53 Plymouth wagon front suspension

Hey guys, pretty new to the earlier stuff, looking at a 53/54 2-dr wagon, it has the flathead 6 in it, would want to swap in a LA motor, have any of you swapped out the front suspension so it had disc brakes and P/S?, a Volare clip or a Dakota perhaps?

I also have one of those, I am not sure what the frame width is but I do know the rear track is 60"

I have done the Dakota on a '56 2 door wagon, if you haven't seen it already it is at a rather disjointed post on this site at:

https://board.moparts.org/ubbthread...ut-for-dakota-sub-frame.html#Post2443761

Thanks, I'm going to go online to see if I can find front end tracking on both cars. I don't have the car anywhere near me and haven't decided for sure to purchase it, but had a 54 a while back and never got it on the road, sold it. The one I'm thinking about is bone stock and of course I would want to drop a V8 in it, maybe move the springs in on the rear for more tire.

I have a 51 Plymouth coupe with essentially the same suspension. I will tell you that with even the original flathead 6 in it wheel hop is something else in a corner. You might want to consider redesigning that rear suspension. the front suspension has some issues as well that can be addressed easier than a clip job though. Relocating the upper shock mount and a rack and pinion setup fixes most of it. Fatman's makes a rack kit. Discs are easily added. In the front, with proper backspacing I can get a set of P255/60R15's in there. Just s set of rollers I have on hand. Probably going with 17's for a better tire selection. In the back I can squeeze 295's easy, probably 315's if you get the backspacing right. No too sure about a 53 wagon though.

I've done several Dakota full frame and front frame clips in my time. The best Dakota frames to use are the 1988 to 1996, but is getting pretty hard to find those frames that are still in good enough condition to make the frame swap worth the effort. Make no mistake, doing a frame or even a front clip swap is a lot of work.

If your current front suspension is complete and in good condition, I suggest you keep it and upgrade to the disc brakes, relocating the upper shock mount, a Jeep sway bar, and adding a steering rack. It will be easier, and can be done over a single winter if you have the parts lined up. Spend your effort on upgrading the rear end and the rear suspension. You will need to install a more modern rear axle because the 53/54 E brake was attached to the back of the trans you will be replacing, and the rear end will need to have the E brake many states require.

When your installing the LA motor, you will probably find the truck oil pan works best. I don't believe its much harder to install a 5.7 Hemi these days then it is to install an LA small block. I do also hope you will consider an EFI installation as well on which ever motor you go with. Gene

My other wagon, I think that done up they can be so cool. I could not get registration for this one.

You can buy parts from fatman to work with the original stuff .. I did it on one of my cars, it worked ok ..


scroll to page 16 / 17

https://www.fatmanfab.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/2019-Fat-Man-Catalog.pdf

Thanks guys, I work at Calvert, so if I get this wagon, we will do a set of CalTracs and a mono springs for it, (a wider front hangar to do so of course), after looking at track widths, the Dakota and Volare are wider, so was thinking rack and pinion. I did not think about FatMan stuff, I will look into that.
I already have a 360, so plan to use that, thanks for the heads up on the oil pan, going with a carb, trying to keep cost down as I can, plus I have carbs and honestly don't know much about EFI.

Gotta love the Moparts community, thanks again.

I have a '55 Plymouth 2-door wagon for sale if you're interested. Already rewired for 12 volt with new headliner and seat covers

Here is an old How-To for the shock mounts. It makes a big difference!
Mopar Shock Mount

Mopar suspensions of the late 40s and early 50s were light years ahead of the Ford and Chevy stuff.


The design of the independent front suspension is pretty good with the exception of the upper shock mount location which has already been mentioned. A simple set of bolt on F1 shock mounts will solve the issue. From there a basically bolt on disc brake kit from RustyHope.com works great. I used this on my second 48 Plymouth coupe with just a standard stock rebuild of the rest. My first I paid a pretty good sum to have a Nova subframe installed and other than gaining the disc brakes and power steering it did not ride / drive any better than the stock setup.

Rebuilding the stock front you can easily do in a weekend and the disc brakes was about a days work.

Going with the 360 take a look at Butchs Cool Stuff he has very reasonably priced engine/transmission mounts for the small block Mopar into the early 50s Mopars. You can get around the steering box in a coupe different ways. One is to offset the engine about 1.5 inches to the passenger side. Butchs mounts come in either offset or standard. The other is to go with a rack and pinion as has already been mentioned. Fatmans makes a nice kit and also sells dropped spindles if you want to lower it.

Seems they make cast versions for those mounts and they might break, seen two or three. Forged ones, good to go though.

60s Dodge trucks also had bolt on upper shock mounts that would work great as well, but the reason everyone tells you to buy the Ford stuff is because its more easily available. Its not all that hard to make your own mounts, that's what I always did, but then again, I'm a welder by trade. Welders make stuff rather then buy stuff.

I think the wagon sold, it was in Lake Havasu, may be looking at a 37 Plymouth truck this week, stay tuned!, LOL