How bad is a stock '41 Chevy coupe knee action suspension REALLY?

I have a 41 special. Great info on front end.putting on lift this weekend .my problem in steering.the post have me better informed than I was .thank .i will post car.

 

that is really cool!

 

The rear suspension is great and will stay.The front was REALLY cool in 62 because nobody else had one.Ive started the rebuild and the independent is going in the s**** and a 56 c-10 front axel will take its place.I'm going to subframe the car with a 56 c-10 piece,mostly because the 28 rails are too narrow for the bbc setup I am useing.

 

some info on the Dubonnet IFS as used on the 34 - 39 Chevrolet (and to a lesser extent, on some Pontiacs)

http://www.obrasmechanicos.com/dubonnet.htm


per post by Tommy




cross-sectional view




Friend had a 37 Chevrolet sedan with this on it.

 

If you are going to s**** the IFS I might be interested in it if you are close to the Ohio/Michigan boarder,that suspension might be a cheap upgrade for my 37 Chevy p/u.

 

On every one of these that I have worked on, I have found stress-cracks in the rails. All fixable, but inspect carefully. If you do go with other suspension, take care to mark the spindle centerline on the frame, before removal, as well as the locations of the radiator support bolts, as they are in the suspension crossmember. I have built little jigs on the top of the crossmember, out of s****, to hold the locations.

 

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=1990687&d=1375023276

The one in trbomax's post is what my 39 had on it. Shocks leaked bad. Filled them with STP once. Rode great for one day until all the STP ran out. I suppose if you could keep them from leaking they would be fine.

.bjb

 

When I rebuilt the suspension in 1960 I was working at a wrecking yard. The owner had 2 brand new in box upper arms/shocks and gave them to me! The bushings and threaded pins were all still available then,so every thing that moved was new.It has about 5000 miles on it now.The shocks dont leak either! even though its 54 yrs old it sat most of the time.

 

More pics please. I'm rebuilding the front suspension on my '46 chevy coupe and one of the knuckle supports is bent, but I'm not sure which one. One has more curvature at the top than the other and less spacing between it and the backing plate at the top.

 

These are the only other pics I have. Back then I wasnt too much int do***enting builds. The first pic shows the first ps set up I built. It was a d`raglink set up from a 57 chevy. It was too complicated so a few months later I switched to the intregal box. The car is down in my shop waiting for me to take it apart.Tell me what exactly you want to see and I will take it and post it.

 

the upper portion of the knuckle supports in relation to the backing plates, preferably front view

 

OK,Ill have it up tonight.

 

Here you go. Its kinda ratty looking after sitting for 50 yrs,but it still works just fine.

 

First, I know nothing and I should stay out of this but, here goes!

I'm almost finished with putting a 350 Vortec in a '41 Chevy 2-door. I'll only address the front suspension & steering since that is what this thread is about. During the build, I talked by phone with 47ragtop who has the '47 convert and has built several similar coupes (he is a nice fellow). His experienced advice is to use a Mustang II setup. Although I didn't follow his advice, I agree with him.

My '41 came to me all stock with a completely rebuilt front end except for the steering sector (it had about 4" of "play"). I put poly bushings on the stock sway bar and '68 Chevy pickup front shocks on it. I used KYB Gas a Just shocks (KG5409)since I like firm, good handling shocks. With 7" Rallys and radial tires, the '41 handled very firm and good in the turns.

I'm 76 and long retired so economics is a factor. Also, I didn't want to waste the rebuilt front suspension that was driving very well. I was torn between letting Lares Mfg rebuild the orig steering sector and going to power steering (radial tires make 'em hard to park). I decided to go with a Saginaw 605 power sector. If I had it to do over, I would consider rounding up rebuilt components from a '54 Chevy power steering system (slave cylinder, etc).

I elected to use Ch***is Engeering engine mounts. (the left mount is offset forward). After a lot of trial and error, (and trying to use ramshorn exh manifolds both sides) we now have the 605 about 1/2" behind the left engine mount. (We cut and modified a Chevy manifold to clear everything.) This setup requires the pitman arm to be about 1" longer than the stock 605 arm. It is a bit quick but OK. Monday, I'll cut the spring in the PS Pump in half and it'll be OK. Before we moved the 605 forward, the pitman arm was too long and the little '41 was a bit scary to drive! (Learn stuff the hard way.)

We're using the original stg wheel and column (cut of, of course) and one U-Joint. For more adjustibility, we modified a '60 Corvette tie rod for the right side.

The poly bushings (end links and frame) and KYB shocks (tube shocks on the rear too) upgrades the handling nicely. I will eventually find a larger diameter front sway bar and put one on the rear. The point is that the '41-'48 Chevy suspension can be made to handle quite well. Frankly, I would never rebuild one of these front ends but this one was already all new.

As an aside, I'm running a '56 Chevy rear end and '60 Corvette front spindles, steering arms and brakes. The '51-'54 car and thru '62 Corvette backing plates will NOT fit the orig '41-'48 spindles (ask me how I know). The car stops well good enough for an old man (with a hydravac, it would stand you on your nose). Frankly, I didn't want disc brakes on this car.

If you can afford it, the Mustang II is still the way to go.

"To each his own".

 

Sorry to bump such and old thread. But beings I cant decide to pull the trigger or not on a Ch***is Engineering, bolt in hub-hub kit. One of my many search's brought me here.
My antique Motors manual may shed some light on the, "double acting knee action double arm type shock." vs "Delco knee action units."