Thread: Project "Left Overs" is back alive !

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Thanks, Dave. Good info to have. I'd like to find a couple of those 3.50/ 3.55s for a reasonable price. Anything for an 8-inch around here is scarce and at least double the price of a 9-inch. Ford may have made millions more of them, but they apparently didn't survive. Everybody wanted the 9-inchers, so the 8's just got scrapped. The Spicer style "drop out the back" rears have been common since the 70s and that's about all you see in the junkyards around here...

The 9-inch has been around since 1957 and was used in full-size cars as well as trucks and vans. Do you know when they stopped making them? Just a few years ago I could buy them complete drum-to-drum for $50 - $100; now $250 is sonsidered a steal. Supply & demand I suppose. That's what makes the Toyota pickup rear so attractive...

Charlie, the wishbones as they come stock from Ford on these earlier cars are not adjustible. Ford just kind of counted on their wishbones being straight enough to put the axle in the correct spot for proper alignment. But when you split the bones you have to use some sort of rod end on each one, either a spherical rod end or a tie rod end, and those screw into threaded bungs. You then have the ability to dial in the front end alignment by shortening one wishbone and lengthening the other side.

As for being able to move the axle, actually, it will pivot on the spring perch in the center. All that keeps the front end from swinging on that spot is the tightness of the perch bolts, so if you loosen that up you can move the front axle anywhere you want, within the limits of how much threads you have left on the rod end. What you want to do is initially square up the front axle to the rear axle so that both are going in the same direction, then use the adjustibilty of the rod ends to fine tune the alignment. It's funny how big a difference one turn on the rod ends will make in changing the wheelbase from one side compared to the other side.

Don

Jim
They are like gold around here. I paid 350 for my Ford 9" off a econline van(same width as the 48 ford, and direct mount match with the leaf springs, but that included switched out 3.0 gears and new brakes and decent drums. I thought it was really expensive but it took a month just to find a wrecker with the setup I needed!

Originally Posted by J. Robinson

Thanks, Dave. Good info to have. I'd like to find a couple of those 3.50/ 3.55s for a reasonable price. Anything for an 8-inch around here is scarce and at least double the price of a 9-inch. Ford may have made millions more of them, but they apparently didn't survive. Everybody wanted the 9-inchers, so the 8's just got scrapped. The Spicer style "drop out the back" rears have been common since the 70s and that's about all you see in the junkyards around here...

The 9-inch has been around since 1957 and was used in full-size cars as well as trucks and vans. Do you know when they stopped making them? Just a few years ago I could buy them complete drum-to-drum for $50 - $100; now $250 is sonsidered a steal. Supply & demand I suppose. That's what makes the Toyota pickup rear so attractive...