I got the front end put back together and placed underneath the car. I have all the Model A parts on the ‘32 axle. I’ve already run into a few problems.. the drag link rubs on the spring perch. I’ll need to heat and bend the steering arm on the DS spindle. I will also need to modify the tie rod. Either put a bend in it, heat and bend the balls on the spindles upside down, or do something else I haven’t thought of yet.. But I couldn’t wait and wanted to see the front end with the new axle under it. This is current ride height, in need of modification.. but it looks cool as is.. It also doesn’t have a windshield or frame in the photo because I broke it.. last post.. But I am finally tucking some tire under the front fenders, so that makes me happy.
My next area of concern is lowering the wishbone ball mount. I looked at it quickly, there’s a cotter pin beside the mount? I’m going to jack the car back up and look at it a little more. Has anyone here reading done this before? Earlier in the thread people mentioned doing this instead of splitting the bones. So hopefully this won’t be too much of a setback. The weathers getting nice!
It’ll change your caster some but a little more caster is probably better than less. the cotter pin is in the bellhousing and is basically part of a controlled oil leak to keep things lubed to the best of my memory.
From what I understand, the caster you gain in lowering the wishbone ball mount is better than losing the rigidity you would by splitting the wishbone? I think? I know what cotter pin your talking about, this is different.. I’ll take a photo next time I’m under the car.
Very good exploded view, but I believe that’s a later year then what I have? When you remove the wishbone ball out of the socket, you have the cap that covers the bottom of the ball in your hand. But how do I get the other half out? The top half that holds the ball? edit - I have the Les Andrew’s Model A book, I forgot I had bought a used copy a while ago and has been collecting dust. I’ll look at it tomorrow and figure out how to remove all that and hopefully space the mount down some.
I did searches for '1929 Ford front suspension'. A lot of them weren't right. Lots of links to HAMB pictures. That was the first one that was labelled 1929, so that's what I brought over. Part #3304 looked funny, but I don't own one, so there you go. EDIT and wide fives I didn't see the pin you described, but thought it might be useful. Glad it tickled a memory of your own research material. I'll mention again Paul Shin's youtube channel. It's stock stuff, but well covered without drama or fluff. This one at 20 minutes in shows installing the wishbone. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mtc2WGQGAQQ Strong's garage might help here www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsLW4A_n0Ss
Paul Shinn has some great material and has helped me plenty since I’ve owned this thing. Since I’ve had the manual all I’ve done is chop the top, tear the interior apart and took the front end out. Les Andrew’s doesn’t cover much of that.. Removing the wishbone is not the issue, it’s the other half of the ball mount and studs still in the car. But I’ll give it a read, go address the situation and hopefully report back with good news!
Stock, the Model A transmission retains the wishbone ball from the top side. On a 32 chassis, the wishbone ball is retained by the transmission mount/K member.
Likely, you'll want to do something like this to drop the wishbone ball a bit. (This picture reflects mounting a wishbone to a later 39 trans, but the basic premise is the same).
Ohh, build my own bracket and use two lower ball caps.. I like that idea. Seems relatively simple and effective!
I read the Les Andrew’s book a bit, he speaks about removing the wishbone and the radius ball assembly. But doesn’t touch base on removing the studs. As you can see, there’s a small cotter pin keeping something attached inside the bell housing. Does that something secure the studs? Maybe that’s Vol 2 of Les Andrew’s books.. but as you can see from these photos, the studs are bent. Likely should be replaced. However, maybe I can get away without new studs and securing the new radius ball mount to the bellhousing? I’m going to buy some 3/8” plate and see what I can make up.
There are slots in the head of the bolts that are extending out of the bottom of the bellhousing. By removing the cotter key, the shaft in which the cotter key is installed can be pushed out the opposite side of the bellhousing, allowing the bolts to move up. The photo below shows the bolts with the slotted head The are the bolts that are user to hold the radius rod ball plates.
It's possible to disconnect the wishbone ball from the bottom of the bellhousing and use a 2 x 4 between the wishbone and oil pan to hold the wishbone far enough away from the socket in the bellhousing to remove the retainer pin and the slotted bolts through the opening in the bottom of the bellhousing. The flywheel and ring gear don't leave much room inside the bellhousing to allow space for maneuvering the bolts up and our of their normal position. It would be necessary to fabricate or modify the existing bolts to make them long enough to incorporate a spacer above the wishbone ball. If you lose a bolt inside the bellhousing you will likely need to pull the rear axle in order to split the bellhousing and transmission from the flywheel housing to retrieve the bolt or bolts. Another alternative if you make a spacer would be getting the extra length needed by making "sleeve" nuts with internal threads that can be threaded onto the slotted bolts from below. Make the sleeve part long enough to get the extra length you need. The two nuts could be safety wired together in lieu of being able to use cotter pins. The bellhousing is designed to allow oil leakage from the rear main to migrate downward to lubricate the wishbone ball and socket, you should make the spacer to retain that feature.
