I am working on a 1938 Chevy 2 door sedan. Back in 2013 I pulled the car apart and put a chassis engineering front subframe and rear suspension set up in the vehicle and it has sat un touched till now. Back then I purchased a 8.8 Ford Explorer rear end but never mounted it due to drive line considerations. Now that I have had years and years to figure out the direction I want to go with the car I am ready to get back to it. My ultimate plan is to drop an lq4 engine with a manual trans in the car. My current issue is spring perch’s for the 8.8 axle. I am finding perches but they are all geared towards a 4x4. I am coming from the Jeep world and muscle car world so doing an axle swap into a 30s era car is somewhat new to me. I have seen some spring perches that say they are only for spring over axle which I know from the Jeep world. The difference is the spring perch size is significantly longer and the ends are flat. I have read these will dig into the spring if there is any axle wrap and I need a perch that is rounded so to speak similar to stock spring perches. My question is after an extremely long and wordy post is does anyone have a recommendation for a spring perch that would work with a 2.5” leaf spring and a 3.25” axle tube? Or would a perch from a 4x4 work as they seem to be more common. Should I be worried about them digging into the spring if being used in the spring under axle application?
if you have the car sitting kind of low, I expect the springs will be nearly flat....I really doubt it will be a problem. If you're really worried about it, get some Moroso 85090 perches and open up the radius for the axle tube a little bit. They'd look better, any ways.
Curious what others think about spring perches from Tractor supply? ... they sell them for home made trailers.
A longer perch will help to eliminate spring wrap to some degree. If you are concerned with them digging into the spring due to wrap, grinding a radius on the rear of the spring perches (spring under axle, if spring over axle grind the radius on the front of the perch) should allay any fears. It shouldn't take much.
@Alyons05 A few observations…….having recently fitted an 8.8” rear axle in my ‘37 Chevy Coupe, I would suggest you consider a few realities of the Explorer 8.8”. 1. WMS width. 59.5/59.75”. Stock ‘37/‘39 Chevy is 59”…but that is coupled with a zero offset narrow rim. With stock fenders there is no room for a wider axle with a wider wheel and tire. 2. The pinion offset of Explorer and Ranger 8.8” axles is significant and coupled with the narrow driveshaft tunnel and it’s central location, there is driveshaft interference with the floor. Also, stock ‘37/‘39 floor space behind the diff is very limited. The stock Chevy diff housing size is considerably smaller than the ‘truck’ 8.8”. If you are dealing with rusted out floors and intend to replace them, new floors appropriately shaped can allow for the clearance issues. Narrowing the Explorer housing is often done by using another short side axle in place of the long side and removing about 2.875” from the axle tube, giving about a 56.5” WMS dimension. Careful wheel/tire selection can gain width and still coexist with stock fenders. The Explorer 8.8” axle assy is undeniably a very strong unit, if that is needed, but comes with some extra size and weight. In my case, I had Mustang (59”), Ranger (58.5”) and the Explorer axles on hand. After considering all of the above, I chose to use the Mustang 8.8” housing as it has a nearly centered pinion, equal length axle shafts and a bit slimmer diff housing. I replaced the 4 lug axles with specific Ranger 5 lug axle shafts and 10” drum brakes (did not want rear discs). Out of necessity I used 6” wide wheels and 215 tires. I also did modify the trunk floor with a ‘bump out’ panel for additional diff to body clearance. Your plan may call for different axle, wheel and tire requirements, but I thought this info may be useful to you or others with similar projects. Currie offers spring pads for various axle tube sizes, as do others. Ray
The Explorer 8.8 has axle tubes that are 3.25 in diameter, I use spring pads from Calvert Racing as they fit perfectly.
I have used these 8.8 axles in numerous builds, and never bought a new perch yet. I simply use my small grinder and a parting wheel to carefully cut the old perches off, and then reuse them in the new location. I did this on my '39 Chev coupe in my avatar, and even with the axle over the springs, and flatter than stock springs, the rear was still slightly high. So I used 1"x 2" box tubing to build a spacer, and welded it to the 8.8" spring perch to make it 1" thicker, and lower the car. I'm not a fan of aluminum spacer blocks, so welding steel to the perch block is a more permanent and solid way to go. And with only 1" the stock 8.8" Explorer U bolts were still plenty long to reuse too. I also use the stock U bolt plates, and simply weld on what I need to work with the shocks I choose.