55 Pontiac Lowering

I believe it, but can you explain why?
I've heard of flipping spindles upside on some trucks to gain lift, because the spindle snout the wheel bearing rides on is not centered in the upright, I get that.

But from the drawing in the shop manual above, I don't see how swapping the L/R spindles would gain any drop? The look the same side to side.
Also, do you swap the upright as well? If so, wouldn't that move the tie rod connection to the steering knuckle either in front of or behind the wheel (opposite of however it is now), which would require a longer tie rod right?

Just my thoughts, I need to go look closer at my front end to get a better idea, but this is what comes to mind looking at the shop manual scan.

 

Really?? Will this work on a 55 Chevy with 2 inch dropped spindles? the 2 inch dropped spindles helped but it still needs another inch or two and if this would work that would be great!

 

What he said. Does anyone have any ideas?

 

please explain this lowering procedure.

 

Yeah, I'd like to know too.

 

this will work only on pontiac 55-57 only no chevys.

 

i have a 55' pontiac but fail to see how this works, not saying it won't but need to be enlightened about this?????

 

I think this will work.
Looks like if you swap the Left and Right spindles, and then flip them upside down, that will gain you about ~3" drop, and from flipping them upside down you relocate the steering knuckle to tie rod connection to the original side.
I'm gonna jack the front end up and take a look soon, I'll try and do it tonight.

 

On second thought, thats gotta trash the alignment though.
Might have to heat/bend the steering knuckle to straighten it out again?
Anybody actually done this before....chime in and let us know!

 

I just crawled under my wagon....puzzles me too. Looking at my 56 manual, the pics look like the position of the spindle might be a bit off center towards the top. Looks as though you would not be able to tell until you took off the drum though.

 

Details HELLMET....... Detials.

 

this is how you do it.

 

OK makes sense now, but can you speak from experience how this will affect the alignment? Seems to me this will affect camber of the wheel.

 

the adjuster will be at the bottom now for caster/camber, yes it will need aligned

 

What is the camber adjustment on this suspension? Shims on the upper arm?

 

The eccentric on the bolt that connects the upright to the upper control arm adjust camber. It has a good 1/2" of extra thread to adjust back and forth for caster as well. It has a locking bolt that needs loosened so the eccentric can be rotated.

 

let us know how it works out. also my pontiac had bags on it. and a step in the rear to get it that low. but rode real nice.

 

Fyi, PontiacSafari.com has a 56 online manual , he has recently added a 55 online manual for us 55 guys. It will have the alignment specs on there you need.

 

A few things I thought about swapping the uprights, I would r&i the spindles from the uprights and swap them around . That would return the brake backing plate pattern to where it was before and secondly on the kingpin setup the bearing is below the spindle, the kingpins would need dissassembled anyway to swap that bearing back around to underneath the spindle. It woudn't do any good above the spindle and upside down. Bill

 

Someone get busy and get this done and take pics. LOL

I'm off next week and would like to do this if someone saves me from being the one who makes all the initial mistakes.

 

Bumping this back up. I looked at mine and I guess I'm just not quite there yet. LOL

Are we saying that you just swap the spindles? It didn't seem to me (just by looking) that this would make a difference.

I'd still like to find a replacement spring also. As of right now, the only ones I've found are $200.

 

Seems like a lot of work, to save $200?!? An alignment is going to cost you $50-$100 roughly, plus your time... If you had it apart already, I'd maybe try it... Less work/headache/BS to just have someone make you up some springs, IMHO!

 

I don't know that it's that much more work than just replacing springs. I'd really need to get it aligned after lowering anyway.

I'd keep full spring travel also.

 

I paid under $100 for my springs, you just need to know what your looking for. I can post my scans from a napa spring catalog or go to your local parts store that still actually have paper catalogs and do some searching. I left them at work and will be off next week If you want to wait that long. I already posted what I know about mine, except for spring rate.

 

BTT. Did anyone actually swap their left and right Kingpins? I'm also looking at reverting back to springs from bags and would love any leads on springs that will fit, as I threw out the original springs (Doh!!)

 

If you have access to spring catalog, my 55 springs had a 16 3/4" free height, .630 wire size and not sure on spring rate, but similar cars were in the 325-350 range.

I copied some pages from a Napa catalog and around here somewhere, they also list some of the springs on their website.

 

You wouldn't happen to know what the dia of the spring is? I don't have any of the original details.

 

3.650"

 

^^^^ that should be the i.d.

 

I have the stock springs I pulled out of my '57. $20 + shipping and they are yours! PM me if you're interested, time to clear out the garage!