete with six-lug hubs and narrow drum brakes. Notice the stock Panhard bar extends from the driver's side framerail to the top of the differential.
When Steve at KA Custom removed...
When Steve at KA Custom removed the stock brake drum he discovered the rear axle seal leaked and had soaked the brake thoroughly with hypoid gear oil. Steve suggested taking a photo of the brakes at this point to use as reference to assemble the big brake setup from Early Classic Enterprises.
Steve laid all of the Early...
Steve laid all of the Early Classic brake parts out on a tabletop to account for each one before starting. The next step was to familiarize him self with the directions.
To lower the rear suspension...
To lower the rear suspension six inches we used Early Classic's full-width Panhard bar conversion kit, which accounts for the drop along with special lowered KYB shocks as part of Early Classic's big-brake upgrade. Here Steve is seen disconnecting the rear shock absorbers brackets to drop the rearend down.
Besides repositioning the...
Besides repositioning the Panhard bar, the Early Classic drop kit also accounts for the shock angles necessary by providing upper and lower shock relocating brackets. Due to 40-plus years of rust Steve had to cut the original stock upper shock mounts from the frame.
This is how the Early Classic...
This is how the Early Classic top shock absorber relocating bracket appeared after Steve bolted it into place. Note the Grade 8 hardware included in the ECE kit.