front ride height

[Charter]

I replaced all the bushings and ball joints. Stock big block springs from eaton. The car is sitting high and leans to the right alittle. Is there a set measurement for the distance from the spindle to the fender ? I would like to set the ride height before tightening the bushing bolts and tearing up the bushings.

[RICH MUISE]

I'm not sure I've ever heard someone say the ride height was perfect the first go-round with new Eaton springs. Lots of variables here, mostly concerning the drivetrain weight. JFYI, Eaton has 3 springs rated for '57 Fords. Ford wanted all their cars to have the same ride height when they left the factory, and they used 9 different springs to accomplish that according to the specific vehicles drivetrain and accessories that made a weight difference.
The main variable here is what YOU want the ride height to be. Are you looking for perfect factory specs?........looking to lower it a bit.....looking for a California rake (my avatar), taildragger, etc etc?
How far off is what you have now? It's gonna settle some over the first few months or year. Have you done anything with the rear springs. The rears will have a small effect on the front's final height.
Also, spindle height will change depending on overall tire diameter, so you may want to compare dimensions at the ground to fender. When I was configuring my ride height I asked guys who's cars had stances I liked to measure from the ground to the wheel well flange @ the tires center.

[Charter]

I was unaware of the 3 different springs. When I called eaton they recommended this set I have. Then they told me to be sure to set the spindle height ( has to do with control arm placement/angle ). They did not have that spec. What I can tell you is the new parts raised the car 2-3 inches. They say that I may have the spindles set to low ( control arms slope downwards ). I have the car up on blocks so all the weight is on the axles. I'm going to loosen the control arm bolts and bounce it a bit. This may help to bring it down and level up the car. I guess I am looking for the stock look. Before I took it apart the tire was very close the the fender. Now the tire is 2-3 inches below the fender. Looks like my F100, Not cool.

[RICH MUISE]

.........."be sure to set the spindle height ( has to do with control arm placement/angle )."
Huh? Talking stock setups, other than small adjustments for alignment, there are no placement options for the control arms/"spindle height" in a stock setup (would be nice if there was, it would save us a lot of work).........they are where they are. The spindle cannot be just "set too low".

"the car is on blocks"..........that only works in the back if the blocks are under the differential. Where are the front blocks you speak of? I can't think of anyway you could have it on blocks up on the front and have the weight of the car on the spindles except for having all 4 blocks under the tires.
The springs will settle some, usually an inch or so,but has to be driven  to do so. Are you sure the springs are fully seated in the top insulators, and rotated correctly so that the spring bottom ends are sitting in the lower pockets / detents of the control arm?
Hopefully others will reply here.

[Tom S]

...They say that I may have the spindles set to low ( control arms slope downwards )....

I don't think that makes any sense at all. That would mean that the lower control arm bushings are holding up the weight of the car.
It's the springs that hold up that weight & set this so called 'spindle height'.
Has anybody else ever heard of 'setting the spindle height'?
Take the springs out & unless the shocks get fully collapsed and manage to hold it up the car would drop until the control arms hit their upper stops when you lower the car with the wheels on.
Sounds like your springs are either too long, too stiff or both.
Maybe* it will improve after it's bounced around for a while.
(I now see that Rich posted again as I wrote.)

[Charter]

I'm happy to see you guys are also confused with the conversation I had with eaton. I thought it was just me. Rich the car is up on jack stands in the rear and I placed the steer tires on ramps. This way the car weight is on the tires, allowing me to get under it.  I think Tom is right. These new springs are wrong. I know that you have to leave the control arm bolts loose until the car is sitting on it's own weight to properly position the bushings. Top pic is before. Lower pic is now.

[Charter]

The springs I bought are the MC 1498 Big block spring. Engine and trans weight of 700lbs.

[57chero]

I like the way it sits with the old springs, why did you replace them.

[hiball3985]

I agree with what the guys have said, no way to adjust the spindle height. There shouldn't be a big difference between a spring for an FE and a Y block, the FE only weighs about 25 lbs more plus the weight of any accessories. You really should put some road time on them to settle. Hopefully you won't need to change them. I'm confused because I didn't think anyone supplied 57 springs and thats why people used the Areostar ones?
Maybe the springs that you replaced had sagged extremely or had been modified?

