Hi I'm new here. This is a great site with stong participation and a lot experienced users. I searched the archives looking for the help I need and found a bunch of stuff related to the problem I have but none of it really answers my question. Here's the deal.

I recently purchased a 64 Dodge Polara that was used as a drag car back in the 60s-70s. It has a beam straight axle with parallel leaf springs, drum brakes and power steering. I talked to two previous owners of this car, (neither of them did the conversion) one told me the front end came out of a Econoline van. I looked at photos of Dick Landy's restored 64 match race car and the front end on it looks like mine. The landy restoration suposedly uses a setup out of a Dodge A100.

I want to keep straight axle front suspension and plan to disassemble it for a complete inspection and rebuild. I'll need rebuild parts like kingpins and brake parts. The problem is that I don't know if this setup was swapped out of a ford or dodge. The most recent former owner said that he replaced the front brake shoes and wheel cylinders with parts he got at Autozone for a 64 B body Dodge. Did he just get lucky or was he jerkin my chain? Hard to believe that the backing plates spindles and brake parts would interchange from a B body to a Van/truck.

How can I ID what axle I have??

While were on the subject, what brakes & spindles will interchange between Ford and Mopar? Disc conversions?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or ideas.

Ken

This is hard to believe, I bought this car last year from a guy local here in Chicago, he said he picked it up out of Michigan, could this be the same car? I am having the same exact problem, I need to identify my front-end straight axle so I can do a disc break conversion.

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If it was mine,I'd skip the discs. There is all this old school stuff going on with old time builds. Discs are out of place on a car like that. If it does not have a booster, I'd put one on IF the car really needed it only. Performance lining can be had from somewhere on the web.

Your car though, and if it is what you want, go for it. Maybe get in touch with ECI from Ct. They are still an owner-operater shop with people, not computers They maybe could help if they had some pics??

Pictures will help. Especially the king pins. Have been told some econolines had unique ends on the kingpins.


SORRY - just saw how old the original post was.

You might try talking to the guys at. "VintAGE-Vans.com" they have the website for all the early vans Dodge Chevy Ford They might be able to shed some light.