Hi , i use ´40 front wishbones on my Model A and want to use bolt on aftermarket lower shock mounts. I have Speedway spring perches an they are too short (the nut only goes on there with three threats). Who manufcature longer ones ?? Ch***is eng , P&J ????Others? Thanks for your help Michael
I've been looking but haven't found any perch bolts long enough for this setup. So I'm probably going to mill about 1/2" off the top of the wishbone. The only h***le is, the bevel for the perch bolt has to be recut on both sides too. After that, a low profile nut will fit. I may put a small weld on the nut to make sure it stays put.
Maybe these are long enough? They sell both perches and lower shockmounts. http://www.tperformance.com/street_rod_store/2900/205/?CFID=7359547&CFTOKEN=20307571
You have to buy a longer perch for the lower shock mounts but you can't use the mount. It is just long enough for the bones and axle. You are running spring over axle, correct? You have to run batwings if you use the lower shock mount.
Is this (pic) what your're trying to do? I'm not sure if you have to use an aftermarket batwing or not. (The one in the pic is a Deuce Factory batwing on a SuperBell tube axle. The other components are Deuce Factory as well.) Requiring a batwing for your axle is dependent on how thick the upper and lower wishbone bosses are. I can measure mine if it would help. I do know that some manufacturers have shorter spring perch bolts that are supposed to fit their batwings and their lower mounts. You can end up with a too-short spring perch bolt if you're not careful . . . as my friend did a few weeks back although a shallower nylock nut took care of the problem. The mfg. supplied a too-tall nylock nut and the nylon was short of the threads.
You have to. No way around it......I spent 2 hours at the parts counter going through books and parts boxes.......the wish bone is thicker than the batwing mount.
I have 37 bones with a model a axle. and the speedway longer perches. you just have to mount the shocks differently to the axle. the nuts fit on just right without the shock mounts on the bottom.
I drilled my axle and mounted the shocks there, but didn't like the way it looked (too high). So I'm switching to the under the axle shock mounts by doing what I described above.
Hard to argue with experience . . . not that I'm arguing and that's why I said I wasn't sure. Would that hold true with say . . . 36 wishbones as well? I had a set of those last summer and the bosses didn't look too thick. Guessing as well that the 40 & up bones would have a thicker boss. Fwiw, and you more than likely know this, the lower shock mounts - Deuce Factory anyway - have a recess in them for the perch bolt nut to sink up into. There's quite a bit of 'meat' there I think and you might be able to pick up another 1/4" or so by milling the recess deeper. If HotRodMickey has a tube axle or a Ford forged axle he may be able to weld some lower shock mounts directly to the axle. (The cast axles don't weld very good and I wouldn't even try it.) Not a very good picture, but the panhard bar on my 32 is a cut-down 63 or so Chevy half ton shock mount - the bolt on style with the inner mount bolt cut off and only the boss/flange and shock mount side remaining. It was TIG'd directly to the tube axle and it works well with no problems. That strikes me as a good way to make a lower shock mount. Another way would be to use the same Chevy half ton shock mount - I think quite a few cars came with these shock mounts and you can find replacements hanging on the "Help" rack at the parts house. Weld a drilled tab to the underside of the axle and bolt the shock mount gizmo to it. Fwiw - some of the cast hot rod aftermarket lower shock mounts have a slot and key so they will stay correctly oriented and some do not. Deuce Factory does, SuperBell doesn't. TCI doesn't either. You could add a split pin (not a cotter pin for our UK & OZ pals, I think they call a cotter pin a split pin) and drill the axle boss for orientation. To be fair, the pin or other locating method may not be necessary. Most of the non-pin, non-key lower shock mounts stay in place ok and I've only seen one that had pivoted. I think the owner had under-torqued the nut. Even so, I'm going to pin mine just cuz....
Early wishbones are a bunch narrower than the later ones. The early axle is also narrower at 2" vs. 2 1/4". So the early wishbone/axle setup works ok with lower shock mounts under on perch bolt. For later setup, the perch bolts aren't long enough.
Hi , Thanks for all the replies. Yeah I'm using a dropped I-Beam and stock '40 bones with spring over Axle. So , which spring perches and lower shock mounts are the best for the money?? I have Speedway and they ****(look and quality). Thanks Michael
I'd use Ch***is Engineering perch bolts. For shock mounts, that's a tough one. The Ch***is Engineering ones are probably the strongest, but they are kind of big and square, and don't look that good. I got some cast ones look a little nicer, but I'm not sure who makes them.
Hi, thanks again for the replies. Does anybody know the taper(in degrees) of the bevel on the spring perch? I may grind a big drill Bit to that angle and bore it alittle deeper..... Thanks Michael
C9, the 36 won't fit either. I have some pics of mine at home, I'll post later. I did the Fly and the T this way. I ended up using F-1 Shock mounts on the T and we built friction shocks for the Fly. Also, the only experience I had was with a Ford 36 axle and bones. I am not sure of the later wishbones.
Sorry I was gonna post pics of the Fly. I used a 36 axle and batwings. Made my own hairpins. I'll try and do that tonight if I get a chance.
I have not done this so I can't speak from experience. I would grind down the top of the wishbone fork so it is no thicker than the bottom. It should be the same thickness of an A wishbone fork then. Early A's were thin, don't grind that thin. You can then use the common length perch bolts. The taper of the seat is an included angle of 60 degrees.That means the angle from straight ahead is 30 degrees.
Anything wrong with the Mike Bishop/Vern Tardel approach. A boss welded to the front of the axle? That is the traditional way to do it.
This puts the shocks up too high. Instead of welding a boss, I drilled my axle and used screw in shock mounts. It works, but doesn't look good.
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