Rusty Fifty One

She’s back up on stands once again and this time the front spring packs are completely out. Hammered off a ton of muddy oily crap and got the shackles and pivot bolts apart. Came off easy but the rubber seals in the shackles were shot…I suspect they were replaced by a previous owner at some point. I got lucky, the bushing threads are fine so I can just pop in the new pins, seals, sides and bolts, and be done. I will, however, also be disassembling the leaf packs and painting everything since it’s all out.

Installed a front sway bar from a ’47-55 Suburban this morning. Super easy to get on and it makes a huge difference. No more body roll = no more sliding across the bench! No clue why the pickups didn’t come with em’ from the start…at least as an option.

Pay no mind to the gunks and leaks underneath.

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Front: Nostalgia Sid’s 4″ Drop axle plus the two smallest leaves moved to the top side of the pack. 7.50×16 tire.
Stacking the removed leaves on top of the pack simply takes up the slack in the U-bolts and allows the remaining springs to sag a bit. The scrub line remains unaffected and within Sid’s original specs for the 4″ drop axle.

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Rear: Nostalgia Sid’s 3″ Drop Block plus the two smallest leaves moved to the top of the pack. 7.50×16 tire.
Stacking the removed leaves on top of the pack results in an additional 0.5″ drop for the rear plus additional sag as a result of subtracting the support of the removed springs.
The scrub line is currently below the rim but I want a little more rake in the stance so I plan on pulling the removed leaves off the top of the pack which will bring the rear axle 0.5″ closer to the lower shock mount.

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The only issue we had was with the bolts that hold the rear leaf packs together. Both were rusted solid and eventually snapped. A quick run to St. Louis Spring Company and we were back in business.

Nostalgia Sid’s Dropped Axles – www.droppedaxle.com
St. Louis Spring Company – www.saintlouisspring.com
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…to anyone who noticed…
Yes, I went from self-adjusting Bendix drum brakes to the older style Huck type.
The axle came from a fellow bolter with ~500mi on brand new kingpins and rebuilt drums. The plan is to upgrade to a CPP disc kit (which I already have) and dual master cylinder when my wallet allows or the front drums need another rebuild.

And, yes, we replaced the shocks. AutoZone cheapies and they work great.

The ride is phenomenal, steering is vastly improved and, best of all, NO RUBBING even with those big honkin 7.50×16 10 ply tires!

Drove to Indiana to pick up one of Nostalgia Sid’s 4″ drop axles from fellow Bolter, Dan S. While there, I took his 49’s tired old 216 off his hands along with it’s three speed transmission and steering box.

Technically this is as plug n’ play as it gets with this type of thing. Mount the axle, connect the brake line, bleed the brakes and bolt on the wheels. Having come off Dan’s ’49 3100 though, the brakes are the Huck type while Bessie, being a ’51, has the later self adjusting Bendix type. From what I understand the Huck brakes are prone to fade more so than the Bendix type, and require more frequent periodic adjustment. Parts are a bit more expensive too. Lucky for me they only have a couple hundred miles on them after being rebuilt. I figure I’ll use them until they need another rebuilding or prove to be a pain, after which I’ll look into rebuilding my front Bendix drums or doing a disc conversion. Either way, I’m replacing the single reservoir master cylinder with a dual.

Plug for Nostalgia Sid – www.droppedaxles.com
Two plugs for Dan – www.48chevytruckrebuild.blogspot.com – www.whetzeltracetravelers.webs.com