Okay need some vintage info . Were there raised spindles used on gassers with upper/lower A arms back in the fifties/sixties days of drag racing and hot rods ? I guess if they did that would fall in line with vintage gasser associations and here on the hamb ? Thanks .
yes - i actually had a "custom made" welded set for a tri five......as far as running somthing like that a "modern" gasser meet.....check their specific rules - I know the southeast gassers require a solid axle
I think ball joint spacers were used more commonly than modified spindles, although I'm sure there was a little of everything in the mix. I do know that lots of mid-50s cars raced with independent front ends.
Ball joint spacers were the most common on tri fives also a lot of guys used the rubber air conditioning spacers to raise the front of their cars. Not to mention the use of the screw in spring spacers. Chevy van and econoline axles were cheap and easy to get.
Check back issues of Hot Rod Delux they did a feature on a raised spindle Chevy..The guy said he been running them for something like twenty years..I can't imagine the loads put on the A arms in street driving..Scary to me..
Any spindle mod via welding two spindles together (mentioned on post #2) and includes C style ball joint spacer (fit's between spindle and ball joint stem and a tall coil spring), ball joint spacer of another type (fit's between upper a-frame and ball joint also with a tall coil spring) have been band from running at the track due to failures.
I drove a 55 like that Green one in the late 60's down in Florida they were called high boys back then. It had a Chevy van front axle and the springs were on top of the rear end. Had a 340 hp 409 4speed and would not even run in the 14's. I drove it every day and it looked cool, but it was a turd.
Cutting and welding 2 spindles together by a competent welder, would be just as safe as fabricated A-Arms , Tube Axles, Hairpins or Shortened Rear Ends.[or even grafted front sub frames] All it would require is the simple process of "Heat Treating" and "Shot Peening"
I don't recall the name of the company but back in the later '60s ( maybe prior to that) there was a company that made spindles that resembled an upright and the actual spindle was movable up and down to set your ride height. There were companies in the '60s that made dropped spindles and "lifted spindles" for gasser type of cars. At least I remember seeing them in the later '60s. A popular way to lift on when I was a kid was either with ball joint spacers or with rewound springs.
There were far more cars running in the Gas Classes with A Arm Suspensions than straight axles, and that my friends is a FACT. The axle cars that ran in A and B gas in particular got most of the press, but for every axle car there were 20 A-Arm cars running in C/G, D/G and so on, and not even all the top A/G and B/G were axle cars.
Can you explain your thinking? I don't see the load on the A-Arm changing at all. The Ball Joint, if not corrected for angle and therefore bind, yes, but not the A-Arms - what am I missing?
If the raised spindle stays within the upper and lower A-arms, then the load will be minimal because there isn't a huge amount of leverage . But if the hub to the spindle were to be located outside of say the lower A-arm (like on a 6" lift), then you will create a lever effect. And the load to the ball joints and A-arms will be increased substantially. Think of the action to a crow bar. The longer the handle is, the greater leverage you can exert. Same goes here. The taller the spindle, the more force is applied to the ball joints and A-arms. That said, I never remember hearing of a ball joint or A-arm failure.
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