I installed my new front reversed eye spring today and attached my front axle with split wish bones. When I lined everything up the plate to attach the bones to the frame hangs to low. If I force it up to where it should be it puts a pretty good twist on the spring. The plate is 5 inches long and it looks like I need another 5 1/2 inches. Am I doing something wrong or do I need to see if I can find a longer mounting plate?
You gotta pie cut the bones.otherwise your caster is way off. You can turn the bones over and then you dont have to pie cut as much. Then you can add a gusset on the bottom side of the bone.
Biggest problem is that you have no weight on the front end to drop the frame down to where it will end up. Until you do that you are just guessing. Don
I was wondering about that too Don with there being no weight on the front end yet. I guess I'll have to wait until I get the motor in then try and tweak it. Thanks!
I've been looking at your pictures. That spring really has a serious arch to it, that also will jack up the front end. Whose spring is that ? Here is my similar model a frame (except I have a dropped axle, but that won't affect the frame to axle relationship). You can see how far it drops down with the motor in it. What I do to find the ride height when the motor isn't in the car is I remove all the leaves except the main leaf and put the weight of the frame on the wheels. That pretty closely simulated what you will end up with when the motor is in there. But I still question the arch of that spring. BTW, your A looks really good and clean. Don Here is mine for reference.
It is kind of strange that it has such a deep arch but had reversed eyes kind of like one is canceling the other.
It looks like a Speedway medium arch for the rear? I had the same problem (but no where near that bad) I put the motor and transmission in first before I welded, I wanted to make sure that angles where good.
I think that is really the crux of the problem, that spring is just way too arched. I would replace it with a proper model a front spring (hot rod type, not original, like a Posies) and I bet the frame comes down a few inches right off the bat. I'd still like to know whose spring that is, it looks Speedway-ish to me. Don
You need to take the main leaf out and de-arc it a bit in a shop press. Even with engine weight, it won't drop to where it should be. I usually set my side tabs after the engine is in the ch***is. When everything is said and done you should get another 4-5 inch drop with the de arc and engine weight
I don't think De arcing will work. The spring will end up to wide. From the pictures it looks like the wrong spring.
About 2-1/2 " between top of axle and bottom of spring is the distance it should be with weight. There's no way your spring will get there ever!! The eyes will bottom on the shackles before that happens.
It's a Speedway 31 inch reverse eye spring #910-33030. Say's it is for 28 to 34 with 48 inch replacement axle. It went in with out much effort at all. Says it has a 4 3/4 free arch. So maybe it is only to used with the speedway replacement axles? I'm using it on a stock one.
Put out an "All Points Bulletin" for a HAMBER ( or bona fide Hot Rod guy) in your area.Getting front end geometry correct is one of the most crucial things for your car to be a pleasure to drive. Got to get caster and toe in right or you'll be doin' the Wheel-Hop dance and coming out of dips in the road changing lanes ( if you run bias ply).Go back to the Speedway book and the "tech tips" at the bottom of the page are pretty good to guide you through spring size.Keep asking Questions and you 'll be fine. Good luck. Mike
When i set up the mounts for my split '36 bones in my Model A, with a Model A ch***is.. i had the rear end in and rolling, body on, engine and box in, the whole front end was together including radiator and grill and the front was rolling.. So it was completely at ride height. My wishbones ended up just underneath the frame rails so i made a bracket myself, then used a rivet as a reference point and put the mounts the same distance back from that rivet and then because the ends were adjustable i just rewound them until each side of the axle was at 5 degrees. You really want all the other stuff in the ch***is before you do wishbone mounts i think. Also as above, spring is way wrong. Also you haven't mentioned what wishbones you are running, different bones have different caster angles set into them.
Heres a picture of where mine ended up at. I'm using '36 wishbones ('37 - '40 i think are the same, but the axle boss is correct for a model a.. i had to trim the inside out a bit..), a 3.5" dropped model a axle.. an original A spring with a reversed main leaf. I didn't have to pie cut the bones at all to get it here. Here is an old mock up showing what a reversed original front spring looks like under load.
the bones are stock ones that were split. Maybe I should just order a stock spring and see what the difference is.
Whooooa that is the wrong spring, just a quick measure will show that is way more than 4 3/4" arch. If you check out the pictures others have posted you will see that their springs only have about 3" arch so something is wrong. Take it apart and re measure all your perch spacing and determine what you got for a spring vs what you need for a spring. If you need a double check refer to POSIES web site for more tech info.
remember when you get the spring set up right and the bones mounted where you want them, the caster can set by a good front end shop. The axle is actually twisted between the spring mount and the kingpin to get the right castor. A truck alignment shop should be able to do it for you.
Why do people always talk about re-arching the main leaf? Am I not understanding something? The main leaf being the longest is also the easiest to accept a new shape. While the shorter leafs seem to hold their shape and thus force the main leaf into the total spring pack shape. Wouldn't re-arching the main leaf have little overall effect on the spring package? Anyways, I think Speedway sold you the "Street Freak" version. And finally, I "simulate" weight using quality rachet straps to compress the suspension before mounting the bones. Simply squeeze the suspension until your shackles are at 46 degrees for SBC's and 48 degrees for BBC's ( I made those numbers up to make it sound like I'm a genius, really 45 degree's on your shackles should be close enough) Additional straps can be used to square up the axle to the ch***is and/or twist the axle to the proper caster angle. Here is a photo when I was squareing up my axle to the ch***is. I didn't take photos of the "squeeze", but you get the idea. Anyways, get it sqeezed, squared, castered at 5 and mount the bones. Take the rachet straps off and it gets funky, but don't worry - it's supposed to.
Apples and oranges, you have a 4" dropped axle, the OP does not. He needs to hang his axle from the bones to drop it enough or buy a drop axle. Maybe then buy a reverse eye front spring.
Makes no difference to the spring or bones what drop the axle has. Where do you guys come from ??? Go read the first post, then pick me up some Fuji apples and nectarine oranges at the grocery store. Oh yeah coffee too.
As above, the axle to frame spacing is going to be the same regardless of if its a dropped axle or not? The frame and axle just sit closer to the ground the more drop they have. That is totally irrelevant. I think oldmate would be best off finding a cheap original front spring, have it reversed and then throw it up under the car. That spring he has is clearly the wrong one.
You are confused. It doesn't matter if the axle is dropped or undropped, the center part of the axle is the same, only the ends are bent up on a dropped one. Look at all the pictures that have been posted and you will see where you are wrong. Don
It's not necessary to pie-cut the bones either. As mentioned before castor can be adjusted later. Anyway I think you're going to need to have that I-beam dropped an inch or two to get your front end down. Having a front spring too flat just robs you of suspension travel. When you have your axle dropped (a few folks on here do it) you can have the necessary extra castor added then. You'll need to measure the castor you have when the car is fully mocked up then you'll know how may extra degrees you need when it's being dropped. P.S. Castor is a personal thing and should suit your useage. Here in Germany you drive at 100 - 150 mph on the Autobahn for hours sometimes. For that you need a lot of castor to make the car track nice and true. Also at higher speeds you lose a few degrees due to resistance pushing the front wheels back. A car set up for that speed will be heavy to steer at low speeds. So if you only drive 20 - 30 mph (around town, shows, cruising) then you'll need less castor. I like castor, I like a car which will track true hands off. I hate that nervous feel when you haven't enough castor. Ed
The Jalopy Journal
