I ended up honing and reaming the spindle so the roller bearings would fit. Once this was done, the rest of the kit went together well. I ended up selecting this kit because I figured with the lowered stance, radial tires and disc brakes, I would be putting a bigger load on the king pins than what it was originally designed for. Probably not needed but it also has the added feature of being able to shove grease in from both ends instead of just from the top as in the original design. 

The kit

 So here is the finished product! The completed lowered front axle!

 My truck is now sitting on 2 1/2 - 3 inch lowered mono-leaf springs and a 2 1/2 inch lowered Mor-Drop front axle. For a comparison I included a picture of Hugh Hunton's stock 1940. You can see Hugh's truck by clicking on: Hugh's web site Hugh did me a huge favor by taking some measurements from the truck his dad restored. 

The center of Hugh's truck's bumper bolt sits 17 1/2 inches off the ground. His tire height is 28 inches. The center of my truck's bumper bolt hole sits at 12 inches off the ground and my tire height is 29 inches. That gives me at least a 5 1/2 inch drop out of the springs and axle. Not in the weeds by any stretch of the imagination, but I believe it will give me the stance I am looking for. 

The nice thing about this set up for me is the original steering geometry is intact. The updated style tie-rod was easily flipped upside down because the original tie-rod end hole is not tapered. So the tie-rod runs under the spring! 

Not a Mustang II front end!

Originally sitting up at 17.5 inches

The other project I have been working on is the 235 engine. 

This is my Edmund's Custom Special. I bought the intake for this on October 28th, 2000. So it is almost 5 years before it has found it's way onto a project. I have been searching for and collecting Edmund's dress up parts since then. The hardest part to come by is the Edmund's valve cover. I have been searching them out ever since. Hard to believe but now I have 3 of them. The cheapest one I bought was over $400.00. So don't ask the price to buy one, it's higher than anyone wants to pay. Oh alright go ahead and make me an offer. Does anyone have an Edmund's side plate? I have a very rare Stovebolt Engine Company side plate that I will be installing on this if I can't ever find an Edmund's. I am willing to trade a valve cover for a side plate.  I showed the side plate to Tom Langdon, current owner of the Stovebolt Engine Co. and he had never seen one before. I finished off the retro look of the engine with copper tubing for the hot water, fuel and vacuum lines. I know I have to watch out for the fuel lines getting brittle, my 1959 Austin Healey has had them for years and are still very malleable. This truck is never going to be raced and I will probably make a seperate line out of 90-10 nickel copper tubing I used for the brake lines. Drop me a line and let me know what you think of the engine.  

I have been looking for the right carburetors for very long time. I finally acquired a matched set of Stromberg bxov-2 carbs. These carburetors are from the late 1940's to early 1950's. They have been rebuilt and set them up as Stromberg BXOV-2 , #380-269 , #14-22. This is the model Stromberg used on the Chevy 216 C.I. This is also the exact model for a 2x1 setup as recommended by Frank McGurk from the 1950's. 1 5/32" Venturi .058" main jets #54 power by-pass jets #58 pump by-pass jets with Idle tubes of #54 inlet, and #70 outlet.

I also have a period distributor I would very much like to run. It is  a Mallory dual point. It is in very good condition and I have an NOS Mallory MagSpark coil to run with the distributor. I will probably need a lot of help getting it running. But it really goes with the theme of the truck. Something someone would have built in the fifties. I want to thank the guys on the stovebolt page forum for helping me think through the linkage for the throttle. I used the bell crank from the original 1940 216 and made a linkage rod from 1/4 inch rod. I bought some rod ends from McMaster-Carr and some pivots from Charlie Price at Vintage speed to make the carb linkage. It works pretty smooth. I will have to beef up the return springs to make sure it always snaps back to idle. The brass elbows you see in the linkage picture are for the oil filter. I have a very nice chromed beehive filter I will mount on the firewall with more copper tubing.

Edmund's Custom water heated dual carb intake, Matched set of Stromberg bxov-2 carbs and fenton headers.

Mallory dual point distributor. 

Edmund's Special. 

Home made throttle linkage. 

 With all that work done it is on to the body. I have the cab completely stripped and out to the sandblaster for stripping and primer. I'll stick some pictures up here when it gets back. I know I am going to have body work to do.

Well the cab has been back for a while. When i first got it home I stuffed it up on the frame to see how things would look. I have been dying to see what the lowered front end would look like. I am very happy with the look. I think it will sit very nice. If anything the back may need to come down. I can always get lower springs from Durant. They have another set that brings the rear down another 2 inches. Of course that will mean changing the sway bar brackets!

Well I am hoping for a MIG welder for Christmas. I will need it to patch up the sheet metal. It looks pretty good in the pictures. There are some pin holes in the belt line around the back and the passengers side front corner needs patches on the inside and outside. I figure it will be ok for me to do these, they will be hidden behind the fender. I have a bunch more things to send off to the blaster. He did a great job and the epoxy primer will keep it nice until I can have it painted.

You can tell I took these pictures a while ago, there is about 2 feet of snow in the driveway right now. 12/20/05

A little test fit

Picture it with Wide Whites

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