Haven't had a huge amount of time to work on the A lately but I have managed to do some here and there. After getting the spindles dialed in I moved to the brakes. I started with the rears. I set the backing plates on and then started assembly of all the misc parts I had picked up a little over a year ago. I ran into an issue pretty quickly with the E-brake cables. When I went to bolt them to the backing plate the OD of the bolt end was way to small. There would have been to much slop and I didn't like it at all. So I grabbed a couple different sizes of tube I had. Threw them on the lathe and made a stepped collar for the bolt end. This allowed for it to sit dead center on the backing plate, plus allow it to not walk side to side under tension. Gave them a little flat black primer and top coat. And bolted them in. I don't have any of the bracketry in place for the E-brake lever, but this will get me a finished brake drum setup I don't have to worry about getting into again. This is what the final setup looked like. I used self adjusters off a newer ford drum setup. I think if memory serves it was for around a 1970. I have part numbers if anyone is interested. After finishing both sides a part had came in that should have fit but didn't. I needed a block off the back of the master cylinder for a front line and a rear line. What came in was a block that wasn't for a 1/2" banjo but for a 3/8". So I decided not to spend another 40 bucks on what would be the correct part, and just make my own. I went to the bolt bin and found the correct length bolt and went about making a banjo bolt. First step was to slightly drill out the brass block. It was oversized from the get go for the banjo bolt that came with it. This set was from a 1940 Ford car. Which obviously is not the correct one. I belive one has to go up to around a 1950 to get the correct one. I don't have it so I can only speculate. I'll spare ya the lathe photos. But the first step was to drill a hole down the center, then turn the relief just behind the head of the bolt, then drill a hole through that relief for the fluid. I also wanted it to have a 1/8" pipe thread out back for my pressure switch. So I carefully drilled that to depth and tapped it. I'm pretty stoked with how it turned out. Fits good and should function well. The sensor is barely threaded in for this shot. After that detour I went back to the front end for the brakes. Put the backing plates on with some temporary bolts to check things out and right away noticed that the brake slave cylinder did not fit at all. I called a friend and asked about this and it's normal to have to relieve them. I wanted to make sure before I went about grinding on some good spindles. During this whole process I blasted all the brake parts to be re-used and sprayed them with flat black primer and paint. Just to stay ahead of the assembly process. After some careful time with the die grinder and a hand file I got them to the point where they fit. Then I had to source out a brake hose to make sure it would thread on. Did a little more filing and then a top coat of clear where it had been ground to prevent rust. Next move was to assemble the front brakes. After sourcing out the proper bolts to bolt the backing plate and grease cover on, I got it all assembled and ready to go. The fronts used the same hardware as the rear for self adjusters. I found this out after the adjusting cable was about 3/4" to short for "front" ones. Rears worked just fine. Only thing left to do for the brakes is to machine the center pilot holes out on my Bronco drums. Now I want to say I'm not a fan of this since I'd rather have bolt on parts that can be purchased. For this though I want to use them for now. If I do find another set of good 53-56 F100 hubs I will pick them up. This would allow for a stock drum. The Speedway hubs don't allow for this. Got the drum brake grease and packed the bearings. Packed the inside of the hubs as well and drove the new seals in the back side. Lubed it up with a little grease and bolted them up. Tossed the dust cap on and it's ready to roll. Just need to get a bigger lathe, or find someone with one I can use. Or possibly just drop them by a shop real quick. That's it for now. Time to work on the brake hard lines. Get some brake hoses and tabs to mount them. I want to get the brakes wrapped up first. Then I'll move to the steering clearance issue I've needed to work on.
Great build . . . really like what you've been up too! I saw how you heated and bent those steering arms - are you absolutely sure those were forged arms? I've never seen anybody create forged arms with those profiles. Not trying to be a pain in the rear, but if those are cast (which is what I believe), then bending them is bad juju! The last thing you need is a steering arm failure.
