Technical 1932 Pickup Rebuild Thread UPDATED 1/11/16

twiddling thumbs till monday

 

Whatever keeps you out of trouble

 

LMAO!

 

Front Axle Assembly – Part 1


To get started I needed to address a detail with the Speedway spring perches and lower shock mounts. As shown below they come with 1/8” keyways cut into them. I don't know if other brands are the same way but this is a great feature. I've lost count of how many times I've seen twisted lower shock mounts at hot rod shows.


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A stop by our local fastener store, King Bolt, and I had a 1-foot length of 1/8” square key stock for a whopping $1.50. The slots in the lower shock mounts are 1/2” long so I cut two pieces about 1/32” short of that so that the keys wouldn't protrude and interfere with anything. I then put just a touch of black silicone on the side of the keys that fit down into the slot just to help hold them in place during assembly.


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The shanks of the spring perch bolts are coated with silver antisieze compound. How many of you have had to take old axle assemblies apart with stuck spring perches? Should this one ever come apart years down the road, this step will help alleviate that frustration.


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The axle, wishbone and spring perches are assembled and set up on saw horses. If the axle has been powder coated or if it has thick paint applied run an 11/16” drill bit through the spring perch holes by hand before trying to install the perches. Otherwise, the perch bolts may not fit.


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Install the lower shock mounts and nuts hand tight. (If you are not using lower shock mounts then simply install the nuts hand tight.) Leaving the spring perches loose to pivot will help with the spring installation later.


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I don't have the ends of the axle masked before coating. I prefer to remove the coating just from where I want to after the fact. Sometimes too large of an area gets masked then you end up with bare spots when everything is assembled.


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The kingpin bores will need to be cleaned of excess coating so that the pins will fit. For that I use a 13/16” reamer with a home made T-handle.


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I place the saw horses under the ends of the axle for stability and file away the coating with a mill file.


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Then I flip the axle over and file the coating away from the bottom surface of the kingpin bores. The other reason I chose to do it this way is because there is almost always some amount of wear on the bottom surfaces of the kingpin bosses. In the pictures below you can see there are areas where the paint was not completely filed away but is filed flat and level with the shiny steel areas. These are low spots. Because powder coating is epoxy it is very hard when cured and now acts as a filler for the low spots giving the spindle bearings a full, flat surface to bear against.


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With the axle prepped I installed the spindles. Ordinarily I paint the spindles myself. In this case I decided to have them powder coated. Because of that I found I had to remove a little more material from the tops of the kingpin bosses so that the Torrington bearings would fit correctly. The Torrington bearings are liberally greased before installation and a film of grease is applied to the kingpin, the bushings in the spindles and the axle bores. Don't forget to install the felt washers and thin felt caps under the heads of the kingpins. These keep dirt out of the upper bushings. I always paint the spindle tops and stamped felt caps. I've seen it so many times where a car will have a nicely detailed front axle assembly with two big rusty orange circles right on top. This extra effort takes a few minutes and makes a huge difference!


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Align the notch in the kingpin with the cross hole in the axle and install the kingpin lock studs. I get them started with a mallet then draw them in tight with the tall nuts on the backside. The nuts are tall because they act as positive steering stops.


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Next, the ball studs are installed into the 3 spindle steering arms. If spindles are getting powder coated or painted with thick paint mask the tapered holes in the steering arms. If coating or paint builds up in the tapered holes the ball studs will not seat correctly. (The same applies to the later ball joint tie rod ends.) With the ball studs there is a rubber seal and stamped steel support cup for the rubber. These need to be installed onto the stud before it is inserted into the steering arm. I then give the top of the ball stud a good hit with a plastic mallet to seat it into the tapered hole to help prevent the stud from turning while tightening the nut on the bottom of the steering arm. The original castle nuts for the ball studs are a special, very short height and can't be found new. In cases where they are missing I have to shorten new castle nuts to the correct short height.


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Keep going!!

