Hardbody Dropped Spindles on '78-'79 620

[slodat]

I've seen reference to it here and there and I'm aware that ]2eDeYe is planning to run this setup in his 620. Has anyone done this? or does anyone know of someone who has?

 

I'm referring to Bell Tech's p/n 2005 drop spindle.

[Icehouse]

The Australian dude that is doing the ca18det truck has stock 720 or new spindles on his truck. From what I understand all the 620s came with drums down under :D Maybe you could PM him and find out.

[yello620]

My 76 620 now has 79 lower control arms and balljoints, custom upper control arms and 79 620 upper ball joints. I am running 1990 stock spindles on these control arms/balljoints. When i put my truck together i could see no reason whatsoever that a drop spindle would not fit. Thats one of the reason i used the control arm method to convert my truck.

Remember that you need 17" wheels, some 16's might fit.

 

Jason

[dsigh]

My 76 620 now has 79 lower control arms and balljoints, custom upper control arms and 79 620 upper ball joints. I am running 1990 stock spindles on these control arms/balljoints. When i put my truck together i could see no reason whatsoever that a drop spindle would not fit. Thats one of the reason i used the control arm method to convert my truck.

Remember that you need 17" wheels, some 16's might fit.

 

Jason

 

"Custom" upper control arms - how tough were these to make? Were these fabricated '79 uppers? Do you have any pics?

 

Does anyone know if 16s will work?

[mklotz70]

slodat....Bre620 and I personally checked out the spindles between the '79 620 disc truck and a hardbody. Everything appeared to match perfectly, except that the mounting tabs for the calipers are different. The steering arms looked to have the same length and angle too, but you could bolt your 620 ones to the hardbody spindles if you didn't think they were perfect. They have the same taper in the ball joint holes. So....if the stockers are such a perfect match, then the dropped ones for a HB should bolt right up, you'll just need the hubs/rotors/calipers from the HB. I'm pretty sure you'll need diff rims.

 

Because the calipers don't swap, the manufacture of the spindles is not going to say that they will fit the 720 or 620's. It would be too hard for them to try to explain in an add....besides, they probably don't feel there's enough of the older rigs around to worry about explaining it.

[slodat]

Bell Tech says they fit 15" wheels and larger. I called their tech support line. He said they would for sure be no problem with my 16" wheels.

 

Cool. I'll be doing this in the near(ish) future).

[]2eDeYe]

Make sure you grab ALL the bolts, brackets and lines from the spindle of your donor truck as none of the brake parts are the same as your 620.

 

I have a list somewheres around here that lists all the vehicles that use the frontier/hardbody calipers and it's a fairly long list.

[]2eDeYe]

The calipers are easy to come by at the wrecking yards.

 

List of Calipers

[yello620]

Slodat, I know that you like bigger brakes. When using hardbody spindles, The D21 v-6 trucks used larger diameter and thicker rotors than the 4 cyl trucks. They also used twin piston calipers. The upgrade is very easy. Simply buy new v-6 rotors and get calipers from a D21 4x4. The D21 2wd v-6 caliper/bracket is the same as a D21 4x4. And plentiful in the junkyard.

 

Jason

[]2eDeYe]

Nice :cool:

[slodat]

Thanks for the info Jason!!

[irsa76]

Sweet!

I like the idea of big brakes, and D21s are common in wreckers here.