Customs Is this Gasser front straight axle SAFE for the street??

I was serching around on the web and came across this front axle setup on an old 57 chevy gasser and I was wondering if this would be possibly to do but have it SAFE enough to drive on the street.

 

What,s that old saying ???
If you have to ask , you probably already know the answer !!!
I would have a hard time crawling under it to work on it!!!
Let alone climb in it to drive it !!!!

 

I don't think so !

 

If done right yes, but that looks sketchy as hell!
And why would you? There's better options that are tried and true.

 

A lot of them have been run. I don't like a cross leaf on a heavy car like a tri five chebby. But that is possibly just me. I may run that setup if I was running coil overs and just use the cross leaf and radius rods for locators.

 

It'll be fine...just don't go around any corners!

 

On a positive note, it looks like no one ever tried to drive that car with that axle under it.

 

On yet another note, think about the car you're building, and how you are planning to attach the axle to the "frame". Does that transverse leaf spring look like it will fit your plans?

 

Not as scary as this one..........

 

I think cars like those pictured were the inspiration for the term POS !

Ray

 

Looks like done properly it should work.

 

I think they were going 4X4 Off Roading...

 

No

 

I am sure Ric's car isn't a death trap.

 

Do this.

 

heh...the fun thing about all these pics of 57 chevys is that he's building a Comet.

 

Is this a Chevy truck axle and what year?

 

Second generation axle 55-59 works best. The spring perches are straight and fit perfectly under the frame. Earlier axles were had tapered perches which makes it more work. Drill some holes and send it to chrome.


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

That would be my luck.....I have a 47 axle.

 

Can't say one way or the other if that mess in the first post ever ran but a hell of a lot of tri 5 Chevys got hacked up in the mid and late 60's when the gasser look was the hot lick and the cars were cheap. I doubt if the majority of them ever got driven as the projects usually failed before they got finished or got hauled off to the junk yard after the owner got drafted and the parents got tired of having "that junk" in the way. Local guy had a 55 with probably a 55/59 truck suspension, a 364 Buick set back 10 percent and I don't know what for a trans. he worked on it all the time at the gas station he and his bud ran in town but I don't ever remember seeing it run on the street or track.

 

Normally a response to a photo like this (not closeup), would be "It's kinda hard to tell from here", but in this case it's pretty clear (to me), that looks pretty iffy.

 

Simple, if it don't look right, it isn't, no I wouldn't run that. It shows how the rest of the car is built.

 

I personally wouldn't have a problem running that axle, looks to be a stock 35 up Ford axle setup. I do have issues with how it's installed however, particularly the front cross member/ lift block spring mount and the right bone is bent. Angle of the draglink looks sketchy. In general I think the problem comes in with too much lift. I like the straight axle "gasser" look myself but don't believe they have too sit sky high to be cool.
Don't understand your questain however, are you thinking of buying the axle setup (or whole car) you've pictured or just wondering if a Ford axle can be used under a Chevy?

 

With that block on top of the spring and long bolts that look like twigs, its pretty SCARY looking.

 

Personally, I like the concept of a transverse spring and either radius rods, wish bones, or 4 bars way better than paralell springs for controlling the front axle, but also with a panhard bar. But maybe that's because I have way more experience with the transvrse Ford setupo than I do with the paralell setup.
The rest needs to be carefully thought out with regard to heighth, shocks, and steering, and the example provided by the OP looks to have be n planned and built by the 3 stooges with assistance from Cheech and Chong

 

the car he's building is a Comet, with no substantial frame crossmember to attach a transverse spring to.

 

MAS axle and springs

 

Compared to what? No straight axle gasser is safe. I can show you videos of them rolling over on the drag strip, not even trying to corner. The best of them may be almost as good as a stock front end with worn out shocks and no sway bar but I doubt it.

The transverse leaf front end is particularly scary. Even in the 30s and 40s they were known to be inferior to other designs. Ford only kept it because Henry insisted. As soon as he was dead and under the sod they designed an IFS with coil springs like everyone else.

 

This current re-fadding of the "gasser" "straight axle" trends has lasted many years longer than it did in the '60s

 

I had fun driving home last night in my straight axle car, my wife kept falling behind me, in her Dart, on the twisties from Sahuarita to Sonoita.

I also saw a picture yesterday of the straight axle Rambler wagon that rolled on the way to Tucson Friday. but he was driving on slicks, in the rain.