 

Front Axle Assembly – Part 2


With the ball studs installed into the spindles it is now time to assemble and install the tierod. The internal parts for the end housings are shown below in the order that they install. These are new parts that come in a kit. The new springs are a little taller than the originals so before I install them I fully compress the springs in a vise to relax them a little bit. I then grease the springs and inner cups. In the dished area of the inner cups and outer plugs I put a large blob of grease. The springs and inner cups are inserted into the housings. Before screwing the end housings onto the tierod I coat the first inch of threads on the rod with silver antisieze to prevent gauling.


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With both housings screwed onto the tierod and the inner springs and cups installed the tierod assembly is then installed onto the ball studs in the steering arms. (Grease is also smeared all over the ball studs before the tierod is installed.) In most cases it takes a bit of force to get the ball studs to pop into the housings. Make sure that the grease fittings point to the rear and that the housing clamp bolts are installed from the bottom with the castle nuts on top. The screw in end plugs are then installed into the housings. Before installing them I fill the cupped side with grease. Screw them in until the inner springs are bottomed out then back off the plugs one full rotation. Align the cotter pin holes in the housings with the slot in the plugs to the nearest position still screwing them back out. The ends need to be loaded or the tierod will act like a Pogo Stick and you'll get the dreaded “death wobble” over bumps at low speeds.


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The spring main leaf was installed next. Remarkably, after 20 years of use the Pete & Jakes shackles were in like-new condition so I painted them and reused them. With reversed spring eyes I don't know of any better way to get the spring installed than putting the main leaf on first then stacking the rest of the leaves on top since a spring spreader can't be used.


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Back when the spring shackles were first used the studs were drilled for cotter pins for a more vintage look. If they hadn't been done already they definitely would have been before using them again.


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The SoCal shocks were installed to check the clearance with the bell shaped covers, spring and shackles. It's pretty close and I honestly don't know if I'm going to be able to use these.


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Now it's time to lubricate and install the spring leaves. In the past I have used hi-temp black grease but I haven't been totally satisfied with it. It seems that over time most of the grease squeezes out leaving the spring inadequately lubricated. Going back to my days of hot rodding and road racing late 80's and early 90's 5-liter Mustangs, I decided to buy a tub of the grease supplied with Energy polyurethane suspension bushings. This grease is silicone based, water resistant and very tacky so it clings well wherever it's applied. It's used with nylon plastic and polyurethane bushings to prevent squeaking and creaking noises. It's very durable. If it works well I'm going to start using this on future customer work. I also used it on the spring shackles.


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The bottom sides of the spring leaves are coated in grease.


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The leaves are then stacked on the main leaf using a new center bolt to hold them in place.


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The leaves are then compressed by tightening the center bolt. Once the bolt is tight I cut the excess bolt off with a cut off wheel. I cut it one thread below the nut and then mushroom the end of the bolt with a hammer so that the nut can't back off.


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With the spring assembled I now tighten the spring perch nuts. I use a 1/2” drive breaker bar and tighten them as tight as I absolutely can making sure that the wishbone is clamped solid around the axle.


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The adjustable drag link is assembled and installed using the same process as the tierod. I leave the internals out of the pitman arm end until it actually time to make that connection.


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Make sure that the end housing installed at the spindle has the grease fitting pointing towards the spindle.


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The small mid-clamps are installed onto the spring.


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Front Axle Assembly – Part 3


Normally at this point I would install the brakes but they haven't come back from powder coating yet so this is as far as I can go. The plan is going to be to get the front half of the frame cleaned during my lunch break on Monday and get the axle assembly bolted into the frame. I will install and assemble the brakes after that.


Here's some final pictures of the completed assembly.


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nice stuff!

 

This thread is tech manual quality with the detailed photos and the ease in which you explain the different assembly procedures you use.
I may never use this info but you make it so damn interesting I'm enjoying just learning about it.Your knowledge and willingness to share with all here is much appreciated.

 

I've seen bronze and nylon inserts for the tie rod ends. Have you ever used those? Supposed to ease steering effort.

 

I have not heard of either alternative before but I'm not surprised that they exist. It would be interesting to try some time.

