Technical What year suspension is this?

I picked this up to put juice brakes on my A but I don't know what year car they came off of. Any clues?

 

Looks like 46/47 to me,not a 48,some one may be able to do better?

 

Wow...look at that rear spring. I guess that is one way of lowering it.

 

Thanks for the reply. I'll do some more googling too.

 

The "drop" in the front bones says late forties I believe.

 

Holy shit! And through multiple leaves too, they must have used a huge press and some serious heat! I'd hang that on the wall for sure, complete with extra-long shackles, that's wild.

 

Rearend looks to be a 1940.

 

Take pictures of the 6 o'clock position on all four backing plates (in case someone mixed the brakes) and post them. I am assuming you intend to just remove the brakes and use them on your axles, correct?

Charlie Stephens

 

Front end is 46 to 48. You can tell by the drop in the wishbone. Rear looks to be a 40 but hard to tell n that picture. Look at the front drums and hubs. I believe 48 hubs are little different than the 46 47 also look for a place for a panhard bar on the front. I believe 48's had a panhard mount on the end of one side of the wishbone.

 

I really haven't decided what direction I'm going yet. I bought the suspension, flathead and tranny right after I traded for the A. The A is stock right now other then the wheels.

Once again, thanks for the replies guys. I'll have to go out to the garage to get more detailed pics.

 

Ok, I just took a few more pics. Hopefully this will narrow it down.

 

Front end is 46 or 47 pretty much the same, I see lever shock links on the front and I wanna say 48 had tube shocks(could be wrong) but I also don't see a panhard mount on it for the front. On the rear, looking at the rear wishbone mounts and the brake backing plates same deal, 46 47

 

Thanks man. I assume they came off the same car but I don't know for sure. Everything still spins easy so I think all I'll have to do is clean them up and re-pack bearings.

 

The reason I asked for you to take the 6 o'clock position is that shows what year the brakes are. The brakes on the front axle in the first picture are post war and the brakes in the last picture on the rear end are pre war. The post war brakes did not have an adjustment at the bottom and the pre war did. I can only assume the brakes on each side of the axle are the same. Note that some, but not all, of the parts interchange between post and pre war. Be sure you have a good puller before you try to remove the rear hubs or you will ruin parts.

Charlie Stephens

 

Yup your exactly right, missed that in the pics.

 

Thanks Charlie. You guys really are a wealth of information for this noob hotrod builder.

 

if your planning on using that front axle, I would thing about trying to find another one. that one has a pretty good bend in it.. For the banjo, the only way to know for sure what you have is to tear it all the way down and inspect all the parts. once you get the drums off its not bad. but that way you can clean inspect and replace worn parts as needed instead of it blowing up 10 min into your very first test drive.... yes that happened to me.

 

I noticed that bend too so I doubt I'll use it. It will probably just end up as garage art. I'm leaning right now at sending the original front out to have a 4" drop put in it. I thought I saw a guy on here that would do it if you sent him your axle. I like the idea of re-using 80 some year old parts instead of buying new.

As far as the banjo, is there a significant difference in strength from that one to the stock A banjo? The A is a running driving car so I know that one is good.

I'm pumped about this. Never built a suspension before or a flathead.

 

I would use that later one over the A banjo any day. Its just beefier and it already has the juice brakes on it. you'll have to shorten up the torque tube or convert it to open drive, but there are a billion opinions on this. it really kinda depends on what you want to do with the drive train. if your gonna keep the banger in it for a while by all means use the stock rear. if you swapping to a flathead I would consider swapping the rear and mating it to a 39 top loader. important thing is to come up with a total game plan of what you want it to be, and stick to the plan. deviations from the original plan always make a project car take longer to get back on the road.

 

I'm planning on going with the 59ab that I've got for power. Right now, I'm leaning at doing the S10 5 speed swap for drive ability. I'll probably swap the rear right out of the gate and be done with that. I do have the tranny that came with the flatty though.

 

The later rear end is definitely stronger than the Model A rear end but if you rebuild the Model A rear end correctly and drive it reasonably you shouldn't have problems. If you run the later rear end you will have to narrow it (assuming you are running fenders) and shorten the drive shaft/torque tube. Although I like the look of the banjo rear end if I was going open drive I would consider a later rear end. If you run either of the early rear ends be sure to run safety hubs or clips. Remember when you put the axle nut on the early Ford rear ends they need to be torqued to about 200 foot pounds (look up the exact number).

Charlie Stephens

 

That's weird. It looks to be a factory bend in the front axle. How else could it be bent like that?

 

I have 39. Axle that was supposedly bent like that at an alignment shop years ago to compensate for a tweeked frame.

 

Mustang 8 inch rears are dime a dozen and easier to set up with open drive trans than a banjo. I beat on mine so all mine have newer rears or at least a 9 inch.

 

No use swapping this '40 Ford rearend into the car (requires shortening the driveshaft and torquetube) with the old Ford toploader, and then having to throw that work away when you swap a T-5 into it. Decide what you want, then do the work one time. Might want to check into the amount of work and costs associated with those swaps you are dreaming of. I know I sure hate to spend money twice.

 

Well it's only going to have a flatty in it so no big horsepower there and I really like the look of the banjo. I've got Lightning for beating on.

Oh, and no fenders so I don't have to worry about the width of the axle too much.

 

I hear you man. The only reason I have the old tranny is because it was a package deal with the motor and suspension.

 

I like to work on old cars. And old Fords are more fun cause you can mix up the years and most of the parts will still bolt together if you have a big enough hammer. Start throwing a Chevy part in the middle and you need to get out the machine tools.

 

This is an area where I definitely don't have much knowledge but I think I read that Bronco rear ends were the one to use since they had the 5 on 5 1/2 inch bolt pattern. Might be good to look into. I don't know if the wire wheels will work on the Bronco rear end even with the same bolt pattern.

Charlie Stephens

 

Def true. But the early square body bronco rears are getting harder to find and pricer. The wire wheels will work but you need to use a support ring for proper centering of tge wire wheels. At least on 35 wires I would think the others need it as well.