1964 Galaxie

[Chad D]

I've come to a place where I can start working on it again, thank goodness!  I'm changing the way I'm approaching the car after a few hard lessons learned.  Right now, it's home to a barely-warm 390/TL, 3.50 limited slip rear axle.  It's a 30 footer the way it sits now, but I'm a function over form kinda guy, so that part can wait.

The brakes and suspension are 100% rebuilt, still considering a couple changes, if anyone has experiences here, I'd love to hear them.  Brakes are stock, 2.5 inch rear drum, 3 inch front drum, manual, and the car stops surprisingly well.  New bushings and KYB shocks all around.  Save the steering sector, control arms, and spindles, 100% new front end components (ball joints, tie rods, drag link, roller idler/pitman, crank eliminator).  Beefed up the front anti-roll bar to 1 inch.  The front of the car sits way too high, I made a poor decision and put a set of AC springs in, had to reverse the rear shackles to get the car to sit properly.. a new set of stock front srings should be here soon.  Rear springs are new six leaf Eaton units, have a set of urethane bushings ready to install.

There is some understeer, and I have a 3/4 inch rear anti-roll bar to install to reduce this, but I'm wondering if this will be compatible with the Cal-Tracs I'm looking at.

Future plans include a new David Kee WR TL/GV OD (first), and a 427LR (need to buy the carbs or abandon the OEM 2x4 setup).  I'm looking forward to reading Jay's book to see what hints I can find there.

[Heo]

 If i look on your car and mine the rear is about
same height.The rim is level with the wheel arch
and mine have stock 6 leaf springs and shackles
not fipped are your leafsprings flatter than stock?

[jayb]

I like them nose-high, myself 





Actually, when my car is sitting the rear quarter is at about the level of the top of the wheel.  This is with Cal-Tracs and their monoleaf spring setup:

[Heo]

I have tried to get my nose high like your Jay
but no mater how stif and long springs i put in
the front wheels stay on the ground what am
i dong wrong 
Igues the gravity up here by the arctic circle
is different

[Chad D]

I like them sitting high too... unfortunately I think it's causing pinion issues under braking, I feel the rear axle shudder badly.  The front suspension also sits on the bump stops at full droop with the car sitting still.  The rear shackles/spring eye are hanging below the frame mount, instead of the mount being below the rear eye, which I've been told is the stock location.  The rear springs are brand new (not re-arched) Eaton six leaf units with +1/2 inch arch over stock according to the factory prints that Eaton claims to have.  The four and six leaf springs have a very different (~8 inch vs ~5 inch IIRC) free arch due to the rate difference to get the correct factory ride height.  From the sounds of things, lots of shops rearch them to the four leaf dimension and rate them as the six leaf to get the sky-high stance.  In my situation, it's stock six leaf arch and rate, with reversed shackles to get the high rear stance.  Rear spring rate for what I have installed is about perfect according to my butt dyno.  Flipping the shackles back to stock configuration would drop the rear of the car three inches or more.

A couple questions:

Is there a source for urethane leaf spring pads?  The rubber pads I got from Eaton seem mushy, even when the u-bolts are torqued (and re-torqued) to 65 ft-lbs, and they don't seem to locate the spring locating pin on the axle leaf spring pad very well at all, the hole in the pad is twice as large as the pin on the spring.  This could also be the source of geometry change I believe I am experiencing under braking load (pinion drop?), causing the rear shudder as the u-joints encounter excess angularity.  Perhaps changing the front leaf bushing to urethane will improve this.  Also, are you using Caltech's rear shock?  The KYB's I've got are also near the end of the rebound range, and I don't want to be banging them against the internal stops.  What are you using for front shocks for the street?

Jay:  Where did you get the rear edge door trim, I've never seen anything like it.  I'm still looking for the stainless rocker moldings.  FYI, Centerline just started selling the crest center caps for these wheels again.  You have a beautiful car, I'd love to hang the hoops like you, but I don't think my wallet would survive the experience.

[Heo]

I got all stock Police interceptor suspension parts
shocks and all. Very low milage on the car.
 the springs are abow the  shackle mount
But our rears apear to be in the same heights
You can se it here in the tread 64 Galaxie
the front springs are tired though so its
a litle to low in the front and a litle soft to.
Or the front springs could have been changed
in the 70s to get the "rake". it got some history
with Holley stickers on the inner fender.Hurst shifter.
and under ride tractionbars with Ford P/n
And the trans had some powershifting damage
and the rearend had some chiped toths

[jayb]

I don't know of a source for urethane spring pads.  Unfortunately I also don't know of a source for the door edge trim; it was on my car when I bought it.  You should check your pinion and driveshaft angle as the car sits now; if it is way off, then correcting that with some wedge shims might solve the problem.