I was looking at my setup today with my hope style steering arm on my 1929 ford coupe. I am runninga 4 ich drop axle, the speedway hoop steering arm. F1 front shock mounts and the lower shock mount that go on the bottom of the sprng pirches. I haven put a shock in the car yet but it seems to be when I turn the wheels all the way left then the steering arm will hit what ever shock I use? Is this common? does anyone have a idea for a good fix? I am also using an F1 steering box thru my frame and running fenders. Thanks Billy
I heat it up and bend arm down and also bump stops on axle might take care of problem,Do need to see picks
If you heat the hoop and bend it down be sure to heat the end out by the drag link attachment and bend it back parallel to the portion that comes out of the backing plate. Failure to do so may create a bind in one or both of the joints when going through the entire travel of the link during articulation of the suspension. Frank
we need pics of your problem...probably heat &bend , is your shock mount on the frame in the right place ???
I think you should put the shock on and see if you actually have a problem before proceeding. here ya go... this one was bent for the purpose of keeping the draglink parallel to the wishbone. I fail to see how bending the steering arm down is going to give you more shock clearance. Why is the arm so close to the shock? You can heat the uppers shock mount and bend it toward the frame a bit as well.
That explains a lot. So, the shock, when mounted, is more straight up and down putting the top/middle of the shock closer to the steering hoop. I dont think the shocks will work very well that way anyway. Death Wobble!
The shock still has angle, I cut the shock mount down which shortened it and bent it out just to clear the fender. What does most guys do when they run fenders.
Steering is more important than shocks. Do the steering right, then do something else with the shocks. More opportunity to wiggle the shocks around than the steering.
That makes it a little difficult as you are running fenders which limit everything. You may be able to move the shock brackets on the axle right to left so they point in rather than out, get a shorter shock and modify the frame brackets in length or move them up in front of the fender brace pointing back. Straight up and down mounting is fine for shocks, the lean out actually reduces the proper dampening action of the shock but looks "traditional" and is more attractive.
I have found a 5.5" steering arm that pete and jakes have, and am thinking of getting that. I believe with that it will pass the shock mounts. The upper shock mount it as far over as I can get it with the fenders on. The hoop style is 6" from back of spindle to center of hole and the pete and jakes one is 5.5". The hoop style has the extra material past the hole which the pete and jakes doesnt which nocks off around .75" overall length from the arm.
Yep. I had to do the same thing on a full-fendered 32. Even harder to fit in a shock with a cover on it, but I didn't want "street rod" shocks.
I had this problem on my 32 sedan. I was able to move the drag link to the top side of the the steering arm. The angle of the shock made it closer to the spindle on the lower side. I had just enough room thet way. Some after market dropped axles have less room between the spring perch holes and the king pin hole. this makes the problem even worse. On my car, the shocks had steel dust covers. I still had to put a dent in the dust cover for clearence.
Flip that bottom shock mount so it is on the left of the hairpin bolt, shock will lean in at the bottom
How about some early ford shocks that mount to the side of the frame and shock arm goes forward and connects to axel? I do not know there name they mount with two bolts to the frame rail.
I think your refering to Houilldai (sp) shocks. Stock on all early Fords and hydraulic action that resemble friction shocks. A very reasonable alternative to tube shocks as they are as traditional as it gets. Frank
What width of axle do you have fitted? Could that be your problem? This is a pic of mine before the shocks and fenders were fitted I did have problems with interference, but the mounts had to be modified to fit under the fender and I then fitted some bolt on mounts at the bottom of the pin. This gave me sufficient clearance and no possible binding.
That's sounds like the winner. There's too many things mixed up here. Fenders with highboy steering and shocks = Not working. Set up a cross steer, or change the style of shocks, or loose the fenders, or cut shock holes in the fenders. Easiest is change style of shocks.