We just drove my dad's '58 Chevy Apache on a 350 mile round trip to a rod run in Ruidoso, Nm. this past weekend, and the truck performed flawlessly. I can honestly say that there is no reason to cut up a perfectly good truck to install an independent front suspension. The straight axle works awesome. The steering, braking and handling were absolutely no problem at 70-75 mph on twisty mountain roads. We passed plenty of trailered MII, air ride and Camaro clip equipped 50's pick ups along the way. The old 348 also performed like a champ and cruised effortlessly? Here are a few things I learned while building, driving and setting up this truck: 1. While I flipped both front and rear axles to lower the truck, taking out any of the front and rear leaves in the spring packs will only lead to a rough riding truck. I have seven leaves in the front, and 8 in the back. The truck will handle even the roughest road easily. 2. I added power steering with one of the bolt on kits available for this truck, and on a lowered truck, bump steer will be horrible. I converted to cross steer, and the steering is awesome now. 3. 5-6 degrees of caster will allow the truck to track nice and straight. 4. 70 series tires will give you a nicer ride. I went with 225-70 in front, and 285-70 in the rear. 5. Keep the rear end gear in the 3.00-3.25 range for best highway driving. The 3.00 gears in this truck are just about perfect with the 30" tall tire. 6. The one piece door window kits that are sold are horrible and belong in the garbage, this truck will be getting the original style windows back again.
Well gee you mean to say that an old truck built with old truck parts can be driven. Who would have thunk. Glad to see that someone else is now permantly scarred and will forever be obsessed with all things obsolete. Sounds like you had a good trip in a well built truck. Now get the wings back in it you will love them todeath.
Have you ever driven the truck with the 348 before you installed the power steering? I'm asking because I have a 1957 Chevy truck with a 283. I have a 348 engine I plan to re-build. However, I don't think I can do power steering with my truck, it is a NAPCO truck. I was wondering, due to the weight of the 348, if the steering effort without power steering would be excessive. Thanks, don
Alright! I was just shootin the breeze with my Brother in law this weekend and we were talking about how it would be cool as hell to put a "W" motor in my '58. I'm with you, brother. The old I-beam is staying in my truck. The orginal design was pretty good if you fix what is worn out and make few improvements. What trans and rear diff are you running in that truck?
The weight difference isn't enough to make a lot of difference, the only time I have ever experienced any difficulties with a truck or car without power steering was parallel parking or in deep mud with 44" Super swampers. If your tires are not excessivly wide or like I said you are in deep mud it isn't going to make any difference at all that you can feel. The key is making sure that your suspension components are up to par to start with.
Pics or it didn't happen. haha. I just put a truck 409 in my '53 Desoto, inplace of the straight six. Believe it or not the 409 is actually lighter than what I took out. My cherry picker was tipping with the six on it, but it never felt the 409. As far as manual steering and heavy engines go, as long as the car is in motion I don't think you'd have a problem. I had a RR bobber truck that I put a 454 in. You had to be popeye to steer that thing at a full stop. But rolling it steered like a champ
We actually had the truck running two years ago with a 700 r4 trans. After two years, and two more totally different 700 r4 tranny's, the valve body removed more times than I can remember, and about 20 gallons of ATF, I finally threw in the towel and installed a TH-350 10 ten days ago. It has a 57" wide Ford 9" that I narrowed using Versailles axles with drum brakes. The rear end has 3.00 gears. The tranny shifts awesome, and "barks 'em" into second gear.
You are right, a beam axle is fine if in good shape and set up right. The one defect is, you usually don't have as much suspension travel as IFS. This means a rougher ride on really bad roads. On paved roads the difference is negligible. For easier steering without power steering you can set up the steering with the minimal amount of caster, less than the stock spec, but add a steering damper to prevent shimmy. German cars were set up this way for years. Examine the suspension and steering of a Mercedes or BMW from the sixties or seventies, there was nothing special about it, but it was well made and set up like I say, they steered easy and the steering was quick and precise. Don't go overboard on tire width and if you use radials pump them up to 32 PSI. You won't miss power steering except when parking and with a little thought you can usually have the car moving a little when you steer it.
I was awaiting another post by you to see how your cross steering worked out on a longer trip. Seeing how I'm at that stage right now of re-installing the drag link, tie rod and steering arm, this has really caught my attention. I have a steering box and pump from a 73-87 full size half ton I was looking at using in the swap. Is the box you're using, the same type? This looks like a relatively straight forward install. Where do you have your shocks mounted in the front. I noticed in your earlier pictures of the cross steer set up, there aren't any lower shock mounts bolted onto the axle.
Yes, I am using a '73-'87 Chevy/GMC pickup box. The lower shock mounts are now behind the axle on both sides. For shocks, I am using Carrera 3 way adjustables with a coil over kit and 130 pound springs. I went the coil over route to do two things: 1. Since the coil over is mounted outside of the leaf springs, it increased my front roll rate slightly so I don't need a anti roll bar now. 2. It gives me the ability to to change the spring rate and ride height slightly should the need arise.
I installed a 4" dropped axle in my '59. Like the look Also has a 455 Olds with manual steering. Kinda tough with a 13" superior wheel, so I got a new Grant 15" for it.
I spent the day tunning the Autolite carbs. The 348 is now running better than ever. The truck was running a tad rich at idle. I finally put a vacuum gauge on the engine and found that it had 10 inches of vacuum at idle. I had 6.5 power valves on all three carbs. I divided the vacuum reading in half, and installed a 4.5 on the center carb, and plugged the power valve ports on the outer carbs. The engine now starts right up, and the rich condition is gone. There was a slight bog when the outer carbs open up, but I adjusted the center carb's accelerator pump, and the bog is gone.
so if I understand the cross steer correctly, you have a tie rod running from your pitman arm across to the lower front mount on the passenger side wheel and then another tie rod from the rear lower mounts on either side?
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