Thanks for the positive feedback! I had checked multiple times on them being forged. Here is a direct quote from Speedways site under the question section. "The dropped arms number 7022756 and 7022754 are a forged arm and we have them in stainless." I believe the only forged arms in this profile are in stainless, I dont belive the chrome or raw ones are, however I didnt check because I wanted stainless. Started the brake line setup today. Hoping that continues to go well. I have a fair amount of car maintenance to do on my daily drivers so this might be on hold for a little bit.
Sounds good - just be careful! I'm not sure I'd trust the tech-support line at Speedway, but one never knows. Given the profile of those arms, is kind of hard to imagine them being forged - I hope they are as I might have to pickup some! LOL Best of luck with your build! If you need anything related to the engine, let me know - have been down the high-end flathead build world a few times. LOL
Been very busy with other projects these days but did get some good time in on the car this last weekend. Some of it isn't very glorious work so I didn't bother to take note or pictures of it. I'll continue with the brakes. I picked up some brake tube, fittings and clamps online. The tube is 3/16" Copper-Nickel Alloy. It worked really good for this and was easy to shape. I spent the better part of a day figuring how I wanted to rout the lines. I wanted to make them removable without a bunch of unions and connections. This way I can blow it back apart for paint later. After ordering the 25' roll of 3/16" brake tube I was left with this amount. It's amazing how much line you use on these little cars. Not going to bore you with to many brake line pics, but here's the main area around the master cylinder. Got 2 lines running to the front, one out back, pretty basic. Next step was the E-brake setup. I had a bunch of universal parts for an E-brake setup. First step was to set the body back down and get the location set for where the handle would live. After that the body came back off. I located one bolt hole and drilled that out for a temporary mounting point. Turned out it was right on the money for location. So next I grabbed some solid round stock and cut it to length. Drilled and tapped out the one end. Bolted it to the E-brake and then burned it in. After that was to make another spacer to weld in on the other mounting hole. I had used a large nut as a spacer for locating prior. Welded that one in and then bolted up the handle. I located where the lines sit behind the brake handle, temporarily clamped it in llace for the location of the lines. I drilled, tapped and mounted the lines to the rear arms with some 1/4-20 bolts and insulated clamps. After that I figured out the length of the lines. Pulled the cable out of the sheething to cut them to length. Had a brief heart attack when I forgot to remove the cable on the second side. Good thing my memory kicked in right as I started in with the cut off wheel! Small crisis averted one could say. After that I located the block where the 2 lines connect to the E-brake. Drilled some 1/4-20 holes and bolted that in place. Then I marked the cables and cut those to length as well. The big trick was tig welding the ends of the braided cable line to keep it from unwinding. After that little bit of fun I tightened the allen screws and pulled the handle. Aside from needing adjustment, it works as planned. Next step in this process will be cutting a hole in the trans tunnel cover. So far so good, super happy to be back out in the shop working in it!
Well guys and gals, it's been some time. Summers are a blur for me and are usually reserved for trips and exterior chores and to-do lists. Now that the crummy weather has returned and the shop is mostly cleaned up from the summer chaos, I have got back to it. Some more highs and lows have been had over the here and there work I've managed to get done on the A. I'll get to it here with some pictures. As mentioned, tunnel work. I got the e-brake handle hole cut into the floor tunnel. Still need to fit a boot to it, but that can come later. I re-did the brake line at the master. I wasn't thrilled with it. Next was the front drums. They needed turned down in 2 spots. One was the center to fit over the Speedway hub. Got that done, bolted one on and it was dragging a little on the inner lip/backing plate. So back to the shop to turn 1/8" off that. Those fit like a glove now. Next small step I've actually got pictures for would be the fuel supply setup. I'm going to gravity feed the fuel to the pump, then through the regulator and up the firewall to a fuel block. Made a bracket for the pump and then isolated the pump with a small piece of rubber to keep the sound and vibration off the frame. Also made a bracket for the regulator, I decided to mount the fuel pressure gage here instead of up top. I didn't want to look at it, and once it's set it won't need much attention except for a few looks once in a while to make sure it's still in range. After that I made a couple brackets for the tail lights. Of course they can be bought for cheap, but I prefer to build. I like how they turned out and where they mount but I have no pictures of that. So onto the next stuff. Rear axle, I have a very special love hate relationship now with this thing. I'll go into that later. For now it was the yolk that needed sealed up. For some reason all the parts that should have been with this setup didn't show up in the boxes. I was missing one of the most important parts to seal the housing to the yolk. A great guy gave me an old torque tube and said cut this down and find a seal for it. It should work good, and good it did! I went about measuring and figuring out how much to cut, and what size seal I needed. Managed to find a random seal online (part number is in my file if you need it) then cut the end off the torque tube. Chucked the end up in the lathe to true it up on both ends. Then turned the inside bore for the seal. After that I fit everything up. So far so good, seems to fit nice, seal surface looks good. Once I get some miles on it, then I'll know. The plus on the seal is that it's a double seal, it has an inner and an outter seal. That should help keep contamination out of the seal and keep the oil in. More coming up, for some reason this new phone is not uploading all my pictures.
