Features Econoline Madness Who's got one?

Make up your mind man...Drop axle, or drop spindle?
You can put a tube axle under one. you just need the perches in the right place is all.
There are a couple of guys in the HAMB-o-dex that will drop your stock axle as well.

 

man, i didnt even realize i typed drop spindles. i was pretty much just talking about the drop axles. sorry.

i found the tube drop axle van on vintage-vans.com. http://vintage-vans.smugmug.com/gallery/3527795_f6gYP#199404782_PSmGW

 

Holy shit, i just realized how high up the steering column is in this van. look at pic #2. How is someone supposed to drive that van?

 

Maybe it swings up to let the driver get in and out. Otherwise thats just crazy........

 

If the Elephant Man was a vehicle, this would be it.

 

with it body dropped that much, that is probably where it sits normally. Here are some more pictures I have of that truck.

 

That Econoline looks broken to me.

 

Mine's not as old as Y'alls'ss but it's an econoline. It's a 1982 E350 with an Advanced out of SLC Utah 4x4 conversion. has just under 80k miles and spent many years in denver.

I'm chopping up a 77 econoline E250 for the good 460 and think I might be able to build a hotrod cab out of the roof, cowl, doors, and rear corners. I'd have to fab the floor and firewall and lower cowl but I think it's do-able, what the hell it's free parts to experiment with I'd have scrapped the stuff anyway so I'm going to give it a shot.
I'm chopping it up the rest of the way this weekend.

 

Oh dear.
I'd duck if I were you.

 

Here is a link to his gallery over at Vintage-Vans.com

http://vintage-vans.smugmug.com/gallery/3527795_f6gYP#199404782_PSmGW

 

joking, right?

 

Yeah, kinda. I have a mental disorder...I think too much, sometimes the stuff gets past comittee and out of my head. who would want a rolling tissue box? Only a maniac could pull it off

 

Can you say "BUMPSTEER"?

 

huh? b-u-m-p-s-t-e-e-r. not hard. now tell me why your too smart and dont think this can be pulled off? have you tried to do this? please elaborate so that i dont make the same mistake you did.

 

That would require a full dissertation on complete suspension theory. it's all interrelated. change one thing, you change it all.
Bumpsteer on a solid axle happens when the arched spring flexes to a flat position and the axle moves towards the shackle. flat springs like on a mid to late 70's chevy 4x4 have less bump steer than high arched springs.
Also if your drag link isn't parallel to a line drawn from the spring hanger to the springs shackle end it will be swinging in a different angle as the suspension when it travels and will cause bumpsteer. Just changing the axle won't cause bumpsteer but if the angles are all wrong after you do it and drop the front or lift the rear it will.

 

Not sure I'd trust them. Their kit is for 60-66 Econolines. Econolines didn't come out until '61, and '67 wasn't any different than '66. Their facts aren't straight, what about their measurements?

 

I think I said this earlier in this post, but a friend of mine used a dropped tube axle on his '64. I think it was a shortened Model A axle. Anyway, it dropped the van down pretty low, but after spending days basically re-engineering everything from the shock mounts to spring perches and everything in between, he said it rode like utter crap, was hard to steer and lost its short turning radius. Furthermore, there was no way to lower the rear to match without major frame surgery. OTOH, he was able to add disk brakes to the drop axle's spindles.

Likewise, I saw a guy at the Cinematic with a chopped and dropped Econo. It looked good low, but he said it was really scary to drive and rode terribly. He had to change wheels for driving, and then change them back when he was at a show just to have driveable wheels, then have wheels that looked good. He obvioulsy could've engineered that better, but that means I know 2 guys with 2 lowered Econos lowered 2 different ways and both said the vans were scary to drive and rode like crap.

It seems to me that maybe the lowered ones are more show than go.

 

That truck is sitting without a driver, and unloaded I assume.

The center link/ tie rod is almost resting against the leaf spring. It might just rub most of the time under load, but imagine hitting a pothole or bump on a sweeping 50 MPH curve. Bad news.

Not saying the truck can't be lowered, just pointing something about about the photo. It's great to have something that looks rad for around town, but not cool to drive something unsafe on the highway.

 

You can buy a tie rod "Drop Kit" to space the tie rod upwards.
That has it's own set of potential problems with pitman arm binding or clearance against the oil pan/frame.

 

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I Just slapped this one on the classifieds.




yeah emailed you twice about the econo but no respons

see ya

 

anything wrong with the stock axle?

 

Mas is the axle I used under my econoline. No problems. If you look on myrideisme site you can see more pics of it. Stronger than a garlic milk shake.

 

Hellfish. You know three guys with dropped econos. Mine rides on air very well. It took a ton of work. The only scary part of my ride is the play in the steering box. But, I got a NOS one from egay to install along with a new colum. Last, I just purchased a 250 from a maverick, and am locating an aod for ultimate cruising speed. Oh one more thing, dare I say.....AC. Call me a puss, but I wanna role in comfort.

I can honestly tell it rides better than it did in its stock form. But it is an air car. If you dont like an air ride, you wont like it. If I did it again, I would use an IFS suspension in the front.

The engine is in great shape, but Im gunna do some headwork and maybe a cam while its out. I drive my eco all around phx as it sits, except in the summer...too fnn hot.

They can be show and go, just takes a ton O work. And if you wanna go lower than me, your lookin at even more work.

Perhaps I missed Hellfishes point though, an easy static drop will give you some problems depending how low you go. You gotta narrow the front axle to get turning radius. you will have big clearance issues between the frame and and axle, rebuild the steering arm, shifter rods and stuff.

 

No, you didn't miss my point, but I think you put way more work into it than the others I've seen. Maybe the AirRide helps, too. Questions come up all the time about how to lower an Econo. Since you obviously did yours right, maybe you could do a tech post for everyone.

 

im going to be honest with you. after he mentioned it and you wrote this i looked into as many threads as i could about the issue because its still throwing me off a bit. all primarily steering issues correct? theres a FANTASTIC article in the new rod and custom about adding a rack and pinion to a dropped axle instead of a gearbox that eliminates bumpsteer. seems unbelievable straight forward. problem solved or am i just still not understanding?

 

The problem you will run into with a rack and pinon is that the steering wheel is in front of the unit, not behind it like in your average car or truck. So somehow your steering has to make a U-turn to go back into the rack while being reversed in the process so you are not turning the opposite direction of the steering wheel.

 

^^^^

Hypothetically, I am trying a product called "steer clear" to reverse my steering. Small, no slop, fits in the limited available space, and I hope to hell it works.

Hypothetically.

 

I was going to keep my mouth shut on that. Figured I would wait to get the report from you if it works out or not. But since you spilled the beans, keep us posted.

Later,
Chad

 

holy crap thats amazing and holy crap do i feel like an idiot for not realizing it was that in depth. sorry guys....im learnin.

 

That's pretty neat, RoadApple! Keep us posted