Thanks!

Sport440 You are right I was basically only worried about not working the caps. I’ll stop worrying about it. And Andy thanks for chiming in!

I made some pretty big suspension compromises to get my 89 dakota chassis where I want it using only my welder and parts from around my garage. To get the frame dropped down from 9” of travel to 3 1/2” (plus the bump stop) plus switch to mancini xhd 6 leaf springs I had to move the front hanger up about 7” and back about 4”. The axle now moves 1.5” back through it’s full travel which is a lot. I decided I could live with it because I had these springs in my demon a long time ago and it was very stiff. This 1954 pickup on the dak rails should be 3000lbs (I hope) and trucks are light in the back anyway. So best case it rides a little hard, worst case it has more understeer than I want. Compromises. If I hate it once I get back on the road I can always do a 4 link and coilovers once my wallet recovers from the build. I will be careful to get the transmission yoke properly spaced so it won’t bind or lose spline engagement as the suspension works. My shackle angle is good so I should still get a little seperation on launch. My instant center is way high but I think it’ll be fine on the street.

I have a 400 block with a deep rear sump pan so I won’t be going very low like a dry sump tube car. I guess I’ll get the motor roughly in place for ground and hood clearance then start with the carb flange level and go from there. Sounds like aiming it at the pinion at ride height is a good bet and with 512 inches it’s also a good bet that my slapper bars will dictate the pinion angle under load. I could probably get by just using the short 20” front spring segment to fight wheel hop like a true mopar fanatic but I grew up seeing slapper bars and long shackles on muscle cars and can’t help myself!

Radar