I don't know if I'm heading in the right direction with my old English truck front end, can I cut rods and bend them to fit ch***is rails or mount them in closer to the centre. I would like to keep the front mounted spring set-up if possible but maybe it will have to go ?
Cut, weld.......Heat, bend.......Get a bigger hammer and give it a bash. That's how it's been done all these years and it still works. Just get the "gas wrench" going and make them fit. What are ya running for power?
that front end is neat- it looks like a combo of a model A axle and '37 wishbone and spring. To get your bones to line up with the frame rails heat and bend the spring mount just in front of the perch boss. you'll have to heat and bend again right behind the shackle boss to get the shackles back straight enough to mount the spring. That's how it's done on a '35 to '40 with a Ch***is Engineering Chevy trans mount with split bones.
You could do it several ways. The main reason anyone would split wishbones, is if an engine swap caused something to be in the way of the stock, rear mounting point. Since your engine is mounted completly rearward of the wishbones, you can mount them any way you want. You could put in a crossmember and attach the rear of each bone exactly where they lay. No real need to bend them, although that would clean up the installation and save a few pounds.
Howdy, Am I correct in my appraisal that these rods originally came together at single pivot (wishbone style) that would've wound up under your pan, and that they're mounted solidly to the axle? If so, the farther apart you seperate the new pivots the more torsional loading you'll impart to the axle in the normal course of working the suspension. Most bone spreading jobs simply accept the extra grief on the parts (if they even realize it). Moparsled's right on with the preferred way but it's advisable to be careful with the heating and cool-down as you don't want to detemper castings or forgings if you can avoid it. On other methods, because the hangers aren't seperate from the bones you're stuck with keeping'em hard mounted to the axle. So that leaves only changing the angle of just the tubes by bending'em (carefully) or "V" cutting'em and welding'em up again just behind the castings' internal sleeves. This should be good enough for a dragster as it won't be working the suspension laterally all that much. You can also consider bringing them together again shorter & forward of the engine and re-using the original single pivot (or a version of it) on a dedicated cross member ahead of the engine. This would also leave the original range of lateral motion in the suspension. Doing either of these in the ***embled state should make it easy enough to keep the geometry right. I ***ume you're going to get a new v-belt for the engine in the "before" photo, that one does look a bit tired.
Looks to me like ya got it whipped!! Finish the wisebones , make sure you have tons of caster 9 plus and run her. We used a 1932 Morris Minor axle in ours. Light weight, pack some caster in and it runs straight.
Thanks to everyone for their input, your experience is priceless. This is my first ground up build and I'm sure there will be lots more questions along the way, the engine I'll be using is Volvo B18 and 4 spd box.
Sounds good. We'll be using carbs off a Volvo on our '34 Dodge flathead 6. Above all.......have fun with your build.
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