X frame

Iowa 409 Guy

Well Seasoned Member
Supporting Member 15
The cross member was welded to the frame and the bracket that the control arm is bolted to was bolted to the crossmember with shims under it to set the pinion angle. I ripped one out back in the day and tore big holes in my frame. I went to Chevrolet and bought a new crossmember and had to do a lot of repair to fix the frame.

THIS
 

Phil Reed

Well Seasoned Member
Supporting Member 10
The choice to "not" include the driver side upper arm for a correct restoration should not be an issue for a street driven car with reasonable size radial or bias ply tires. The problem rarely raised its ugly head in the day unless you had a knuckle head like me driving a high horse four speed 09 car and side stepping the clutch. Add sticky tires, a bad attitude and the outcome is inevitable.
Plus..he was "carrying " if you know what I mean!!!!!
 

427John

Well Known Member
The 59-64 Olds/Pontiac 9.3 rear is widely considered one of the strongest factory rears after the Mopar dana 60 and ahead of the Ford 9"(the ford enjoys more aftermarket support and in the custom fabricated version is probably stronger).The 57-58's with 29 spline axles is slightly weaker than the later 31 spline versions.They were very popular upgrades to race tri-5's,Henry's made 31 spline axles to allow 31 spline 3rd members to be bolted into 57 pontiac housings which were evidently a bolt in to tri-5's.I'm surprised they weren't more commonly used as upgrades in 409 cars,are Pontiac/olds coil spring rears not a direct bolt into coil spring chevy's?One anomaly on these is the 59 and possibly 60 Olds was still leaf spring versus everybody else being coil spring at that time.
 

409gang

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 1
In 1970 I put a 64 olds in my 62 Impala and never broke another rear end. I put one in my 64 Nova race car and will put one in my 62 SS when I get back on it.
 

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johnnyriviera

Well Known Member
This doesn't help those that already have lifts, but may help those thinking about it. Challenger 10k lb "Versymmetric" has arms plenty long, never have had a problem reaching lift points. Even though, I made marks on my shop floor to get the car in the same place every time due to my OCD. Not the cheapest lift, but I wasn't necessarily bargain shopping the thing that was going to hold my favorite car in the air while I was under it!
 

427John

Well Known Member
In 1970 I put a 64 olds in my 62 Impala and never broke another rear end. I put one in my 64 Nova race car and will put one in my 62 SS when I get back on it.
It looks like you had to narrow it for your nova,is it necessary to do so for a full size chevy?
 

409gang

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 1
It looks like you had to narrow it for your nova,is it necessary to do so for a full size chevy?
The one I put in my 62 back in 1970 I did not narrow, it was out of a 1964 Olds Ninety Eight. I don't remember the width of the Olds housing but I have a 62 Pontiac Bonneville housing in the garage and it measures 57.875" from tube end to tube end. Pontiacs are wider than an Olds (their slogan was The Wide Track) by an 1" or 2" I think but are the same 9.3 GM rear end. They can still be found out away from town in old yards, I bought 2 Pontiacs 4 years ago for $250 drum to drum, and yes I did narrow that rear end in the photos.
 

427John

Well Known Member
I pulled one out of a 59 Ford F100 of all things that was originally out of a 59 olds,they had swapped the complete drivetrain out of the olds into the truck.There was no evidence of it ever having control arm brackets so I researched and found out 59's still used leaf springs could see the remnants of the leaf spring perches on the bottom of the axle tubes they just welded new on top for the truck.
 
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