Okay, I know this may sound stupid, but I am building a 48 Ford, and I have not found a simple way to lower.. The only thing close to simple that I have found is taking everyother spring from the bottom out and then reversing the eye, they say that will get me 2-4 inches, is there a place to get reversed eye springs? Is there a simpler way? I don't want to notch and do major fab work, but also don't want air bags.. Please Help! Thank you!
cant remember if springs are on bottem or top of axles , but you can either use lowering blocks and longer u bolts or move the axles from bottem to top side giving anywere from about 2.5 to 4 inches and still gives factory ride , and any question is not stupid , we all have asked and we all learn , the old f1 series are neat trucks , good luck with your build
If you have the budget for it there are companies that make dropped front axles for your truck. Any good spring shop should be able to make you reversed eye springs
lowering blocks are cheap as hell and do the job. although if you lower the front your gonna need to do some tweaking for sure. good luck.
Axle flip. Take the axle from on bottom of the springs and put it on top. Some fab work involved, but nothing complicated. Check this thread out. Its a latter truck but the same concept. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=531700
It depends on how much drop you want, here are some pics of how i did my 49 Ford bread van. I think your axle is under the spring also, i put my axle on top. I had four blocks of cold bar and drilled them for the u-bolts. Where the blocks meet the axle, the axle has a slope towards the center, you have to grind this area flat so the blocks make full contact. I also drilled a small hole about 3/8" deep on the bottom of the axle for the spring bolt head. This setup is relatively inexspensive and gives about 5 1/2" drop in my case, yours may be abit smaller. I did the same in the rear but removed about 9 overload leaves leaving me 10. You may also want to remove some for a softer ride espcially in the rear. The big lug is just for mock up as i didn't want to run the nut all the way down. Also i will give the steel blocks a smoothing to remove the sharp edges. My steering box is out in front of the axle where yours is behind, either way some bending of the steering arm and raising of the box should get your drag link back to level at ride height...so no bump-steer. On a side note, purchase some quality u-bolts or have them made at good spring shop as the truck will now be hanging from them.
Posies can probably help you with some reversed eye springs. A local spring shop may be able to help you out also. You should be able to remove a couple leafs with out loosing you ride. Check in a couple rod magazines for dropped front axles.
For the rear if you move the axle above the leaves it'll get you about 4-5 inch drop but you'll have to do a slight notch so it won't bottom out on the frame.
Tech section has a thread on reversing springs. Its not hard to do if you have access to a hyd. press. I bought a press at HF and did my own. It took me about an hour once I had them apart.
Thank you for all the great advice guys! I think I have how to lower the front axle, but I really don't want to notch the frame.. Any ideas?
I will reverse your spring for you if you can get it to Wichita. Disassemble the spring and just bring the mainleaf. It only takes about fifteen minutes.
. Here's how I lost 3 1/2+ inches of height from the front.. The original 16 tires were 31 inches tall, Switching to newer 15" Ford truck rims with 225-75 15" tires reduces the tire height to ~28 inches which equates to a drop at the fender/body of 1 1/2 inch. Also, On the front you can safely remove 5 leaves... The longest leaf, and the one next to it should be left alone, the second leaf supplies the most support under the #1 leaf with it's eyes. They stay as a pair. You can pull every second leaf after that. Each leaf is 1/4 thick so pulling 5 leaves will lower the truck 1 1/4 inches in just the height of 5 leaves. But there is also a certain amount of support that will be lost thru the removal of those 5 leaves, this equates to about another inch so the total 'drop' will be in the neighborhood of ~2" by removing 5 leaves. -You can purchase new springs with the eye reversed. However, your 60+ year old springs have been getting closer to the dirt for 60+ years, They have sagged a fair amount from new. By installing a brand new reversed eye spring, you may notice that your vehicle actually sits higher as the brand new spring has no age inducing sag built into it. So the easiest thing to do is to pull the 5 leaves to allow the package to loose that 1 1/4" of height plus the additional ~1" of sag. You Can successfully remove leaves from the pack without un-necessarily removing the shackle bolts or destroying the rebound clips/bolts. - It is entirely possible to remove leaves without actually taking the spring pack out of, or away from the vehicle and while leaving the aligning 'rebound clips' in place. The job can be done in an afternoon with the main leaf still bolted to the shackles/perches. Always have new u bolts made up by your local spring shop. Never reuse the old u bolts. On the rear, you can move the axle above the spring pack. You can keep the original overloads in place as well as remove some of the leaves from the main pack. Leaving the overloads in place will allow your truck to handle a decent load and will only come into play when you actually do load the truck and compress the main pack . Removing leaves from the main pack will allow for a softer ride but with the axle sitting on top of the spring pack, there will be no additional 'lost height' from removal of leaves from the main pack. .