While the engine was still at the shop getting finalized I went ahead and made some air cleaners. These were originally small engine oil bath filters I found at a tractor show for 5 bucks each. I figured I could do some work to them to make them look proper. It was kinda fun to make them. Knowing ya have something nobody else has is a good feeling. I picked up to small re-usable filter elements, grabbed a spare carb and went to work. First was to make the steel risers for the carbs since I wanted a stair stepped look. Cut some tube, then turned down one side to slip over the carb. The other end needed to fit the inside bore of the filters. That also created a step to sit the base of the filter housing on. The step allows the base to sit flat. Those will get tac welded in place with the tig. Then the filter sits in nicely. This will also index things into place. Turning down the bases were a bit tough since they were so thin. Had one hop off the lathe, couldn't grab them to tight or they would deform. It didn't damage it so I got lucky. Took a cut off tool to the height, then finished it off on the belt sander. Next was the inside diameter. Once I get these on the final intake, I will fine tune them. I also need to drill and tap base holes to clamp them to the carb housing. As well as the center bolt mounting setup. So far so good on those. Onto the next stuff.
Onto my love hate relationship lol. It's just been fun one could say, dealing with this rear axle stuff. Lets just start with the ring and pinion were supposed to be good parts when I bought them. Funnily thing is that these parts came with the housing, even the pinion still installed. I had no reason to believe that the ring gear would be bad. After all, it's a used part. Absolutely no guarantee it's good, but dang it anyway. After cleaning everything in the solvent tank, I seen 3 hairline cracks in the ring gear teeth. There are also short fractures on many more. So time for a new ring and pinion. Sourced a new set out. But then of course as some know, the machine work to make them fit into the 201 QC. Get that all sorted out and then moved to the center section. Once again, left unmotivated at the finding of a screwed up cross shaft pin. Everything worked fine lubed up, but after a good cleaning one spider was binding up bad. Put it in the press and she didn't budge. So I sourced out another center section for it. Oh, yeah and again back to the shop for machine work on the inner for the Ford Ranger spider gear. Polished all the parts that touched each other, cleaned it good and put a light oil on it for assembly. Removing the old bearings that were in great shape from the bad ring gear. This is a great tool, it has always saved my bearings. Turning the pinion some here and at a friend's shop. My lathe was no match for the hardened shaft, this was just to clean up the inside radius for the shim to fit. The pinion needed the snout, the end of the spline area and the main center section all turned to a different size. When we machined the pinion, we did a snug fit, not a press fit. This will save deflection in the bearing making it last longer. In turn ya need to use a proper product to hold the bearing in place. So I picked up some bearing retainer. Quick shot here of the polished spiders. I really want to make this rear axle last, so a little extra along the process can't hurt I guess. Got the pinion back together and ready for install. New bearings, new nuts and locking washer. After this it went into the freezer for about 16 hours to prep for assembly. Assembly ofnthe center carrier was done, went easy. Safety wire and red lock titebond for the ring gear bolts. One little note for those who are machining these. Relive the oil holes on both the carrier and the ring gear when prepping for the spider gears. If you don't, it will not oil properly. The original oil holes are almost completely machined away. A 1/4" end mill will make it simple to relieve. De-bur, polish and install! Here is the cracks in the ring gear I was talking about. The tooth directly above it has the same thing and 2 above that. Others have inside cracks at the base of the gear in the center. Something was floating around in there at one point. Made myself a quick stand out of angle iron, much easier to work on now. Wife approved......maybe. heated the housing up slowly to 230 degrees for 30 minutes. Ran the housing out to the stand, then tossed the frozen pinion in. It went in a ways but had to tap it in with the dead blow the rest of the way. Easy though, not bad at all. Currently have it on the stand. Setting up the backlash and preload, as well as the gear pattern. I've had it off and on at least a dozen times. Each time I install all the bolts and gaskets, then torque it down to 6 foot lbs. If you don't run them all down even you will get a gear bind. So I'll keep at it. But in the mean time. I got the engine back from the shop!!
