what are the problems associated with mounting your front spring to your wish bones and is this safe to do and drive?
I have seen it several time. I think Eyeball has such a setup on his T. From what I gather you need to make sure that the quality of your welds are good. Then you should be fine. Tim MBL
[ QUOTE ] I have seen it several time. I think Eyeball has such a setup on his T. From what I gather you need to make sure that the quality of your welds are good. Then you should be fine. Tim MBL [/ QUOTE ] You need to know that you are using a 70+ year old wishbone that isn't half rusted away internally too. How you can know that?...good question!
That is a good question....I have seen where some have cut out a square section where they plan on welding. If the area seems too thin you might have bones that you don't want to use for anything....if it seems sound then you can use them for your inteded purpose....but as always I don't really know what I am talking about...go with the advise of others...and be safe! Tim MBL
This is what I did....here ya go...figure out roughly where you would like the spring to be, take a torch and blow a hole through each wishbone...had a machinist buddy of mine make me some tapered sleeves to put un the holes so I could use regular aftermarket spring perches...the sleeves have the same taper as the spring perch and the spring perch nut (look at your wishbone and you'll know the taper I'm talking about)....weld the perch sleeves into the holes on the bones, making sure that you've got them the same distance back on both sides...once welded, you can put your spring peches through and bolt up your spring....the only thing left that you might also have to do is to pie cut the axle end of the wishbones to re-adjust the camber of the axle (it should be 5-7 degrees positive camber, but i know of some guys running as much as 10 degrees)....this suicide front end is the set-up that I've got on my '30 Model A 5 window coupe....and it looks pretty nasty! Good luck...
thanks I found the previous post and it pretty well went into all aspects of it so I printed it and I'm going to study that.
[ QUOTE ] re-adjust the camber of the axle (it should be 5-7 degrees positive camber, but i know of some guys running as much as 10 degrees).... [/ QUOTE ] That would be Caster,not Camber.
heres mine, had the sleeves made up with the internal taper to suit the perch pin, drilled the holes and opened them out a few mils larger than the pin, mounted it all at the correct caster and carefully measured everything to make sure the perch pins were exactly in alignment(ie you could pass a long rod thru both sleeves across the car) then tacked them. Removed from car, welded up and voila! I think its fairly critical to mount them close to the forged end of the bone,mine actually are across the joint from tube to forged section, and tie them together. I may have to drop the steering arms down 1/2" just to ensure clearance from the spring to tierod on full bounce. In relation to the internal condition of the bones, when i cut the holes the insides were perfectly clean and bright,they had not seen oxygen since 1946,as long as there are no holes in them previously they should be good. I think ford wishbones are an engineering marvel-how the hell did they make tapered tube with perfect almost robotic welds pre war??
Yikes...the HAMB just freaked out....let's try this again... 67ImpWagon posted these pics in the Q&A section... I really like this setup...though I might do it a bit differently. I think I'll make my hangers wrap all the way around the bones. Maybe cut it from one solid piece, then after I split the bones, slide the hanger over the end of the bone and up to where it needs to be. I wouldn't have to worry about the bones getting weaker by drilling through them.
Kustom & Rockets those were my wishbone hangers but of course anyone can copy them, thats why I posted them! Heres another photo:
I don't care who's hangers those are.... but those welds are scary! You guys better be tig'in that stuff! Yikes for sure.
Yeah I was telling Elrod and KR about those mounts and had saved the pictures. I thought it was a good idea.I could'nt remember who posted them.
I kinda like those mounts. I had cut some templates somewhat similar to them for mine but I made them drop lower so the spring hung below the bones. I ended up scraping the idea though. On mine I used spring mounts designed for a T bucket with a spring behind the axle set up. I got some with a 7 degree turn in them so the spring would not bind. I then made up a couple of threaded bungs and welded them into the wishbones. Then just screwed them in. The setup does work great and looks clean. I have had the car on the road for two years now and there is no evidence of stress on the bones or the perch. I did have plenty of people advise me against this set up when I did it so I will not recommend it unless you are very sure of you welding an fabricating skills.
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