Mitch - I have an early '28 and a '30 transmission in my garage. The first 3 photos show the '30 style that 4bangerbob mentioned and the last photo shows the early '28 style on my car. Not sure which hardware your '28 has but the photos show that you need to slide the "pin" out and push up the bolts and then bring down through the hole in the mount.
Thank you all very much, great information! @meteorpete, your photos helped me envision what @4bangerbob was explaining. Much easier to see what needs to happen now. @5280A2 the sleeve nuts is a great idea. I think I’ll make a little cardboard template for my mount to see how things line up. Then proceed with the longer sleeve nuts to attach it to those fancy Ford studs.
This I didn’t want to have too many things on the go at the same time with the car. It becomes overwhelming. But everything I need to do right now, with the wishbone mount, I need to cut and make some brackets to attach the brake actuating arm to the perch pins. Everything involves cutting and grinding and since I work shift work, these two weeks I’m on day shift the only time I can work in the garage is after the kids are in bed. So I needed to start a quieter side project. I had the two front seats all ripped apart, I decided to order some foam for them. I got 2” high density foam for the arse and 1” foam for the back rest. I was planning on sticking with the theme of the build and using the blankets I had overtop of the seats last year to upholster my reconditioned seats. After shopping around, I found a Canadian leather supplier with what I thought was very reasonable pricing. I called them and asked what type I needed for auto upholstery since I’ve never bought leather and don’t know anything about upholstery, they were very nice and helpful. Tandy Leather is the name of the place. I started with one hide of black leather. I plan to do the front seats and get as far as I can with the rears. Then maybe buy more and re do the door cards.
Tandy is a big name in DIY leather here in the US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandy_Leather_Factory You may find that the second hide may not match the first. Plan ahead in case this happens. The old measure twice, cut once is especially true when working with oddball shapes and materials. Read up on what's needed to sew it, too. Not just the machine but the thread.
Oh, well there we go they have over 100 locations. I'm sure some of you have purchased from them before then. They mentioned that the hides will vary. If I wanted to spend more money you can get hides that are much more alike and match better. But for this car, if the door cards are a little off from the seats I wont mind. I figure this is my practice car, one day I'll move on and hopefully use my knowledge I'm gaining here on another car.
I bought my leather at a place called Perfect Leather,at 555 King street in toronto,great selection and good to deal with.The hides should have a serial/lot number on it someplace,so you can order more the same.I needed more for my car,got lucky and they did have more in stock. harvey
Do you mind sharing which product they directed you to for auto upholstery? Looks like a good option for us Canadians. Edit: I see they have a location in Edmonton around the corner from where my wife sometimes trains our dogs. Might have to go check it out one of these days.
There's a Tandy store about an hour away from me, but I couldn't find time to make the trip. I would imagine they'd have product there to look at and touch before buying. The product I bought was called "Assorted Designer Whole Hide". The prices of this depending on colour, range from $135-$160cad for a hide. The better product they suggested, the one that would more easily be matched if you had to buy some in the future was called "Goucho Whole Hide". This also comes in whole hides and is $300cad. Since this is my first crack at upholstery I decided to try the cheaper stuff out. Still feels, looks and smells like leather.
another tip, save every little scrap you cut off. Put it in a sealed container and when the interior smell dies off, put some of the scraps in a bag under the seat. Keeps that new leather smell going.
I got out in the garage for a bit, I was looking at my radius ball mount and what I’ll need to space it down. My first try, I think I’m going to get some square tubing. A piece of 1”x 2” with a big hole in the middle so the top of the ball mount fits nicely inside. I’ll get two of those fancy radius ball mount bolts discussed above, and some sleeve bolts to connect everything.. maybe it’ll work?
On a side note, I got the old bent bolts out. In order to get my fingers in there to get the bolts out I had to remove a bunch of steel wool/old drain hair looking type stuff from the bell housing. Is it crucial that I put this stuff back in? Also, I was mocking up where the wishbone will sit and measured what size spacer I’ll need and noticed the bottom two bolts in the bell housing are missing..? I wonder why
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