And the moment I've been waiting for for 2 years!! The engine shop called me to come down and watch a couple pulls on the Dyno before they took it off. With the build we got 267 foot lbs. of torque and 203 horse. Quite healthy for a NA flathead! I'm happy, my target for the build was 200 horse. I can post some numbers or the dyno sheet if you'd like. Stoked to get this in the car which will be after the axle if finalized.
A little here of the setup on the Halibrand 201 Quick Change. After getting the ring gear and carrier setup and the pinion bits installed it then came time for the setup. I'm going to state one thing here for new people. I've done rear axles and fronts in the past, never a QC rear or Banjo rear for that matter. It's not terrible, it's not very difficult for me, but I will say it will test your patience. I would say over got a solid day into this thing, and probably 50 or so tries at it. Working with shims on the bells is very tedious work, but if you stick with it, you will be good. First step was the rough setup. I put the ring/carrier into the housing and bolted the top bell into place with zero gaskets. This gave me a zero base, that way I could make sure the bearings had no preload on them. After that I started stacking gaskets, various sizes, bolting and unbolting for hours. I would check bearing preload by feel as well as backlash by feel. Once I got it to where I thought I was close I started splitting hairs IE smaller movements in the gasket size and location. Once I got it close I put some guages on it. First was the dial Indicator for backlash. My gears spec .007 to .009 backlash. For the life of me I couldn't get it under 10 and keep bearing preload correct, but again patience is key. I started moving gaskets to net changes of .001 thou. This got me into the sweet spot of just under .009 and I stopped there since preload felt good. Time to check things! Dial Indicator off the pinion shaft. Set the dial indicator at 0 Then rocked the pinion back and forth. Make sure your squared up as best ya can to the pinion spline face with the guage. Since this was good and within spec, I moved to the rotational load or preload number. By feel I got it to 12 but the specifications on my gear set said that for my set with used bearings needed to be 15 and 25 with new bearings. I was spot on 15 and sometimes it would hit 16 while rotating it so right on. After that I put some silicone on the inside ring area of the bells, and bolted it all together. Set it up to 6ft lbs. Then 20ft lbs. Then a final torque of 30ft lbs. Checked everything again and I was at a steady 16 on preload, and .009 on the backlash. After all said and done, I went to install the quick change gears and rear cover. Well one very simple overlooked item threw me off track yet again on this project. After staring at it a few minutes I decided on a fix. In this photo of the original pinion you see the groove for the snap ring that was put in. We didn't do that. So time to make a collar spacer ring to stop the gear in the correct spot. Took a chuck of solid stock, drilled a hole, bored it out on the lathe and put a snug slip fit on it to fit over the splines and threads. I had to take it off and on quite a few times since there was a chamfer on the new pinion that wasn't on the old. Made it a bit difficult to machine at one time. Checked it with a straight edge against the housing. Made sure it's not to tight for forward and aft thrust. Put some bearing retainer on it and slid it onto the shaft. Gears sit proper now from what I can tell. This should be ready to cover and move to the front yolk. Next item on the list is the front yolk seal, I found that a few of the bolt holes are stripped so I picked up a 3/8-16 helicoil set to fix those. After that I'll move forward to he engine.
