Here are a few pics to show what was happening with the steering box . Needed to get the hole in the frame rail larger to for the Gemmer box and didn't want to sit there and file or grind it. I took a chunk of flat stock and bolted it to the back/inside of the frame rail and located the center and drilled a pilot hole for the hole saw. Then went at it with a hole saw. The first hole I knocked in it was 1 3/4". Which worked for locating the box. Once the box was brazed up, because of the fillet I needed to bump it to 2inches. Once mocked up I was able to get a couple TIG tacks on it. Now I need to go find a pitman arm. With the help of of instructions from Neal I was able to pull it apart. These are pretty simple boxes. When it came time to weld up the flange I kept getting a crack through the center of the weld. First I used ER70s rod, then switched to a SS rod(more nickel), then tried preheating the whole thing with a torch. Still was getting the crack. Ended up grinding the weld out of there and br*** brazing the flange. With plenty of heat i was able get the br*** to pull into the joint. I did braze a decent fillet on both sides. I'm happy with that and it's a process I'm familiar with so I'm confident in the results.
Looks good. Glad to see the steering gear installed. I would also add a trianglular reinforcing plate (10ga) to the outside of the frame rail...for a little more support. Neal
Carefull Gary, the bike ind. hippies will think you are the antichrist! Those of us who dig mechanica though, we know the deal
Cool thread. I'm planning a similar build as this was the first car I ever owned. Well, part of a car anyway. I got a 34 Tudor body at age 13 and have been gathering parts for a build ever since - for 40 years!!
thanks Neal, I was thinking the same thing. Gets a little thin between the mounting holes and the hole for the sector. I thought about an alum. chunk. Might be too blingy though. We'll see Tman, Some of 'em already do.
Thanks again for the compliments and input. Tonight I was able to get some more steering stuff sorted out. Picked up a '49 Ford pitman arm which I think will work out fine. I didn't have to bend it or anything. I am curious about the length of it relative to the steering arm coming off the backing plate/spindle. I was reading in the Tardel/Bishop book where they talk about the ratio between the two. I figure 8 inches for the steering arm, 6 inches for the pitman. That gives me .75 where they were talking about having an ideal ratio between the two of about .83 -.87. Guess I'll find out. I shortened an old tie rod to use as the drag link. Made a dowel out of solid stock to reinforce the weld joint. Next time I'll do the cut further away from the end of the tube. On that end the tie rod bottomed out against the dowel. Ended up cutting a little length off the threaded part of tie rod.
Here's pics of the pitman and drag link installed. I'm looking for opinions on the relationship of the drag link to the wishbones. My understanding is they should be as parallel as possible. Is this fine or should I bend the steering arm down a bit? The front tie rod end is going to bump the eye on the perch pin. Was hoping the eye could stay but it might have to bye-bye. I could run the tie rod on top but that would change the angle of the drag link for the worse. Man, I sure like getting something done.
Since you are asking for opinions, On my 33 I cut off the ears on the perches, they are only there for the mechanical brakes, and from the looks of it you have switched to juice. Those ears will be in the way. I used the stock steering arm, but I did bend it down. I would recommend you bend your steering arm down. With that steering arm you have, you can mount the draglink either over or under by flipping it., But once you bend it you will only be able to do it one way, my experience has been, it was usually better to keep the draglink mounted from below. But there have been times where it worked from above, you just have bend the steering arm down even more. As far as the angle of the draglink to the wishbones, Having them parallel is not a needed. In fact it will sometimes cause problems. This issue has been discussed at length here on the Hamb, but I think that C9 had the best take on it. So I would search out his posts about the draglink. From your pictures I would say you will be fine, even better if you bend down the upper steering arm. That area at the spindle, steering arm, perches, draglink, is going to be tight. Just make sure that you have clearance through the suspension travel, and expect it to settle, they always do. Great build, keep up the good work. Redbeard
Thanks for the input redbeard! I will probably end up bending it down a little. I think I mentioned it before before but again, that coupe of yours is looking killer.
Those perch pins are Model A's and the hole is in the way. If you were using 32-34 perch pins they would probably be fine. On my A coupe I had to cut that eye off for that exact same reason
Been working on the T lately getting it ready for the NorCal run next month so not much to post about the '33. Got the new tires and 21s mounted up on the T Found some pics of the pedal ***embly work. Used a '33 pedal ***embly with Rich's (Early V8 Garage) hydraulic conversion installed. I had seen it on one of Chris' threads (truck?) and it looked pretty slick. It was a really easy installation. Did take a little heating and bending of the pedal arms to get them sitting right around the column but not much.
Yeah, I used that MC kit in my pickup. Worked very good. If I end up using the stock pedals in my 34 roadster, I will get a kit for it as well.
I know a guy that reproduces them...look identical and of course, work like new, if your ever looking to replace them.
Sorry Harv, I got nuttin' to report. Was working on the T for the run down in NorCal then got distracted by this little diamond in the rough.
It's been 2 months since I've done anything on the sedan. Getting the T ready for the B'ville trip took most of my attention. Now that Speedweek is behind us it's back to the sedan.... I had been studying chops a bunch over the last few months, the B'ville trip was a great place to study '33/'34s there were so many awesome examples to see. I was torn between 3 and 4 inches so I taped it out for both and slept on it. Today I finally decided on 3 inches. Here goes nuttin'....
Typical me, I should have taken more pics.... I chopped the tops of the doors off first. The idea was to be able to tack the doors in place to keep the body from wiggling around a bunch. The door chops were in the way of a couple body cuts (poor planning) so I put a couple cross braces in the body and did the chop with the doors out. Then installed the the door bottoms and tacked them in place. Sorry no pic The top is off in the last pic. The lowest cut still needs to happen.
With the doors tacked in place I was able to start fitting the top back on. My thinking was to get the B pillars located and tacked first then move forward to the a pillars. I used a MIG welder for the tacks. I didn't realize the A pillar was full of lead filler (the shiny silver stuff). Cut lower next time maybe? I heated it with a propane torch and wire brushed it away from the area to be tacked. You can see the cut/gap in the roof that will need to be filled next. Please don't make fun of my ****py tacks please.
The Jalopy Journal
