Hot Rods Straight Axle

Axle is the easy part, Figuring out the steering is the hardest part. Guy came into the shop with a straight axle on his car, looked pretty good, The issue was during acceleration and braking, the front wheels would turn. Didnt care for my price to fix it and left, Last thing I heard was that he sold the car, about a year later, the guy who bought it called me. Told him at that time wasnt interested

 

I'm amazed at the things I read at various internet sites from people telling others how to set up a solid front axle! I saw one guy post that if you did a front side steering box you needed the caster or kingpin angle revered too! So he said he leaned his axle 7 degrees forward! Yikes!
I've seen and fixed some pretty sketchy installs, and rarely are they just a simple adjustment of toe in, or kingpin angles. Once you begin fixing, it's often a major rework to make them a good driver.

 

I've seen a little bit of everything. Seen a guy on U tube, that was supposed to be an expert, he had his drag link running a mile down hill to the spindle. Another one had his steering box mounted at this crazy angle, plus it was a China vega box mounted on a trifive with a iron head BBC. I like to take my time and do it once.

 

Experts are just as guilty as amateurs when it comes to straight axle installs!
I recall watching Mike Finnegan's chassis from Jim Meyers Racing roll out of Meyer's shop here in Oregon and I was going nuts seeing the extreme angle on his drag link!
Once he began making some runs down the dragstrip it became quite evident there were major problems with the setup, and he took his '55 Chevy to a more qualified person to correct all the scary handling issues he had at high speed!
He was tactful to not say anything about Meyer's work, but it was obvious it was not done to the level you'd expect from a highly touted shop.