[knighthawk]

so.... I cut out the hanger, hard to get to, cause it was in the back wall, and shortened the shackles, and then I thought it would be stronger, if I put the actual hanger UNDER the angle plate, so the pressure will push up against the plate. THEN, after a trial fit, the hanger mounting bolts hit the shaclkles,, I guess that's why it was the other way, so i had to redo that. Now, mounted corrwctly (?), tacked in place, I cut some pieces to fill the gaps....now to do the other side......

[nine4gmc]

cool build, i just spent the last couple hours readin it all! keep posting the great work!

[knighthawk]

to cut the pieces to fit whatever the size of hole.... make a paper pattern, trave it onto a sheet of metal, cut, trim to fit, weld it in. But, I preferr to kinda tack it place first, so it don't twist on you, then weld it short welds , maybe 2'' long max, on each side, cool it down, then more welds. You need to control the heat so it dosen't warp, or in this case twist the tail, of the frame rail out of whack. So, to cold it, I wait a few seconds, then spray some water on it (not when its red, I don't want to chance making it too brittle : like tempering ) . That's my theory anyway, and it seems to work for me, after all, I'm just a ''shade tree'' metal worker, playing out in the barn................I'd like to add, I said the welds are 2'' long, that is fine for a wire feed, but with a stck welder , I wouldn't go much more than an inch at a time

[knighthawk]

I'd like to add this little tip that makes cutting, or useing a cutting torch much easier. You know those goggles we get to cover your eyes ? and never seem to stay in place , and then the elastic band streches out ? I even tried to use a welding hemet with the colored glass from the goggles, better, but still a pain...... the best thing I came up with, is, the throw away plastic eye shields I got from the eye Doctor , that they give you after they dialate your eyes, and then they are real sensitive to light. They have 2 kinds they give out, 1 is like a regular pair of glasses the hook over your ears, the other is like in this photo......it has a permenant curl to them and just hug your temple just enough to stay in place....works perfect ! AND you can even braze with them !

[knighthawk]

I'm in kinda a 'pickle' here.... the axle clearance is fine, the shackle re locating is fine, but, my 'theory' didn't work . Two things here I don't under stand. First, the axle clearance.... I figured, the front of the leaf spring is fixed, right ? so, if you move the other end (shackle end) 3 '' up or down , the center, which is where the axle is , would move 1/2 that, resulting in a 1 1/2'' change. Well, for some reason the axle postion ended up at 3''. Which is fine, cause now I got 6'' of clearance instead of only 3'' . And I may not have to notch the frame. BUT, I don't see where I screwed up !.....second issue, I bounce the car, to see how much axle clearance there is, trying to 'bottom out ' the springs as much as I can, like what you would do to a car to ' check the shocks'.....well It won't bounce any ! So loosen up the spring shackles nuts, figureing maybe they are too tight, don't help any, maybe the air shocks are too stiff, or too heavy duty, I take them off, still no bounce ! With all the weight on the axles, and nothe connect ed them it still won't bounce ! Can these springs, which are the original 1948 springs be that stiff ? Now that I think on it .... It does still the panhard sway bar still hooked up, wonder if I disconnect that...................

[123pugsy]

Each of your shackles must be able to swivel away from the axle where the leaf is joined to it in order for it to flatten out under pressure.
Make sense?

[knighthawk]

I don't think that's the problem....here's a pic of the springs with no wight on them and one with all the weight

[123pugsy]

Crazy. When you push down more than when the weight's on it pic, are you standing somewhere to see if the shackles are binding up somewhere or not?

[nine4gmc]

stupid question but you did move the jack stands before jumping up and down to test travel, right?

the shackles look like they would still swing some with weight on it, but maybe they are binding.

[knighthawk]

I don't think it's the shackles,as I loosened all nuts and tried it before I took the shocks off. I am going to see a freind of mine that builds pro-street race cars tommorrow afternoon, I'll run it by him........

[knighthawk]

after talking with my 'friend', I went back and checked it all again. It IS the spring shackles....... the rubber bushings, I'll get a picture tommorrow, have a rubber flange that is between the bushing part and the side plates of thez shackles, or the hanger straps, i guess, and when I tighten them down till the nut gets tight, it squeezes the the bushing flange, preventing the pins from rotating. Now all I need to do to figure out , is, how much to tighten them, kinda loosely, and keep the nuts from comming off on their own. Maybe some kind of lock nut ? And maybe there is some special proceedure to tighten them with out squeezing them........

[boatbob2]

Hi,if your worried about the nuts loosening,i would drill a hole through the nut AND the stud,then put a cotter pin in the hole,impossible to loosen,(as long as the cotter pin is in place)

[knighthawk]

I thought of the cotter pin thing , also, but they pretty shallow nut. BUT, I firured out the problem ! Take look at these bushings, you can see where some of the flange area has been ' compromized' . I'm thinking the bushings are the wrong style.. If nothing else, I can cut off the bushings right at the flange...............I'll make some more calls tonite........

[knighthawk]

Here's the deal.... the NAPA (Moog) bushings are made for 2'' wide leaf springs, my car ( 48 Dodge) has 1 3/4 '' springs, so they must be trimmed to fit, but they don't tell you that, they just sell you the 2''. So, I trimmed them off a little in the center and alittle off the flange so they just fill the space between the hangers, or shackles , just a little snug. I put them in, installed the pins and tighten down the nuts, and NO binding and NO slop! Springs now bounce perfectly ! Now, before I put the wheels on, and the gas tank back in...............I gotta look at those shock mounts,.....why would they mount them at a 45 degree angle ? Instead of straight up and down ? And how can I make new lower shock mounts ? hmmmmmmmmm

[knighthawk]

so, I'm thinking ,, if these shocks were mounted more upright, than at the 45 degree angle, they would give me a better ride, than when at a 45 degree , they act more as a trailing arm, (supposedly for better handlin ) , and besides, it looks like they push the axle rearward as much as they do down, so I'm thinking, it would result in a better ride if they only went up and down...............So, here's what I'm doing................