Wagon rear leaf springs/front coils

[Ford Blue blood]

I am toying with the idea of getting a complete 9 inch rear end made complete(Maybe Currie's)....big bearing,28 or 31 spline,drum brakes,nod. third member,etc,etc.... I want the whole unit to look like a stocker..... no obvious bells or whistles.I am researching to make sure the rear end has the same drum brake configuration.(I think the aftermarket ones are wider,..not sure)

I should also mention my car I am building is not gonna be a blistering super sonic light to light thing..... much more interested in building a hiway hauler.... with the 4 speed stick..I plan to have a 3.00 or 3.10 rear ratio,.....

Jeff remember the 57 housing back cover is "bald", not sure Curry does them that way.  My 60 wagon has 3" drums on the front/rear and is a large bearing 9".  I have no idea about the availability of parts.  Also might mention 61 - 64 Birds had 3" drums as well.

Hitting the highway, take a look at 2.76s, I put 3.00s in my Ranch Wagon and I wish I had gone with the 2.76s.

[RICH MUISE]

Does moving the rear end back 3/4 " still leave you with a usable driveshaft with a safe spline engagement, or does it have to be lengthened?
Jeff...the other guys will have to confirm, but I believe the optimal route (for add'l tire clearance)is to have 3/4" per side taken off the oem axel/housing lengths.
The wagons, 'cheros etc had wider drum brakes in the rear..not sure about the fronts.
As Bill stated, the '57's had a smooth back cover (unique to the  '57's I believe)

[Zapato]

Zap... every time I hear Carrerra... I always visualize some type of coil over.....am I wrong?.....I really don't want that.

Can't speak for their current line, but what we used in the past wasn't c/o. What we used was stock appearing but 3 way adjustable. Even their soft setting was an improvement over stock handling and feel. My recollection is that they were physically a bit larger [ o.d.] that stock.

Zap-

[hiball3985]

Jeff,
Eventually I want mine to be a hiway hauler also, but to to the terrain I live on I need to keep the 3:73 gears. I have a top loader 4 speed I'm trying to swap for a 3 speed OD. I ran that combo back in the day in my 300 and it worked out perfectly..

[Jeff Norwell]

Jeff remember the 57 housing back cover is "bald", not sure Curry does them that way.  My 60 wagon has 3" drums on the front/rear and is a large bearing 9".  I have no idea about the availability of parts.  Also might mention 61 - 64 Birds had 3" drums as well.

Hitting the highway, take a look at 2.76s, I put 3.00s in my Ranch Wagon and I wish I had gone with the 2.76s.

awesome Bill,.... yea..That is one of the reasons I have not pulled the pin on ordering a complete unit..as I mentioned before..I need a Stocker look.So...I just may order the internals,keep the housing(small bearing unit) a run it from a stock looking configuration.
I really like the idea of the 2.76 gear ratio.... This is gonna be a hiway Flyer.... already got a saturday night special.... Thanks Bill!

[Jeff Norwell]

Does moving the rear end back 3/4 " still leave you with a usable driveshaft with a safe spline engagement, or does it have to be lengthened?
Jeff...the other guys will have to confirm, but I believe the optimal route (for add'l tire clearance)is to have 3/4" per side taken off the oem axel/housing lengths.
The wagons, 'cheros etc had wider drum brakes in the rear..not sure about the fronts.
As Bill stated, the '57's had a smooth back cover (unique to the  '57's I believe)

Hey Rich..... I really want to stay away from any custom width on the rear end...Although I love a big fat tire.... I love a more skinny look these days...remember when" The race car Tires were skinny and the drivers were fat"..... ha ha ha......

[Jeff Norwell]

Can't speak for their current line, but what we used in the past wasn't c/o. What we used was stock appearing but 3 way adjustable. Even their soft setting was an improvement over stock handling and feel. My recollection is that they were physically a bit larger [ o.d.] that stock.

Zap-

Zap.I will do some investigating.....

[Jeff Norwell]

Jeff,
Eventually I want mine to be a hiway hauler also, but to to the terrain I live on I need to keep the 3:73 gears. I have a top loader 4 speed I'm trying to swap for a 3 speed OD. I ran that combo back in the day in my 300 and it worked out perfectly..

Jim.... I understand.....Where I live is Korn and Kattle country....I can literally Drive from my joint to lake huron and never see a rise in the road..... Going east is a different ball game....

[suede57ford]

WHen St. Louis Spring made my set of leafs with the 2" drop, they moved the bolt hole that holds the leaf packs up 5/8" to match the stock spring  to front bushing distance on unarched springs.   When I first put the springs on it sat right, but moved the tires closer to the front lower edge of the wheel opening.   It wouldno longer fit my tires.   as a temporary fixI redrilled the rear end perches and lower plates to move the rear end back 5/8" to match what it would have been stock.

I had them make me another top leaf with the bolt hole moved back 3/4" to match the original spring and that worked.

When they do the enginieering prints of the spring the change of arch put the locater bolt in  a forward position of the stock, so I feel they should move it back to the stock location so that none of the dimensions change.

It doesn'e hurt to move the pin hole location back on the uppe rleaf a little with a 2" dearch, as it the rear end sits just a little lower and that makes the drive shaft push back in the tras a little further like it should be.

St. Louis Spring said they have not had an complaint with the locating pin hole moved up like inthe enginereeing prints, but with stock short white walls most would never notice.   My car has the max tire on it so any differences from stock will show up.

If anyone needs more info on getting springs made they can contact me for suggestions.

[Jeff Norwell]

Pat.,,,I am using a very narrow 5--5.5 inch steel rim....but I want to go with the tallest tire possible ....what ever will fit into the stock well....Do you see a problem?

[Zapato]

Jeff, lots of 9inch info in the tech links section, one real lengthy read that I supplied link to and believe one or two others as well.

Zap-

[Jeff Norwell]

uhh.. lemme back that up..I would not try to squeeze a 15/8-90 tire into the well....you know what i mean.

[Jeff Norwell]

Jeff, lots of 9inch info in the tech links section, one real lengthy read that I supplied link to and believe one or two others as well.

Zap-

Thanks Zap....going there now.....

[hiball3985]

Jim.... I understand.....Where I live is Korn and Kattle country....I can literally Drive from my joint to lake huron and never see a rise in the road..... Going east is a different ball game....

Consider yourself very lucky, I wish I could move to Palookaville. It's got so bad here, a stop sign on every little street intersection and now speed bumps on many of the streets. I can drive for miles and never get out of low gear 

[JimNolan]

If you go to a Monroe Matic Shock website they'll have a dimension page for the shocks. That's how I found out it had a longer travel. I just used the Monroe Matics. I forget the part number. I had it on a thread a long time ago. Jim