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Huey's Frnt Shocks....

B

Baby Huey

New Member
I been putting in a few hours in the shop this week and I been working on my Front Shocks.
I decided to use the old Ford Hydraulic Lever Action Shocks. I bought a set of 4 at a swap meet for "$30.00, the tag said 47 Ford PU...
I was surprised to find that they actually worked really good, infact the more ya work the arms the better they feel.
The ends of the arms had that weird taper hole that ford was sooo proud of, so I had to plug them and redrill them to 3/8".
I decided to use a couple female rod ends with a double ended stud inbetween to attach the arms to the front spring shackle extra hole, made for shock mounting.
The rod ends I will order this week so I just mocked em up to see what they looked like. I don't want to weld em down til I get the linkage put together... "BH"
Here's some pics, I gave em a quick fizz can job just for you guyz !! :eek:
IMG_1173.jpg

IMG_1176.jpg

IMG_1175.jpg
 
Very nice BH :cool:
 
Lookin' good BH. Nice blue...is it the color you are going to paint the T?

Ron
 
Thank's Guyz....:lol: The color is "Space Blue" ...I think, I got a deal on the fizz cans at Schucks/Kragens, they had a box full of em for $1.00 ea. So I grabbed an arm load of em !! Think they are all different....
I would like to paint the frame Blue metallic of some kind, thinkin bout the Blue Met. Rust -Oleum, I kinda like that and it's cheap. But If I find a blue in these fizz cans that I like, then I'll get some mixed up....
Blue Met....Frame,axles
Competition Orange....Body, Wheel Centers
Interior...........Light Tan
Engine is Caddy Blue... ( kinda dark like FURD)
:cool: "BH"
 
Francis Blake said:
Looks good B.H. love that quarter spring setup.:cool:..Francis
Click to expand...

Thats a Speedways Chromed "T"-spring (Mr. Roadster) Buttttttttttt, since that caddy engine weighs in around 720 lbs and the trans is a cast iron Hydramatic that weighs MORE than I do....Well, I had to add another set of leafs. Cheap to buy a RAW spring so I added the leafs.
Soon as I get things figgered out I'll do a little adjusting and see where I'm at. With the single Chromed spring it was almost flat, the tie rod was close to hitting the bottom of the center spring perch..
:eek: "BH"
 
That setup is going to look and work great! Thanks for the update.
 
Re: Huey's Front Shocks....

BH, that's probably one of the most logical front shock absorber set up's I've seen yet.

Great job! Keep us posted as to how it preforms when you get it on the road.

While the friction shocks work ok on my ride, I have some reservations about using the bottom rod of the hairpin for a bottom mount for the shock eye. I question the stress factor. I'd feel much more comfortable tying the bottom mount into the spring hanger such as you've illustrated.

JC
 
FYI, Shock Weights......

Just incase someone is wondering bout how much these Ford Shocks weigh, I just weighed mine.
Ea. Shock: 6 lbs
Ea. Bracket: (1/4" Steel) 1.0 lb.

Not light, but I'm not building a drag racer.... :rolleyes: "BH"
 
I know you guys can't wait to see these shocks mounted :), so this afternoon I turned on the welder and glued em down, hooked up the links..
I originally had plans to use 2 Chev screw in rocker studs connected in the center with a piece of stock for the push rods. But they turned out a little too long, so I just cut off a couple long bolts, rethreaded 3/8-24, works for me....:neutral: I'll have to adjust the rod length as soon as I get the front spring sorted out anyway......"BH"
IMG_1178.jpg

IMG_1177.jpg
 
I hadn't thought of lever arm shocks. They were used for years of British sports cars. I looked in my Moss Motors MG catalog though and the "uprated" front shocks are over $300 each. The rear shocks are about $110 each but they probably wouldn't handle the engine weight on the front end. Are the Ford pickup shocks hard to come by? They look good
 
those lever action oughta work MUCH better than the other friction shocks. There are many that have used the old lever action shocks out of British sports cars like MG's etc... Aussie tim has them on his from an old Australian sports car. Maybe a Holden.
 
These old Ford Shocks are plentifull in swap meets. Finding a good set is hit n miss. I was lucky as all 4 of mine seem to be in really good shape.
I wanted to center the shock arm over the center of the spring shackle, but the radius was wrong on the shackle plate and I couldn't get the bolt into the rod end. I would have to cut out 2 more shackle plates, I was too lazy...
Lots of the English sports cars used Lever Action as well as Chevy, Ford, Buick, Pontiac, Caddilac, Ferari (sp?) and others.
These are Double Action, Fully Adjustable, and there are lots of different Arm's to fit em.
They are "rebuildable" , but if you have a shop do the work they are kinda spendy, but not much too em inside. I learned yesterday that there is a local Hydraulic shop that has rebuilt these shocks for years, and I didn't know it.....:surprised: "BH"
 
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