Enclosed is a longish thread with what I did to install the a arms on my truck, along with the crappy pics I took, lol...
First of all, my truck had already had the torsion bars removed and coilovers installed. Also these are NOT the S10 spindles. After looking at the stockers, I bought a set of stock height S10 spindles and rotors, along with the tie rods. The stock S10 spindles were adding roughly 22 lbs of weight to my truck, plus the ride height was going to increase. I would have to purchase drop spindles to get back to where I was, plus added weight on the front end, not what you are looking for when drag racing.
I ended up trading for a set of Mustang II/Pinto style spindles with Wilwood disc brakes already on them, stock ride height. After doing some CAREFUL measuring, I decided this was the route I would go, so I had DHP build my a arms with the pinto ball joints. I also had them with a 1 inch narrower overall width per side, for a 2 inch total track width reduction. The ride height is exactly one inch lower than the stock set up, so a set of 2 inch drop spindles would put you 3 inches lower than stock with no other changes. This narrower track width, however, is a PITA with coilovers, as there is not much room in the stock pocket. This is NOT DHP's fault, it was a custom request. I ended up doing some shock tower trimming to make mine work, it is close, but it was aligned with no issues, and is not touching. If you go with the narrower track width, (which looks better to me, be aware that there is some work involved with coilovers, I don't think the stock shock/torsion bar set up would be a problem, however.
My Mustang II spindles were installed previously on a 2000 Extreme S10 Blazer, the bottom ball joint mount had been reamed to stock S10 dimensions, but I did not know that the tie rod had been as well. The plan was to use the stock s10 outers and adjusters, along with 1966 Chevy II inner tie rods to make the tie rods adjustable. unfortunately for me, after purchasing the new inners, and having the pull a part outers and adjusters, the extreme tie rods studs were larger than the stock s10 ones I had, and the extreme has a different thread size, so I had to go another route. After looking through the books at my local parts house, I determined I was screwed. Nothing would make the length right, with the existing stuff I had. (I think the stock s10 set up with the chevy II inners would work fine with the stock track width s10 spindle swap as is, and the 1 inch narrower track width swap with some minor shortening of the s10 thread end to compensate. You will have to ream the spindle out to the proper taper and diameter on the Mustang II spindles to fit, but no biggie there, any local dirt tracker should have a reamer. I ended up going the cheap route and installing a bump steer kit from Speedway involving the heim joints you will see in the pics. (Don't do this on a street driven truck)worked out fine so far for me.
I ended up with 68 lbs of front end weight removed on my truck, and the brakes work great! (stockers always were crappy to me). In the pics, you will see I have not reinstalled the rods that go from the lower a frame to the front of the frame, I haven't tried this out yet, but I don't think it will be an issue. (If you look at a stock Mustang II set up, they have them, but none of the street rod installs do). Again, I don't recommend this on a street truck. I also don't have the sway bar either. The only turn I make is off the track onto the return road.
I also replaced the lder arm assembly on mine with one for a 81 p'up, bolts in, used the stock 78 arm, looks a little different, but works the same, and a different torsion bar with 2 new rod ends (chevyluv1980, your old truck still lives in pieces) I also replaced the stock brake lines with fabbed new stuff (thwe old lines are annealed and hard to flare) along with a new master cylinder for a 1988 DodgeDaytona, a proportioning valve and a line loc. You can get metric to SAE line adapters to hood up the S10 or Pinto stuff to the stock lines if you so choose.
As far as brakes, if you run the s10 spindles, the stock stuff is fine, you can get metric stuff (G body) that will work as upgrades. If you run the Mustang II, you can get feebay kits that include modified stocker type rotors (Granada, will have a larger rotor than the stock stuff, with 5 lugs in them, with spindles included for less than $400 bucks.) You can also get the Aerospace kits for a less total cost, but you still have the ungly stock upper and lower a arms, plus the extra weight, and the wheel is offset further out than stock, so I think the extra coin is worth it.
Now for some pics...
From left to right, the stocker spindle/rotor, the s10 stuff, and the Willwood stuff...
Stock a arm spindle installed...
DHP/Willwood stuff...
DHP stuff with shock tower trimmed...
Bump steer kit...
And this is the ride height and narrowed track width after the install, and before the alignment...
Not sure if it tell you much, but this is a before pic...
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