Im lost. I really am. My biggest weakness is rear suspension. I dont know why. Should be simple enought right? Frame and body is 28 rpu. Trying to keep the stock wheelbase. Spring is model T sedan, rearend is an 8 inch from a 62 meteor. Plan on using wishbones. For some reason, im completly lost on how to make it all work... so HELP!!! thanks guys, Marty
Ah, we've all been lost one time or another. You have the basics down, like the T spring, 8 inch rear, and wanting to use bones. Now you just have to create the bracketry to put it all together. I am running a very similar setup on the rear of my 27, except I used hairpins instead of wishbones, but that is just incidental. What you will need are the proper mounts to put that T spring on top of the 8 inch housing. Speedway and others sell a pair of mounts that weld to the top of the housing and then you put a shackle on each end to mount the spring to those mounts. I am using the one from Speedway (I'll find a picture of the one they sell and post it for you) but it is setup for a 2 1/4 inch wide spring, which the Model A spring is. The T springs are usually 2 inches wide, but it is a simple matter to either put a couple of washers against the spring to shim it to 2 1/4, or to make a little spacer to do the same thing. The T spring will lay in the A crossmember fine, that 1/4 inch difference doesn't affect anything. As for the wishbones, this is one area where there is a lot of controversay. Some people say they don't work split because they will break and some say they are fine. I used split bones on my 23 and they worked great, but they were aftermarket PSI items that are no longer available and were made for that purpose. Some people use 1935 Ford bones and split them, saying they are somehow stronger, but I don't know anything about them, so I will let someone else help you there. There are some that are sold and they go on an angle to the center of the frame, but someone else will have to tell you about those too, as I know nothing about them. Finally, set up your pinion angle before you weld the perches on the back housing. Again, you wll get a lot of different answers on the proper angle, but I always do 3 degrees up on the rear end input shaft and have never had any problems with doing that. Just make sure your frame is blocked at ride height and rake so you get the angle right. That's pretty much it. Shocks are also easily mounted by using mounts available at Speedway and other places. I'll post up a picture of the ones I am using to give you some idea. Good luck, Don
Best setup I've seen for what you describe (specifically the cross spring) is the ladder bar suspension like Pete & Jakes sells (a****st many others). I've seen plenty of people use split wishbones for the rear, and several on here have had them fail (a search should show you a few). If you insist on using them, make the mount at the axle a pivot and hide some form of torque arm under the car (the wishbones I've seen fail fatigued at the axle mount from not being designed to take the axle torque load). Best of luck.
Ok, here are some pictures from the Speedway catalog. This is the type of mount you will want to use to put your spring OVER your rear axle. If you put the spring behind the axle your WB will be short a few inches and if you put the spring in front you WB will be longer by a few. There are different versions of this setup, but it has been on my 27 for over 20 years and a zillion hard miles, and works fine. And this is the most common way to mount the bottom of your shocks to the rear end housing. The top mount is something you will have to fab up on your own, but it is simple to do and will just weld or bolt to the rear crossmember.
I like the stuff this guy has done in his pickup build thread... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=691644
That's about 180 degrees out from what Dynaflash is wanting to do I'd have to believe. What Don showed is more on line with what he needs.
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Dreddy you are toooo funny! Each grew up learning all we did ya know. I suspect there are as many traditions out there as there are builders. And no lookin' at any rear setup I've done. Don's got him on the right track, I'd guess the bones work best if they point toward the front u-joint, a la Henry's style.
sorry bout the miscomunication. I have hairpins not wishbones. Duh. Current issue im having is the rearend is so narrow, im having issues with the spring perches cause they hit the backing plates.
Are you running spring-over? so the hangers are right where the bleeders are? or spring behind? Either way, you can take the spring to a spring shop and have them shorten it a couple inches by rolling the eyes up. Be aware that this will increase the spring rate, and you might need to experiment with taking a leaf out. This is what I did.
Thanks Dreddy. Thats exactly the problem im running into. Not enough room for the shackles before i hit the backing plate. Ill check your thread out.
Maybe post up some pics. I'm a bit confused. The shackles hit the backing plates? The shackles should be "pointing" inboard from the mounts on your axle. Attach the mounts to the axle as far outboard as practical and have a spring made or modified based on that measurement. And mount your hairpins pointing toward the centre of the car too.
No, I understand exactly what you have going on, I had the same problem when I mounted the 9 incher under my 27 years ago, The backing plate to backing plate width is just too narrow to accomodate the width of the spring plus the brackets and shackles. I did what Dreddybear suggests, had a spring shop make me up a new main leaf that was several inches narrower . That did the trick. What you should do first of all is weld (even tack weld) the two perch brackets as far outboard as you can then measure between the holes where the shackle goes through them. Deduct an extra 5 inches from that figure to calculate in the shackles, and that is the width you need to fit. For example, if you get 44 inches between the holes in the perches, deduct 5 inche and that will tell you the spring width needed is 39 inches. Here is the kicker. 25 years ago I had that new leaf made and it cost me $ 18. A couple of years ago I went back to the same shop and had another main leaf made up for another car and it cost $ 120. When I *****ed the said they get $95 and hour plus the cost of the steel. So, bottom line, Speedway sells a brand new spring like you need in several widths and it is only $ 120 for the whole spring. My point is, you might be better off buying a whole new spring, but check with a local spring shop and compare. Don
Not to muddy the waters, but what about using the wishbones with a ball end or Johnny joint just under the trans mount (***uming it will have an aftermarket trans crossmember). My '28 has a C4 and I was thinking of the same set-up. I did read he has hairpins not wishbones........but for sake of info
I believe what you are saying is correct, however I also believe there is more to it than just developing that measurement, since shortening the spring will also influence its height and hence your diff clearance. I'd sure like hear more from the folks that make them or have done a few projects where these rear springs have been used and what pitfalls they have avoided/encountered along the way...
Here's an idea of the shortened spring deal. You can see how the ladder bars mount close to each other up front, the spring here has been shortened about 2.5" each side. The spring rate went up a bit which is why I deleted a leaf. You can see where the spring hangers were initially notched to clear backing plates, which I hated and didn't trust hence the move inward. They have since been filled. Also as a side note, when you need to mount this puppy a spring spreader is handy, but if you dont have one a couple tie downs wrapped around the frame will get you mounted.
This is the rear suspension in my 29. The radius rods have Chev upper A arm bushings in the rear and ford tie rod ends in the front. It's a 40 banjo with a 40 front spring with a bunch of leaves left out. The torque arm bolts to the banjo and the front has a large heim joint for articulation. Right now, there is an 8 inch ford rear in it with the same set-up. It works great. I drove the car to Victoria BC from London Ont. in 2010
is there any more pics of how you modified the ladder bars?(looks like to clear the floor?) I've looked through your build up but couldn't find anything
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