1932 Pontiac Six build

[Rattiac]

I was looking at that site alot previously.  Good info on there.  👍
Kinda helped me make up my mind about that OER reproduction axle.
Well after work I finished stripping down the axle and sprayed it down at the car wash.  Going to look it over before swapping anything and compare spindles. 
Have some other steering arms in mind. 

[Rattiac]

Here's some info I could of used years ago. Had no idea, the hot rod shop screwed up
Speedway 54 chevy spindles are for the car (independent suspension with kingpins) . Cars have 4 degrees kingpin inclination built in the boss and truck axles have 7 degrees.
I recently read this and Sid at droppedaxles.com confirmed it.  So my speedway spindles will be sold off  .
Hoping I could swap my disc's over I found a kit through Western Chassis with just the spacer and caliper brackets.  Ill talk about it with him tommorow morning. I may order a pair of his spindles with kingpins.

Mine could be wore out.  The lower bushings just fall out.

[Essex_29]

Is that the king pin inclination being different on the car snd truck axles?
If you have the axle and spindles that go together, why not adapt some
brakes you can buy to the spindles you have?
I bought front brakes and master cylinder off a 1968 Satellite and modified
the to fit the Essex spindles. It took a bit of measuring and modifying, but it
was well worth it. Those 11"x3" heavy duty drums were great brakes and looked good too.

[Rattiac]

Yeah the kingpin inclination is different from cars and trucks , even though you can swap spindles. 
I will be keeping the stock spindles if they ain't wore out.  Sid has some ready to go he's selling. 

My old axle is junk since it was bent too much to compensate for the wrong spindles. 

[Rattiac]

Took the car for it's last run before teardown. Went up the canyon to burn up some guzzaline. 😉
Went to a carshow also.  I won something but didn't stick around to claim it hours later.  Stopped by an old gas station. Rolled up the top on my way home. 

Came home and taking some measurements before ripping out the axle.  Looking at the toe-in.  Had none.  😔
Camber measurements came in at 0 degrees.
Checking ride height.  That left front was a 1/2" lower.  Wtf.
No wonder 65mph was darty. 
Can't wait to get home to rip that stupid axle out. That guy bent the hell out of it. 

[Essex_29]

That's one good looking ride! I like that almost stock look.

Zero toe in is not ideal, probably one reason for it being darty. Caster wedges might be
a good idea too. Three more degrees of caster meant that my Essex turned from horrifying
to driveable. 45 mph was more or less impossible, after 65 was manageable.

[sixball]

You are a brave man. I know I should pull my '53 pickup apart one more time and do a nice clean final (for me) assembly. But I already and too many cars in pieces around here. 

[Rattiac]

I tore that axle out like a mad man.  Holy crap that thing is bent.  Not only up and down but it's arched front to back.  Drivers side wheel is bent back.  Probably due to the wrong spindles.
Measurements on leafspring locating pins are a match.  Something going right.  😊
Just need to hog out the u-bolt holes a bit. 
To elaborate how much bend he had to put in it,  the kingpins measure at 51".  Suppose to be 50.😳

[TFoch]

Wow! Someone must have been jumping buses with that car!

[sammons]

I'm surprised it drove as good as it did. What a mess that was.

[Rattiac]

New axle is bolted in.  Had to hog out the u-bolt holes slightly for the 2" springs.
Sent the spindles to Nostalgia Sid's for reaming kingpin bushing install.  Shipping,  ect cheaper than buying the tools.
Might look into a frame alignment shop to make sure all is good.

Also looking into a CJ5 swaybar.

[sixball]

And you say the alignment guy did that on purpose? Or did he just try and align a bent axle? This should make it a whole new driving experience.

[Rattiac]

He probably bent it like that on purpose. It looks like it started walking back on him during the bend.
At the time I had no idea those spindles were not for the straight axle and the Hotrod shop I went through ordered me those cause my other 54 spindles got lost in shipping.
Information I wished I had year's ago.
Talking with Sid's dropped axles,  he said this happens alot cause speedway doesn't put that info out.
Now I just need to modify the chevy steering arms to accept my heim joints . I should be able to keep my tierod and drag link and shorten those a tad.  Threads go in pretty far.
Im hoping this cures the sensitive steering at 65, otherwise I have "plan C" waiting outside.

[Essex_29]

I can't see why anyone would purpoesly bend an axle in that direction, it won't change anyting, really.
The only thing you can (or want to) change by bending a straight axle is camber, and you do that by
bending up and down, not fore and aft.
Weird, but then not everything in life makes sense.

[sixball]

There might be things you could try to "correct" by bending the axle in that manor but they are things that have better and more common (proper) fixes. If that was the only fix there are problems elsewhere.