The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop Pacer front end-any good???

Looking at a 52 3100 with a Pacer front end. What is the general consensus on this style front end?
Thanks

Do a check on the parts to rebuild it. It's my understanding some parts are hard to find or are not available...Joe

I considered the Pacer but found that replacement parts were hard to come by and expensive.

got one under my 49 havent had the pleasure of driving it yet. but i bought all new parts when we put it in. yes parts are sc arce but they are available. i had a friend who built a 49 and installed a pacer and loved it. he sold it did a few other cars bought another ad and was desparatley lookin for a pacer to put under it he liked them that much.the nice thing about them is you dont have to cut your frame.it stays intact. i used a kit from chassis engineering to mount mine. but my buddy didnt. his set a little lower than min e does.using the kit from start to finish it took two hours to install and i had ifs in my truck. i wouldnt let it spook me .you could always stock pile parts now and throw them in the rafters.my 2cents anyway......dave

This truck sits up higher than I would like and I am sure that there are no dropped spindles available. Is cutting the coil springs an option on the Pacers? Your thoughts?

Personally I wouldn't but it can be done. You could see if the local parts store can get you lowered springs or maybe see if one of the spring places like Eaton can make you a pair...Joe

as zookeeper saidyou can probly find other springs somewhere.i do know from talkin to the guy at napa there are two springs for the pacer one is lighter.i saw a listing for drop coils but it was a dead end. i took some pictures yrs. ago of a shop truck from chassis engineering ,it was an ad gmc that set really low.the pictures showed the front cross member only inches from the pavement and the a arms flat out. with the cab on the frame, motor and tranny in. the front sat pretty high on my 49 the a arms sloped down.i'm not for sure but i think they are supposed to be fairly parallel to the ground (someone please correct me if my thinking is wrong) the napa dude told me about $60 for new springs ,so what the hell.out comes the whizz wheel and there goes one coil. much better.the a arms still slope a bit but i still need to hang all the sheet metal and everything else on it. i'm still kicking around the idea of cutting probly a half coil yet i think that will get me to where i want to be. and if it rides crappy i'll get the light weight springs and go from there.your concern about parts is justified.but like i said they can be found.i 'm needing the bushing retainers(metal cups that fit over the rubber bushings on the front shocks)my dumba$$ threw the old shocks away when i bought the new ones.unfortunatley i did not remove the retainers.try finding those.but i did find a place in ohio thats deals in amc parts and he has them for $50.ouch i'm just trying to find a cheaper set.there are web sites for the pacers and amcs where you can find parts and get some info.any way hope this helps......dave

Something else you can do is take a tape measure & a mic to the coils. Measure the width, the height & the thickness of the spring & then go looking at the bone yard for something similar or see if your local parts house has specs on the coils & look through the book.
I did this on my 40 Chev we use to have. It had a 70Nova/Camaro front snub & I didn't like the height. After I took all the measurements I found that a Ford Courier coil would work & make it lowwww....Joe

Or coil-overs.....

I have a GMC that is getting the Pacer front end. It is a 48 GMC. I really need to finish it up this year. or at least make some head way. I would really like to see a picture of an AD truck with the Pacer suspension. Just to get an idea of how it will set. You guys are correct. I had to look for parts for a while when I did mine. They are sorta hard to find. Anyway...anyone got any pictures you can send them to me at [email protected] I would appreciate it.

You can jump over to my Web Shots and check out the photos of my Pacer cut down process. I do not have captions on all of them yet, but you will see alot of pics. Ask questions if ya got em and I will try to answer as best I can.

http://community.webshots.com/user/bigsix302

just curious was the purpose of reworkin the lower a arms to drop the front. nice welding by the way............dave

Really like the Pacer front. Rides better, handles better, and has more travel than the Mustang, plus it is nearly identical in tread width to the 47-55.1 truck. We weld the top ball joint holes up and drill new holes to use a Monte Carlo joint which has the same pin size and taper. On the bottom we weld in the threaded sleeve for the Chrysler ball joint that many the circle track cars use that also has the correct taper. The caster and camber eccentrics are replaceable by Chevy pickup ones. The power rack can be sent to a rebuilder; they still rebuild them and shocks are available from most parts stores. The caliper is identical to the Ford design and if it becomes necessary we will design a way to mount a Ford to the Pacer knuckle.

coilover you mentioned ford on the pacer knuckle, if you go to the tech tips ,scroll all the way down to featured truck projects bill pecks 52 gmc has a pacerfront end .he says ford thunderbird brakes.big six 302,youll also see a truck with pacer suspension.mine sets a little lower ,and the one my buddy had sat alot lower.also somrthing i picked up on from another thread on a guys build up.was that the front sway bar should be paralell to the ground in order to work correctly. he suggested makin a 2"thick spacer to even it out................dave

Answer back to Dave and anyone else interested is yes. I wanted to drop the front end some without cutting the springs. I figured I would have too hard of a time trying to locate another set of springs if the cut seemed wrong. I know, what about the a-arms. Well... I guess if I really had to I could cut the mod out and weld em back up as stock. I think though this will work fine. It is essentially a two inch lowering job. I have a buddy that modified the lower a arms on a 64 truck to get the stance lower without messing with the springs. He is running a 454 in that truck and it worked out really well. He did not modify like I did though. He actually cuts the ball joint end off and relocates it where he wants it and strengthens back in afterward. I need to get some pictures of his mods sometime.

Speaking of rotors. I was able to make a set of Chevy rotors work. I had a friend make a sleeve to fit over the grease seal area of the Pacer spindle so it would allow the Chevy seal to work. The bearings all fit. The only other thing I had to do was make the nut that holds the wheel on a little narrower. It all seems to fit together pretty well. I was able at the time to aquire all Pacer replacement ball joints and tie rod ends. I also contemplated using the weld in rings like was mentioned. I can get pictures of this if anyone is needing them, the sleeve I mean. Heck,I can get pics of any of it if someone really wants me to.

Thanks for all of the great information. I passed on this truck,but this is good information to have for the future.
Thanks

There is a picture of a AD with a pacer setup in the gallery.

nice truck,definatley has a cool factor........dave