While I am on the hunt for a 46-48 Ford Tudor sedan I am continuing my research. I have read thru a lot of posts about different methods to lower one of these and had a few questions. In the front a drop axle, reversed eye spring and longer shackles are all options. I would probably start with reversing the eye DIY style like I have seen done on here along with longer shackles. After that maybe a drop axle. When looking at those they list different widths, how do you know what to use? I saw on Sid’s page he references being able to stretch the axle as well as dropping it. Is this done to move the wheels in or out for clearance inside the fenders when turning? And at what point do you need to split the bones or mod them? Clearance for the drag link? In the rear it looks like similar options. But also modifying the rear crossmember to raise it up is also an option? I see that you need to keep the panhard bar front and rear to keep everything located. If possible this is the stance I would be aiming for starting with stock suspension.
I did find this thread that helped some more. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/dropped-axle-in-a-46-48-ford.1041577/
A drop on an original 46-48 axle is difficult because the length from the perch to kingpin is short. Not much room there to stretch with. I would never have a dropper try to keep the original width. Let it narrow up. You need more tire clearance to the fender edge.
Sounds like you have it pretty well figured out it sounds like. Sid dropped mine to 4” i think most axles end up stretched with a heavy drop how could they not? But they could be referring to narrowing the overall width. they also make a dropped front cross member that will get you another 3” but you really need to pay attention to whatever engine you have because it may hit. That also- in my research- cause the wishbone to hit the frame. It seems the most common answer to that is a four bar set up with it mounted on the outside of the frame rails. Fat Jacks son is building on currently on Instagram and shows a lot of what’s going on. Tom Branch’s low 46 also has a dropped cross member up front. that being said the only other time I’ve seen the wishbone come into interference is @flatout51 47’ I believe hit the bones? Or something? Might be steering because I believe it was due to the 5” dropped axel he’ll chime in I’m sure. My personal 46 has a 4” axle, a posies super low spring and a little bit longer shackles with the pan hard modifed to work. I’ve considered getting it lower and don’t know how driveable it would be for me. With a 26” ish tall tire I can’t even get my head under the rockers. Still have people say “hey you should lower that!” I’m like it’s damn near 12” lower than a stock one lol. ****ers look 4x4 stock!
I see some new forged 37-48 4" drop axles for sale. These list specs of 4" drop, 47" wide (king pin centers), 49" overall length, 34" spring perch centers, use with 29" cross spring. Are these something that really fits and works?
Just be aware that original axles are not the same from 37 to 48, so I’m not sure what that repro axle is supposed to be.
That’s the thing I am wondering about. Like a lot of parts are advertised to fit and then they need a ton of work to make them fit. Was looking for someone that had experience with it?
You need to know what distance is between the perch pins on your current axle vs any replacement axle. If you think you can just use an axle with a narrower spring and move your wishbones to suit, I would first determine if you will have clearance for the pitman arm and steering box.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/im-getting-married-project-46-ford-begins.621455/ There’s one in there somewhere I’m sure
I have a Sids 5 inch drop axle, reversed main leaf and I removed a few leaves. Unsplit bones. I'm also running the ch***is engineering dropped bone mount. Only issue I've ran into was my pitman arm was hitting the tie rod. I used bolt on Pete and Jake's steering arms instead of heating and bending the stock arms so that might have been that issue. The rear I used the ch***is engineering parallel leaf kit with an F100 9 inch rear. It sits pretty low. 5.50x16 fronts and 7.00x16 rears.
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