It's not worth the waste of money, the dropped uprights have caused more problems than anything when I could have just cut a coil and been done with it. The dropped uprights throw off the alignment bad, which is not that big of a deal, they also throw off the steering alignment so bad that I had to cut a 2.5" section out of the driver's side tie rod just to get more adjustment out of it. Not even that is so bad. Here's the kicker: I have two sets of wheels and both grind the driver's side tie rod now. Forget about the dropped steering arms, they're so far off that it would take less work to make your own from scratch than it would be to bend them to fit properly. I wasted about $600 on the dropped uprights and dropped steering arms. Now I've decided to put the stock steering arms back on it. What a complete waste. So if you're thinking about dropped uprights, to hell with it, cut some coils. Mine dropped 3" but still isn't low enough in the front, I have to go another 3" at least to get where I want to go so it looks like I'll be cutting a coil after all. Oh and the grease fittings on one side had to be removed for clearance. I don't know if I can find some small enough to go on there. Btw: Uprights, arms, spindles, kingpins, all ordered from national chevy. I'm starting to think maybe it wasn't so bad when it was it's stock ride height offroadin 4x4 bel air 12 feet up in the air...
one of the guys in the club just did droped up rights on a 54 chevy i scored him from fat man and they worked just fine.
I have no Idea what your talking about. I bought the same stuff from Fatman, And had no problems What so ever. The only thing i changed was the front springs. Mine were cut 2 coils and it rode like ****. I put another set in and cut them 1 coil, and she drives like a new car, Go thru all you front end components and make sure they are in good shape. My 3rd steering arm needed a new kingpin and that was it. S****s
somethings not right. dropped uprights by themselfs shouldn't effect alignment that much...unless they were made wrong who did you buy this stuff from? did you put them on correctly?
Not one-hundred percent sure, but I have a catalog from National Chevy, and they look exactly like Fatman's. I think they just buy them from fatmans.
Im not trying to aggravte you even more, but, did you get the right parts, maybe they missboxed them or sent the wrong order,got the year of your car wrong? If its got a part number on it maybe give them a call and see what the deal is.
I agree, Check and see if you got the right parts. Both numbers match from both catalogues. Parts should fit 49-54 chevy, 53-62 (?) corvette. My installation was a no brainer.... S****s
The dropped uprights did the job, and installed smoothly minus the whole grease insert problem. Yeah I've been amazed at how much just lowering the spindles 3" messed with the alignment. Remember I said I had to cut a section out of the tie rod to get some more adjustment out of it? Well I lowered the car this evening off of the jack stands for the first time in months. I have to take the driver's side tie rod out a bit more and then it will all be fixed but the thing is, my wheels would have never been pointed in the same direction if I hadn't cut a section out of the tie rod. My adjustments on both ends were screwed all the way in to the max. Now it was this way before I started so it's possible one of those tie rods don't go on my car at all but they sure do look like 53 tie rods. Something is just way off on my front end and I can't quite place it. Something always has been if my adjustments were always maxed. Now after I put the stock steering arms back on, I'm still grinding the driver's side tie rod against the wheel, with the dropped steering arms, I completely chewed up two brand new tires on the front in. These tires drove the car out of my shop, into the street, and back into the shop and they were completely wasted. A groove was cut in them so deep you could bury your fingers in it. Now I said the stock steering arm on the driver's side is grinding the wheel but this is a 14" wheel so when I get new tires and put 15's back on it, it looks like it will clear just fine. My idler pin was some U bolt with a bolt going through it as well so that's one thing I know for sure that was #$&^# rigged. I'm almost done though, I'm going to fix the alignment here soon and it should be finished but damn it took more work than it should have. My 235 has been hopped up to the max as well on this build. Well, short of filling in the pockets on the head. The engine was totally rebuilt and balanced. Fenton dual exhaust and Fenton dual intake with two Roch BC's. MSD 6AL, MSD coil, MSD 8515 distributor which is for a 250 so I had to turn it in a lathe to get it to sink far enough down to turn the oil pump. I have photos of all that as well if anyone is interested. That 8515 is the best HEI vacuum advance distributor you can get for a 216/235. I'm pretty sure those uprights aren't the wrong because if they were I would think I would have had way more problems than this. I would however like to see the difference between 49-52, 53, and 54 dropped uprights. My car was born on Nov 25th of 1953 so it has a lot of 1954 features, in a lot of cases I have to order 1954 bel air parts. I'm going to pull one of the hubs back off and see what I might have missed. And by the way I'm not going to take offense to anything here, I haven't been working on cars my whole life, I'm still learning and have a lot more to go and I've definately made my share of stupid mistakes in this build. Like dropping the engine in and bolting it up to the transmission all to find out "hey, uh, where's the throwout bearing?" "AHHH!!!!" yeah I've had my share of those moments. Thanks guys.
