Charlie69's 66 520 Build

[gene knight]

She will be missed

[Charlie69]

Been catching up up on yard work and cleaning my garage so I can work on my 520.  I was able to get my tool box for my 86 king cab out of the bed of the 520 today.

[Charlie69]

I ordered the strut rod bushings and the 2 rear wheel cylinders for the 520 yesterday.

[Charlie69]

Cleaning and painting front suspension parts.  I ran out of primer so I will prime and paint the passenger side torsion bar and torsion bar hardware tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gene knight]

Nice work

[Bory]

C6

I love using trees for painting parts, the closest way to going green I can go. Good work.

[S30Jay]

Nice! Thank goodness for all those trees!

[mklotz70]

When it gets warm around here, sap starts dripping from the trees. :(

[Charlie69]

All cleaned, primed, and painted waiting for install.  Waiting on strut rod bushings and the wheel cylinders to come in from Rock Auto.  Maybe get installed on Friday.  I have Doctor appointment and PT appointment tomorrow.

 

 

[S30Jay]

Looking good Charlie!

[Charlie69]

Thank you!

[Charlie69]

Last of the tension (strut) rods cleaned, primed and painted.  I hopefully will get the front suspension put together in the morning.  My goal is to have the brakes and wheels on the front tomorrow.

 

[Charlie69]

Installed the tension (strut) rods with new Moog bushings.  Removed center link and tie rods as an assembly.  Removed outer tie rods and cut a 1/4" off of each per Belltech Lowering Spindle instructions.  Reassembled and installed center link and tie rods.  I am using the drop spindles on a 1980 chassis and they are designed for 1983 to 1997 Nissan 2WD trucks, Later 720 (vented rotor disc brakes) 1986 to 197 D21 Hardbody 2wd trucks.  I will have to pull the tie rods again and cut a 1/4" off the inner tie rods.  I can not get any toe in unless I shorten the inner tie rod also.  Practicing with old tie rods until I get it correct.  Torqued and cotter pinned the new Moog upper and lower ball joints and the center link and tie rod ends.

 

I knocked out the races from the hubs and installed new bearings and fresh grease to new bearings and previously cleaned hubs.

 

I will take pictures tomorrow after I finish cutting the inner tie rods and install hubs, brakes, and wheels.  I have been told by several people the I will not be able to run stock 14" steel wheels with the lowered spindles.  I will find out tomorrow.

[mrbigtanker]

Going to be the nicest truck at the b b q

[Charlie69]

Yours will be, I will not be able to bring this one.

 

I am still off work from my knee replacement with no income.  But that will not stop me from working on it.  Might go back out after dark and work some more on it.  I want to try to get the front suspension finished including swapping the torsion bars.  I will set the torsion bars to factory settings to see what the 2" drop spindles actually do for the look and the height.  I will take pictures and I will take pictures of the rear also.

 

I am not sure how low I will go but I am thinking 3 in front and 3" in back.  I measured my stock 520 springs and the customized 720 4x4 springs and unladen (springs upside down on the cement off the truck) there is exactly 2" difference.

 

I am looking to get a 1" rake from front to back.

[gene knight]

Sounds like a plan

[Charlie69]

Did not get any work done on the 520 today.  However I went to the wrecking yard and picked up 2 banjo bolts for the front caliper hoses and the frame mounts for the hose to steel brake line connection.  The 1980 chassis has a different setup for the smaller calipers.

[Charlie69]

Gene and I worked on my 520 today.  Installed new center link and will get the set of new tie rods from my 1985 720 with the bent frame.  Gene installed all the new suspension and steering parts on the 85 720 before we knew the frame was bent.

 

We will put the new tie rods on tomorrow after  we figure out if installing 1/4" wheel spacers will keep 14" wheels from hitting the lower control arm,.

 

 

 

 

Well 3 steps forward but if I can not run 14" wheels with the lowered spindles I will change out the lowered spindles to stock 85-86 720 spindles to keep the vented rotor brakes and the 14" wheels.

[S30Jay]

Good to see the progress Charlie! I'm impressed that you aren't letting it slide during your recovery....it's got to be difficult to be crawling under that thing.

 

I hope you are feeling 100% better since the surgery.

[510SSS]

Sweet truck Charlie, looks like you are getting it done, slowly but surely, sorry about you're doggy, that is sad to lose a friend like that, I really like the way you completely laid out how to use the steering column from a modern 4x4 to reinforce you're steering column, keep you're build inspiration man, you've come this far, get that 520 on the road. What a sexy truck lol :thumbup: I want a 520 now <--jealous. 

[thisismatt]

Nice work.  You're getting more done than a lot of us shmucks! :D

[Charlie69]

It feels good to work on my 520.  It is hard to work without Darla's help.  But these are fond memories so I think all the laughs Darla brought to me.

 

Thank you all for the kind words and inspiration.

[gene knight]

Yep, she was a playful big dog

[Charlie69]

Gene and I worked on my 520 some today.  We tried 4 different 14" wheels and with the 2" lowered spindles 14" wheels are out of the game.  the wheels hit the lower control arms.  I tried 1/8", 1/4", and 3/8" spacers and the wheels still hit.  If I keep the lowered spindles I will have to run 15" or larger diameter wheels.  I have 4 sets of 14" wheels for this truck.

 

 

[thisismatt]

Sell 4 sets of 14" wheels, get one excellent set of 15 or 16" wheels :D