Can anyone advise me what to do with this problem. The tire hits the drag link on a left hand turn and if I get that fixed I still do not know if I will have enough turning radius. You can see on the drag link where the tire hits. The radius rods may be the next questio. How do I know when I have enough steering radius?
Well if your drag link wont interfere with the wishbone. I'd say ream out ( 7 degree tapered reamer, speedway sells them )the pitman arm so you can insert the rod end into the pitman arm from the inside ( or frame side ) that will gain you lots. Your tire will be more likely to hit the wishbone or chassis then. and that's got to be enough turning radius. Plus the drag link will have better geometry and be almost parallel to the frame rail, and that will just look better too.
It would depend on the type of rod ends you have on the drag link but I have a very similar setup and it was doing the same thing I just put the drag link on the other side of the pitman arm then it runs pretty much parallel with the frame
I know it seems counter intuitive....but... If you were to move the tie rod closer to the wheel, you would get more turning radius. The further away from the pivot point ( king pin ) you get , more travel is required to turn the spindle the same amount of rotation.. Shorten the steering arm...move the end on the pitman arm to the inside... Keep the drag link parallel to the wishbone...
Assuming you have the stock steering stops on the kingpin cotter bolts, I'd look to see how close the spindle comes to the bolt with the tire just clear of the drag link. If not too much distance, I would use washers to shim the nut out until it limited the lock so the wheel just clears the drag link. If the gap is larger, you might to either make a custom nut, or as I once did, use a lug nut for a mag wheel. That did the trick on my old 34. You can achieve almost the same turning circle as you have now. If it's ok now it should still be ok after. The statement regarding moving the rod closer to the wheel above, with respect, sounds like it would not help. Mart.
Matt, thanks for the info, I actually just took the car for a ride and it has plenty of steering I just need to something to linit the steering from hitting the drag link and the headlights. I thought the guy that built it for me would have done this but I thought wrong. I am a carpenter and in no way a mechanic but I think I coud do this if it is a simple fix. Any advice would be helpful. Joe
I added some pics from both sides. The tie rod end on the passenger side has an arm with a hole in it. Can that be used for the stop?
Nope I've zoomed in on another picture and the is a large acorn nut in the center of the picture. PM me if you want
They used to use a mag wheel acorn nut with the long shank, in place of the shorter Ford acorn stops.
No the acorn nut is the way to limit steering. Do you have those already and the tires are hitting before the hubs reach the stops?
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