Hello... first post here. I recently bought a 40 Tudor... it's an Old Hot Rod that I was told was built in the 90s,,, but I would guess in the 70s. It has a 402 BigBlockChevy / TH400. The first thing I addressed after purchasing the car was the stock wishbone rubbing a hole into the ATF pan. The "ball" on the wishbone was not mounted to the frame ( the seller was driving it daily this way ). I found two ball caps with the rubber bushing and spaced it about 1.25" away from the frame to clear the wishbone from the ATF pan. It worked, for a little while... then it started rubbing again. I found the motor mounts were collapsed, so I replaced them... resulting in the engine lifting about 1/2". I also put a 1/4" spacer in the trans mount and that lifted the ATF pan about 1/4" off of the wishbone. Long story short, I've determined the front spring and shock(s) are not set up correctly which is causing the car to sit too low.... the current ride-height looks cool, but the "rubbing" is not worth the cool aesthetics. Along with the ATF being damaged, so is the steering box from the pitman arm. I have a 48" axle. Please view pictures and advise me if replacing the spring with a Poise #2040 and the Shackles/Shock Mount with a Pete & Jake #5001 is the right thing to do. Thank you. View attachment 5012293
Well, your spring looks like it's well used, and flattening out. New spring should give you more ride height, and clearance at pan. Spacing the rear wishbone mount helps, but you should check caster with this in place. I have no experience with those specific parts you're suggesting, but just observing your pictures.
The wishbones probably should have been split when the later drive-line was installed. A kit to do that would likely solve your issues. You would then need to heat and bend the front ends of the wishbones to re-align them at the shackles or do small pie cut reliefs on the wishbones. This all should have been done by whoever did the engine/ transmission swap to allow for clearance. There should be some threads on here regarding splitting the bones.
Not relevant, but certainly a beautiful location (backdrop) in the photo with your two pups! My kind of backyard!!
Thanks. I've seen the split wishbone kit and considered it... but the fenderwell header exhaust system gets in the way of any split wishbone. Maybe later I will reroute the exhaust to accommodate a split wishbone.
Sorry, I commented above, but half asleep. the Split wishbone kit for 35-40 frame only moves the ball out from centerline a bit. The wishbone arms pretty well follow the x-member after splitting. You shouldn't have much of an issue with your exhaust, or easily rectified if so. This should give you the clearance needed for transmission pan.
I split the wish bones, look at speedway motors for the kit, that cleared the transmission It’s been a long time, but I remember I used shocks with overload springs on them( I think Chevy 1/2 ton) I really would like to send you pictures but car is still in winter storage. Picture in your mind, you can’t keep lowering the rear on the wish bones as that rotates the axle
Spring is "done". Doing a split bone and new spring should sort you out. Split the bone first, then measure for the length the spring needs to be if you have to heat the spring perch to get it straight after splitting the bone. Then, you can do the axle drop to get your ride height back. Haha, it's never easy. Cool car.
What you have there is a pretty good mess. With the shock set-up, you have lost the sway bar, which is a big help on these cars. The Posie spring is too low. You should split the wishbone, we have a kit that would work real well and is not a lot of work. I would rebuilt the original spring and put liner in it, replace the shock kit with one that will allow you to replace the sway bar, both of which we carry. A dropped axle will allow you to keep the ride height and still have plenty of ride and clearance. Check out our website.
@Weedburner 40 is your go to expert in this situation. if you’re new to navigating this forum here is his website http://www.weedetrstreetrod.com/ If you are on an iPhone turn it sideways for his website, works much better
X2 on weedetr; have personally used his stuff on my 40 and it is of the highest quality and customer service is too.
I see that spring is bent in a few places. It needs replacing, not just tuning up. And those headers are not your friend either. Use components from Weedeater, along with a new exhaust and you will be much happier. And, that car is NOT too low. When set up right, a 40 can look cool as well as perform well. You just need the right combo of parts.
That’s quite the sleeper! Innocent looking Tudor with big block power, very cool. The advice about the weedetr front end upgrade is right on, it looks like your front spring, shocks, etc have seen better days. If you really don’t want to split the wishbone it may help to install a stock type transmission pan instead of the bulky aluminum one and service the trans while your at it. Me, I’d leave the headers on at least until you settle on the ride height and tires. Then if they are an issue maybe change. They are a cool old custom made part, help a BBC breathe better and are way more interesting than run of the mill block huggers or boring stock manifolds. Hey, it’s a neat old build as is, you just need to fix the suspension. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Nice Tudor! Like others have said: New spring with reversed eyes. New shocks with mounts Split wishbone kit if still needed for clearance Sway bar if desired. It looks like you have a stock axle. The new spring will raise the ride height back UP. You might consider a dropped axle to get it back down. But, that will require dropping or replacing the steering arms for clearance. Like this:
How does your front swaybar mount, 1939 Ford, attach to the axle? I have a dropped Ford axle with a tubular shock kit. I don't know who's it is. It has a bolt on tower on top with a long spring perch bolt on the bottom. I have a Posie's reverse eye spring also. Thanks, Bill
Sway bar links to the top of the perch pin. It won't fit with your shock setup. Our shock kit also attaches to the perch pin.
First of all you need to replace your front spring. You also need to split your wishbones. I know that Chassis Engineering is no longer in business, but I heard that someone has purchased their inventory. I don't have a CE catalog, but I used their part number ES-2178 to split the wishbones in my '46 Woodie. If you can get a catalog you can look up my part number and see how it is used. 1940 will be different, but it's the same basic design. The wishbone ball is eliminated and tie rod ends must be screwed into bungs that will need to be welded on the ends once the ball is cut off. The spring purchases will also be heated and bent to compensate for the moving of the wishbone outward.
Thank you for all the suggestions and pictures! I picked up a "Donor" Car on Saturday, it has an SBC with A-Arm Suspension. Going to do a Chassis swap.
What do you mean chassis swap, hope you aren’t planning to swap that a-arm chassis to under the 40 std. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Maybe the pics aren't showing it's true condition. But your donor car looks nicer than what a lot of people on here start with for their project.
Considering how poorly cars age in Hawaii, this shell is extremely salvageable... I plan on putting the shell up for sale once I pull the chassis out from under it.
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