Kaiser Frazer Owners Club Forum
General Category => Henry J & Allstate Forum => Topic started by: porsche1914 on May 18, 2010, 09:51:20 AM
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I have a couple of questions that I'm sure will seem sac-religious to purists, but I'm going to ask anyway.
Does anyone know of a feasible way to drop the front end, of my '51 J, 2 inches without replacing the whole front end?
I am also looking to put wider tires on it but would like to keep the original hubcaps.
I had before asked if anyone had experience with blue dot tail lights.
I know they are illegal almost everywhere, but I live in a small town in Indiana and I don't leave town in my J very often.
Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Don Holt
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A general comment...
More and more states, cities, etc, are moving to a "letter of the law" position in an effort to raise revenues. For example, now in Cleveland, you can get a ticket for going 1 mph over the speed limit. If you do, the fine is $195.00 (including court costs). Lots of things that small town law enforcement may have looked the other way at for years are no longer being ignored.
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porsche1914: You got hubcaps (small as used on very plain 4 cylinder HJs) instead of wheelcovers (cover the whole rim)? Stock HJ rims are 4.5 inches wide, and the modern radial replacement tire is about P165X15. You could get a set of big Kaiser rims which are wider, BUT I will tell you this, it will not help you any because clearances are already close between the rear wheels and rear fenders. However, the dangerous part is if you use bigger tires and you turn left, the tires will touch the clutch linkage.
As to lowering the front end, a lot of HJs are already lower in the front end than they should be because the bottom turn of the coil spring tends to break. The "Mexican" way of lowering a car with coil springs is to heat a place in the coil with a torch until it bends.
I personally don't believe in blue dot tail lights. But if you really must insist on them, I would suggest removing the glass tail light lens (the locking rim will cut your thumb) and gluing a Peterson plastic utility light lens over the HJ housing with the blue dot element.
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Edgar Kaiser's Henry J has wide tires on it. I don't know what size they are. I'll check when I bring it home next week. They are wide and they do not rub, nor do they rub the clutch linkage when I turn. HJ is correct though, I had some old steel belted tires on my '53 J years ago and every time I'd back out of the driveway and turn, the tire rubbed on the clutch linkage and the pedal would not come back till I turned the wheels a bit. This does not happen on Edgar's J which is interesting. Look how wide the tires are
(https://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a6cf09b3127cceedec220696bb00000030O01SatmLdmyB7efAA/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00203070160520161128231519130.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/)
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Fid, do you have an update on the tires/ rims? Henry.
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The cars is in storage for the winter so I won't be seeing it for a couple of months. I did take some pictures of the tires a couple of years ago. See the attached; it says "Goodyear Custom Power Cushion" on it and also "7.75 - 14" on the one side. If you download the attachment you can zoom in and read it. This is interesting as the J originally has 15" rims. If the "7.75 - 14" is the tire size, then these Keystone wheels are 14" and that may explain why the tires fit and don't rub. They've been on the car since at least 1964 as there is a picture which was taken by Russ Spaulding and it has these wheels and tires on it. The license plate is 1964 in that photo. Anyway, see attached and see if it helps.
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Thanks Fid, here is a link to a tire chart. My buddy gave me two Mustang 14" rims that fit good so I might look for two more or go to full size Ford 15". What were the original size on the HJ's? Henry.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/45_conversionchart.html
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Concerning the tires and wheels, ' 51 J's came with 670-15's. I have a '51 J that is mostly stock, but lowered 2" front 3" rear. The Ford wheels that work best are 1991-2002 Crown Victoria. They are 15" by7" wide 0 offset. I had to take a de-blurring tool and open up the center hole a few thousandths and I drilled a hole for the mounting pin, rather than cutting it off. I have 215-60-15's on it and they fit fine and do not rub. They are a little tight on the rear taking them off and on.
I drive my J 3 to 4 times a week, weather permitting, the longest trip was to a Seaway meet 2 years ago where I won the distance award, last fall I had it at the Newport Hillclimb but did not run the hill.
The tires and wheels have been fine, they also hold the big J hubcaps fine.
Hope this helps.
Don Holt # 1913
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The shop manual lists the tires for a J as 5.90 - 15 and it notes that some early '51 cars had 6.40 - 15s. I think I heard/read somewhere that this was because Willys was getting all of the 5.90s for Jeeps for the Korean conflict (which I think actually started later) so KF could not get them and had to use 6.40s. Perhaps they used 6.70s as well. That J my dad had had 6.00s (clearly not original as tires do wear out and need to be replaced) on it and they seemed to be fine.
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I'm sure you are right Lowell, mine had 670 snow tires on it when I got, so of course I needed to change them.
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Hi,
5.90 x 15 was the basic size for the HJ blackwall. 6.40 x 15 was an optional whitewall tire size at the factory. A 1951 Confidential Bulletin on tires (as noted in the 1951 HJ section, KFOCI HANDBOOK VERSION 4.0) indicated that due to tire shortages (rubber diverted to military type tires) the space was discontinued for a time, and while it was stated A LIMITED NUMBER of 6.40 x 15 whitewalls were available until supply was exhausted, as far as I know right now, no follow-up item indicating the supply was exhausted went out to dealers.
6.70 x 15 was never used on a Henry J, although I have seen a couple of typo listings that indicated the factory used the size on the 6 cylinder models.
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Thanks Jack - that must be where I read that regarding the 5.90s. One thing that's noteworthy regarding the 6.40s - if your J has a stationary rear seat with package shelf, a 6.40 will not fit in the tire well in the trunk as it is too tall. I have 6.40s on my '53 J as you can get them with a wider whitewall than the 5.90. Unfortunately, I had to get a 5.90 for the spare as a 6.40 will not fit due to the car having a package shelf behind the rear seat (and the 5.90 barely fits). This cost me a deduction at Auburn for having a different sized tire. I'm not that concerned about that, fair deduction, and I have no plans to change it but if anyone else is looking at tires with the intention of doing a gold award restore, be aware of this.
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can we consider this another case of an error in judging 'cause of lack of written details??
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My 51 came with 2@ 685-15's and 2@ 550/ 590-15's, With the different size tire are there choices of spedo gears to compensate for the different trany output speeds? Henry
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The tire circumference is a factor in the output speed.