Ok we have a car here and need some advice. 1941 Ford 4 inch dropped axle 2 inch dropped spring Steering has interference from the wishbones. Any advice or pictures of solutions is greatly appreciated.
You need some deep drop steering arms to get the tie rod and drag link under the wishbone. Also looking at the angle of your shackle with no load on the front end your spring appears to be to long and under load the shackles will probably point toward the outside when they should be pointing to the inside at a 45 degree angle.
Oh boy, customer provided the parts. Here we go again! We have two sets of steering arms here both interfere. Dropped arms (tubular style) won't even bolt on due to hitting the axles drop.
Panard or not, a 45 degree inward angle is still optimum for spring performance. I have the deep drop arms from Roadster Supply on my 40 with a 4 inch axle like yours and split bones, turns fine. Split or stock bones should work the same. My brake kit is a P&J's Power Stopper. Customer parts?
Ok, we were looking at pete and Jake's dropped arms, they look like they may work. The spring was a "customer sourced" part as in they said "yes that's the correct part"... The disc kit is cpp and seems to fit fine.
I was going to suggest these but I see you beat me to it. You might need to trim the thickness where the bolts go but I think they are your best solution.
I'm not sure P&J's still makes those arms. They were originally manufactured by Ch***is Engineering which sold to Heidt's. P&J's bought the straight axle parts Heidt's didn't want to deal with. They do look like a possible solution.
As Gary stated, the spring appears to be too long plus, with a reversed eye and long shackles, it will be super low, maybe too low to be drivable. With those long shackles, driving that without a panard bar will be exciting if not kind of dangerous. The bump steer will be amplified.
'41s used a long spring that pointed the shackles outward. No panhard (but sure needed one!). Had a "sway bar" that was supposed to keep the axle located but wasn't really that great. Going back to the '40 setup or using '42-up panhard setup is best but a bit of work.
I'm not a fat fendered guy but I never saw a stock front spring that pointed out at a 45 degree angle?????????
I asked about the shackle angle over on the Ford barn and have had only one response and he said on the 41's he's worked the shackles pointed out. The panard was added in 42. Learn something every day.
Those ex CE now P&J (but not produced) were about the only arms that worked decently with that axle due to the tightness of the drop. Maybe try to hunt down a set. Most of the other deep drop arms wrap around the kingpin boss and won't clear the axle without grinding while the CE arms dropped under the boss.
I have a 5 inch drop axle in my 48 tudor. Ran the deep drop arms from Pete and Jake's but had to grind them to clear the axle. You could try and find an original set of spindles and heat and bend the arms to clear. That's what I did on my 46 coupe with a 4 inch drop.
It’s too bad that apparently the 1008D steering arms are not being produced by P&J’s, it appears there would be a market for them. Maybe the forging dies are damaged?
Over on the Ford Barn a guy responded to my question with a picture of the front of his 41 and the shackles are pointing out slightly. He says the front is stock?
Saw that; but his spring is beyond flat with a negative arch to the ends. Looking at Ford's spring chart; I noted that both '40 & '41 front springs had a 1-1/2" longer loaded length that the '35-'39 springs. Guess that would change the shackle angle some; but I don't think enough to reverse it.
i also do run this config 4" axle and 2" spring. lowered original arm (heat coaxed) plus lowered tie rod ends under wishbone like this https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Speedway-1948-64-Ford-Pickup-Truck-Dropped-Tie-Rod-Ends,50152.html
they offer dropped tie rod end through the "Roadster shop" you do have to shorten the connecting link but the tie rod ends are standard 11/16-18 threads
When you put weight on the axle and splay the shackles further out as they show now, you will need a panhard bar. If you don't, that front end will be all over the road, especially when you hit a bump.
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