I recently purchased a gorgeous Forty Ford coupe from a fellow HAMBer. The paint/body is awesome and the interior vintage correct and beautiful. A 283 had been installed was coupled to a late model T5. An open driveshaft was connected to the original differential with a coupler most likely purchased from Speedway. Well, the problem was a disturbing vibration obviously originating at the differential. It vibrated so bad the it shook loose the nuts holding the pedals to the linkage while on its maiden voyage! When elevated, we identified that the pinion angle was all wrong, and in a big way. The only means of holding the angle was the two long trailing arms, and they were flexing. We also needed to extract the transmission to install the correct pickup and gears for the speedometer. The tranny must have been installed from the top with the front clip removed. It sure wasn't coming out the bottom! We removed the rivets and took out the cross members and frame support, this would allow the transmission to drop out. In its place, we installed a plate that was fabricated to fit and bolted it in. Instead of the big ball joint that the two long trailing arms normally attach with, we used a hiem joint. This allowed for adjustment. On the rear end, mounts were fabbed and we used long turn-buckles from a tractor store to essentially make up a four link set-up. Again, hiem joints were used to allow for adjustment. When it was all done, the vibration is gone, the speedometer works accurately and we have the ability to remove the transmission quickly and easily. It wasn't cheap, but it needed to happen. The next owner of the car will not have to deal with the disappointment I faced and can enjoy driving it immediately. What a great improvement. Hopefully, as you install an open-driveline conversion this will help. Perhaps buying the complete kit and doing it right the first time is the way to go. But this is how we fixed the situation on our Forty Ford.
the attachment at the rear is the stock piece. We used 15" long pieces of steel to form a gusset from the shock mount back to the arm. It was within that "triangle" that they were flexing before our modifications. They were flexing and allowing the rear end to roll back and the pinion to point skyward. it is fortunate that severe damage was averted.
Nice fix. I wish the PO of my '33 pickup was smart enough to do what you did. Instead, the rear bones are as hooked as a field hockey stick. What a mess. It's the reason I got it, so I guess I shouldn't complain!
Antny: the PO of this car would have ended up with the same situation had they not flipped the car to me. I hope our repair is of help to you. Sorry for the grainy photos, but the lighting just wasn't going to work. PM me if I can assist in your repairs.
if I understand you correctly this is not going to work, it will bind and fail. at best it will ride like a solid mounted rear you have the original wishbone mounted solid at the rear as per Ford's original design, and tied together with a single hiem joint at front to get this to work you need to either tie the forward end of the upper bars to the lower to have a common pivot at the front or add joints to the rear of the lower bars so all ends can pivot
I have to agree with Paul. Unless the front of the new link you added is mounted the same distance as the wishbone is from the axle, it will bind as the axle moves up and down.
sorry for the poor pics. I drove the car again today and it is working just great. Good ride, no vibration, all seems to be working as planned.
From the picture I gather that the farm supply upper link is the top link for a Ford 3 point hitch. With that being established that link was never designed to take the stress your subjecting it to, it's basically a locating link with very little stress in the origonal application. It has a very sloppy class of fit in the threads to keep it from binding in the very dirty environment it's designed to operate in and as such will experience failure after being continually compressed and stretched in it's new application. I would rethink what you've done here and design a link utilizing automotive suspension ends. Frank
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