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Drop spindles?

6K views 25 replies 5 participants last post by  JohnTN 
#1 ·
Can some please explain to me what drop spindles are? i'm totally clueless here
 
#5 ·
No, not at all. Shortened springs would be exactly line filling the engine compartment with bricks, or put a big fat friend on the each fender, that is doing the same thing as shortened springs.

Depending on the car it can play havoc with the suspension geometry. Often causing negative camber where the top of the wheel comes in dramatically, leaning the tire. Sometimes it isn't a real big deal but dropped spindles keep it all correct.

See how in the drawing the control arms going out to the spindle remain horizontal? When you cut the springs that all changes with them going up hill to the spindle.

Brian
 
#4 · (Edited)
I did a quick drawing for you. You can see that the mount for the hub on the spindle on the right is 1 inch higher.Thus the car would be lowered 1 inch. Still maintaining all the proper geometry (within reason) as the stock spindle.

The same goes for a "raised spindle" it goes the other way and raises the car because the wheel is lowered in relation with car.

Brian

edit: LOL, I miss counted, I thought it looked like more than one "inch", it's two. I counted just now on the photo and the right is at 16 not 15. :drunk:

 
#7 ·
Yes, the term is "shortened" or "cut" springs. Think about it this way, the dropped spindle is basically exactly as the factory would have done to lower it, all the geometry stays the same that they designed into it, the wheels are simply mounted higher on the spindle but everything stays the same.

Brian
 
#9 ·
Look at it this way. When you alter the spring IN ANY WAY to,lower a,car you loose suspension travel,which will cause it to bottom out,giving you a rough ride at best and bending something at worst.

When you use a dropped spindle you raise the axle which lowers the car but you do not change the suspension or the amount of travel. It is by far the best way.

John Long
 
#16 ·
This was my brothers 59 Chevy wagon he had in the early seventies with raise spindles. It was a foot over stock!





It was a super nice car (only about 13 years old remember) that our dad took in as a trade in for only $750. It was exactly as seen but had the same 6" wide Americans in back. Those 10 inch wide Chrome wheels, they were on a number of cars and are on his truck (our fathers 55 F-100) today. He had the offset changed so they are tucked in.



Brian
 
#19 ·
I'll take the truck thanks.:D Back in the day,we used to send axles Moredrop to get them reforged and dropped. The natural result or reforging them is that it narrows the axle slightly allowing for wider wheels. Last I heard they are still in business but it costs more to have an axle dropped than it does to buy a new one.
 
#18 ·
Yeah, it isn't hack or anything like that, if you want to give it a go, pull the springs out cut a few coils off them and put them back in. The bad thing is you really are guessing how much it's going to go. Don't think if you cut 2" of the height of the spring it's going to drop 2". You change the spring rate when you cut them so it's a bit of a guess. You could also go the heating route. Put some blocks under the car at a little higher than the height you want and heat the springs with a torch until it sags down to the blocks then let it cool a good long time. Now this is a bit hack, but it's been done for years. Cutting them of course is way better, just don't go too far because then geometry gets all goofed up. But just a little lowering, a tasteful lowering, it isn't that big of a deal.

Brian
 
#20 ·
One other thing. When you alter your springs you will absolutely have to have car aligned. With the spindles it will have little effect on alignment other than caster. The reason it effects caster is because as your front comes down the angle between your ball joints (king pin angle) diminishes.
 
#24 ·
Brian , The extended spindals in the 59 Chevy wagon brings back good memorys for me. In the early 70's I had a 65 Olds 442 that had 6 inch extended spindals in front and Ford station wagon leaf springs in the rear, The Olds road great and handled good too, all the suspension work was done by Al's automotive in South San Francisco. I sold it in 74, sure wish I knew where it is now.
Gene
 
#26 ·
One caution when installing dropped spindles. The ground clearance under the front of the car will be reduced by the amount of the spindle drop. If you have 4 inches of clearance and put in 1 inch drop spindles, your ground clearance will be reduced to 3 inches.

The approach to avoid this is to "Z" the frame behind the front wheels. This allows the body and sheet metal to drop while maintaining the front ground clearance, but the engine moves up closer to the underneath of the hood.

John
 
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