Ok - I need some experienced advice for my 40: I have a Posie reverse eye spring that dropped the front 2", but it is still too high. My plans are to install a 4" dropped axle from Sid, unstretched in order to gain some wheel/tire clearance. The unstretched axle puts me at 1" more narrow on each side (46.5" kingpin to kingpin vs. stock 48.5"). Questions: What is the overall height drop I will get with a 4" drop axle? My wheels are 15x6 with a 3.5" backpacing. I have a set of G78 " 15 tires on the rims. By my measurements these wheels/tires should fit - and give me 1.5" rubber drop in comparison to the big L78-15s in the rear, but wont know 100% until the axle is in and the tires mounted. I tried to mount them on the truck yesterday and had interference in turning, and I am hopeful that once I gain the additional inch through the dropped axle I will be ok. after the rub yesterday I am now concerned that this tire may be to tall and fat for the front of the 40. Does anyone have experience with this wheel/tire combo on the front of a dropped 40? Here is a photo of the truck today with the L78 in the rear and stock 600-16 in the front. The 600s rub slightly at lock after I added the dropped spring. The rear is a parallel leaf and I am going to reverse the eyes for a drop on that end.
If only a 4 in. dropped axle is installed it actually lowers the front end 2 in. I cannot respond to the other questions as my vehicle is a 40 FORD car.
A good 4" axel works great on a 40.... And ditto, the advice to get in touch with pet & Jake's. Happy Flatheadin' 4TTRUK
Man your truck looks great. I think it looks great with the 16s on it. a 2" drop with the 600-16s would be dang near perfect. But that wasn't your question. The math of it says you should be about the same as now, maybe a little worse..... the additional width on your rims will put you 1/2 inch closer to the fender lip than the stock 40 rims, but your axle sets it in 3/4, for a net gain of only 1/4" figure a little wider profile width on the tire and it sitting up farther in the fender and you will probably rub about the same as now, maybe a little sooner.
I switched to 15" so that I could run disc brakes in the front. This is my daily driver now. I think that I am going to be dead on in the same width, as the axle takes me in an inch on each side, tires/wheels will bring me out about an inch. looks like I may be selling these new tires/wheels and going with a thinner set and greater offset. I guess I can put the tires on the back of my RPU -
That's one sweet daily driver. I am running 39 hydraulics, and if it wasn't for having to lose the wide-fives, I'd probably run discs too. Good luck, let us know how it all fits. I have a stretched 37-41 axle from Sid, for the car in my avatar. Don't have it in yet, but I'm thinking that my 550-16s will rub just a little at full lock.
Here's what I did. Perhaps it will help you. I wrote it about 10 years ago.The front tires do not rub the fenders when cornering. Since then I have installed the MT Products Lincoln brake kit on all for wheels. Using narrower front tires and/or removing leafs from your stock front spring may also enable you to "fine tune" your drop. I know you have already bought the reversed eye spring, Also, you will reach a point where the front axle hits the rubber axle bumpers. Click on photo to enlarge, I think. Also, if you know, please post the measurement of the distance between the wheel mounting surfaces of your stock 40 front end. My 1940 Build Info. Front suspension; Magnum 4 in. dropped axle with matching Magnum dropped steering arms. The axle is 3/4 in. narrower than stock axle to allow better tire/fender clearance. Front spring is POSIE #2040 39in spring with reversed eyes. Also Posie front shackles. Front has tube shocks and stock 1940 sway bar. Tube shocks were on th car when I bought the car in 1963. Bottom of shock attaches to perch bolt; top of shock attaches to vertical support that is bolted to frame rail. ( This was a kit that was sold many years ago and sometimes comes up on ebay.) I think similiar kits are available today from Chassis Engineering , TCI, etc.) I did not have to split the wishbones since the trans is stock 1940 trans with stock torque tube driveline and completely stock rear end with 3:78 gears. Rear spring is stock and not reversed. I made new rear shackles about an inch longer than stock to get the rear wheel and fender radius to match. Front tires are 5:60 x 15 Coker wide whites (2 3/4 in. white wall) on stock 15 x 5 1/2 early Ford truck rims (total rim width is 6 1/2 in.). Tire dia. is 25.88 in. Rear of car has BF Goodrich (from Coker) 7:60 x15 with 3 3/8 white wall. Rear tire dia is 28.66in. Rear rims are 15x6 from SOLIDS with 4 inch back spacing and 3 inch front spacing for a total rim width of 7 in. Bolt pattern of all wheels is stock 5 x 5 1/2 in. Bottom of front chin pan below grille is about 4 1/2 in off the ground. Because car sits so low two jacks are needed to lift front end in case of flat tire. One jack first lifts frame and then another jack goes under axle to lift wheel. One jack will not fit under the nose of the car as it is so low and you have to use 2 jacks so as not to crush the front sheet metal when lowering the car. On rear of car you need to first jack up the frame and then use another jack to jack up the axle housing in order to change a tire as it is a close fit. After installing the axle and front spring I had to shorten the tie rod by about 3/4 in and make the drag link about 3/4 in longer and rethread it 11/16-18 RH thread. When rewelding the tie rod, I cut it in the middle, inserted a solid piece of round stock, assembled the tie rod and welded all the joints. Right now the car "sits right" but the fluid from the rear end runs forward into the drive shaft since the car sits at such a rake. There is a baffle available for this problem but the rear and torque tube must be removed to install it. The gear oil draining from the rear is an annoying problem as I worry about the rear ends gears burning up due to low fluid level. Also I notice there is a vibration inside the torque tube caused by the wearing of the center bearing inside the torque tube. The stock torque tube only has one universal joint at the front of the torque tube under the "clam shell." I am now thinking about changing the car to open driveline to eliminate the torque tube. The width of the stock 40 rear drum surface to drum surface is 59 9/16 and I would like to know what modern rear comes closest to that measurement. But this would also mean installing a modern open driveline transmission or converting the stock trans to open driveline, like the early Ford pick up trucks. Hope this helps.
