Hi ,I going to drop the suspension on my 38 zephyr , going the dropped axle route , i've had a quick measure up of my 38 zephyr front axle and the perch and kingpin centres seem to pretty close to a 37-41 ford axle, roughly 38" perch and 49" King pin centre , I haven't got the axle out yet to measure properly , i think the kingpins are bigger in the zephyr but i'll probably change the spindles ,brakes etc to 40 ford as the 38 zephyrs have cable brakes , (or i'll convert the zephyr brakes to juice and drop the stock axle), just wondered if anyone had done this swap , Thanks for any input Wayne
Out this way there is a Company called Mor Drop in Oakland Ca. The owner is on the verge of closing shop due to health issues. I had taken in a 37 Zephyr I beam and he swore he could get 3 inch's of drop out of it. Also the spring pack is huge on the Zephyr's. You can remove 4 leafs out of the front and bring that baby down some. Never heard of the Ford swap. I don't believe it's compatiable with Zephyr components but you can achieve the same results using all Lincoln components. James
Thanks James , yep dropping the original beam is an option and i might go that way , and yes there are a lot of leaves in the spring pack so i'd already decided to lose a few , i just noticed that the perch and kingpin measurements were pretty close and wondered if anyone had tried the ford axle , Got the old beast running last week and the v12 sounds pretty good , i've got a stack of reciepts from 1941 to 1961 and it did 90,000 miles in that time , had an engine rebuild 20.000 miles ago so that's probably why it sounds so good , Thanks for replying
Sad news about Mor Drop , Yes i'm going to remove some leaves and i will probably end up dropping the original axle , i just noticed the perch and kingpin dimensions are pretty close to the Ford axle and wondered if anyone had tried it , Thanks for the reply James Wayne
I've got an uncle named Merv Adkins. He's one of the largest suppliers for early Lincoln and Zephyr parts here in the States. He's done it all. Give him a call at 909-224-8562 He'll walk you through it.
Hey no problem Wayne. If you have trouble reaching him at that number pm me. I'll send you a few others. Merv recently sold his 38 3 window. He's getting tired of the parts biz so call when you can. Post up some pictures.
Greg Haynes is the best axle dropper in the business today. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=253845 Making Ford spindles work on Lincoln axles is not worth the hassle. Big issues with kingpin inclination. The good news is that Ford hydraulic brakes, hubs, and drums should fit early Lincoln spindles with little or no modification.
Thanks James , just getting a list together of what it needs ,the body is good and straight but it's been stood on grass by the looks of things so the floors etc are toast , i might channel it too as i'm going to have to remove pretty much all the floor , I'll post some pics when i get a chance
Thanks for that , putting ford spindles on the zephyr axle wasn't an option , i'd heard about the camber difference which could be taken care of while dropping the axle but the king pins are a different size too , my idea was to fit the whole fords axle ,spindles ,brakes etc , it will be a while before i get the front off my zephyr and do some propper measuring but i will probably drop the zephyr axle and fit ford juice brakes if it's all in good shape , Thanks for the Link to Greg
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