Thread: And more questions: Front suspension & clearance

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Faith: All of these guys are pretty much saying the same thing: Your front end was set up to get it as low as possible. and some things were done that reduced the clearances to a very minimal amount, so when you hit a pot hole. or rough surface, your front end is exceeding the space it needs to travel

Here is what I see from the pictures:

1) Your spring is a reversed eye spring. However, the reversed eye drops it an inch or so more than a regular eye, plus the spring seems to have been dearched somewhat, compounding the problem.

2) You have very little travel between the bottom of your spring perch u-bolts (in the center of the spring) and the top of the axle. Plus, they have put in some steel shims to take up threads, and further decreased the space between the two.

3) Your shocks may or may not be too long, and until you raise the front to an acceptable level, you won't know for sure. You generally want 2/3 of the shock for compression and 1/3 for upward travel. I have set them up at 1/2 and 1/2 and that is ok too.

4) Buy a new spring (Speedway has these, among others) and possibly get a regular vs reversed eye. Get rid of that spacer shim and get spring perch u bolts with a shorter length.

5) Once you get the car sitting at a couple of inches higher, or at least an inch higher, you can start playing with the shocks. I got my shorter lower shock mounts from Pete and Jakes years ago, and I think they still carry them. Yes, yours are too long. Sell them on Ebay.

Once you are done with all of this, get a good front end alignment (not A Pep Boys special) and make sure your caster, camber ,etc is ok.

That is all you have going on, someone wanted a low car, and got it too low.

Don

Here, I pulled this up for you. Check out this website;

www.peteandjakes.com/parts/32/32_boltons.htm


You can buy just the lower mounts, I did. Here is a picture of the whole setup.

Don

First thing I'd try would be to move those spring spacers up between the spring and the X-member. A half an inch or so doesn't seem like much, but it can make a big difference. Next thing would be a main leaf with the eyes down, like the others say.

Looks like what you need is the SuperBell lower shock mount.

The one in the pic measures 1 3/8" from center of perch bolt bore to center of shock mount stud.

Be aware that these do not have a keyway on the perch bolt or internal protrusion on the lower shock mount proper.
I have seen them spun a few degrees, but drilling and tapping for a setscrew would take care of that problem.

The shock shown is a SoCal unit and measures 7 1/2" body length.
This is from the top of the shock body proper where the rod enters and the bottom of the shock body proper where it attaches to the lower ring and does not include the ring.

This pic shows the 32's Deuce factory stainless lower shock mount.
It measures 2 1/2" from center of perch bolt bore to center of shock mount stud.

The shock on this car measures the same as the one on the 31 in the above pic.

I would argue the point about a panhard bar on a cross-steer car.
They work very well and control shackle sway steering inputs caused by the frame swinging on the shackles when entering a turn and while in the turn.

My 32 steers very well on twisty mountain roads, tracks well on the straighaways and is a pleasure to drive.


Far as the front spring goes, place the two 'stacker blocks' on top of the spring - appropriately retained by the spring center bolt.
You may want to buy a new spring center bolt.
They're cheap and commonly available at real parts houses.

If you've not disassembled a leaf spring there are several precautions you want to take.
Let us know.

Getting the front end up a little bit will help with the crank pulley/tie rod conflict, but . . . you're still going to have conflict issues cuz the chassis still bottoms out in the same place.

To that end, it looks like you have a Hurst motor mount setup in the car and are probably running the 48 Ford style rubber biscuit mounts.

If - big word here - you have room to go up, you may be able be to raise the engine.
You may run into exhaust to frame problems, trans conflict with the body's trans tunnel and driveshaft angle problems as well as throttle rod interference with the body.

If you decide to go this route, measure how much travel you have before the front suspension bottoms out and raise the engine 1/4" - 1/2" above that figure.

You may be able to get away with a minimal engine raise and depending on how the rear axle is hung, you might be able to adjust the pinion angle without welding or other major work.

Even simpler would be to heat and bend the steering arms a reasonable amount so as to lower the tie rod thereby gaining additional clearance between crank pulley and tie rod.

I understand that some aftermarket steering arms are cast so you can't bend those, but if they are forged or original Ford forgings you can.

It appears you have aftermarket arms so you need to be careful here.

Speedway has steering arms with a fairly deep bend and that could be a good way to go.

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

Here, I pulled this up for you. Check out this website;

www.peteandjakes.com/parts/32/32_boltons.htm


You can buy just the lower mounts, I did. Here is a picture of the whole setup.

Don

I AM NOT SURE THESE MOUNTS ARE THAT MUCH SHORTER THAN MINE... I'll call and ask them to measure them...