Wishbone Help!

Ok guys I am going to start my first early hotrod build and a got a wishbone question for you model a veterans. I have a rolling model a frame with stock suspension that I want to trasfer over to a Tube frame I built. I bought a the bungs to split the wishbones from speedway and are going to put them in this weekend.When I grab the wishbone and try to pull it up it is harder than hell to get it to the the general area where a split bone bracket would be. Is that normal? Or do I have to do something else? If you have not figured out yet I am clueless on i beam front ends.

 

Pulling up on the wishbone will take caster out of the
axle, something you probably do not want to do for handling
reasons.
The car will handle better if you use the wishbone rather than
split it.

 

I see you removed the pic of the body parts.

Put up a pic of the frame and axle as far as you have gotten.


There is a lot of things to do before knowing where to weld the bung brackets.

 

does that mean My brackets for split bone need to hang low beneath the frame?

 

Dont know but probably. You need to get it mocked up at ride height to see exactly where they will mount.

 

I haven't even started yet. So this is a blank canvas

 

You'll probably need to cut the bones on each side a little behind the axel so they will reach the frame rails without changing the angle of the axel. Then fill in the opening as needed, and re-weld.

SAFU

 

Yep ! far enough to give 5-7 degrees of caster.

 

That depends on where the spring perch is??

Is your perch raised up like T buckets? or set up sort of like the model A?

and after all that you need to think caster, as well as ride height and rake, etc.

Also make sure the bones are tucked in enough so the car can turn fully each way.

You need to get it right.

 

Is cutting the bones the way to do it or am i missing something?

 

Ok, you can lift the wishbone into the stock location, it was designed to do that. You can not cut it in two and expect to move both halfs to the outside of the frame. The spring pearchs are fused inside the axle after all these years. You may get REAL lucky and soak them with oil and press them out. normally they get drilled out and replaced with new ones.

 

You want to set the caster at 6-7 degrees.

My recommendation: Make some temporary brackets out of angle iron. Use C-clamps or tack welds to hold them in place until you have the ch***is ***embled, on it's wheels, and under full load (body, motor and transmission). At that point you can revisit the wishbone frame mounts and set the axle caster to specs.

Good luck!

 

Yes, most folks dis***emble everything and split the bones on the bench.