Having spent a few hours under my 34 lately and with the turning circle of a 50s Mack Truck I`ve started thinking about replacing the corvair front end that`s currently under it and having conventional front end under it. I currently have an Okie Joe 34 drilled front axle that is not dropped I would like to use. With that was thinking an aftermaket front cross member from So-Cal which has a 1" drop built in and a reverse eye spring that should see me with either another 1" or 2" depending what I buy. In my stash I also have a set of 32 perch bolts that I would like to use.And would use hairpins rather than split bones. If I was to proceed in that manner are there any considerations I need to consider with setting up the rest of the front end?
If you have a raised crossmember, you have to make sure it does not interfere with your lower radiator hose. You can't raise the radiator up because all your front sheet metal locates from it. The reverse eye and the drop axle generally don't cause too much issue. I'm glad you are ditching the Corvair. Properly set up, original style front suspension is pretty damn good. -Abone.
along with the revered eye spring, they sell de-arched springs... both unloaded on the floor it appears to be 1.5" more drop than the revered eye with stock springs... i wanted that stock model A look... but traded a modded '40 dash for a new 4" bell with a fellow HAMBER...
Fenders or no? I did an A roadster (never finished...sold it) with a flat crossmember, reverse-eye spring and stock axle. It sat GREAT! but no way fenders were gonna fit.
34's don't need drastic mods to be low with fenders. A dropped axle and a common flattened spring will get you a nice stance. If you have a lot of restrictions in Japan you might not want ground scraping low.
Ok, folks we have to remember that Pete is in JAPAN meaning that if he can't accomplish something by modifiying what he has he has to order it and pay for larger shipping costs plus the time lag. The Crossmember is pretty straight forward in that you remove the old one and weld in the new one. My education for the day so far is that dropped front crossmembers are available from a number of sources . Still the main leaf can be reversed in Japan and the spring pack can have the arch reduced at the same time and be redone to work smoothly if he didn't buy a new reverse eye front spring from the get go.
Cheers I have an udropped axle I would like to use which lead me down a rabbit hole of spring behind the axle ala Spencer,3W Larry, the bones brigade and many others then back out of that rabbit hole and now for simplicity and keeping the wheel base just looking at a crossmember ala what @Mr48chev posted (thanks!) and a reverse eye spring to get the 2+ inches similar to a 4" dropped axle. Hopefully Im on the right track... for a change
It’s easier for you to buy and replace a crossmember than to source a dropped axle? If Insta is an indicator, there are hundreds of old Ford hot rodders in Japan. One of them has to have an extra dropped axle around.
No doubt there are axles here but I have to buy a cross member anyway as the original one was removed when they fitted the corvair front end and the drilled okie Joe axle is a thing of beauty .
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