The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop 73-87 IFS update- Drop Spindles Installed!!!

Got the spindles in Thursday and spent most of the morning installing them. Dropped the front end down just right. There is not much clearance between the street and the crossmember so I'm sure that I'll take my time going over speed bumps! But over all I think it turned out pretty good!!

looks good

Looks Awesome mobileortho !! Sits just right but Watch out for roadkill... You'll be scraping it up !

Whew!! Dont want that to happen!!

I'm even more sold on this swap, now.

That looks great, mobilortho!

Looks great mobileortho. Here is a shot of mine with the 3" drop spindles and cut springs. The bottom of the front crossmember is 7.25" off the floor and it sits level now with the flipped rear.

Notice how I had to trim the bottom lip of the lower A arm to gain wheel clearance. I had to add reinforcement to the top. It will now turn lock to lock in either full up or down suspension travel without hitting anywhere. I believe the wheels are my biggest problem. They are 2007 Jeep rims, 16 x 7.5" with a 45mm positive offset (about 5.5" backspace). This tucks them inside the front fenders pretty good, but causes all kinds of interference. If I was to do it over, I would get some 17" rims. I may still do that.

Here is a shot of the wheel.

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2293715420103486525VnCRUQ?vhost=good-times

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2732677340103486525NJiWER?vhost=good-times

Wow! You've got 7.25" of clearance? I have 2.5" at the most!! My wheels were not an issue. The 16" Torq Thrust's work great with no mods to the a-arms.

I hate to be negative but, Did you bother to check the scrub line? Look how much lower the A- arms are compared to the rim, If you should get a flat at highway speed, the A- arms would hit the ground first. AKA stick your head between ur legs and kiss ur A$$ good bye.
Very dangerous setup.
Sorry for being negative.

I did check the scrub radius on mine. I ran a string from the bottom of one rim to the bottom of the other. I have about 1/2" of clearance with the lowest part of the A-arm.

Don't worry about being negative if it is something safety related.

Here's the "official" NSRA Vehicle Safety Inspection Requirements:

"....on both the front and rear suspension of the vehicle, stretch a taut string from the bottom of each wheel rim to the bottom of each of the other three tires AT THE ROAD SURFACE. If any part of the steering, suspension, or chassis is below this string, the vehicle will fail scrub line test....."

If you lose air in either front tire, anything below that line will contact the ground, and then you're basically driving a 3500 pound sled with no steering. Very dangerous.

Whoa!! Thanks for the info!

I see two possible ways to correct the scrub line:
1. Mount larger diameter rims (which I've been thinking about already)
2. Tubular A-arms
I have 16" mounted in front & 17" on the rear. I was already been thinking about going with 18" on the front & 20" in the rear. My brother's building a 68 C10 with 20" all the way around. Looking at his made me want to go larger.
The tubular arms are lower profile and would easily clear the scrub lines.

Ortho,
to me that is just a BIT to low to the ground..you should bring her up a few inches.. you blow a tire you are in for one heck of a ride at highway speed.
if ya just gonna show her it is super cool ..if ya gonna have your grandchild in it bring it up some.
To me it looks pretty F'IN cool but for safetys sake ...im scared
Tim

Mobileortho - if you find a cheap source for tubular arms, let me know. I looked into that before cutting on mine, but could not find any within my budget.

Will do Chevyman. I was just thinking..... what do think about air shocks? They might be the least expensive solution. Or I just might put the stock springs back in and call it good.

I believe you are right about the air shocks being the least expensive option, but I do not have any experience with them. I figure if they were any good, everybody would be using them instead of the expensive air bags. If you try them let me know how they work.

The truck is amazing looking. I couldnt help but look through a bunch of the pictures and make note of the stance... I look forward to seeing the finished product
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To: 49chevyman
my neighbor had air shocks on his truck until he did bags.. he said it drove ok but the performance level of the air shocks was like a stock geo metro to a porche compared to airbags... i love the airbags in all the trucks i have been in. they ride smooth no matter how much weight you pack into them if you have an onboard compressor and an autoleveling setup... i hope to do an air setup in all of my trucks at some point. noteworthy, he went from leafs in the rear to 4link and not just using the bags as helper springs like the airshocks were... so to compare them without that information would be an unfare comparison..

Thanks for the complement 38. I'm still considering options on the correcting the scrubline. I don't think the air shocks are a viable choice because I'm not sure how they will perform under full time use. All the ones I've seen say that they are for carrying occasional heavy loads. I'm really considering the tubular a-arms and larger diameter wheels, but the least expensive thing to do is to put the old springs back on.

Ditch the drop spindles, put the stock ones back on. That well bring the scrubline up about an inch. If you need to cut 1 coil off the springs.

why would anyone cut a coil these days? its OK if it is just for mock-up but buy drop coils if you want to do it with the springs. at least you can get progressive springs then. spindles are my preference always.

DON"T CUT SPRINGS!!!!!!!!!!!

Just as dangerous as all the other points above.

Air shocks and air bags are still considered as an illegal method of supporting a vehicles' minimum ride height as far as the Athorities are concerned.

If an air shock, or even expensive Air Bag systems fail, the vehicle will drop to a level below the legal scrub line.

The only way to overcome this is to set the whole rig up without rubber on the rims, remove any Air shocks/air bags etc and have all your suspension sitting on the bump stops.

There must be clearance under the whole chassis/suspension.
Any combination can then be fitted from here to raise the vehicles' frame to the desired ride height with some legislation over minimum clearance between bump stops.