[RICH MUISE]

What Jim and Chero said also. I liked the ride height as it was, and I was curious why you changed or what you were looking for. If the old springs were just worn out, or maybe were aerostars, I would think you would have expected an increase in height just because of the newness. So, given that thought maybe accounting for an inch or two,along with what we said about the springs also needing to settle adding another temporary inch or so, there's the rise you got.
So, back to the original question of what are you looking for. Higher than it was, but not as high as it is?
When I was going thru this, I had new Eatons that were the lowest rated ones they had. Because of my alum block, alum heads, aluminum tranny, etc., mine looked like a gasser when done.....much higher than yours, and I had dropped spindles! Next I tried aerostars, but in my case that didn't work because of my dropped spindles. That change got me from the gaaser look to the too low and bottoming out.
Lynn here on the forum did some math to figure out how much I needed to cut off my Eatons to get it where I wanted. We even figured it to end up a little higher than wanted knowing it would settle down some more after driven. A few months down the road It ended up being exactly where I wanted.

Jim: The guys that use aerostars do so because it lowers the cars a few inches without having to do spindle changes and still gives a good ride. Also, aerostars are like 50 bucks a set, available at your local parts r us, ..........Eatons are probably 200ish delivered??

[hiball3985]

Jim: The guys that use aerostars do so because it lowers the cars a few inches without having to do spindle changes and still gives a good ride. Also, aerostars are like 50 bucks a set, available at your local parts r us, ..........Eatons are probably 200ish delivered??

I have the Granada spindles thats why I passed on the aerostars and I couldn't find stock replacements at the time I did my suspension work so the originals went back in and they seem to run fine. I did replace the rears with McVeighs.

[RICH MUISE]

Charter...found where I was posting all the back and forth stuff on my ride height. If you're up for a lot of reading, the discussions start around post 400 and go thru 480ish, with most of the technical stuff Lynn and I got into towards the end of that group of posts.
http://57fordsforever.com/smf/index.php?topic=5795.405

[lalessi1]

I typically spend a lot of time "calculating" before I do stuff trying to anticipate results so I don't have too many redos. I am running stock spindles and Moog Aerostar springs. The Aerostar springs are 50% stiffer than the stock springs but they are a few inches shorter. They lowered my car a little too much, I had very little suspension travel. I wound up using spring spacers and settled on 1/2 spacers from Summit. Keep in mind (because of the suspension geometry) a 1/2" will raise the car almost twice that much. If you want I can give you a closer estimate. Eaton can give you a custom wound spring I believe. It would be a better choice than an Aerostar, if spec'd properly. I think you want a factory spring rate with a shorter free length. Again keep in mind you can add a spacer to raise the car. BTW "setting up a spindle" is BS. A car will drop after new springs are installed, the wheels must roll to allow the final height to be achieved.

Lynn

[Charter]

My new question, is this what the height the car would have been from factory ? Honestly, I thought the work I have done would have put me back close to the height it was. Since the ball joints and upper/lower bushings,tie rods were shot and rusted tight I figured in new springs to complete the rebuild. The parts guy asked me a few questions about engine weight and I got the big block springs thinking the ride height would not change but an inch to compensate for new vs. old. The old springs were a little shorter , I figured that was due to wear and age. I did put in a coil spring isolator ( ES 6053 ) This is neoprene I think not rubber like the one I removed. Some of the height maybe in that.  If it settles 1 1/2" I'll be happy with it. I thought the "spindle height" was out there too. I dropped my 91 Foxbody 2" all the way around and did not do anything like eaton is telling me to do to correct the ride height of the ranchero.

[hiball3985]

From what I can tell on the Eaton site the spring number 1498 is for a 59 with a FE and listed as Heavy Duty. Maybe a 59 with an FE is heavier then a 57 + being a heavy duty version might just be too much spring for the weight of a Ranchero. An option would be cutting the coils a little at a time until you reach the height you want, but that will stiffen ride also.