I built a 32 plymouth coupe with a small block ford in late 70's while in High school. The corvair front end was a popular swap. it actually worked pretty good once my dad helped me get the akerman angles correct for the front steer narrowed pinto rack. handling, turning radius and ride were fine. small drum brakes, not so good. 20 years later it needed ball joints bushings and wheel cylinders , found the parts nearly impossible to find. seemed like a good time to upgrade again to a coil over IFS. I ordered a front end from Kugel components then sent springs back and forth till I got a set that would support the car. the Car is somewhat heavier than the 32's the kugel IFS was designed for . What ended up with was a stiff front end, with poor turning radius and not enough rebound dampening. At the time kugel said the shocks they sent had the most rebound dampening available and were the best they could do. I was really starting to miss the dated Corvair. I drive the car occasionally so I just lived with it. I am at the point now that I want ride quality and turning radius back. I have been thinking of going back to a parallel leaf dropped axle , or building an IFS that would accommodate a larger thick coil spring as they are better at supporting the weight of the car without a lot of spring tension. most of what I know about shock is old, are there better coil overs out there that support heavier cars and have good ride quality. is there away to modify the omni rack to get more travel? is there a better rack available? thanks, Rob
My Deuce roadster has a Kugel front end and I changed the coil overs to "Pro Shocks". You can get several different spring rates from them. You need to know the weight of the front end and give them a call. My car rides so much better with the "Pros". It initially came with "progressive" springs" but you could't get a business card between the first four or five coils. That to me is a spacer, not a spring. The poor turning radius is inherent of the Kugel design and there is not much you can too about it, I have the same issue. The other company I would contact is Afco Racing.com, 800-632-2320 and get their catalog, it is worth it just for all the technical pages. They list chrome springs all the way up to 600 lb. spring rate.
A friend of mine used a 1932 Ford front cross member in his 1932 PB Plymouth and a single spring just like the fords with a 4 bar,,the car handled as good if not better than the Corvair that was under it back in the early 70's. HRP
as already suggested....if it was my car i'd be putting in a model A front crossmember , a dropped axle , hairpin radius rods and a Vega steering box
thanks for the information will contact Afco they might be able to valve a shock to what I need. bummer about the turning radius of these ifs kits, for the money spent I was really expecting more.
I hadn't considered the single spring with hairpins or a four bar, that would look really cool , before the covair front end it had a tube axle from a 36 Plymouth and it was pretty good other than it was pretty high in the front. wish I had kept that axle.
Impossible to find? 300 bucks isn't exactly free but what's a kugel running these days. And now you got problems with it. I'm with harv, yes its time to upgrade cut that out, put a straight axle under it.
I have a nice double dip mopar axle, Modified for spring behind and set for ford spindles. All kinds of crazy stuff nobody will know what the hell it is.
Rocco, when you ordered the Kugel suspension, did you give them the weight of your front end or spring rate you wanted? If your car is tight with zero rebound you may have your spring rate too heavy. Usually the spring rate is engraved on one of the spring bottoms. Years ago I was told by Joe that if you don't tell Kugel what spring rate you want, they ship it with a generic spring rate, sized for one of their roadsters and California roads.
What is not traditional about a Hot Rod you have owned for 40 years. I would keep the Corvair front suspension for that reason alone. The $300 alone would be cheap , compared to stripping the car down [ usually the kiss of death to a car ] and re- [or de-] engineering it. If it has survived since the 70's until now , chances are that it will outlive most members by the time it's next rebuilt is due.[including me] Rebuild it.........and drive the **** out of it
By his description, I'm thinking its too late as it sounds like the corvair was cut out and the kugle installed already. Went from a 2 hour ball joint job right into the current mess.
Back in the 70's the Corvair set up was very popular,they road good and were easy to install,their demise came about with the Mustang II front suspension,but with Model A's a lot of guts built a box in the fender to accommodate the upper A arms. HRP
the Car is somewhat heavier than the 32's the kugel IFS was designed for . What ended up with was a stiff front end, with poor turning radius and not enoughrebound dampening. You'd think that the corvair would have a hard time holding a car with a front engine. Turning radius problems are hard to correct. If the tires hit your screwed. If the rack doesn't have enough throw you're work is cut out for you. Different rack or shorter steering arms. If the box doesn't move enough you need a longer pitman arm or shorter steering arms.
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