Lowering blocks

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yellowmach351

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Jan 12, 2014
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Location
Coal Valley, Illinois
My Car
1971 yellow Mach 1 ram air 351c traction loc 4 speed. Ordered new from the factory in April 1971. 74,000 miles, in excellent condition. Going through complete engine rebuild only to increase horsepower, not because it needed it. Should bring 430 to 450 hp upon completion.
Has anyone used lowering blocks for the leaf springs? The 71's always seemed to be high in the front. I have lowered the front by 1" or more, but I want to get the rear down. I have 15's on it, but looking at it from the side, there is too much space between the tire top and the fender arch. I want to come down 2", and then probably will have to readjust the front to give it a level look. 

I see there are 2" lowering blocks, but not sure how well they work. They are certainly a lot less expensive than 2" lowering leaf springs, but I don't want to buy some junk that doesn't work. 

When I ordered this car back in April of 71, I just got the 14" wheels that were standard. That's why I put on 15" wheels now to help fill the space, but that obviously only helped by decreasing the gap by 1/2".  

Thanks for your thoughts.

 
Lowering blocks work. But it changes the torque on the springs when you accellerate and brake. You might find you get a bit more wheel hop and this can be a bit dangerous depending on the situation. Do you have any traction control devices like traction bars?

 
Lowering blocks work.  But it changes the torque on the springs when you accellerate and brake.  You might find you get a bit more wheel hop and this can be a bit dangerous depending on the situation.  Do you have any traction control devices like traction bars?
No, no traction bars. I really don't want to change the handling characteristics. That's why I'm kind of leaning towards the leaf spring change.

 
I put lowering block on. It did not effect the handling of the car, but wheel hop is an issue. I will be removing the blocks and going with new springs.

 
I just went through this and posted about it. I went with Grab-A-Trak 4.5 leaf standard eye as I don't want the car lower than it is. ( The TCP 4.5 leaf only come in mid and reverse eye). The springs as they are received will be nearly 2" higher. The main issue was I could not see the road out the back window on my Mach1!!. I know these new springs WILL settle,, but I made up a set of 1" lowering blocks as a temporary fix. So far the height from road to top wheel arch has settled 1" from 28.5" (-1" for the blocks), to 26.5" with the blocks installed, ( 14" wheels with BFG tires). It will settle some more, but not to the old worn out spring height. When it reaches the max, I'll remove the blocks.

Wheel hop was the reason I went with 4.5 leaf and so far I have had nor noticed any hop or change in handling. However, if a person wants a lower car, front and back, I would suggest the MID eye option as the reverse eye will likely end up too low. Just my thoughts on that.

Geoff.

 
I used drop spindles on a 1950 Ford street rod I was building from this place near Charlotte, N.C.. The bolted right in and looked like good quality. I lost interest in the car and it sits in field now, lol. It also had 2" lowering blocks. Lowering the car should improve the handling quite a bit as long as you do not have a screwed up steering geometry after. 

http://www.fatmanfab.com/product/dropped-uprights-and-dropped-spindles

 
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