You/we all know ,that sometimes the parts we want or need are also available in one or more applications.......some unknown to us~! Like those Ford F1 frt shock mounts that ends up are also REAL similar on Old Dodge and other brand trucks as well. I stumbled on to somethin that may be of interest to some of y'all. I was at my cleanup auction I held here over the weekend,and a guy drops off a pickup bed and frame left over from his "restoration" and says -"it aint goin back home- sell it" I placed it in the row and never gave it any more thought....... 'Ends up it was about the end of the sale before I saw it up close and really looked at it. It was a 1971 International 1/2ton...They still had a drop axle and parallell leafs for a front suspension!! The axle looks exactly like a 4" drop to me and has been set up for drag link steering.....AH HMMMMM? to ICE THE CAKE- it has some wide[2-1/2"] brake shoes and get this- 5 lugs on 5-1/2" bolt circle.....UUUUHHHHHMMMMM? The frt suspension- [I bought the frt 3 feet of it all from the guy who wanted the rest for a wood trailer] included the axle two leaf springs and the complete brakes and steering arm on driver spindle. The leafs are exactly like the early Dodge pickup [front leafs] that are the-"industry standard" for use as rear leaf kits they sell... If you know Internationals -you will remember ,they commonly used at least one part from EVERY manufacturer known to man-in EVERY model year! The good news is it set me back TEN DOLLARS....and the axle has a neat 2"CENTER/FLAT-dip that is similar to my Lincoln axle in the modelA roadster- Im savin it for a future model A RPU........ It is a little wide but I think a guy can narrow it easier and less hassle than dropping an old one or adapting better brakes to an old axle. I think I may slice/grind off the ears that the leafs bolts on with, to make it a little more Fordlike [TM]....then drill a perch bolt hole for radius rods too!-Ill post a pic of this JEWELL tomorrow.
Excellent! If you made use of only one of the itemized parts you mentioned you would be getting a great deal at $10.00! How would you go about the narrowing? Someone here already converted a leaf axle (van?) over to Ford radius rods. They added some extra plate front and rear (I think) to reinforce the drilled area so that the new perch pin hole didn't compromise the strength of the axle. Truck axles MIGHT be thicker in that area, but you'd need to check it yourself of course! Can't remember who it was but he's a long timer on the HAMB.
''-HBILL-I have not given that serious thought yet,But my first approach woulkd be saw it half way thru the height and then horizontal about 6" then on down thru the other half so as to spread the torsion over a larger area? weld it and dress trhe front -then reinforce it on the rear side?~~~ I think its as heavy [thickness wise], as a 32 35Ford axle is already, so that doesnt look like any problem......jus day dreamin so far tho-
Great score!! I could use some more $10 good deals! This is very similiar to my plans for the front of my A chassis T; the main differance being my donor truck is '49 ford 1-1/2 ton. A friend used the same axle but cut bat wings out of 3/8" plate and had a proffesional weld them to the axle. 2 years on the front end mounted in a extreme trad T bucket. This was my plan because I coundn't 'see' enough material to drill down through the web. Has anyone done this drilling through the web, and put many miles on to say that is a good working idea? Any bad stories to go against the welding idea? Still very new, (FNG) CDNflatlander.
A 2wd IH Scout axle looks about the same. I have one but it's under a farm wagon Internationals are great aren't they? While they used a jumble of stuff most of it was good. I'd like to have an older IH pickup or half-cab Scout but I'm getting OT here
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