Thread: Am I in trouble here?

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Dave--I'm glad that you found a simple fix. I was going to pull your chain a little bit and tell you that if you had went with an "Old School" I-beam and transverse spring like I have, you could simply put a 1" spacer in between the top of the spring pack and the underside of the crossmember to gain an inch of ground clearance.---(And yes, I had to do that!!) I'm happy that your "fix" didn't involve having to change or refabricate anything.---Brian

Originally Posted by brianrupnow

Dave--I'm glad that you found a simple fix. I was going to pull your chain a little bit and tell you that if you had went with an "Old School" I-beam and transverse spring like I have, you could simply put a 1" spacer in between the top of the spring pack and the underside of the crossmember to gain an inch of ground clearance.---(And yes, I had to do that!!) I'm happy that your "fix" didn't involve having to change or refabricate anything.---Brian

Brian - if I had the I beam frt suspension, there would have been no reason for this thread - and no reason for you folks to "pick" on me. My last car needed an extra spacer or two (but of course, it also needed new u-bolts)

Well I thought I was being reasonable with a 5" drop I beam but with P185/70R14 tires on 14" wheels on the front I get 5 1/2" clearance for the Bebops 'glass pan between the frame horns BUT (!) I just tried to wedge a 2"x4" the wide way under the I-beam and could not do it! I would estimate the clearance of the axle is only 3 1/4" so it doesn't matter about the clearance on the pan since the axle will hit first. I am not too happy about this but at the moment I just want to finish the wiring and get the car running. The only good thing about this arrangement is that the axle is lower than the engine pan and the enlarged DeRalle pan on the transmission. I could get a little more clearance with 15" front wheels but probably only about 1/2" at best. The problem then becomes clearance under the fender with those aftermarket braces. In this case a spacer would raise the frame and body but the axle would still be the lowest point of the front end. If I did it again I would use a 4" dropped axle and maybe that is another answer. Compared to new 15" wheels and tires the price of an axle is about the same except the labor for the replacement is quite a bit of work. I am now looking at the road a lot more and the good news is that with care and keeping the front tires inflated, I think I can run what I have until I happen upon an unfortunate bump in the road.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Don, great to see you posting. I was wondering what happened to you.

Don - where have you been?? I was going to give you a call to see if you were ok - (yes, you are listed) - or send my wife to run you down while she is in Midlothian this weekend.

If it's that I beam axle, I wouldn't worry. You can use it to grade highways.

Mine - I'm now at 5.75+ after a couple more turns on the adjusters. That's still the lowest point, but not as critical any more. Another plus - the front tires look better in the fender now.

Tech1, I am still here, often reading more than posting. I got a big boost in confidence recently with the purchase of a "two-heat" soldering gun from Radio Shack. Now I can tin a multistrand wire, insert it into a fastener, crimp it real good and then sweat solder into the crimped joint with the second heat level on the trigger of the soldering gun. Even so I only sneak in a few hours soldering when the garage warms up in the afternoon with night temps still in the mid 30s F range. Amazingly if you hold in the trigger on the Radio Shack gun the tip gets RED hot! I wonder what that is doing to my electricity bill? Anyway, I think I can do the wiring now and just get it over with. After reading your list of all the ways a flat tappet cam can fail I think I will install my set of 1.5 roller tip rockers initially and use the opportunity to pour fresh lub in the lifter bores. I recall when I installed the lifters there was one that was pretty tight so it will be a good idea to set the valves again with the 1.5 roller rockers and take the opportunity to drip in some extra lube and put some Marvel's Magic oil in each plug hole since the engine has now been setting for about two years.

IC2, thanks for the comment about the strength of the I-beam. When I started out putting the car together I was operating on memories of Hot Rod articles from 1953! I always wanted a dropped axle and a chopped top but now I have to deal with the details. For instance I have not cut my wiper blade yet but boy is it going to be assymmetric! In addition I went with the "how low can you go" idea but backed off an inch to a 5" drop. I have actually measured the height of quite a few speed bumps in local mall driveways and I think I can get over all the local bumps with care but if I travel to a new region I will have to be careful. I will start looking into 15" wheels for the front eventually and thanks to this thread I realize that if there is a problem with tires rubbing on fender braces the simple fix is to insert a 1/4" steel plate with a bolt hole under the spring mount and that might raise the body 3/4" with the 15" wheels and the wheel centers 1/2", but first let's get the wiring done and fire up the engine!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder