Lowering the front of my 46 Ford ?

Here is another question on the 46 Ford.

The car already has a 4" dropped front axle but I want to go lower without replacing the entire front end with a Mustang II set up or some such thing.

How can it be done and still keep the car safe, The rear is about 3" lower than the front now by redesigning the spring crossmember? Works good.

Do they make dropped spindles for that car and if so what kind of brakes can I use and still maintain the 16" wheels?

Thanks, Roger in Cali.

 

Has it got a Reverse Eye spring in it?If not you could try one of those, not sure how much drop they give maybe about 11/2''.My Brother in Laws '46 Merc had longer spring shackles fitted and no dropped axle, it sat quite low.Try longer shackles, should be an easy job to do.As the spring is in front of the axle longer shackles should work!Hope this is of some use.

Nick.

 

How low you can go can partly depends on how far you can turn wheels without hitting fender. If your axle is stock width this will be a problem for clearance.Yes, reversed eye helps. If you have a stock spring pack try removing something like the second and forth spring from top. Do not take out top or two on top of each other. Have to experiment. Also, can get springs de-arched. Find a automotive spring shop to help out.

 

My 1947 Ford has a stock front axle with longer shackles to lower it.

 

Install a mono leaf spring for the lower look. You can use the spacers to adjust the height. You can also install a new front cross member available from Speedway Motors of make your own from a piece of 3x3 3/16 wall tubing. Fat Jack made these at one time.

 

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/GmSearchResults.aspx?q=ford+crossmember&Search***leDescr=True

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/p/841...Ford-Front-Ends.html?itemNo=ford%20spring

How low do you want to go!

 

my 48 has 4" dropped axle, posie's reversed eye indadirt spring. 3" raised cross member and small tires and I still want more,
I guess theres no hope for a satisfied man

 

Mostly good advice. You must not have a stock dropped axle under as those 42-48 i-beams just can't be dropped 4" 'caus ethe isn't enough axle between the perch bosses and the spindle bosses to drop that far. Must be a 37-41.

 

My pal's 46 Ford sedan was very low when he got it.

3" dropped axle and a stock front spring that was flat.
We think all the leafs were in and the spring has since gone on a 48 Ford coupe with stock axle and got it down a bit.

The 46 now has a Posie's spring and it's still low, but a lot more practical.

The overly tall rear lowering blocks were tossed and a pair of 2" - 2 1/2" ones made and installed.

A couple of pics of how it sits nowadays.

 

I tried the fancy monoleaf spring twice on a '47 and did not change much. The crossmember idea sounds good.

 

I am going to pickup the car today and then will have access to whats there and what the suspension looks like . I'll take some pics and then we'll know what to do.

Thanks, Roger

 

I don't know if you've re-arranged some of the leaves yet, but that got mine (and Cfish1950's) 46 Ford down another couple of inches. We both are running reverse eyse Posies springs and a 4" drop axle. Mine will be getting 5.60-15's up front next week, so that will bring it about an 1.5" lower over the 6.70-15's on it in this pic.

 

The Speedway dropped crossmember works great!

 

don't know if anyone mentioned it, but 2 things to consider. when you lower it make sure you keep your panhard bar hooked up. it may need some re-arranging to get it to fit again and secondly your wishbones may need split and moved out depending on how low you want. i lowered mine about 6 inches by getting a dearched spring which i reversed the eye on and removed a few leaves, and made longer shackles. with the engine in the frame sits on the wishbones. check my profile for my album "48 ford" and you'll see how low that gets you. the speedway cross member can't be used with flatheads from what i've read/heard.

 

Hey Ace you got stock 16s on your 48? Or what are the front wheel/tire combo?
Thanks

 

stick shift, yeah at the moment i've got 16s but tires are just rollers. they are old tall snow tires I will run a little smaller profile but i do like the "tall" tire look to fill out the rest of the fender well on the fat fendered cars. i need to drop the new engine in and split the wishbones, because as mentioned the frame rests on the 'bones it's so low. i may get a dropped axle and go back to the stock shackles. not sure yet!

 

heres mine ...runnin What Mike said.

