I've been fighting this ol heap for while now & I finally won. First thing I found was it had the wrong front hubs & bearings. Had 55 Ford truck hubs & bearings on early Ford car spindles, there was only a 1/4" gap between the inner bearings & spindles. Got the correct disk brake kit from Speedway & I just knew this would fix the poor driving issues. It didn't. So then I replaced the worn out steering box & summoned the Hamb for recommendations of what ratio to go with 16: 1 or 20:1. After some expert Hamb advise I went with a 16:1 instead of the wore out 20:1 that was on it. Made a small difference on the bad driving issue but it sure did help maneuvering it around in parking lots with the quicker steering. So back to the Hamb for more research. After searching & reading all the straight axle alignment posts I could find I was fully armed to attack the axle alignment. After hours of looking at every front suspension part on the car including changing the toe in from 1/8" to 1/16"in, I found out that my front axle was tilted a bit to the front which is not good. The front axle has a 4 link setup. I thought this would be a easy fix , just adjust the 4 link bars until the front axle tilts back about 3-4 degrees. I got out my Craftsman angle finder. I loosened 1 of the 4 link bars to adjust it.. The rod end was STUCK & would not turn. I took the bar off & tried PB blaster & still wouldn't budge so out came the torch. Tried just a little heat but rod end still wouldn't turn, so I turned it red hot. The rod end turned in the tube about a 1/2 turn. I started working it both ways trying to get it free. I even let it cool off & tried PB blaster again but a 1/2 turn is all it would go. So I turned it red hot again with the torch & broke the rod end off in the tube. I was done for the night since I had to work the next day. I looked around for a replacement 4 link bar & rod end. Speedway does not sell just one but Posie's does. The hard part was trying to figure out if I had 5,7,9 or 11 degree rod ends. After measuring the axle king pin center to center, batwing center to center & frame 4 link mounts Kris at Posies determined that I had 9 degree rod ends so I got a new 4 link bar & rod end from them. While I was waiting for it to come in I decided to try my luck at the remaining 3 bars. 1 of them would turn freely but the other 2 wouldn't. I already had one new one on the way so I was going to see if I could salvage the rod ends by splitting the bars with a die grinder to get the rod ends out & just order 2 more bars. I got them out but the threads were gaulded & ruined. After looking at everything I realized the to adjust this with one rod end not straight that I would have to take the bar completely out if the rod end only needed a 1/2 turn because of the degree offset. After many years of drag racing & tuning my 4 link rear drag car suspension I decided I needed to upgrade the 4 link bars. I found some chrome alloy swedge tubes from Speedway that are threaded in both ends so I got 4 of them 8 new rod ends knowing I got one from posies that probably won't get used. I will find a use for it some day like the rest of the things that I have accumulated over the years the same way. Today the brown truck delivered the goods from Speedway only 3 days later than the speedy delivery I paid extra for. I got it all assembled & put about 7 degrees of rearward axle tilt in it. Finally the car drives good now, no more road walking, no more pulling to the left the to the right. Just wondering if anyone has used the Speedway swedge tubes for this purpose? They seem pretty strong & have threaded bungs welded in instead of threaded tubes like the 4 link kits come with.
Glad you got your car driving good... it can be frustrating trying to get everything sorted out...The swedged tubes are for front axle use.... They work well..... Look at the front end of a Sprint car ... They all use them...
hemihotrod66 I did put some anti-seize on the threads of the new rod ends. And yes I managed to get it all over pretty much everything that I touched.lol
Just a thought... If the caster was out of whack by more than a little and the spring pack and cross member caster were correct to begin with, a lot of bar adjusting can twist the spring/shackles more than I would be happy with. I can't comment on yours, but sometimes a wedge at the top of the spring pack can put things where they need to be. As long as that doesn't then bind the pack in the cross member. It all inter relates.
X38 When I took off the 4 link bars the axle moved back a little. I loosened the batwings when I adjusted new bars & nothing looks to be in a bind. The spring shackles look straight & not binded up either. I didn't use a lot of force getting 7 degrees. I got it by turning the 4 link bars by hand. I don't think it will need a wedge. I think whoever set it up to begin with just did it incorrectly. The car had a lot of other problems due to poor workmanship. Sad thing is a older gentleman purchased it for a lot more than what he sold it to me for. After he bought it & found out it wasn't a good driver he knew it would probably cost a lot of money to get it fixed so he didn't get much enjoyment out of it. He kept it for 6 years & trailered it around. I've had it a little over 2 months & it has kept me pretty busy straightening things out on it.
I totally agree. And the addition of adjustable spring perches can take some of that stress off the spring shackles as well. Often overlooked is having a panhard bar in good working condition. Also, a steering damper (SoCal type) can really smooth out your steering.
"Model A driving like it was drunk" Yeah, this happens more often than people let on. It is todays gas. Ethanol is a form of alcohol and cars are just like people ... some can handle their alcohol and some can't. Do the math ... E-15 has 15% alcohol in it, the average American beer has between 4.0 and 6.1 % alcohol content. I seriously doubt you'd be able to walk a straight line after ingesting several gallons of 15% so ...
No, it's a sideways shock absorber. Some factory cars had them, such as VW Beetles. Dulls down shaky steering so-to-speak.
On a solid axle set-up, a panhard bar is a stabilizer designed to reduce the side-to-side roll of a vehicle caused by spring-flex an/or shackle movement. The steering damper/stabilizer is basically a shock absorber that mounts to the tie-rod and will reduce bump-steer and/or oscillation (death wobble) of a vehicles steering.
I seriously doubt that you'd be alive after drinking several gallons of 15% ethanol. I'm not so sure I wanna go drinking with you now...
WHAT???? E10 is gasoline with 10% ethanol content. E15 is gasoline with 15% ethanol content. The ethanol content of most of the gasoline sold in the United States does not exceed 10% by volume.
Sorry, my mistake. Here in Ontario Canada, as far as I am aware, we have gas (the expensive stuff), then we have gas containing 5% ethanol and gas containing 10% ethanol. I wrongly assumed E85 meant 15% ethanol and 85% gas. I should really read the label before I pour my next one I shall do two things now ... one is edit my original post and two, apologize for derailing this thread
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