I not shure about the dropped uprights either any more. they were a lot of money. and I still set the same in the front as you, and I dont have them. So about that 235 have you started her yet?
She's firing up and cruising tonight. Everything is done. I have a gremlin in the ignition somewhere, about to go rewire the MSD 6AL and then start it up. Then it will take me 2 seconds to take that tie rod in, the eccentric shaft is already loose and ready for alignment, then tighten it down and pull it out of the shop for a test spin. Then back in the shop for a new coat of paint.
Found the gremlin in the inigition wiring. So here it is. After months of hoppin up my 235, I fired her up for the first time. I recorded a wav file of her idling for the first time since the rebuild. It was extremely loud so it was very hard to get a good quality recording, this was the first attempt of several I made and the first attempt came out best. I'm getting back to the tie rod situation right now and then take it for a test spin.
On two cars that I used dropped uprights and steering arms on I had to use wheel spacers to keep the wheels from scrubbing, otherwise they worked great. Rick
I've got a 49 sedan that I used fatman uprights and cut 1 coil,it didnt go as low as I was expecting either,but the only trouble I had was the grease fitting clearance,I just greased the **** out of it,took it out and put a bolt in it to keep the grease that didnt shoot out on the ground when swap'n in the bolt. Well my one adjustable tie-rod is bottomed out all the way but its within a 1/16 of being right?(I alligned it my self with a tape measure and two aluminum levels oh and some budweiser)so I guess that wasnt to much of a problem,
I forgot,I am still run'n my stock steering arms and that phuk'n ****s!!!!and my rims are 15x6 that I snagged off of an old beat up utillity trailer in the hay feild down the road and they clear,just barely
I'm thinking about bending the dropped steering arms so they have better clearance and then slapping them back on. Yeah those tie rods don't adjust much at all that's why I cut a 2.5" section out of mine. They screw way in there on both sides so if ou're bottomed out, cutting a section out will put your adjustment about in the middle. I'm aligning mine the same way, I'm using metal stock up against the wheel so it sticks out in the front and back and measuring the front and back to make sure they're the same and for alignment, just a level, a big *** oversized L that I **** up against the wheel and it sticks way out so I can measure it. You made me feel better, at least I'm not the only one with clearance issues after dropped uprights. The only reason I haven't bent up the dropped steering arms to fit is son of a ***** it takes a long time to heat up. I wish I still drank.
I still plan on heating and bendig my stock ones Im just to damn lazy to jerk'em back off and do it,that and it's my only ride right now,so if I screw it up I'm on foot. I was also thinking about making some sort of jig when I do it and if it works half way descent post some pics with measurements so someone else with a 49-54 can save a hundred and thirty bucks and just bend the **** out of their stock ones.
same here, it's my only car right now and was really not supposed to be down this long. I can drive it now but really want to get a few more things lined out first. I think since the 15's clear just fine I'm just going to push a rush on buying new tires for the front and run those. I have a brand new set of those fancy 4 bar hubcaps from national chev that I've been dying to see on the car but haven't been able to yet. I have another gremlin caught in the timing somewhere, as soon as I find the little *******, I'm throwing the 15's back on it, aligning it, and driving it to get new tires for the front. Then, although extremely ****ing tired and burnt out of working on it right now, I'm going to drive it back in the shop for a new coat of paint. I think I'm going super jet black this time around with a thin coat of electric blue pearl mixed in with clear coat on top. Right now it's midnight blue with blue pearl and it's just too damn blue, I want mostly black. Yanno there are times when I'm up under the car and jammin to some good tunes, just really enjoying it, loving every second of it. But sometimes, and really all the time here lately, I've just been pissed off and burnt out. I just wanna cruise it. Thing is, when it is all done, I'll walk into the shop and miss having a long list of things to do. Her and I, we have a rollercoaster relationship but I have to say, I love the hell out of her. Sure I may wanna slap her around sometimes, maybe black and eye or two, call her a fat ***** and she's been known to spit fire in my face, or just sit there and refuse to get off her fat ***. I love the heavy ***** though. My wife helps out a lot in the shop, usually they both aren't ******* me off at the same time so when I'm frustrated at one, I always have the other to hang out with. LOL
Hey F###er I'v been there with you on that heavy ***** a time or two so don't forget OK man. But you really help me out on mine alot back in the weeks I like to call "the black days" of no car to drive. So I kinda owe you my help and expertise. Ha Ha Ha Sorry I couldn't help with the motor as much as I wanted to but I have all this **** going on right at the moment. Well going to a local cruise with my dad tomorrow night. then get to spend the rest of the night in the garage with him lowering my grandpa's 41 chevy truck. Well Ihave to work in few hours so I talk to ya then.
