Ford wishbone question

how far can you shim a wishbone down in the back where the ball connects?

I have an unsplit 1938 Ford wishbone in my 36 and there is a clearance issue between that and my powerglide pan, on the drivers side, if I hit a big bump it hits, and I just found a hairline crack in the pan.
Long term (winter) I plan on splitting the bones but short term (summer/fall) I want to keep driving, so my plan is to replace the pan and see if I can shim down the bone a little more than it is now.

Currently I am using 2 of the retainers or caps that bolt the ball to the frame so one is on top of and one is on the bottom of the ball to move it down, but I may need to move it down some more.
We are talking another inch or two, would I have any problems if I did this?

 

Any chance of looking inside the PG pan to see if you can reshape the hitting spot? Sounds like you don't need much of a depression...or is it barely hitting the entire pan from front to back?

Long term, can you spread the back of the bones by using a 32-34 wisbone yoke?

 

Good point, the pan is hit in the front of the driver side.
Funny thing is I have a chrome pan that was on the car with the old pg and it had the same indent but not as much, can check that part of the valve body to see what is there.

 

CE offers a wishbone drop piece in their catalog.

 

The CE split kit looks like what I need, I have not done that before, I ***ume that I would need to heat the wishbone part before the axle to keep the spring hangers straight/parralel.

the dent is at the drivers front in a small section so I "finessed" the pan i am going to use and will shim it a little more to see if that takes me to winter.


Any tips on splitting bones with spring hangers intact?

 

Dooley, lowering the wishbone ball affects your caster angle, you may notice handling changes if you go too far. I'm pretty sure that CE splitting kit comes with good detailed instructions on heating/bending the perches to keep them straight when splitting the wishbone.

That said, I'd make a jig to hold the perches where you want them (a straight, sturdy bar with two studs that slide into the perch holes), loosen the bone/axle bolts, split the bone, heat and bend both sides, pull the jig, and re***emble!

 

I have done both on my 39, dropped the ball down with a spacer and notched both sides of the th 350 pan with no problems (4 inch drop axle and a reversed eye spring)

 

You can relocate the wishbone pivot, then do a minor pie-cut & reweld on the axle ends of the bones to keep the caster from getting out of wack. That is...if you don't mind slicing the bones. But if you got room in the pan, then that the obvious choice to take. Or you can raise the motor & trans? To split the bones with the spring attached...do as said above. A solid bar welded in to keep things from moving, split the bones, heat & bend the bone ends, attach at frame, remove the brace, go do burnouts.

 

thanks, the part where contact is made is the only part of the valve body area were there is nothing, so I did move the pan some, the dent on the current pan is not as bad as you would think but it was enough to give it a crack, maybe it fatigued over time and hits I'll have to figure out the other splitting part later on.