The wheel rate is only 25 lb/in different due to the motion ratio of 2:1 on these Fords. It absolutely makes a difference [I did this on a 63 Fairlane back in the 79 when we couldn't afford 'stangs] With more knowledge [than an 18year old], I would do the same but dial in some anti dive as well. You drop the front hole 1" and the rear hole 1-1/2" to tilt the arm rearward so suspension compression tries to induce more caster [which is fighting the forces of brake torque] Also tilting the upper A-arm gives a tiny bit more clearance , so move the new holes rearward 3/8" [this will add about 1.8° positive caster without stacking shims] The extra caster and anti-dive will make the car feel very confident. I did the Same "Shelby drop" on my road race Corvette [much to the disgust of Chevy guys who wanted to call it the "Guldstrand Mod"] But the frame horns were cut off , moved inward [camber] , tilted [anti-dive] , moved rearward [caster] and lowered [dynamic camber] This accomplished 4 things in one go and kept within the regulations ,which said "the original suspension mounting points must be retained" [they didn't say we couldn't move them] You can see it here: Also geometry is geometry, you don't need romantic shiny hotrod parts but simply good knowledge and some engineering skills. The biggest handling gain is modern radial tyres [all these mods done back in the 60's would've been a waste of time until tyre technology leapt forward]
Thanks, I love it when a plan comes together. Next plan? I’m looking to build a little more power in it in the future. I’ve been following Roothawg’s FE thread. I’m not sure how far I want to go. Old style: factory style solid lifter cam, adjustable rockers, intake manifold and ignition upgrade. New era: aluminum heads, hydraulic roller, adjustable rockers, intake manifold, and ignition upgrade. Maybe a little more carburetor than the current 650 Holley. I always liked the sound of an FE with solid lifters. I’m guessing Oregon Cams has a profile that would make good street power with the above combination. On the other hand, the Blueprint Engines 430 hp 383 SBC that I had in my Model A coupe was a strong, solid runner with its aluminum heads, hydraulic roller and some compression. Very impressive. I imagine an FE version of that engine powering the Ranchero.
Reading my mind… I will be going after the front end in the future and the Shelby modification on this chassis was one of the things I was going to look into. Improving caster and anti-dive at the same time would be great. This car is a street/occasional drag race car for me but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about its overall handling. Thanks for the tips. My first driving impression was, “Yikes, what’s wrong with this thing?” So far it’s responding well to the modifications and is a lot more comfortable to drive on our country roads. That’s some clever rules interpretation and application on that Corvette chassis.
Must be close to 29” tall? Largest I could squeeze in 57 in my avatar are MT radial Pros 275 60 15’s, about 28”tall on 8.5” wheel.The remote oil filter turned out pretty good to.
Thanks. It’s easy to change the filter too, have to have a little catch tray under it though or it gets messy. There’s only about 1/2” between the tire and the front edge of the wheel opening but plenty of room everywhere else. If the wheel had another 1/2”-1” of backspace I could go even bigger, but no need to. My ‘57 Ranchero was “rubber challenged” in the back. I couldn’t fit much in there without special wheels or serious trimming. That was one of the reasons why I didn’t feel too bad about letting it go. We were into big meats back then.
Start with the tyres first. Radials need a bit of neg camber to counteract sidewall cantilever effect. So at max body roll you want about 0.5° neg camber. The Shelby drop allows less static neg camber so it is better for straight line stability. Shelby dropped the A-Arms 1" because that was the most that could be done without binding the balljoints. I've seen them well over 2" drop with wedge plates. [but this is a race car] On a street car dynamic [or induced] camber is better than dialing in lots of static negative camber. Lots of negative camber needs toe-out to counteract camber thrust [this makes the car "feel" unstable and over reactive in a straight line] Look closely at the Corvette photo and see if you can notice any "innovation" [innovation because I never got caught ] OK, what they never picked up was the Japanese Aisin power steering box from a RHD Mitsubishi Sapporo / Starion. It had a resplined Corvette pitman arm, and a Hybrid rag joint. [1/2 Corvette and 1/2 Mitsubishi L200 pickup] The steering box was linear quick-steer at 16:1 and very predictable ,not like Corvette power steering rams and almost Identical external measurements. With your car the "Yikes" might be the power steering ram ,try and swap this out for a late model power steeering box. Then you can either play with the internal torsion bar or pump relief valve.
Soooooo...the bigger front sway bar worked out after all!?! Great. I can't say enough about the Shelby/Arning drop. The handling on and off the 'on-ramps' is like night and day ! 6sally6
It turns out that “recent front end work “ in the ad meant - new shocks. The rest appears to be original and untouched, well, maybe recently lubed. So I will have a chance to get better acquainted with it in the future. I think someone offers a power box to replace the factory slave cylinder setup but I’m not sure if it works with my Hooker headers. Worse comes to worse I can work around that, they need some repair anyway. There’s also several levels of suspension upgrades but I’m not sure if I need all that for my purposes. I tend to subscribe to the K.I.S.S. Principle. (and I’m just plain cheap!)
Remote filter , maybe a steel plate bolted to frame structure and long enough to drill holes and mount the sway bar to ?
I used a Heidts p/s regulator I got at a swapmeet for my one and only venture into the FE void. My '54 panel truck had a 390 and a C6, here's some random pics. 10 si alt with Tbird brackets and a S/W sending unit in the t-stat housing.
Wow, that looks great, nice detailing. I didn’t find that water outlet in my search, I made my own by welding on a bung. Someone suggested that I try a smaller steering wheel so I did and it seemed to help the feel of the steering much more than I expected. In the distant future I hope to convert it to a power steering box and do away with the slave cylinder but it’s pretty good for now. I had a ‘53 F100 that I swapped a ‘67 T-bird 390 and C6 into years ago. It was a solid, reliable old workhorse.
Sounds like you have it handled. Most of it was all there already in some form, I just rebuilt the 390 and added some old parts to it. Found the old Cal Custom products on eBay cheap and bought the water neck. It had a Toyota 4x4 ps box, a Ford pump and modified stock column with a '56 wheel. It was way too much power steering and that K&N air filter was too tall but it was under $10 new.
I did the Toyota power steering and a dropped axle on my ‘55 F100 that I sold a year or so ago. I was trying to keep it “traditional” but I was never happy with it steering wise, and it suffered from reoccurring Death Wobble. I should have put a front clip on it when I first got it, I’d probably still be driving it.
Before the test drive I took a look at the points. They had significant metal transfer and looked like too small of a gap. After trying to file off the lump, I decided to just reset them by eye. It made a surprising difference in the idle quality, much smoother. Hmm. I ordered some new Motorcraft points. On the test drive I heard the familiar rump, rump of a bad axle bearing so today I pulled the axles. The driver’s side was leaking but it was the passenger’s side that had the bad bearing. I’ll take ‘em to the machine shop tomorrow and get two new ones. New brakes and hardware, that’s good…..
The Jalopy Journal