 

more

 

This tread is exactly my problem - I want to go way lower - my car used to have a stock spring that was arched and none reversed eyes - I now run a mono leaf with the leaf as close to the cross member as possible and it's still too high and I can not go any lower - and buying a posie spring I am not sure if it will get it any lower - I was told I can get it one more inch by going to the stock shackles that are 2 3/8 between the bolts and I am now running a hot rod shackle which is 1 1/2 inch beteen bolts.
I am disappointed in the mono leaf high ride hight and that I can not adjust it - I can adjust it but that would get my car even higher - the mono leaf should have had a larger arch to it - it might settle little over time I been told but I can not wait 5 years to get my in the weeds look! - I might even go back to a stock spring wit ha couple leafs taken out. or go with a truck rear shackles kit that has 4 inches between the bolt holes and that would bring it down 2 1/2 inch from now and the stabilizer bushing got to be new and fresh - any thought s on this approach?

 

This is the look I want to accomplish - and where I was told from a owner many years ago that he was running stock spring without 2 leafs

Also from the picture - can anyone verify if this is a dropped axel or not - I would guess it's a 4 inch dropped axle but I am not sure - anyone?

 

hard telling for sure, but i doubt it's just a simple leaf removal job on this car. i've seen this photo before, in fact i saved it to my harddrive (sorry for stealing).

if you have access to some steel of same thickness as your current shackles, you can make your own lengthened shackles to drop you a good inch if you have the tools to cut your shape. i used a hand held bandsaw with a metal blade to cut mine. very time consuming, and just a drill press to drill my holes...duh. now that i've got my plasma i'm making new sets with it. just for looks. My shackles overall length are somewhere around 4 1/2" or 5". Any longer and i was fearful of any front to back movement, which theoretically shouldn't have any because of the wishbones and spring mounts. Side to side motion is limited by the panhard bars. you'll find you'll probably need new shocks too, and in the rear i had to remove my rubber bumpstops on the frame, and will be replaced with thinner ones.

As i say before, if you drop too much with the stock front end, even with a new cross member, as well, you will most likely have frame clearance problems at the wishbones. splitting the wishbone and mounting them parallel is necessary, or frame work which can get involved. Here's a few pictures i stole (sorry, can't find the old thread) from a previous thread to show you how long they can be. It shows roughly 17cm in length, which is a little over 6". It's probably not the *best* way to do it, but it does get it down and dirty. the 3rd picture is of my '48 using the reversed eye, remove 2 leafs, de-arched front spring, both with longer shackles. It's still in the build process so i can't tell you how it rides!

 

Speedway sells a flat front crossmember which dropped my friends 47 about 2"

 

Here are a few pics of the car and the undercarriage/ front axle.

The axle is from Moore Drop in Oakland Ca. and that's supposed to be a Posie reversed eye spring.

Running the original wheels, 16's with Bias ply tires.

The rear has a custom crossmember /spring perch which lowers the rear very nicely. The trick is getting the front down more if possible.

Check out the pics and give me your input.

Thanks, Roger in Cali

 

Using AMC bolt on spindles would be an option that you might look into. I know that some on here feel it to be unstisfactory but I am aware of a couple of beam axle cars that used them quite sucessfully. Don't know how hard they would be to find, but you can create a few inches of drop with them. If you have any interest pm me and I can send you the articles that covered this modification.

 

Regarding longer schackles, why doesn't the 45* rule apply to this method of lowering?

 

gr8rods, I am also exploring a realistic method to lower my 46 w/a flathead. Spiffy might have the answer with the crossmember change his looks pretty low. My question is have you split the wishbone? How much drop is in your axle now?

Thanks -good luck

 

Oh yeah, one more lowering thing I'm runnung a Hemi. just sitting a little over six inches off the ground. makes me feel like a 4X4 dammit

 

I would try smaller dia. front wheels and tires, or at least the tires. If you just want the bumper closer to the ground that will do it. It you are trying to change the relationship of the front tire and the wheel well, then this won't help. Maybe it would just be easier to raise the rear and inch.
sorry

 

Roger, it looks like you could take a couple leafs out of the top of the spring, then put them on the bottom as your "spacer", if that's not low enough it looks like you can make a longer shackle. Again, make sure you've got enough space between the frame and wishbone.