Ackerman Will make a tire drag and creat rolling resistance but I don't think it has anything to do with what the op is saying, I don't see it make turning the wheel tougher. I'd look into the steering box. If it steers easy with the front up I don't think it would be tight kingpins or tie rods, still might be but I personally dought it. FWIW my 40 was a bear to turn, I rebuilt the steering box and it made a ton of differance. Besides the bearings in it being worn and rough I think the biggest issue was the small worm gear on the pitman shaft being siezed. Rebuilding the box wasn't that expensive or hard to do.
What motor and how wide are the tires? maybe its a weight/contact patch issue. Maybe look into a different steering box, I cant remember if quicker or slower makes it easier, but they do make a difference
Metalman is on it. As far as the Ackerman is concerned, to do the kit the original poster is talking about, you really don't change it. it ahould still be the same as or very close to stock settings unless someone did some extreme free form fab for some reason.It would have to be wayyyyy out to effect things in this way and you would hear one of the wheels breaking lose and screaching if it was far enough out. The steering boxes in these cars when set up correctly are awsomely easy to use, but if the bearings on the input or worm shaft are too tight or worn, or the sector is slightly tight in it's bushing you're gonna feel it in the long run. I'm not there to help, but that's where I'd put my money if the king pins check out okay.
Jack up the front,,you should be able to spin it lock to lock with one finger,,,,,,,what tires and pressure,,,,,wheel offset,,,,,?
How old are your tires? I had an old county 1 ton truck I bought to tow the race car. It too was a bear to turn at low speeds. The tires were old. After restoring the truck, I bought new tires. What a difference. It was like having power steering. My newer truck, I can always tell when the tires are too old. My driveway has a very slight incline. If I put it in neutral, the truck will roll into the street. If the tires are old, the truck won't move.
I can't remember from your build if you installed new kingpins, if you didn't you may want to check the thrust bearings under the axle. You would not notice a problem with them when the car was jacked up; but they can affect turning effort with weight on.
if you are stopped and it`s hard to turn does increasing the engine rpm help? maybe the pulley sizes are changed ?
That is what I'd measure first. You can do that in the warm snow free garage after you grease all the front end parts. Get the 1/8" toe in set. It should be checked even if it doesn't affect your problem. All you need is a tape measure and a kid to hold the dumb end.
I have stock steering and a dropped axle in my 41' convert. When I went to radial tires the steering got a bit harder. Are you running radials?
Hard steering is caused by two things, non lubricated king pins or no grease in the steering box. To check if you have a lubrication problem jack up the front end of the car put it on jack stands and turn the steering wheel. If it turns hard then you know its one or the other. Disconnect the drag link and repeat operation. If the steering wheel turns hard its the box, now rotate the tires side to side by hand if they turn hard the king pins need to be greased. Remember this is a 60 year old vehicle and drives different that your disposable grocery getter. If your steering is in good shape you can improve the slow speed steering drag by increasing the front tire air pressure but you should not exceed 28 lbs as this starts to diminish the ride. Also note that this car is built with positive camber which causes the tires to lift the vehicle when it is turned . At slow speed this produces a so called hard steer effect ,call it "armstrong steering". This is just how the car is designed and is more pronounced with bias ply tires than radial tires.. As you say your car tracks true at speed its probably Ok you just need to eat your spinach.
Have you checked the lube in the box? Have you taken the end plate off to look for rust or bearings rattling around in the bottom? You need to have done all this before complaining about stuff. After a good condition box is verified, fill it up with a half-n-half mix of 140 weight gear oil and STP. Give the kingpins a huge squirt of grease while you are at it. Then test drive again.
You can do a couple easy checks to rule out some things. Get a angle finder protractor and set it on the kingpins to see what your kingpin angle is. If it's more than 7 degrees your steering will be heavy, and the farther over 7 degrees, the heavier it will get. Mine is set at 10 degrees to go straight, and it's a bit heavy at parking. Then take a tape measure and get a measurement from inside to inside on the front tires. Check in the same spot in front, and back, and compare the measurements. The front should be about 1/16" less. If the front is much narrower it will be very slow turning.
Not a lot of time to reply but real quick it's got the stock 16 inch wheels with 27 inch tall radials on them. Not sure what offset the wheels are. The tires are something like 215/65/r16 that's from memory so it could be wrong. I'm feeling like the box needs looked at after hearing all this and will be hunting for the previously mentioned book pages to help me out with that. I'll keep you all posted
For the guys asking, Tim's car is a 46 ford with a SBC and a 350 turbo...has a dropped axle with dropped steering arms, original skinny 16 inch radial tires on original 40s ford skinny wheels. If the car turns easy while jacked up, I'm not so sure the steering box is the culprit. Here's an old trick. Jack the front wheels up an inch or 2 and slide a few thicknesses of good ol wax paper under them...let it down on the paper and try to turn it again. A lot easier? Check tire pressure.. Now go all the way to full lock and look at the front tires...are they leaning way over at the top? That's excessive caster. If that's it, the only way I know of fixing it is to locate the back of the 'bones higher or to cut the bones at the weld [up at the front axle] take a small wedge out at the bottom of the weld and reweld. Personally, I'd prolly just live with the problem because too little caster is even worse to drive than too much. Before I did a thing, I'd check the steering box for lube. I believe it takes 90-140 weight gear lube. I'm not above using a few table s****s of STP oil treatment in those old ford boxes along with the gear lube...check an old ford manual to find correct lube.. If your steer box is adjusted too tight, there is a simple fix for that too. Jack front wheels off the ground..On top of the box there's a big ol nut with a slotted screw inside the middle of the nut...may have an aluminum cover over it. The aluminum cover looks just like a bolt head. Unscrew the cover and loosen the nut a little........... it's a jamb nut. Loosen the screw with a common flat-tip screw driver until you feel "slop" in the steering wheel with wheels straight ahead...tighten screw 'till all slop is gone...no further. Keep your screw driver in the screw to keep it from turning and tighten the jamb nut down tight...you've just adjusted your steering box.
thanks Rocky I'll give that a go and check tire pressure as well. I really do feel like my problem is in the box. I actually haven't done the drop axle yet, I figured i would get this problem figured out before i did that so I'd know that any new issue that would pop up after the axle swap could be attributed to the axle swap. I also thought that if I had a funny caster issue that when i have an axle dropped i could have some caster built in/out of it to get it back to correct it. Thanks again guys ill keep you posted, I probably wont have time to get to it for a couple days but i feel i'll be prepared when that time comes!
Disc brakes/ smaller than stock tires widen the track. The additional offset will increase the turning effort because the tire is not pivoting on the road surface, it's making an arc. Find some rims that place the tire in the correct position.
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