Thank you so much! This is very helpful! Does this apply to the rear too? If so, can I reverse the eyes on the front and rear springs and remove the springs like you are talking about? Thank you so much!
x2. my friend johnny ordered up new reversed eye springs for the front of his '56 big window truck and after installing them the truck set about 2" higher than it did before. after that he went the aspen/volare route. well, i butchered this. i intended to answer your question about removing leaves from the front and the back. yes, it works on both ends. for several years i ran the exact setup described above (remove every other leaf) on clarence, the panel in my avitar. eventually i got tired of bottoming out every time i went over an expansion joint in the road so i put the leaves back in.
Here's how I lowered my '50. (the link is for the back but there is a brief explanation of the front too. For what it's worth I think flipping the front axle is a bad idea. Another way to lower the back of an F1
Easiest way and immediate is to go with smaller dia tires, as suggested above.... Fine a few at a salvage yard (or friends) and pop them on to check it out before you buy any. Good luck, Cheers................
. I didn't fuch with the rear springs/height, just removed the leaves from the front. Don't bother buying reversed eyed springs. you will gain height rather than lower the truck. Before and after pics: Notice how far the smaller diameter tire sits into the front fender, I lowered it by almost 4" from just switching the 16 tires out to 15" and by removing 5 leaves. Local spring shops will generally Not touch your spring eyes as this throws the geometry of the entire spring/shackle/perches out the window and that could result in spring and/or shackle failure, and that's not a good thing if you are cruising down the highway when it happens. .
100% agreed, flipping the front axle is not a great idea. If a guy is gonna fuch with the front axle, yank it out and send it away to someone who drops the heavy Ford Truck axles. http://www.droppedaxles.com/FORD_AXLES.html#TXTOBJ7D814314E192261 From what I have read, dropping the axle more than ~2" requires addition heat/bending of parts. .
another wheel suggestion....try Chry Imperial wheels from about 1957 to 1966 were 14 inches and have the Ford 5 on 5 1/2 bolt pattern...this will get you down pretty quick...
Did anyone notice how flat the main leaf was in the pictures? Just reverse it, instant reversed I spring. I reversed my model a spring by rebinding it , didn't use a press either.
agreed, the torsional load when braking on a flipped beam axle puts a giant amount of stress on the u-bolts.
Just move the axle to the top of the springs. Good for about 3" give or take. The if it is too low rearch the springs a little to compensate. remember if rodding were easy everyone would be doing it. Oh we are talking about the front? How about dropping the axle or buying a dropped axle?
When you apply the brakes on a under the spring axle setup the rear u-bolt is trying to pe pulled apart. On axle over the spring it is the front u-bolt being pulled on. The leverages are still the same, sans the weight of the ride. I can't think of specific examples just now, but i have seen factory setups with the spring under, both front and rear.
yes but with a spring under the u-bolts are also reponsible for "hanging" the front of the truck, combine that with the torsional force and it makes me nervous. i have seen factory setups with spring under front and rear but only with a tube type axle. the torsional load on a straight tube type is much less than a beam, the kick ups at the end of the beam act like a lever and multiply the twisting force on the axle. i'm not trying to knock anyone elses work, just for me it would make me nervous and i would find a different way to do it.