I will add that with these early steering components the most important thing is that everything is in excellent or new condition for good results. Most of the used tierod ball studs and inner cups / plugs that I run across when taking apart old assemblies to restore are absolutely thrashed. The cups and plugs are usually worn deeper and gouged while the balls themselves are worn egg shaped and flat spotted. Of course worn parts equal poor steering performance. Brand new or excellent condition original parts run incredibly smooth when assembled and greased properly.

 

Hi Dennis:
You have put together one of the very best technical threads on the HAMB. Thanks for all the effort and clarity. A very enjoyable read. TEB

 

Dennis I love this thread. But I have one recommendation for you. I would ditch the SoCal shocks, I bought Bilstein shocks from Posies and it was the best decision I ever made. They're a little bit more money but they changed how my truck rode completely. It was a totally different truck after I put them on.

 

Dennis--It has been my experience that most lower shock mounts don`t have enough clearance for a shrouded shock. I have made a spacer to go behind the shock and used a thin nut to help with clearance issues. It is still close to the shackle, but the top mount can usually be fudged forward a bit as well. Not too much, obviously, as it will prematurely wear the lower bushing, as well as look goofy, but it is doable. Some of the lower mounts have a threaded body that takes a buttonhead Allen from the front, through the bushing. Not too traditional, but you can swap these for a powdercoated Grade 8 bolt and space it as you need it. I bottom these out and use Loctite Blue. Only ever done one set of them this way, though. Just thinking out loud, for what that is worth......

 

I'll have a look at the Bilstein shocks in the event these covered SoCal versions can't fit. From what I remember they are fairly modern/street rod looking?

Thanks for the input. I used a pretty tall castle nut on the lower shock mounts so I could definitely free up some clearance by running a shorty nut and a spacer between the shock and shock mount. I bet I can shift the shocks close to a 1/4" forward and that would most likely do it. I could also make a sleeve to slip over the inner most threaded part so that the entire lower shock bushing is still supported.

I'm anxious to get this assembly back under the frame next week for multiple reasons, one being so that I can start playing around with the upper mounts. There's usually always a way to make something work.

 

This is a great how to do it thread. Look foreword to up dates

 

Nice work Dennis, thanks for posting.

 

They look like SoCals to me. You can get them in black or chrome. They blow SoCal's away.

 

Question? Shouldn't the spring shackles be straight when there is no weight on the spring?

 

Those do look essentially the same. I must have been picturing something else. When you replaced the SoCal units were they new or relatively new?

Not necessarily. It depends on the spring. What concerns me more is that the shackles are at the correct angle when the spring is loaded from the full weight of the vehicle. This spring has been used under my truck since 1995 and below is an older picture showing the shackle angle with the truck fully assembled. Looks about right to me.

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I really appreciate all the time and effort to post, Dennis. I agree with others,this is one of the most educational tech threads ever.

 

Ok thanks Dennis. My front spring looks exactly the same shackle wise and I was kinda concerned. Will see today if I can get it installed.

 

Dennis the SoCal shocks were new.

 

Unless RCD changed, they stopped making the Bilsteins with the flared covers like the So-Cal shocks. It sucks, because that small detail is a breaker for me. I'm running So-Cals on my stuff right now only due to the cover. The last time I talked to RCD, they said quality issues with the covers prevented them from selling the covered versions anymore.

By the way Dennis - this thread has been great to watch the progression, and the detail is invaluable as well.

 

I have some generic '50 Plymouth shocks on my '32, but I made my own mounts for the bottom and welded them to the bottom eyelet of the wishbone. I probably spaced them forward more without even realizing it. I also have shackles with castle nuts on front and back, so it's probably a good half inch forward of where you are.

I used '50 F1 upper mounts, but I had to shorten them a little and bend them to fit under the fenders. I located the rearmost F1 mount hole at the old '32 shock hole so I wouldn't have to drill as much in the frame.

 

I have to say the same goes for watching everything you build. I don't have a smart phone but I do check in on your Instagram from my PC. The workmanship you put into Darryl Hollenbeck's roadster is absolutely incredible.

 

Dennis, how much clearance do you have between the axle and U bolt plate?

 

Don't know yet. Hopefully in the next couple of days I'll get the axle assembly back under the frame.

 

Ok. How much did you have with the old reverse eye spring?