Got the holes drilled and the Helicoils done. After that I needed to make a collar to keep the lower shaft from moving in and out. Originally it had a snap ring. I didn't trust it even though it was probably fine. I wanted something more positive to stop the travel, so I made a collar to fit over the shaft. Easy enough on the lathe. Bolted the seal housing on, then slid the yolk on. The yolk has a pin and 2 set screws to lock it on the splines. It's nice and snug up against the collar, barely had to lightly tap the pin in, blue locktite on the set screws. Well, one would think I could have just bolted the yolk on, but if you've followed this project you will understand what happened next lol. Went to install the driveline and no go. Had me worried that I didn't get the ujoint size correct. I did, and so the saga continues. Someone had to of hit the end of this yolk over and over with a hammer or used it as one. The end was deformed enough that the cap wouldn't seat. Broke out the dremel to sand it down on each 4 corners. Time for the engine to go in, but first had to figure out how to hold it. Ended up building a halo hoist kinda deal. Worked awesome. Set it into the frame via the original 32 mounts. However that whole setup had to go due to clearance issues. Cut out all the stuff I did earlier, than made some new mounts using the original water pump mount. After that I burned the mounts on I got the driveline in, now it fits good! Next was the rear axle vent. I decided that I didn't want to see from the rear od the car, those things bother me for some reason. So the vent had been drilled in horizontal, with a loop up for a vent. I slipped in a short piece of 5/16" hard brake line bent to turn down. That way it held the shape of the turn down and gave me a harder surface to clamp to. Then drilled a hole, tapped it and installed a clamp. Vent done! Next I'll move to the Anti Chatter rods. Brake master cylinder rod and setup. Clutch arm, clutch rod and return spring.
The original locations for the anti chatter rods are to high and will be right at floor board height. So I had to find another way. I was going to build a bracket odd the bellhousing bolts, but I felt like that was more work than utilizing one other set of holes I had. On the adapter for the T5 there are 2 tapped holes about 1.25" deep. Im going to try and make these work. I'm not sure if it will hold up being aluminum, but I think I'll be okay. Worse case I can build the brackets off the bellhousing bolts as originally planned. This current location lined up so well I had to try it. First set was to grab some tube, bolts and rod ends. I cut the heads off 2 bolts and chucked them up in the lathe to turn them down to fit inside the tube. They weren't quite a press fit but I did have to tap them in with a hammer. Next I burned them on with the tig, and moved to the back side of the rod. Got the length determined and cut them on the band saw. Did the same thing with bolts out back, but I also welded a nut on. This way I could use a wrench to tighten up the tube to the bellhousing. I didn't want to use pliers or pipe wrench to mark them up. Then I located the holes for the rod ends to bolt up to the chassis crossmember. The rod ends will allow for engine and chassis flex. If I end up needing more flex than what I have I can run a small misalignment spacer. I used a jamb nut on one side, the other didn't allow. Also used a tiny amount of anti seize on the threads on the bellhousing. They fit nicely in this area. I'm happy with how they turned out. Hope they are happy in this spot. Wow, what a difference in forward travel when pushing the clutch! These are definitely needed, I don't care what some may say. Brake and clutch bits next.
I decides to spare the details on building a clutch arm, clutch rod, and brake rod. Here's just one picture of the clutch rod. Took a copy of a 35-38 rod I had used for mockup. I had completely overlooked that I had it on backwards during mockup. So I had to make a new arm or drill the old. Didn't want to drill a good stock part so I built an arm. Here's a quick shot of the clutch arm, pivot setup and return spring. Next I dropped the body on to check other items. One was the breather that I was certain after looking at it, wouldn't fit. My assumption was correct. I will make my own setup out of steel tube to kick it over. Got the steering column installed. I want a horn since I wanted this thing to have some of those small items. However I didn't have a way to make it work with the aftermarket kit I got. So I got creative one could say. I made a contact out of a bulb socket. Way, way to much time was spent on this lol. However it works! This is the socket mounted in existing holes on the column. As you can see the button is moved from the lower slide holes you see on the side of the socket to the top. The pin was removed and then washers placed under it. Then I re-installed it all. The washers keep the pin above the metal socket housing. This is the contact ring for the horn. That pin rides on the outter ring, but inside the soldered wire location. A healthy amount of die electric grease was applied. That's about where I'm at currently. I'm working on the fuel sediment bowl now. I picked one up at a tractor show this summer for 10 bucks. It needs some modifications to flow more fuel than originally designed for. Time to break out the drill and taps.
