Tri-Five drop spindles

[rcavictor]

**edit** was actually the 2022 convention in The ATL

At the 2019 CORSA convention there was a presentation from someone who had a pretty much turn-key drop-spindle conversion, using a Tri-Five Chevy kit from Speedway Motors I think. They had good handouts and I took lots of notes - but…. can’t seem to put my eyes on this info saved somewhere.

It was during the Corvanatics presentation time..

Anyone recall who that was? Trying to find the info.

[martyscarr]

I didn't goto the 2019 convention, but I did save some info on the dropped spindles posted by Joel Rushworth years ago.
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FC disc brakes and dropped spindles

Clarks does not have a disc brake kit for FC. No Corvair vender has them. But have no fear Speedway is here.
Speedway has two versions, one for large body calipers and one for the smaller body metric caliper.
BUT you have to tell a little lie. Tell them you are converting your 1957 Chevy with stock spindles to disc brakes. Yup bolts right on. If you are able to to a little milling, you can even keep alloy 14 inch wheels.
If you want to buy the pieces locally, the rotors are 69 Chevelle rotors, the large body calipers are 69 Chevelle calipers the small metric calipers are Monte Carlo calipers. The brackets can be purchased separately from Speedway.

Front brakes are 69 Chevelle, rear brakes are just like 69 Chevelle, proportioning valve is 69 Chevelle. wonder what master cylinder would work ?
Hint hint, dont tell them you have a Corvair. Remember 1957 Chevy.

I have 14 inch alloy wheels over my FC disc brakes. You are correct in saying the original steel wheels wont clear.
I tracked down the guy who made the disc brake brackets for Clarks and others. He was finished with that venture, and will never make any more,he gave the blueprints and prototypes to another guy. I tracked the next guy down and he was not capable of production at this time. That is when I realized the 57 chevy spindles are the same as the FC, (except for ball joint taper.
The brackets are $99 from Speedway, they are gold cad plated and come with all new grade eight hardware.
I am positive Lon can build a great kit, but how does anyone beat $99 ?

Nova 14" steel rally wheels clear the speedway kit and I can still use my 14" 3 prong spinner caps.I will never own a FC without front disc brakes after my install of this kit.Did it 3 years ago and still perfect.I believe I used a 1975 nova manual disc brake master cyl. Damian, track is increased by 3/4" each side. Toe must be reset.

Speedway complete kit Part # 91031949 $259.99
Speedway caliper brackets art # 91631915 $79.99

joel says: The FC front spindles are almost identical to that of the Tri-5 Chevy's. It's why I was able basically bolt in a 2" drop spindle for the Tri-5. The only necessary modification was the lower ball joint hole for the FC is larger. The 60+ chev car front spindle is about 2-3" taller than the FC unit.

brizo says: Check some Street Rod magazines, I think you can get "dropped" repo.spindles for early '60s Impalas which have the same front suspension as an FC
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I was hoping to take pictures as I went along with this conversion and write
something up for everyone, but time constraints got in the way and I had to
blast through the project. 16hours straight through will do that to a
person.....

At any rate. The Heidt 55-57 Chevy drop spindles and disc brakes are now on
the front of my Rampy.

I can positively say that they will fit on an FC with one small
modification.

The lower ball joint on an FC is the same as a '58-64 full size Chev, not
the '55-57 Chev. Using the tri-5 spindles requires having the lower ball
joint hole on the drop spindle reamed out to the larger size. My local
machine shop had to make a fitting for their reamer so the press could
operate the reamer by passing through the top hole of the spindle.

I did not investigate whether or not it would have been easier or even
possible to just replace the lower ball joints with the 55-57 units.

The FC steering arms bolt on with no issues to the Heidt spindle. It is the
main reason I choose the Heidt spindles, as others out there have the arms
cast into the spindle.

This kit uses either the 80 Malibu or 82-90 S-10 calipers and disc
brakes/hub assembly. The main problem I had was that the S-10 brake hoses
are only 12" long, and not suitable for the FC. Something around 15" is
more suitable.

I'm still not 100% satisfied with the M/C set up, and I'm a little leary of
giving detailed instructions for the braking system. However, I will say
I've put a 2# residual valve on the front circut and a 10# residual valve
and proportioning valve on the rear circut.

I hope others will find this useful. Perhaps Heidt will modify their units
to offer it as a '61-65 Corvair FC kit. <g>

Regards,
Joel

Is there a reason you couldn't have just used 58-64 Impala spindles? This place has some that don't have the steering arms built in.
http://www.hotrodsusa.com/store/chev_spindles.html
Yes, the '58-64 spindle is something like 2" taller than the FC unit.
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brizo says: The drop spindles work great, but they were designed for cars that have a lot more under fender clearance than an FC. The spindles will give you a 2 inch drop, but remember, you still have full suspension travel. If you are running larger than originl or custom wheels and tires and hit a dip in the road or turn over a bump, the tires will likely go high enough to rub hard up under the fender.
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HTH
Marty Scarr

PS Ken Hand (Vairmech here) sells a kit with springs and shocks that lower the FC about 2 inches and improves the ride while retaining full suspension travel. Ken Hand Vairmech@aol.com 248-613-8586

[rcavictor]

Awesome, that's the info I was looking for - THANK YOU!

I already have two sets of Ken's springs ;)

[vairmech]

The spring drop the front almost 2" so be careful if you use drop spindles! Should be no problem with just replacement spindles.