Steering alignment, like yours burntclutch, is now right to within a 1/16". I'm about to get out there and fix the camber. I made that square to use as an alignment tool, course it's only for 15" wheels. It's nothing more than 1/4"x2" steel stock cut to it fits snug in the lip of the steel wheel, and a groove cut out in the center to make room for the spindle. Then it has a long bar sticking out that's even with the bottom lip of the wheel and I can measure the back of it, and then the front to see how far off the camber is. I haven't started on it yet but I did already measure it and I have negative camber of only about 1/16" of an inch, and that was only by eyeballing it when installing new eccentric shafts. Not bad for eyeballing it. Tonight I'll get it right on. I'm thinking I might actually put a load in the car before setting the camber, for regular ride weight. After all, when it really matters it's a lot heavier than sitting there empty. And Keith, dude, yeah you've been here, a time or two, and that's it man. It's been very appreciated but it isn't like anyone has really helped me a lot on this one. And ya know what? It's my car so I don't expect anyone but me to be out there working on it. As for your car, you don't owe me **** man, I liked having your ride in my shop, I liked working on it with ya. All I ever asked was for you to cover the consumables like sand paper and primer and all that and you did. The rest was fun. It was stressful for you to have your car down for so long while it was being fixed up, but you at least had another car to drive. With adequate help I could have had my car done weeks ago. Sometimes, especially in a major rebuild like this one, **** happens where one person just can't do a specific task. The times I've run into those tasks I've had to beg someone to help me. I'm going to be pretty damn bitter for awhile because of it man. Out of all the guys I know, only two have even stopped by, you and The Reverend Memphis J. I'm thinking about putting in a pool table in the shop so maybe then at least people will hang out in there for some ****ing conversation. Then again I think, well **** everyone. I'm just tired of this build, it's taken 10X longer than it should have. Nothing bolted right up or came right out or went right in. It's a part of hot rodding I guess. You help everyone with their own cars but when you need it on yours, no one's to be found. You have helped and just the fact that you've done anything on my ride is more than what's expected so thanks. I have the lead sled blues right now god damnit and it ****s. Maybe when the 53 is finished we can all hang out again. Everyone disappeared as soon as this project got busy.
Man it felt good to take her for a test drive. The timing is a bit off when it's under load but that's something I'll have to wait till morning to fix, I don't wanna piss off the neighborhood. I took her for her first couple miles and she went down the road straight as a pin, no bump steer, no shimmy or shakes. The new engine is running great, just that Lubriplate **** that I put on everything during the ***embly smells like complete ****. I'm trying hard to baby this motor for the first 1,500 miles because i want it really good and broken in, everything seated properly, before I romp on it. I expect this motor to last another 53 years with nothing more than routine maintenance. I'd love to know what compression I'm running but don't know how to calculate cylander psi into a compression ratio that I can more easily understand. I can hear a huge difference, this motor sounds like a big block V8 except tighter. Alignment in all directions is down to within 1/16" of an inch. So here's the deal: Dropped uprights: good. Dropped steering arms: bad. Run your stock steering arms if you're lowering one of these cars. Don't expect $400 worth of kick *** in a barrel when you drop one using dropped uprights, 3" isn't all that damn noticable, I suggest 3" and a 2" dropped spring from Detroit Spring. I'm gonna get one of those springs here soon, right now, 3" all around isn't bad. I at least have some wheel hidden in the fender now instead of 12 feet of clearance between the top of the tire and the fender. Oh, and if your tie rod's adjustment is bottomed out as well, do what I did, cut a 2 to 2.5" section out of the middle of it and weld it back together. I was tempted to cut 2.5" out of the non-adjustment p***enger's side but didn't, that might have worked even better so do what feels right to you or flip a coin, either way you'll gain a lot of adjustment. Each complete turn of the tie rod end gave me 1/8". If you want extreme accuracy do it with it still mounted to the steering arm and just loosen those two bolts, clamp on it with a small set of visegrips and turn the bar. One side is reverse thread so it gets shorter or longer depending on how you turn the tie rod. Now pardon me for all that stuff most of you know, I religiously search this entire forum for information and if I can help anyone at all I am more than eager. If anyone bends a set of dropped steering arms, let me know how that goes for you. I damn near put her in the ditch across the road she's been sitting so long, there was squat for brake pressure, I was pumpin like all hell and was about to pop the clutch in 1st to get it to stop rolling backwards. Yeah yet another thing I won't do again. Always check brakes before going on a test ride.
The Jalopy Journal
