I was looking at my steering on my '32 Sedan today to take some measurements and generally thinking about how to get the suspension drop I want. While doing so I noticed that the clearance between my stock unsplit wishbone and the cross steering tie rod is nearly non-existent. I'm planning to reconfigure this anyway but in the mean time is this a concern? The gap is paper thin. I had trouble getting a good representative picture of it. I swear it's not actually touching and there are no witness marks that it has had any contact. Since the wishbone is unsplit the entire assembly moves as one and it shouldn't have contact. But still it seems like it should have at least a 1/4" space. This car is basically stock with '46-'48 style spindles and juice brakes. All of which appears to have been simply bolted on. As it sits the tie rod is hanging below the wishbone with the ends hung from the bottom of the steering arms. Henry had the tie rod above the wishbone with the ends attached to the top of the steering arms. Does the tie rod being above or below the wishbone matter? Does the tie rod end attaching from below present any issues? If I lower the front of the car as I plan (wishbone will remain unsplit) the space between the top of the wishbone and the frame will be reduced. Will it be reduced enough to cause tie rod to frame contact in suspension movement if I locate the tie rod above the wishbone? Not sure. Also not sure how to choose my parts to avoid that. However, if it's not a concern to have underslung steering the previous question is moot. And life is much easier to sort out my front suspension drop questions. Pics to follow of what I have currently.
Put a straight edge along the bottom of the crosslink and see if it is bent upward. Hard to tell but it appears to be in the pictures.
I tried doing the tie rod below a '32 heavy axle dropped to 4" and put the tie rod below the axle which is a bad deal in my eyes. Nothing like dragging the tie rod if ya get a flat. So, I used '40 spindles and heated and bent them up just a touch and went over the stock '32 wishbone. Dave
Not true. On full lock it rotates about the king pin which is at an angle. You need to check clearance lock to locks
Your statement is basic true* { from caster effect } !,But over looks ,that it's been working with out hitting in turns =Yes it moves tie rod little from caster*,but not enough to bend it self.; So back to ,it moves all together, even built in caster setting! As that's how post was asked.
On my avatar roadster I have a '38 front suspension with cross steer and split bones. I just measured, my tie rod is 1-3/4" below the wishbone. Your tie rod definitely looks bent upward. How about replacing the tie rod and adding 1/4" or 3/8" spacers between the steering arms and tie rod?
Huh? What? Simplest solution is to heat and bend the arm a touch for more clearance below. If you change to a dropped axle, it will be very hard to drop the arm enough to go under the wishbone, but it might be done. Will most likely need to go above, and might need to trim the back edge of the crossmember for clearance on full turns. If you use a flatter spring it will be even more problematic. On my sedan I have a dropped axle and reversed eye spring. I used the tie rod ends from Speedway that have a drop built in to get the tie rod below the wishbone. Some tweaking to the arms will get you to the sweet spot with clearance, but not too much. https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Speedway-1948-64-Ford-Pickup-Truck-Dropped-Tie-Rod-Ends,50152.html
As I said, I didn't see any witness marks of contact and the paint on it is old. So if had been hitting there would be signs. But I'll check it out lock to lock just to be sure. I'm planning to change it all anyway, but between now and then I plan to drive a bit so safe operation is essential to me.
My deuce pickup was built with split 32 bones, 4inch axle, tie rod between the frame and the bones. Drove good. I suspect it was fine in the beginning but by the time it hit about 50K the Durant spring had settled causing some contact between the tie rod and frame to the point where it was leaving it's mark. It already had bolt on steering arms so I ordered new bolt on deep drop arms designed so the tie rod just cleared the bottom of the bones. Sounds good but with the 500/16 25 inch tall tires the scrub line went into the crapper. Fast forward after a couple 1000 miles A week ago I hit the pot hole from hell. It literally almost tore the arms off the spindles. The nuts in the bolt kit were fine threaded nylock jams without sufficient thread engagement to take the impact. Fortunately I was close to the repair shop that has been doing the work I can no longer do. I said fuck it and called the wife went to my shop, dug out a pair of original Henry Ford 37-40 spindles with stock steering arms, bushed and ready, a pair of my Cornhusker hairpins with tie rod ends at the back. and a few other odds and ends. Took them back to the repair shop where they got everything changed and finished today and will take it for a test run tomorrow. I'll bet it will work fine. Original reason I was going to the shop was to get the carb calibration parts installed in the new Edelbrock AVS 500 carb to get it leaned down. Tailpipe looked like I was burning coal. Oh ya, the 32 bones left today for New York.
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