How To Lower The Model A The Old Fashion Way

 It's not everyday that i see what i consider a 'novel approach' to Model A 'Stance' issues...within many circles of car collecting, stance issues have surpassed performance issues...that is NOT the case with this inventive approach by a user named LeroyM over on the Ford Barn...(Original Post)

 This is an update on my earlier post about how to lower a Model A. First I have to give credit to a few people who gave me some tips and tricks on making this whole thing come together. Fordbarner’s NealinCA, kelly’s restoration and H.A.M.B’er Elrod’s post answered a lot of questions I had. Also Fordbarner JM 35 Sedan for letting me have the axle I needed.

My original goal was to lower my Model A coupe but still run mechanical brakes and use the original shocks. I had broken springs so I bought a new reverse eyed front spring from Snyder’s. That lowered the front 1 inch but I still wanted to go lower and the ride with the new springs was very stiff so I took three springs out of the ten leaf pack. The springs I took out were 2, 3 and 4 from the top of the spring pack. This lowered the front another 1 1/4”. I still wasn’t happy with the look and wanted to go lower. To do this I need to do some research and find some hard to find parts.

The parts to go lower were 32-34 spring perches, 32 spindles and a 32-36 axle. Total time to find theses parts were about a month. Once I found the parts everything worked fine with new Model A kingpins and bushings from Mac’s and Model A spring shackles from Snyder’s. Two problems I ran into were bushings for the 32 spring perches. No one makes them so I had to go to the machine shop and get a piece of 3/4” pipe that had a 1/2” inside diameter and drill the center out to 9/16” to allow the Model A shackles to fit. The other problem I had was tie rod ball studs. I did not order any since I thought the Model A tie rod ball studs came off but they do not since they are all one piece.

One other thing that is needed is a 1/4” spacer to go between the axle and wishbone since the 32-36 axle is 2” and the Model A wishbone is 2 1/4”. I looked all over to find theses spacers and ended up finding them at Fastenal. They had to be ordered and were called a extra heavy fender washer that was 1/4” x 1 1/2”. The center hole was 1/4 but a 11/16 drill bit took care of drilling them out to allow them to work for what I needed.

The end result with the new axle brought the front end down another 1 3/4” for a total drop with everything of right at 4” inches lower from stock. With 600x16’s in the front and 700x16’s in the back it puts the look right where I want it which is a late 40’s to early 50’s style look.

I did some measuring and right at the center of the wheel to the bottom lower lip of the fender comes to be 27 1/2" and right in the center of the front radiator apron I have 7 1/2".

Here’s a few pictures I took this afternoon. If anyone has any questions let me know.

Thanks.

Source:  http://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12576

Crack V8 Blocks

Cracked Blocks

The most common place for a crack is between the valve seat and cylinder. An old timer told me that you see more cracks on the intake side than the exhaust side because the metal is stressed by being alternately heated by combustion and cooled by the intake charge, but I don't know if it is true. Whether it is worth repairing these blocks depends on whether or not you can find both ends of the crack, how far it goes, and how many there are of them.
This is a typical valve seat to cylinder crack that you can see with your naked eye. Another common crack is seen on the right between the bolt hole and the water passage. Many flatheads have these bolt hole to water passage cracks and they can usually be ignored unless the crack runs to both sides of the hole. Some people plug or weld these cracks and some don't.
This is another view of the same cracks. This is a bad repair job using plugs, I think. I don't see any threads where the block broke away as would be seen with a proper plug, and in real life, there is a bronzy cast to the repair making me wonder if brazing was used. I can't imagine that brazing wouldn't have melted away, but this engine had so many bad mechanic things in it, nothing would surprise me about it. I even found lead shot in the crank case.
The same engine with another bad repair. Neither of these repairs used sleeves and they clearly did not follow the cracks to their end. To be perfectly honest, I don't know how the engine ran except that it is hard to keep a flathead down. There were three easily visible cracks in this block and since I only got it for the Merc crank, I simply haven't looked closely for more nor has it been magnafluxed. Some things you just don't need to know.

Source:  http://flatheaddrag.com/cracks.html