Drilled Radius Rods

I am planning on drilling a set of original front radius rods this weekend. Any ideas on hole diameter, spacing etc, would be a great help.
Being a visual type person, photos are always good.
I am leaning toward 1 1/4" at the front and going down to about 5/8"
or so in the back. About 7 holes, in 1/8" increments.
Thanks, don't often post but I do enjoy the tech articles.
Kevin

 

1/8 inch spacing ?? they will bend a break need to space further. I forget as was a while ago but think I did these 3-4 inches center to center

 

I used 7/8" because I had it. I wouldn't go too big.

 

I dunno,,still not a fan of drilling the tube types..they seem weak as it is

 

What kind of rods are those with the beam shape?

 

Old Ford Tractor ,,You need to use spacers and a longer Perch mount to use them .Speedway or someone makes the longer perch

 

Guess I didn't make that quite clear.
I was planning on using 1 1/4" for the first hole, 1 1/8" for the next hole, 1" next for a total of about 7 holes, so yes the will wind up about 3-4" apart.
Thanks

 

The ones I do are 9 holes,starting with 1 1/2" down to 5/8" but I weld in sleeves in mine with 1/8" wall , so the first hole is actually 1 3/4" and so on,my latest ones can be seen on the Poteet- Rollingbones 34'.

 

are you going to sleeve them with pipe?
i did like racemad did. -- i picked up some pipe - some new some old & drilled the same size hole for the first 5 or so & just used different thickness of pipe for smaller holes. --- ill look for a pic.

 

If you keep the hole center-to center dimension constant, the hole pattern shows more material between each hole as the holes get smaller. Its more complicated to lay out but I think that the pattern looks much better if you keep the dimension between the hole edges constant. My $.02

 

here's a pair I did last year for Ionia hot rod shop. I think the big hole is 1 1/4 I.D. and goes to 5/8 on the small end by 1/16th increments. I used hole saws to punch in the holes and then machined bushings with the I.D.'s bored out to the correct size to match the taper of the wishbone. Hope that helps! pics show the bushings setting in the wishbone, just weld them in and dress them, yer done!

Bushings

 

Coupemerc is right.... you need to layout so the material left in between stays the same. looks good that way.

 

Jersey Style,,that looks nice,,don't see that often

 

here is my pair they are not spaced evenly not perfect but I bought them off a guys wall in his garage like that a few years ago and was told they were drilled some time ago. I think they have some character

 

Heres mine. I drilled 7 1.25" holes and sleeved them with 1" ID 1 1.25" OD steel tubing. I like both ways: steeping the sizes down or staying the same. They're strong as hell, I'm not worried. Think I'm gonna chrome em.

 

forgive my ignorance. But can someone show me more pics of the ball set up on the ends. how does it attach to the frame? I think it really rocks

 

Damn, y'all make it sound like drilling a dozen holes, on each side, putting in little tubes, welding around each one, and then grinding it flush, all the while doing it nice enough for chrome, is a lot of work. Lazy fuckers.


P.S. Nice job.

 

SATANHERSELF - What year(s)/Models are those tractor rods from? I'd LOVE to score a set of those...

 

yes i agree this is how it looks best!
----- oh man ive some goobered up bones they look like someone took a drill & went as fast as they could. ISSSHHH id spear chuck em right into the iron pile! -- LAYOUT takes some time & its worth the time.

 

Thanks guys that is exactly what I was looking for.
I hadn't given it much thought about the layout, but I see how that would be much more appealing to the eye.

As far as the tractor radius rods, the forged "I" beams were used only on the early 9N tractors. There were introduced in 1939, the later 2N introduced in 1942, and the 8N introduced in 1948 had a tubular steel rod.
9N rods are a little hard to find but not impossible, and as mentioned the end that bolts to the axle is larger, my guess is about 2 1/2" or so. So you will need to make a spacer there, and secondly I don't believe that they would have any caster built ito them as the tractors axels are mounted pretty well vertical, and any caster is built into the ends of the axles where the spindle mounts.
The end that mounts to the side of the tractor, (yep they had split bones from the factory) has a large ball forged on the end, about 1 1/4" in diameter, and should be plenty of material there to drill and tap for a tie-rod end or a heim end.
Sorry to ramble but I spent several years restoring N tractors before I got on this site, hope that helps.
Thanks again,
Kevin

 

The Ionia chassis that used those bones has two ball retainers in the crossmember. I saw it a few weeks ago...don't remember how far apart they were though...maybe 8-10'?

Charlie