my frame is resting on my tie rod, do i bend tie rod arms down?

I am building a 46 Ford bobber truck and i just instaled my front end. the problem is that the frame is resting on the tie rod and the only solution i see is to either put some spacers between the heim joints/rod arms or bend the tie rod arms down to gain clearance. any suggestions?

 

foregot pics

 

You don't have too many choices. When you have that much interferance BEFORE you put the engine in, and your spring collapses another 1 1/2" under the weight of the engine, bending the steering arms isn't going to do it. You will need to buy a set of deep drop bolt on steering arms.

 

you need dropped steering arms .

 

Yea just heat them up and bend them down...Speedway motors used to have some sort of instructions in their catalog on this. Make sure the boss for the rod end is parallel to the frame also. In other words you may have to heat each one twice..once near the kingpin and once near the end to square the end back up...Hope this helps.

 

I think I would go back to the drawing board

 

Looks like you will need to drop the steering arms or get dropped steering arms

too slow!!

 

dropped steering arms it is thanks

 

I am building a T with the same basic ront end, everything I have read is that you have to bend the arms

 

Superbell , Mr Roadster all do them , I used a set of extra drop arms as to clear the wishbones which you have to do if you are running a 4inch dropped axle.

 

Its easy to tell a guy to heat 'em up and bend them, but what hasn't been addressed is if you do this proceedure, you'll need to follow some guidelines to heating cast. Heat them, bend to the shape you need, keep them parallel, then immediately dump them into a bucket of sand, totally submerged. There are several other ways to allow the cast to cool slowly, but this is probably the cheapest way if you choose to go this route.

 

Likewise..................

 

Times 2 twice, so I guess that would be squared.

 

Are your spindles upside down? Even bending things probably wouldn't give enough clearance if you hit a good sized bump with the added weight of the drivetrain etc.

 

Turn them around towards the front if you can.

 

I agree.. Any way you can get that in front of the spring? That would clear the frame.

 

i have a cross steering system, is it possible to run the tie rod up front and have the drag link on the other side of the spring? is there a steering bracket that would allow me to do that?

 

I have no idea about how to handle what you are building, but if you moved it all forward (switched left to right arms off the hubs), would it be possible to move the gearbox outwards also?

Just throwing out ideas.

 

Thats a stupid idea. Ackerman. Do a search.

Do not put your tie rod in front of the axle....stick with the dropped arms.

 

Might try moving your arms forward and on top and run one behind and lower with the box you mount to clear the frame. Just another ideal.

 

i have a 6 inch dropped axle, does it matter if the tie rod is between the hairpins? ive seen it done alot.

 

Seen them work before. Ackerman is out the door on this one.

 

Seen them done and seen them actually work are two different beasts. This guy can't figure out he needs dropped steering arms and now you want him to fuck with Ackerman?!

 

Posting anything on the thread is a comment, it's simple, use the back button if you don't approve.

Dropped arms are your only solution.

 

Show some pictures of the steering arms on the spindles

 

After thinking about this, putting arm in front will possibly create a bump-steer? Behind it would be a lot less of an effect.

But your situation, I really don't know what needs to be done.

 

Holy sh%t....

Hmmm...yeah not good.

I would come up with a solution that would not interfere with the steering regardless of the position of the frame during the complete travel of the suspension.

If you just lower the tie rod then you could still hit it with the frame when you compress the suspension on a full "bottom out" condition.

Not good...

 

do it....drives like a charm...tie rod out front...no big deal...ackermen smackermen

 

lol...

 

why is it a bad idea to put the tie rod in front of the axle?