I want to use the stock suspension on my '42 1/2 ton with the addition of adding front disc brakes and more modern shock absorbers. How do you go about putting modern shocks on? Thanks

 

Look for a set of F-1 shock mounts, you can bolt them to the frame and still use the same lower mounts you have.

On my '42, the PO made thier own...kinda shoddy though, so I'll bolt on the F-1 mounts I have when the time comes.

 

I was kindof wondering how well using that combination works. I have a set of F1 upper mounts lined up, but the F1 has the lower mount on the bottom of the axle a couple of inches away from the frame.

As I understand the use of the stock '42-'47 lower mount requires the shock mounts to be perpendicular to each other. It uses shorter shocks, and you lose the angle of the stock F1 shock that I understand was designed to help prevent roll in cornering?

Do any of these things really matter for our trucks?

 

I dunno...I pulled a part a '48 F1...kept the front axle, lower and upper shock mounts "just in case"...but from the glance I took at my '42, it looks like the only difference on the lower mounts is the '42 has them casted into the axle, and the '48 slid in between the u bolts.

Maybe I'll take a lower mount out later on to the 42 and line it up closer

 

Looks like I was having a Senior Moment...it's the '42 axles with the mounts on top of the ubolts/srings, and my '48 axles with the pin's in them...

The '48 axle puts the lower shock mount out to the kingpin..I couldn't find my upper mounts, but when I do, I'll grab my camera and mock some things up and take a few pics of what the angles would be like.

All that said...I'd be willing to bet that any modern shock would do as well or better than the original styles.

 

That might be right -- I don't know for sure what year F1 I saw. The '46 that I have has the lower shock mount on top of the axle as part of the spring plate. But like I said the F1 that I found for parts has a hole cast in the bottom of the axle -- closer to the wheel, so there is a good shock angle between the lower and upper mount.

The upper mount that I found looks very similar to Speedway's forged mount # 91036008 or # 91036009 (not too sure about length).

So the top shock bolt would be parallel to the frame of the truck. and assuming I used a "shock bolt" through the hole in the plate on the spring, the lower bolt would be parallel to the axle. For the F1 I found, both bolts are parallel to the frame. I have always wondered if having them at 90˚ would restrict proper movement of the shock. I could easily make a C bracket for the bottom mount to make the bolts the same direction, but then I still have the length and angle questions (of course I believe they are minor issues since they make short shocks and the straight up and down shock movement obviously worked with the friction shocks).

 

Sorry -- my last post was in reply to 3Mike6's post from 1/22 at 7:33 (he got his later reply out a lot quicker than I did.

His new description of the axles matches what I was looking at. His '42 matches my '46 and his '48 F1 matches what I saw on the the F1 I found.

Sorry for any confusion my reply might make.

 

I do have some short shocks on my '36...the upper mount looks like a "shortened" F1 mount and I think would work just right in the '42 with F1 uppers...I can get the numbers off of them later.

The other thing is it woould be just as easy to fab a new lower mount to use longer shocks.

Like I said, I'll have to do some measuring tomorrow...I still have the F1 frame out back too, so I can get a good idea if the shocks came straught down, or angled out to the pin mount on the axle.

Kinda fun figuring out things like this!

 

Sorry for stealing your thread InjunMark. I hope you are keeping up with what we are talking about, because it hopefully will give you some ideas. I was just hoping that I could get some of my questions on this subject answered also.

See if this link works, it is the page with the speedway mounts that I said look like the F1 mounts -- it was also their tech tip that I remembered about mounting the shock at an angle:
http://www.speedwaymotors.com/p/2132...ck-Mounts.html

If you can find a '48-'51? F1 you should be able to pick up the mounts at a better price. But as I was saying above, using the '42-'47 axle you lose the natural lower mount from the F1. So I am trying to get ideas out here for the lower mount. That will complete this option for adding tubular shock to your (my) truck. I will use the F1 upper mount -- I was just hoping someone else had an easy answer for the lower mount.

3Mike6 -- You made me think with the quote about fabbing a new lower mount. I assume you meant that I should fab something to bolt under the axle using the spring U-bolts. That would definately work to make the shocks longer, but again the shock would be straight up and down. I am still trying to figure out how to mount somthing so that the lower mount would be closer to the kingpin.

 

Thanks to all for the great information.