If you make a fist and can shove it under the chin and its tight, that's perfect. Avatar pic reflects the stance. Rubs a little on tight turns but its usually when I am in parking mode.
Something you'd also want to consider (especially the lower you get) is sway bars. I'm running front and back from Chassis Engineering (my front axle is 46", same kind used to pull the front wheels in on highboy Deuce's and Model A's respectively. so I use one for a 35-36 which has the same perch widths) I really haven't had any trouble to speak of in running my car this low (and I drive it hard, I'm a big fan of Fat Jack cars) , but I make sure I don't pull straight into steep drives, I usually go at an angle. Best of luck with your build
I have the Posie 'in da dirt' kit, so narrower 4 inch drop axle (which is actually 2 in the real world) Posie 'in da dirt' spring which is flatter than a stocker with a reversed eye. I have 15 inch ford steels, believed to be f100? with 6.40 15 WW. It rubs terribly, so much so that I'm raising it an inch. I tried it with 5.60's, and it was fine, but the tyres just looked too small for me. Back was a pancaked crossmember, so about a 4 inch drop, stock spring and shackles. I should say I havn't driven it yet, and dont have the kingpin bolts in, so no 'steering stop', which means that I maybe over turning the steering and tyre may not touch with the bolts installed. It's down to wheel offset, 'tradford' sits just how i'd like mine, but there's some tinkering to do yet. As for lowering a stock axle, from what I've found out, there's not enough material between the perchbolt and kingpin to drop it. Chin height, will vary with the rake you have. Level car, higher chin. My build thread: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/348-powered-40-ford-sedan.936487/
Does anyone know if swapping in a 35/6 wishbone and axle trick will work on a 41 ford? I'm asking because eventually, I would like to drop the front of my wife's 41 sedan. I always assumed it was the same as 40? Anything I should watch out for north of 1940? We were gonna go 7.60x15 in back and 5.50 15 up front (firestone) wheels are old chrome reverse.
Tuck that's not what I heard. I'm pretty sure the X member is in a different place than a 40, so your wishbone would be a different length. Have you looked into raising the front crossmember? Might be able to get it down with all stock suspension parts by just modifying the crossmember. I'd guess clearance around the crank pulley and radiator would be the limiting factor here.
I hadn't thought about that I'll scope it out- the car has a 8ba swap and the radiator has been changed, there might be room depending how the rad sits in there on the bottom.
Somebody (Speedway?) used to sell a flatter crossmember for the 41-48's. Seemed like a simple way to get it down 3 or 4 inches. But a guy like you could modify the stock one. Then if it's still not low enough you can get an inch or more with a flattened spring for free.
^^^^ yup speedway used to sell one. I had one a few years ago for a 46 coupe that got sold before i did anything with it. Crossmember left with the car. Seems like Chassis Engineering might sell one too....
I can't believe this post is still alive, tho I am glad it is. I have dropped the rear of my "40 using the Posie reverse eye lowering spring, did not do much maybe gained 3/4", lower. The 75 year old Detroit iron was pretty clapped out, so it was already sagging in the ass, the new spring is much better as far as real suspension goes. I have completed the Mustang Master cylinder swap over and I have purchased a Posie reverse eye front spring and I have a front axle from Sid (great guy, excellent work A+ in my book), and I have the spindles dropped. All that is left to do is install all the goodies and hope that I don't hit the wishbone. thank you for all the great advice and leads. I will post up some pix as soon as it is done. I am running 15: rims off a '55 Imperial they look like artillery type wheels I had to narrow the fronts to 5" 225/75 out back 155/85 in the front.
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