Thread: Trying to sort out springs

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I have a 1948 AD truck that I installed a Must II IFS(TCI). Anyone have experience with this one as far as wheather to use 4 or 6 cyl springs? It has a SBC engine with a/c.

Don

Any way you could get it on a scale and get the total weight and the front and rear weights Don????? Like a buddy who's a circle burner and has a set of scales??????

Hi Dave, I have no idea what the final front end wt. will be. The front sheet metal doors & radiator are not installed. I can not begin to push the front end down with the v-6 springs. Prior to this trk I installed this suspension on mainly 32-34 Fords, for these I used 4 cyl springs & cut 1/2 of a coil.
I'll wait untill I get full wt of the trk Unless someone has gone thru this before & can advise.......thanks Dave

Well, in cases where the car is not entirely together, I usually add an equal amount of weight to the car from stuff laying around the shop trying to place it in the appropriate position on the car.... I have one of the good old genuine spring books that sorts by style and weight rating, it's usually very close to right on the money when picking springs..... Oh yeah, what size (diameter and free height) are the springs now? I don't like to cut springs to get them the correct length, but adding a spacer either above or below the spring is sometimes helpful if you need to raise the ride height but don't want to alter the effective spring rating....

I'll add wt. to the front as soon as I get several guys over. The spring rate is 350 lb/in. & as I recall the 4cyl springs are 300. I think the rate is close, but the springs might be too long. I've always had to cut the spring on these. With the lower A-arms level I'll have 4" of grd clearance at the front.

Well take care & your responses are always right on. What are you working on now?

Don

Originally Posted by Don Meyer

I'll add wt. to the front as soon as I get several guys over. The spring rate is 350 lb/in. & as I recall the 4cyl springs are 300. I think the rate is close, but the springs might be too long. I've always had to cut the spring on these. With the lower A-arms level I'll have 4" of grd clearance at the front.

Well take care & your responses are always right on. What are you working on now?

Don

A little bit of everything, Don!!!! Hopefully can get things caught up by mid-summer and get back on the Ranchero. I've been accumulating parts for it for awhile now and just need to break down and part with the $$$$$$ necessary to get it sitting on all four and free up the chassis table for some new projects. The moly tubing I need for the roll cage and the rest of the chassis has gone up significantly in the last few months, and of course freight on it continues to increase. If I can get solid on a couple other projects I can put together a larger order and be able to save everybody a few bucks....

I have a '51 AD with the TCI MII kit installed. Mine came with springs that I believe are 350#. If yours ends up similar to mine it's 3140lbs with 55% front and 45% rear. I did however move my fuel tank from behind the seat to behind the rear axle. I did not need to cut my springs, lower a's are parallel to the ground. 300's would probably give a better ride, the 350's do feel stiff. If you do cut the springs it will raise the rate.

ceh383, Great info. Thank-you! My trk might be a little heavier than yours. The cab is extended, I have a/c & a late model bed wts. more so the 350lb/in vs. 300 s/b okay

You're welcome, glad I could help.

Street Rodder magazine had a article on this some years back.Because the mustang II carried 65% of the weight on the fronted the 4 cyl spring should work well.BE careful of right heights.Mt friend has a 40 ford 4 door sedan SBC,turbo 350 we put a mustang II frt end on it and it worked very well.He bottom out the trans pan on a speed bump.After changing the pan he raised the ride height by cranking up the coil overs. After this it would start rolling from side to side on the freeway.After some research we put a sway bar on the front and it fixed the problem.

Originally Posted by SDLuck

Street Rodder magazine had a article on this some years back.Because the mustang II carried 65% of the weight on the fronted the 4 cyl spring should work well.BE careful of right heights.Mt friend has a 40 ford 4 door sedan SBC,turbo 350 we put a mustang II frt end on it and it worked very well.He bottom out the trans pan on a speed bump.After changing the pan he raised the ride height by cranking up the coil overs. After this it would start rolling from side to side on the freeway.After some research we put a sway bar on the front and it fixed the problem.

Did you notice that you're responding to a thread that's eight years old, and appears to have been answered at the time? It's not a problem, but gotta wonder why resurrect something from 2008?

Originally Posted by rspears

Did you notice that you're responding to a thread that's eight years old, and appears to have been answered at the time? It's not a problem, but gotta wonder why resurrect something from 2008?

Sorry,I thought it might help somebody else,lots of Mustang II frt ends out there.

Originally Posted by SDLuck

Sorry,I thought it might help somebody else,lots of Mustang II frt ends out there.

Like I said, it's not a problem to me, and there's a bunch of good information in the old threads. That said, if you'd started by acknowledging that the thread's kinda old but still has good info, etc then everyone would know you're not trying to answer the original poster, but rather just adding more good info to the mix.

Your input about your friend's '40 is great, and could indeed save someone from heading down the same rabbit trail.