I was told I can swap the left and right side iprights and get a 2 inch drop out of it, with some minor adjustment to the tie rod. has anyone done this? im doing it as we speak, and have a few questions. it looks as though I can swap the upright and the spindle together but still keeping the correct steering arms. the spindles dont "appear" to be any different from one side to the other or upside down. but before I take it for granted I thought id ask
You can swap spindles side to side, flip them and lower the car,, however, the spindles will need to be heated and bent in order to get the alignment correct. There are a lot of ways to lower each with its own drawbacks. I lowered ours by using s10 coils springs, cut one coil and then added a set of Boogie Blocks between the control arm and lower spring pocket. I then cut a big chunk off the outer portion of the upper spring pocket to get the suspension room to move. I now have a 4 1/2" drop and still have over 3" of travel, rides nice as well. Paint and purty-ness will come over the winter. I also found that 77 monte carlo shocks are the correct length after lowering. You will have to redrill the lower shock mount 90 degrees from stock but they work great I have heard that flipping the spindles screws with the ackerman effect when cornering, but I have no first hand knowledge. Try a search, oh and grab your popcorn, cause this topic usually starts an arguement! http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=144166&highlight=50+ford+shoebox
yeah I'm trying to slam the bags in it today, so coils dont matter to me, but thanks for the advice. so to swap these, do I need to pop the kingpins and completely dissasemble the spindle/uprights and all? and keep the steering arms to there correct side? is that right?
yep everything has to come out and be dis***embled. you need to clearance grind the steering arms slightly where they go through between the spindle and upright.heat and bend the arms down at the end nearest the spindle, then once cooled, heat and bend the outer end back up level.do this after you have it all back together on the car. the drop needs to be about 1 and a1/4 ". you should replace the kingpin and bushes while its apart. only the uprights swap side to side, the arms and spindles stay on the same side.to get the camber right again, once its all back in, heat the thicker section of the upright below the spindle, put a four foot section of heavy pipe over the spindle and have someone apply LOTS of pressure up until the spindle is 1/2 degree above level...make sure the car is jacked up level of course. this job took me a full eight hour day by myself, im a mechanic, so dont think its a super quick thing and rush it.. also if you dont lift weights, and you want to parallel park it, your'e in trouble. this is mainly due to the steering arms effectively shortening, but also because the caster has to be adjusted to a negative figure,due to the shape of the uprights going the other way, when stock its positve.
thanks guys for the advice,... I was doing it while waiting for responses from someone,.. so now Im checking back, and I have already finished it..lol. and thankfully I did everything recommended. now I get to notch and 4 link the rear tomorrow as well as notch the front frame a bit for the lower control arm. but here where I got tonight.. thanks again
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