This could be really common for all I know, but I've never seen it. I was working on my '60 Mercury Monterey, which I picked up a few months ago. Finally got around to start to swap the leaf springs to my new de-arched ones, and came upon this: If you'll notice, the leaf spring/axle pads' hole isn't centered, but toward the rear of the pad. Is this common? It looks like the old owner just smashed the pins down on the lowering blocks to center the blocks on the pad, then just went about their business. You can see in the first photo where the lowering block pin was resting, which is close to being the center of the pad. I thought that maybe some aluminum had fused itself into the spring pads and covered existing holes, but there just aren't any holes to speak of other than the ones you see. I'm obviously not going to reuse the old blocks since I don't like the idea of there not being a centering pin, so I'm either going to drill holes in the center of the pads and run regular angled blocks, or my other option is adjustable blocks. I guess I just want to know if a lot of 9-inch rear ends came like this, or if it was maybe just another oddball thing that was done on the '59-60 Mercs. Thanks.
Looks like the means to relocate an open driveline rear end in the 40s thru 54 Chevs as the original spring center bolt was not directly under the center line of the orig rear end due to their unique rear suspension design. You could either redrill the center bolt hole in the spring pads or use lowering blocks and longer u bolts like yours.
I've not seen this, I would just center the tire in the wheelhouse and then somehow engage the pin where it is suppose to go on the housing/ spring pad. Something new everyday!
I thought about just using a new set of regular blocks and using the existing spring pad holes, but by my measurements half of the pads would be hanging off the front side of the blocks! haha Thanks for the responses so far. I'm interested to see if someone is familiar with Ford/Mercury cars with this setup.
This is common with conversions from torque tube drivelines to open drivelines as previously mentioned. I have gone so far as to redrill new perches to work with the older leaf springs to allow keeping the wheel centered in the wheel well when doing a conversion.
Thanks, but is it still common on an untouched factory rear end? The car has always been open driveline.
The top of that block looks like it sheered the pin off. The block was working its way out. I have seen this happen before with aluminum blocks. You just caught it early thank god for that. If at all possible see if you can get cast blocks they are harder to come by but I think bell tech made them. looking again it does look like the hole in the axle perch is a little forward. Damn it is hard to tell though.
You might try these. We used to use them to add lead/trail in leaf spring dirt cars. http://www.speedwaymotors.com/AFCO-Adjustable-Lowering-Block,23728.html Work just fine. SPark
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