OK, I have a 54 Ford Customline that I have taken apart (front drive line). I was told by a friend that he has a hydro pump that can be installed (no cost of parts to me). The front would be easy to do, but is it safe to put hydro's in the rear using leaf springs? I know it has been done in the old days but not sure how you do it correctly. I plan on using 1 pump with two dumps powered by 3 batteries. This should work since I'm only going to raise it up, drive, and drop. Any help would be appreciated.
You don't want to run one pump/two dumps to raise/lower the whole car. That would require a "T" fitting between the cylinders on the front and rear. By doing that every time you went around the corner fluid would transfer from one cylinder to the other and the car would lean until you turned it the other way. Even if you use two pumps you need four dumps (one for each corner) Besides I think a 54 Ford would put the hurt on a single pump for the whole car.
Is it posible to use then two pumps and only three batteries? I am trying to minimize the weight in the trunk. I don't plan to play with the hydros all I'm looking for is up and down motion and hopefully on the slow end of things. Can the movement of this stress the leafsprings and break them?
Yes you can use 2 pumps, to use 3 batterys you need to make sure that the pumps have a small gear pac. The smaller the gear the less battery power it takes. As for the back and breaking leaf springs, well it all depends. You want to run main leaf only and put lowering blocks so that the spring doesnt over de-arch. Also you can run the cylinder streight to the axel and run accumalators on them to give you a smooth ride. Ive done my project 50 Chevy car my S10 Blazer , a 47 chevy truck and quite a few mini trucks, on top of cars too.
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