1955 Chevy Truck Classic Performance Products Dropped Axle Kit - Old-Time Lowdown-Done Right!

CPP can provide all these parts as a kit or individual pieces depending on your lowering needs. Here is their 3-inch dropped axle, 3-inch dropped monoleaves, new shackles (including bushings), bumpstops, kingpin kit, shock mounts, shocks, and last but not least, a beefy tie-rod bar and tie-rod ends.

With the rear of one of the monoleaves in place, install the special rear shackle bolt from the outside in. A bit of grease on new parts will help things slide into place.

Install these threaded pins in the front eyes of the monoleaf.

Depending on the state of repair-or disrepair-of your truck, you might have a tough time replacing the front shackle bushings that go through the frame. The dimples on the outside of the new pins help keep the bushing from spinning once driven into place.

After drilling a hole in the center of the frame where the OE axle bumpstop would contact, this new shorty bumpstop from CPP can be installed. In a situation like this where every inch counts, these short stops do just the trick.

The CPP dropped axle can now be held in place and cinched down using the new U-bolts. Make sure to install the lower shock mounts on the front side of the axle.

Now comes rebuilding the spindles. The old kingpin bushings need to be carefully driven out and the new ones installed. If you don't have the tools or would rather not mess with this, most automotive machine shops should be able to handle it.

Now that the spindles are as good as new, place them on the dropped axle and hold it by inserting a greased kingpin. Next, the lower bearing can be greased and installed between the bottom of the axle and the spindle.

After handling the previous step, check the gap between the axle and spindle by trying to slide in one or more of the provided shims. If you need shims, pull out the kingpin and install them before replacing the kingpin. Any remaining play in this area will lead to oblong kingpin bores in the axle, which is bad.

Once everything is up to snuff, drive in the tapered cross-pin. This keeps the kingpin in place. Don't forget to install and grease the new grease zerks.

Shock mounts take lots of abuse over the years, and the stock upper mounts on this truck were nonexistent. Luckily, CPP has new ones to fill the void. After this, the new shocks can be installed.

Like many old trucks, these have an integrated ball on the lower steering arms for old-style, screw-in tie-rod ends like the one on top. Unfortunately, the stock tie-rod bars are also kind of wimpy by today's standards and have been subject to reinforcements like the one on this '55. CPP realized this long ago and makes these beefy tie-rod bars that taper from the original thread size to 1 inch in diameter, and use either a stock or modern tapered tie-rod end like the one shown, which we'll be installing.