Upgrading the suspension on my 66 Galaxie

So my Galaxie is a yacht. Which is great fun. On the other hand, some of the roads that I like to go cruise on are a little tight and windy and the 46 year old suspension needs some serious attention (brakes too but that isn't the point of this thread). I have heard people talk about using circle track parts to upgrade cheaply. However, I have no idea where to look for such parts or how to gauge what will actually work with the Galaxie. Another option that would require a little fab work is to do the 2003+ crown vic front subframe swap that is popular with the 2wd truck guys. My interior frame rails are the same width but I have kick outs for the spring pockets that I would have to remove and replace with flat metal. Not hard but worth mentioning. I would also have to figure out steering linkage and plum brakes/new MC for the disks. I would also gain R&P steering. Thoughts???

Maybe put the whole Crown Vic frame under the Galaxie...

I thought of that long ago. It have been done. Frame is too short. The town car is pretty close (about an inch) but I think the work for that would be more than it is worth. The Galaxie already has a coil sprung rear so just upgrading to a pan hard or something similar would be easier and probably more effective.

Refresher picture.

Jay Leno did one. Go to his website, and you might find one small component he used that you can afford...

Right... Good shocks, biggest sway bars you can find. Replace all the worn out suspension bushing in the track arm, control arms whatever. After 46 years they have to be wasted. If you get real serious, box the rear arms while you have them out.

I learned to drive in a 1966 Ford Custom 4dr. The Custom was the "taxicab" version of the Galaxie line. I remember that the car did roll a bit but once it took a "set" in the corners it was very stable. I remember hearing the tires squaling all through the on and off ramps I took when I "practiced" my road racing skills. LOL! The car had a 289 2bbl V8 W/Cruze-O-matic auto trans.

All fresh suspension bushings, new springs, performance shocks, and good tires will help alot. Of course a convertable, even one with a frame is going to be heavier and not as stiff a chassis as a sedan as I drove.

Hotchkis used to make sway bar sets for the big fords that were the diameter of small oak trees. New bushings / tie rods throughout and maybe stiffer springs/shocks and you should be in pretty good shape.

I seem to recall that most cars in NASCAR used 1965-1966 Galaxie front suspension for many years, up until the point where they went to full tube chassis - if that's the case the geometry must be pretty decent, and a rebuild of the stock parts along with a bigger sway bar and good shocks would probably help quite a bit.

The late model Crown Vic suspension swap looks real interesting, but the wheels are high offset so they won't match what you have on the rear.

The suspension design is similar to the early Mustang. I would check what they are doing with Mustangs and see if you can either use some of those parts or apply the ideas to your car.

Circle track parts won't list if they fit your car, you have to take the dimensions of the parts and see what will work or is close to your car.

Hotchkis still makes a front bar and holy E36 M3 it is a 1.75" tubular bar!

One thing I should mention is that I think that this car has been in a hedge. One front wheel is farther forward than the other. This makes me want to steal the crown Vic crossmember so I can correct this all at once.

I would replace all the rubber bits with these which may resolve the control arm alignment issue also.

http://www.energysuspensionparts.com/products.asp?cat=Ford+Galaxie+1966

Drop it a tasteful one inch, stiffer springs and shocks, maaybe change out the pitman arm for quicker steering?

Dan

resto-mod it... after all you want it

Do the Crown Vic swap... then do a cop car suspension upgrade. Once the front is right, rebuild the rear suspension: new bushings (I'd recommend high density rubber over urethane, but HD rubber may not be available), and update sway bar

Oh... and get a set of nice wheels and some fat rubber to take full advantage of all the suspension goodies

New bushings and P71 springs and shocks were a nice upgrade on my 72 Ranchero. Sway bars are next.

oldeskewltoy wrote: Oh... and get a set of nice wheels and some fat rubber to take full advantage of all the suspension goodies

That part I have covered. I am running 18x7.5 with 255 rubber out back and 225 up front. It could use better tires but these were CHEAP.

The more I think about it the more I like the Crown idea. It will have to wait until Winter but it would be the biggest bang for my buck and only marginally more difficult. Stock front drums is a really downer...

Well I am finally getting some work done on my land yacht. It is getting a standard suspension rebuilt with new rubber, shocks, coils, endlinks, and a big ass sway bar up front. This should really make it handle compared to the sloppy mess it is now.

Currently, I am in the middle of a 4 wheel disk brake upgrade. Once that is done, I will get into the bushings and such. Hope to be able to drive it to the Mitty.

And I just spent $650 on suspension stuff...

How stiff is the frame up front where suspension loads are being imparted? I think I've seen some crazy positive camber going on in pictures with these cars if they're asked to corner hard.

Sweet car.

In reply to pres589:

It looks pretty solid. I might weld in some tabs to firm it up if it looks flimsy in there.

In reply to The_Jed:

Thanks, it is a work in progress. The entire car needs some attention. It all is there and works but everything was somewhat neglected before I got it.

pres589 wrote: How stiff is the frame up front where suspension loads are being imparted? I think I've seen some crazy positive camber going on in pictures with these cars if they're asked to corner hard.

That's not flex, its 60's suspension design. Short spindles, wee little control arms, no caster so its easy to steer, set up for cross ply tires...

Build thread? I'm interested in a car like that sometime within the next year or so.