Saw on another board that the flanged AMC/Rambler spindles (pic below) were used in the past to lower axles with '42-'48 Ford spindles, by cutting off the Ford spindle stub and attaching the AMC flange to the square-back Ford spindles either higher or lower. May have been written up in a Tex Smith book or "Rodding Action". Anybody got the scoop on this, an illustration or detail of what's involved in terms of adapting the AMC spindle to the Ford spindle?? Thanks.
Go to tech--there's a huge article on brake swapping from the early 1970's Rod Action Ford book in there somewhere. I'm pretty sure it cover this along with numerous other swaps using now-extinct donors. This is one I always found scary.
A friend has these. The were on a car for years with no problems. New owner thought he would put in a dropped axle so these came out. I think he would get rid of them. PM me and I will send contact info.
My dad did this to his 38 ford in 1977 and used them under that car with thousands of miles until 94 when he switched to IFS now that set up his under our 41 ford pick up so we have been using that dropped set up for 29 years with no problems. you cut the spindle off and just use the king pin part and the flat surface where the bolts are on your early ford spindle. make a plate that wont bend with the drop you want bolt it to the ford spindle and bolt the amc spindle to that.
I'm not so sure I would use them as described, that's what dropped axles are for, but I did use a set of AMC spindles to build a motorcycle trailer. They work out really well on the trailer. If I remember correctly the AMC hubs have a 5 on 4 1/2" late model Ford bolt pattern......they would work real well to make a trailer for a hot rod!
Seems like with a little machining you could do the same thing with the '42-'48 spindles. They don't have to be AMC.
From 1970 up for sure...might have been used earlier too, but I think 69 Ramblers and previous had a trunnion bearing front suspension. I have no idea if those trunnion spindles were bolt together or not. Don't know if trunnions were across the board for Rambler in the 60's either. Might have just been the small cars... Gremlins, Javelins, Hornets, Spirits etc all had the multipiece spindle...some with drums, some with disc. The thing looks a little dicey, but if it'll work safely in a nose heavy Javelin/401 I can't see it being a problem in a lighter rod with a more rearward biased weight distribution. Just for comparison purposes... Front WD Dodge Caravans use the same type setup on the rear axle and their bolt on spindle doesn't even have an index machined in! Just hangs on the 4 bolts. Imagine 8 passengers, hatch full of luggage and a trailer in tow!!! Could be a way to save some damaged spindles or do a brake/bolt circle swap with just junkyard parts too. You don't HAVE to use them in a dropped configuration.
Thoses spindles were used on all AMC cars from 1950 to 1986. There are actually two spindles, a big bearing, and a small bearing version, and they will interchange. So if you want Disc brakes on your 50 Nash, the ones from an 80 Concord will bolt on, or any other combo you can come up with. I've seen broken trunions on AMC cars, but I have never seen a spindle break off.
Man! Thats impressive! I guess if you have a reliable system that isn't giving you problems its OK to stick with it. Funny how it doesn't work like that anymore. Imagine how much money the factorys could save if the designers didn't keep redesigning for no apparent reason!!! Those trunions were a PITA though. My second car was a 69 Rambler 440 I bought off my father in law. Thankfully he had replaced the trunion bearings the previous year. They usually didn't last too long up this way...might have been the salt on the roads I guess. Those small Ramblers were great cars even with the trunions... I remember the drum brakes worked really well on that car. Better than my old Mustang anyway!
The first thing I did was to add discs to my 65 Rambler from a concord... Cus the races in the drums were loose...I'm looking for a set of rambler front hubs going to make a braket to mount chevy calipers insted of the ford style...
I did a VW setup on the front of my 34 three window coupe, with a ford master cylinder disk and drum and a stock pressure seperator and it worked great. The setup was in a HotRod Mag, in the late 70s I think.
I used them once to make a trailer. A piece of round tube, a couple of pieces of 1/2" flat stock and these. Instant custom axle. Oh yeah, you need some 1/2" nuts, bolts, and washers.
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