Dropped Steering Arms - How much drop?

I need a pair of dropped steering arms. Speedway offers a drop of 1.75 inches and a drop of 3.75 inches.

I have a 4 inch dropped Magnum axle with '39 spindles and a split Model A wishbone. The 1.75 inch drop isn't deep enough and I worry that the 3.75 inch will cause scrub line issues.

Anyone been here before? What did you run? The folks at Speedway are as clueless as I am. Mutt offered me a good deal on a shallow pair but I can't afford to be buying parts I can't use.

Thanks, JH

 

Depends on if you're going under a split wishbone or between hairpins or 4 bars if you're going under the split stock rod you need the dropp that gets them back down the same distance as the amount the axle is dropped.
If not it depends on all the other parts. Put them all together and see what's needed.
In this hotrod game sometimes buying the wrong part just to find out it's not gonna work is just paying the tuition for that learning experience.
This is also why buying one of those complete spindle to spindle axle deals ain't such a bad idea for some.

 

Sounds like I need the 3.75 inch drop.

Thanks to the good Dr.

JH

 

I measured my 32 with SuperBell 4" drop tube axle.
The Deuce Factory steering arms have a 1 3/4" drop fwiw.
Measured from horizontal center of where they bolt on to the two lower bolts on the 37-41 spindles and to the horizontal center of where the tie-rod end connects.

The 3 3/4" steering arms may not be a problem.

I run 14" slot mags up front and scrub line issues don't come into play until 5 1/4".
(It's 5 1/4" from center of where the steering arm bolts on to the bottom of the mag wheel.)
In other words, a 3 1/4" dropped steering arm would be right on the edge of a scrub line problem due to the bottom of the tie rod end - including zerk - is 2" below the center line of the steering arm where it bolts on.
Or - viewed another way, the tie rod end is 1 3/4" tall from bottom of vertically oriented zerk to the bottom side of the steering arm.
Keep in mind too that a 15" wheel will only gain you a half inch in height over the 14" I'm measuring.

Speedway has been good to me about returns so I wouldn't be too worried about getting a set of steering arms and holding them in place to see how they were going to work.

 

Harrison - if you want to pay the shipping, I'll send them to you and you can see how they fit - if you don't get any advice from the board. If they don't fit, send them back. Here's a picture of my roadster's 4in axle with those arms. It appears that they would clear a 'bone if the tie rod was mounted on top of the arm, but I'm no expert.

 

The scrub line is generally considered to be the bottom edge of a wheel rim. Think about it as a worst-case scenario -- you blow a tire completely off the wheel and are running on that rim. As long as the wheel is turning, you have some degree of control. If, however, some point in the suspension is the lowest point, well, count on that being a pivot point around which the rest of the vehicle is likely to rotate no matter what you do.

The deep-drop steering arms, with tierod attached, are still above the scrub line, even with 14-inch wheels.

 

Go back and read my edited first post.

I forgot to include the tie rod end.

Pay attention to AV8's comments as well.
At least somebody around here knows what they're doing....

 

Thanks for all the great advice guys. I learned, here in 20 minutes, what it would have taken me three weeks to teach myself through trial and error (ordering, returning, and reordering).

Mutt, I'm seriously doubting those will work for me. In the pic they run right through where my wishbone is. Mounting them over the top might cause issues with my frame rails.

I'm running 5/5.25x16 Firestones. Scrub line shouldn't be a problem at 3.75.

Thanks guys, Jim

 

I have a good one page read from Pete& Jakes re heating and bending stockers and caster. It's to big to post but I do have it scanned and can email it if that will help... I need to heat and bend mine but I'm Sceered...

 

why dont you drop yourself? on my bros ride we did that. all you have to do is heat them up cheery red and bend them as much as you need them, and make sure they are even.
tdwk13

 

Here's a simple jig made from 2" angle and 1 x 2" x .120 wall rect tubing.
This one set up for bending the right side steering arm.
Setting the jig up to bend a left steering arm could be easily done by extending the angle steel further to the left.

Don't be confused by the orientation of the clamp in the pic, it's just stored that way temporarily.

To set up for a bend, bolt the steering arm to the two holes in the angle. Hole location is determined by how far you want to bend the steering arm. How far the bend goes is also determined by where the short piece of rect tubing used for a stop is welded onto the angle.

Next, heat the steering arm to a dull red, just past orange and not quite to cherry red. View the steel in a subdued light. Subdued defined as working in a garage during the daytime with the lights off. Wear clear safety goggles as well so you can read the color.

Bring the heated steering arm down to the rect tubing - which is the stop - use a crescent or something you can hook on and pull. A brass hammer on the cold end of the steering arm works ok. Once the steering arm contacts the 1 x 2" stop, pull it down flat and flush with the clamp.

Advantages with this jig are that you end up with an evenly matched drop on both steering arms as well as end up with the tie rod end level and parallel with the two lower bolts in the spindle.

Make sure you don't heat the tie rod end and end up oblonging the hole.

Depending on the amount of drop required, you may have to weld an extension on to the angle or use some wider angle so as to mount the 1 x 2" stop.

The reason this particular jig is set up only for the right side is that only a minimal amount of drop was required to clear the radius rods lower tube and the left side cleared just fine as it was.

 

When we built Steve-O's roadster (oddrod here on the Hamb)we used a 4" dropped axle with the 3.75" drop steering arms from Speedway and ran the tie-rod under split Model A truck wishbones.
The only problem was that we had to flip the wishbones upside down in order to clear the top of the tie-rod.
There were no scrub line problems.

 

I have no torch and no friends. Heating them isn't an option. Gonna have to buy a pair.

Thanks, Jim

 

I've had to do alittle grinding on my dropped Speedway arms to get them to fit my square back spindles with F100 brakes on the model A, is this common? Anyone else have similar issues? Thanks-