64 Galaxie suspension: replacing offset shafts

I went ahead and replace the offset shafts with some used ones on eBay. Then I installed the offset shaft stabilizer bar from Greg Donahue's site and it really stiffened up the front end. I had the front end aligned and has stayed in alignment for 7 months.

 

Has anybody got the dementions on the bushings?

edit: I have been thinking about this if I am right the I.D. would be 3/4" to match the bolt. The thickness I could get by measuring the thickness of the offset in the shaft. And the O.D. would not be real critical as long as its close to the offset area of the originals.

 

Few thoughts:

1) The stock crank-arms leave the front pivot a little 'undefined' floating between the shaft pivot in the frame and the fat double-bushing in the control arm. The tie-bar approach fixes the front pivot at the control-arm bushing. Replacing the shaft with a straight bolt moves the front of the arm up half an inch and fixes the pivot at the bolt, which in theory at least costs you a little anti-dive geometry, how much it matters in practice I can't say.

Someone really needs to take a stock '63-64, rig up a little GoPro camera down on the front bumper, drive the thing around, and see what those cranks and bushings actually DO when the car's being driven, in cornering and especially in braking.

When I mocked up the straight-bolt approach on mine I also ended up with control-arm-to-bar clearance problems to the 1in aftermarket sway bar I was measuring with (the sway bars on these cars go over the arm/pivot at the front) but I haven't heard of anyone else having this issue so it may just have been my case.

The '60-62 front crossmembers were different, and did not have the big threaded holes for the bushing cap, so while the control arms are similar (but not the same, see below) mounting parts do not swap.

2) I kinda wanted both in my '64, get rid of the cranks entirely AND have the lower pivot axis, so I had a set (a couple sets, but I like to have spares...) of bushings made to fit through the crossmember, with a hole offset 1/2in (vertically downward, as installed) from the center of the bushing, that'd take a 1/2in Grade 8 or NAS bolt for the LCA pivot. I also made it 0.40in shorter than the stock crank assembly so I can fiddle the lower arm position with spacers for more caster if I want to try it. I'll post a pic later.

These aren't a screw-in replacement, they're intended to weld to the crossmember though they could be with a little more creative machining. I have a 3D part model and DXFs if anyone wants to try making their own set drop me a PM but it'll be a few days before I could get to it (motherboard failure on the desktop/CAD box, if the parts don't get here by the 27th I'll be gone for a few days over New Year's.)

3) The '60-62 control arm is different, it has a smaller hole in the front of the arm (same size front and rear of the arm). The bushings in the '60-62 have a 5/8ID inner sleeve in front, and a 7/8ID inner sleeve in back (the rear bushings have almost no rubber in 'em) oddly according to the Ford parts book the Squarebirds used the same arm and the same bushings but with the bushing configuration reversed. In my case I'm using '62 arms with a .060-wall sleeve for my 1/2in front pivot bolt. The stock '63-64 arms have a giant rubber bushing in the front of the arm that's actually two Silenbloc bushings wedged together, the center sleeve on those is 1/2in.

There was, I think, a thread both on here and on Fordmuscle a year or maybe two ago about sleeving down the '63-64 arm to use the smaller bushing, you might try doing a search if you're interested.