Racer's Full width Spring-Over

In the collection or parts I had on-hand for my Scout II Racer project, I had a '63 Travelall rear Dana 44. The rest of my collection of spare axles consisted of a Dana 30 front end with shot drums.

I talked with a few friends and looked into my options. General consensus was the Dana 30 front wouldn't hold up very long. Having a triangular trackwidth might not be particularly desireable either, with the rear of the Scout being wider than the front, I might clip more cones than I should.

I also knew I wanted some type of lift. Initially, I was looking at 4" lift springs for the front, and perhaps a spring-over in the rear. Something. I'd raced a friend's Scout II with stock suspension, and I knew that it hurt to drive it, and I definitely wanted something to soak up some of the bumps.

A plan started to form in my head.. I could just run a spring-over! To keep the center of gravity down and keep the "rubber side down" (which my doubters feared would NOT be down if I went with a spring-over on the racer.. high center of gravity, high speed, sharp corners = shiny side down), I would run full width axles. It helped that I couldn't find any Scout II front ends, but the full width front axles were much more common.

I did a bunch of research, and a lot of boneyard searching. I had a hard time finding a truck or Travelall front end to use, so I broadened my search to include Chevy axles. I found a 1974 Chevy 1/2T pickup front Dana 44 at the junkyard for $150 without hubs & rotors. I then sourced a pair of hubs n' rotors from a 1990 F150 that bolted onto my Chevy axle. This retained the 5 on 5.5 bolt pattern to match the rear Travelall Dana 44 I already had, and it matched the rest of my IH-fleet (along with my friends' Broncos n' Jeeps).

On the rear, I cut the original Travelall 2.5" wide spring perches off. I welded up the holes from the grinding, and re-ground 'em. I then welded the spring perches into place with the right spacing for a Scout II (the T'all mounted the springs a little wider). I didn't change the pinion angle, and I'm not even sure what it is.. but it's the same as it was in the T'all the axle came from.

I had to grind notches into the spring perches to get the U-bolts to sit flush against the 2" wide Scout II springs. I also had to move up to a 3/8" center-bolt on the SII springs to get the properly sized "head" for the Travelall perches. I put some new bushings in the old 1972 Scout II rear leaf springs, drilled the center pin hole out to 3/8", and put the new pins in. I then installed everything.

I used a new, longer, rear brake line to attach the Scout II hardline to the hardlines on the T'all rear axle. I eventually replaced the wheel cylinders on the T'all rear end as well. I also hooked the Scout II parking brake cables to the Travelall drums.

The rear was a piece of cake. ;)

On the front, I put new spring center-pins and bushings into the front springs and installed them into the Scout. I rolled the Chevy Dana 44 under the springs, and then proceeded to fit it up. On the passenger side I did a lot of grinding to get the U-bolts to sit flush against the springs. I also had to buy new U-bolts, larger than everything I had on-hand. On the passenger side I then ground the corners down and notched it to make the U-bolts fit once more. I still need to either gusset this perch, or replace it with a stronger one - I removed too much material. The spring perches were the proper width and everything was oriented just like it needed to be.

I bought some hubs n' rotors from a 1990 F150 and bolted 'em up to the Chevy axle. I bought new brake calipers for a '74 Chevy, along with shoes. Two new 2wd '74 Chevy pickup brake lines were used, and I made a new run of steel line for the front brake lines and a new "T" block to link it into the proportioning valve.

The 2wd brake lines are longer than 4wd lines.

For the most part, the spring-over was done. Steering was the other big item I had to conquer, but it's written up elsewhere - (not done yet) Crossover Steering .

The racer has a 727 torqueflight automatic transmission. I used the rear driveshaft from my '77 Scout II with T19 (approximately 1" longer than the stock rear driveshaft for a 727 rig). On the front, I used the driveshaft from a '72 Scout II with a 727 and Dana 30 - approximately 1" longer than the equivalent with a '44.

With a set of stock 235/75R15s on stock rims, the tires are about flush with the body tub in the rear, a little out in the front - much like the 33x12.50s on 15x8s on my stock axle'd '77 Scout II looks. Put the 33s on, and it just gets wider.

I can steer easily. It rides nicely and smoothly. I scored a 950RTI on a 25 degree ramp.. my driver's tire was 40" off the ground.