The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Mustang II and Keeping the 235/3sp, can it be done

Ok, I have been searching the forums on how to lower my 54 1st series truck and trying to get a handle on how low to go. The intention is to use the truck as a daily driver, no heavy haulin,may be an engine or rear end to the swap meets. Want to keep the 235 and 3sp. (its a 56 eng and trans open drive line).I have aquired another rear end from a mid 80 cutlas for free. and plan on using C.E. rear kit. My question is lowering the front? Will monos or Posies duals lower it enough. Or should I go Mustang II? Can you use the MII kits with the 235? Don't mind the straight axle, I drive a semi for a living and you get used to them. Any help and suggestions would be appreciated. thanks Dennis

No experience with the MII but I am planning on putting monoleafs and a drop axle on my 52. To match it in the rear I will be using monoleafs and 3" lowering blocks. This will total about 6" of drop all around.

upsrodder,

I'm not expert, and I'm sure if I'm wrong, someone will be along real quick to correct me.

I think the mono's will lower you about 3 inches. Lower, will likely require a dropped axle.

I'd probably go with the Mustang II. If it isn't low enough, you can always buy dropped spindles for it and really drop it down.

You'd probably have a nicer ride with it than the mono-leafs.

I can't think of any reason why you couldn't keep your 235 with a mustangII front suspension. Your 56 block should have side motor mounts.

Since you don't have front motor mounts, you don't have to worry about anchoring the block to the cross-member, like the earlier blocks did.

Only thing I could think of, is that you'd have to fabricate a mount for the radiator support.

Again, there might be something I'm missing, but it seems easy enough.

UPSRODDER, I have an M2 front suspension in my 39 coupe with a 235. I don't know if your truck frame would work out the same but my steering rack was lowered about 1.5" to clear the damper pulley. Moving the steering components around can really screw up the steering geometery. Mine needed custom tie rod ends to cure very bad bumo steer. Drives like a new Caddilac now.
Good Luck...Bob

Thanks, to all who responded, Still haven't decided which way to go. I just want to drop the truck evenly, and have a slight tire rake. I guess the best way is to drop the rear first since its the simplest to do with the kit from C.E., then set the front accordingly. If any one could post or e-mail some pic's of their trucks with info on which suspensions they used and tire sizes used. I could see which one is closest to the look I am after before the major investment of components. any and all help would be appreciated. thanks Dennis

upsrodder:
I'm running a MII under my 53 1/2 ton with a 58 235. When I swapped to the 58 235 I drilled the front motor mount using this template, so that it mounted the same as my original engine (the orginal 216).
The mustang II crossmember welds to the original frame, but leaves the original truck front crossmember (where the front of the engine sits) and the crossmember the rear of the engine sits on so it should be no problem keeping your original drivetrain. When I bought my truck the MII had been done by the previous owner and the drivetrain was all stock, I swapped in the later 58 motor and left the 3 speed and closed rear end, then later swapped in an S10 5 speed and an open rear end.
Here's a Pic of my truck. It's all blown apart right now but when I put it back together I'm planning on cutting half a coil. A buddie that's done several MII setups in the past says that should drop it about another 2 inches which will get it to the rake I'm looking for.
Mongo

upsrodder,

On my 41 I had 20 years ago, I did the following..

I took my front springs to a spring shop (a good one in our area). They took out one or two springs and de-arched the others. I then put 14 inch rims and light truck tires on the front. The tires were big enough on the 14 inch rims to not look like go-cart wheels.

The rear springs were re-arched a couple of inches to give the truck a nice rake.

I wish I had some pics of that truck. It looked pretty good for a budget drop job. Best of all, other than the 14s, it was pretty much stock which made the job easy enough for me to do. I could have probably welded up a MII or a Nova?camaro clip 20 years ago, but not anymore..

Anyways...just a thought on how to get another inch or two down with out spending much money.

KCmongo, Thanks for the pic and the info. The Jury is still out on what I will use. First selling some spare parts for a hot rod I was going to build to see how the funding for the project will go. If I sell everything I will go to Mustang II, if not may postpone for now and use monos. Thanks again.

46 in progress. Thanks for the ideas on spring removal and de arching. We have a local spring shop that will be able to handle the job if I decide to go that direction. Thanks again

robin58, Looks great, sits about were I would like mine to be. I will be going for a differnt look, more shop truck or resto rod than street rod. Gonna be a daily last snow to first in Ohio. Good luck on your project. Thanks for the info. Prolly goin MII, sold most of the spare parts. Thanks again Dennis