Technical Caster Adjustment on Straight Axle Frontend

Tie to radius rod space does not change. Everything moves as a unit. Even with the caster on turns, the spacing doesn't change. I'm more concerned with the shortened horizon length of the steering arms as result of bending them down.

 

I agree with your statement about the steering arms but I would try all the easy options 1st. There are lots of vehicles that have short steering arms such as dragsters and funny cars but they don't have street driving. I have 7 degrees in all my stuff with radial tires. Nothing radical on any parts. The only death wobble I ever encountered was on old trucks with wore out king pins. Good luck with your quest.

 

There is NO 'extra overriding leaf' that is wrapping around the reversed eye.

 

Ace, we ain't talking about the extra leaf there. We're talking about the WASHER that's UNDER THE AXLE, between the axle and the radius rod fork.
Seems to me you're doing more arguing with the people you've asked for help and advice than you are in paying attention to what they're saying.
Nine times out of ten though, with a good tight front end, the problem is bias ply tires if they are mounted. Sure, that's what came on them, but the tires today are reproductions of the original, and manufactured by God knows who in God knows where.

 

Dave, You're taking my comments all wrong. That's a big problem with texting and typing because plain black and white words do not express feeling or tone of a conversation. Other people make their own interpretation of words - good or bad. I was just trying to clarify a couple of comments that were made that seem to think there was an additional main leaf, and not about the spacer under the axle. I am more than greatful for all who take the time to comment and give opinions in answer to my question. It's not my intent to do any arguing with anyone. I'm here to exchange ideas about cars that we are all interested in. Arguing is not my style. Damn, I got plenty of other places in life to go and do arguing. I'm here for enjoyment.

 

It still looks like there is an extra leaf below the leaf that wraps around.

And -- the washer that's a spacer -- could go on top as recommended -- and look a lot better if the diameter was larger and met the stanchion above.

 

Move the washer to the top of the AXLE, not the wishbone/radius rod.

As far as the shake, if the tie rod between spindle arms is flexing, that will cause wobble. An easy way to check that is to take some hose clamps and a length of angle iron (or even metal tubing) and carefully clamp to the tie rod and drive it again to see if the problem still exists.

 

Ah !! Got it.

 

I'm gonna assume the car has early ford drum brakes? My roadster had a bad tire shake/wobble at 55-60 with Coker 450/475-16's. I ended up balancing the wheel/tires and the brake drum as an assembly. I also tried the wheel on all 5 stud locations and balanced it on the spot that required the least amount of weight. When this is found prick punch the stud that lines up with the valve stem so it can be put back the same any time a wheel is removed. It was pretty amazing to see how how far out of balance the drum would change just a wheel and tire. My car instantly went from shaking at 55-60 to a car I could confidently drive at 80-85 mph. Drove the car to LA roadster show and back from Knoxville without any more shake. Hope this helps and good luck,
Jim

 

And to be more clear this solved the up and down bounce you explained above 55mph. Nothing to do with a low speed death wobble I don't think.

 

Sounds like a plan, especially because of the conversion to Buick drums on the Ford hubs.

 

Ya definitely two separate issues. This should help address the high speed wheel bounce. Or at least help eliminate some of the balance issue.

 

I recently worked on a car with an old mordrop 33-36 axle and a stock 32 wishbone with a kmember in a deuce chassis. The car obviously didn't have a lot of caster being basically stock. It tracked very nice and drove good at highway speed. I kept getting a low speed death wobble in it in parking lots when taking off from a stop, especially if it was bumpy. I checked everything out and aside from the tires being fairly old (ribbed 5.00-16s) nothing seemed wrong with the car. Some friends of mine said it could be the axle and most said to install a steering stabilizer. I've never ran a steering stabilizer but I was at a loss on this car. I believe the owner was going to install one after replacing the 10 year old tires first.

 

The stabilizer is an option but I want to save it as a last resort after trying all other possible fixes. I want to correct where there may be a problem. Just haven't found it yet.

 

I am not opposed to another picture,, I AM old by most standards, 'cept rocks.. let us know when problems solved and HOW, please

 

I see the illusion now.

 

The high speed tire bounce could be related to those British shocks ( look like Armstrong units), I would disconnect one and cycle it by hand. If the front tires have any defects you might not have enough shock for tire control. Just a thought.

 

I had a very similar experience, low-speed wobble and a cruising-speed bounce.

Low-speed wobble persisted even after rebuilding everything on the front end including king pins. The wobble appeared just after I'd added caster (went from 1 degree to about 8 degrees) to help the car track straight. The wobble was probably induced by the caster change, but 8 degrees was the least I could change it to, given the way the original builder had set up the steering box location. Long story.

After setting the toe-in (it was 'way out, too) without improvement, I broke down and added a Pete & Jakes steering damper and the problem went away, never to reappear.

The tire bounce was easy to fix once I figured out what the problem was: incompetence at the tire store where I'd had the tires mounted and balanced. All the modern tire machines balance to a "tolerance" which is quite wide, assuming that all the rubber in modern suspensions will soak up any minor vibrations caused by the slight imbalance which is allowed to remain.

Early Fords have no rubber in the suspension so the "minor" vibrations quickly grow into major oscillations in the suspension - "dribbling" is what it looked like at speed. I took the tires back to the tire store and had them re-balanced, this time with no "tolerance" allowed. It took a couple of tries to get the "technician" to pay close enough attention to the machine readout to get it right. But eventually he did and the bounce went away.

Good luck with yours.