Im jealous. If i could suggest a single thing. Get whatever you’re going to use as a VIN and get it registered with the state ASAP. You don’t want to be between a rock and a hard place explaining title things to your State DMV. My registering took 5 months. So don’t put it off until…it’s more convenient. Have fun. And best of luck!!
Nunattax, I've already decided on a more custom period correct look as if it were done buy a guy in a shop at home. That's what my goal is with this project. Trying not to use much new erra stuff. Jerry, not sure if ya read all the posts, but I found out that info a while back. The car has been titled in my name for this chassis before I sold the old model A frame.
Got a small amount of time this weekend to work on the car. Had to do an engine swap in my mom's Subaru, then engine mounts and trans mount in my nephews Lexus. Neither was fun lol, but went well. So I focused on a small task, the sediment bowl. I'm using this for a secondary fuel filter, so it will be functional. Decided against the MOON fuel block because it was to large and ugly on the firewall. I wanted something more simple. So I decided on a single fuel line to feed the 3 carbs. The sediment bowl was picked up at a local tractor show I go to each year with a friend and his old Fordson tractor. This one was not meant to flow enough for 3 carbs, so I had to make room for more fuel flow. I drilled and tapped the IN and OUT ports to make way for 1/4" NPT threads and fittings. Now it flows better, so next was the mount. I grabbed a small piece of scrap I had laying around and went to town. As you can see in the photo, I but 2 little pieces of tube to sit between the fittings and sediment trap body. This was where it got a little more tricky. I wanted the fittings to be tight at the threads, as well as tight against the tube pieces to hold it in place. A little figuring and I had it made. After bending it up it was time to weld the tube pieces on. For some reason I had some bad porosity in the weld process welding the tube to the flat steel, had to grind and re-weld. Odd since that was all clean steel, even prepped before welding as normal. I got it all sanded up and then drilled 2 holes for some 10×24 machine screws. Behind the bracket are 2 nutserts with a small cork gasket to keep it snug against the firewall but not super rigid. Next I installed the fittings at the carbs. Got the micrometer out, yes I said micrometer to measure the fuel lines. This way they were right on the money. Everything fits really well. I'll put clamps on it if they need, but these things are very tight fit with the red fuel line. It's not near as pliable as I was hoping for. Next items on the list are, oil filter, gas pedal, throttle linkage, weld up and finish the air cleaners, fuel line from tank to pump and some misc bits. Then I'll move to the grill shell, radiator, shock mounts, marker lights and headlight mounts. Lots of stuff left.
howd the draglink work out with the 5" drop axle? Ive known some folks that ran into issues with the draglink and tierod hitting against the wishbones when the suspension cycles
Great build...nice fab work...and fantastic job documenting your project! I thought anti-chatter rods were not necessary when running an open driveline?
I have no issues with the drop axle and steering. I had to modify the steering arms for proper geometry but that is it. I put no drop into the steering arms either, but they were designed with some already. Steering does come in contact with the wishbones at the very front cast part, but that is at full lock. I still have to put steering locks on to keep that from hitting though. Thanks for the generous comments! I'm trying to describe in as much detail as possible. I just hope this build thread helps someone at some point in their journey. I too thought the anti-chatter rods didn't need to be used. I have a friend who I asked about it and he said that I most definitely need them. I did a test with and without them and was quite amazed at what I had found. With this push pull linkage, you really should run it. when you depress the clutch, it physically moves the engine forward quite a bit. When you let out the issue will be the engine will want to rock back and forth. This will create the "chatter" in the clutch as it does so until your fully let out. It's not the easiest to explain, but in short, yes you need them. I think with a different clutch linkage setup like hydraulic you wouldn't need them. Not sure how a bell crank setup would work, but if it's mounted to the trans and frame, I would think it wouldn't need with that setup either. One also has to ask themselves; Henry was a cheap/frugal man when it came to his cars of this day. He wouldn't have put them on if they weren't needed, but I see it as a healthy thing to question.
The Jalopy Journal
