Projects Free engine followed me home today

I got both tie rod ends off the pieces of the old tie rod and apart and cleaned today.I believe they will both be usable.My new Macs auto tie rod however was a different matter. The threads on both ends were damaged badly enough the tie rod ends wouldnt start on.I ended up putting the thing in the lathe,grinding a threading bit and very carefully cleaning up the threads.Not impressed with the "quality" of this piece. At least the ends screw on now.

 

The spring shackle mount holes were pretty wallered out so I thought I would try fixing them.I bored the holes out a bit,made a sleeve on the lathe and turned it to be a light press fit.Put some Loctite 680 on it and pressed it in.Seems like it will work.I hope so anyhow.Unfortunately the spring shackles are beyond any reasonable repair.I suppose I could cut the pins off and cut a grease groove in a grd 8 bolt and replace the pins that way.

 

Got the front spring apart,cleaned up and PORd today.I mounted it up and it looks OK .I found a set of new front spring hangers on egay for like 23 dollars.They should be along shortly.I made some new bushings for the ends of the master leaf.I fitted a new ball to the pitman arm today,cut the old ball off,drilled the hole to .490" and dressed the shaft on the ball to .493 " .That gave it right at .003" interference,heated the end of the pitman arm and pressed it in with the press.I will weld it where the shaft comes through but I really dont need to! I am right at that point where the pile will become a roller ( minus brakes) in a pretty short time.

 

Well--A few days longer than I thought.I ended up splitting the front wishbone and am waiting for the ends and bungs to get here.I could have made the bungs,but for what they cost I didnt feel like standing in front of the lathe that long.

 

A good day today! I called on a craigslist ad about some A front brake drums.went to see them,guy there is well into his 70s(think he said 75) and is building a really nice A V-8 sedan.Some real nice work too.He spent about an hour showing me his car and talking about a 37 ford he and his buddies built to drag race in the late 50s etc.The A drums were really good,never been machined.Turned out he also had a usable set of drums for the read end I have for the speedster,he just threw those in.Like I said,a good day!

 

Sounds like a nice guy.

 

Cool thread, i'm also a fan of the flathead mopars. I put a '53 218 ci in my '39 Plymouth coupe. Just curious, where did you end up getting the dual carb intake and split exhaust headers?

-Chris

 

Just catching up with this thread, and it's really close to something I'll like to do when I finish (or mostly finish) my Olds. I like the concept of the car, appreciate the adaptation of whatever you can get your hands on, but mostly am amazed at how you keep getting the right stuff at the right price. You must be a personable dude!

On the rear suspension, it seems like it might be tough to find short enough parallel springs that aren't real stiff for how light this rear end will be. I mean short parallels with knee shocks... is that what you're thinking? Or the quarter elliptical that would lengthen the wheel base more than you want? I'm curious to see what you come up with.

 

Chris the intake came from Summit and the headers from stovebolt.Tom Langdon at stovebolt is always a great help with any of this stuff.He also has headers for the big Chrysler flat 6.I would not neccesarily chosen the 218 for this project but its hard to turn down a free engine and trans that is the right era for what you are doing! Nomad he is a very nice old man,about 9 years older than me.Told me he grew up in the LA area and has been a car guy all his life.He has an interesting OT car too,MGB with a 4.3 chevy v-6 and a T-5.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

Fadi I dont know if I am what you would call personable,mostly just big and ugly There is a lot of cheap stuff around here that nobody really wants because its pretty rough or cut up enough that the resto guys dont want it.Thats the stuff I am using.The brake drums were just luck,most of the shit I get requires pretty extensive work before I can use it.I still dont know how I am going to hang that rear end,I am leaning more and more toward mounting it solid just because it is simple and I can set it at whatever height I want.I reckon I will get the front end on it,bolt the wheels on and set it up with a jack under the rear so I can move it up and down to see how it looks.I am very much open to ideas\suggestions.

 

Is mounting the rear on coilovers an option?

 

I thought about that,but the car is at this point mostly pre 1950 and I would like to maintain that appearance if I can.I recall coil overs becoming common in the 60s?If earlier I would like to be educated.The car is just too short to run semi elliptics,I like the way quarter elliptics look but never ran any,so I have no idea how they behave.I can run the transverse leaf but I need to find some more leaves for it as I only have the master leaf and 2 others.Not sure if I really want that either.Thank you for the suggestion.

 

Well I got the front axle on the frame tonight.Barring the unexpected I hope to have it on the ground tomorrow with (front) wheels on it.

 

So whats the issue with going with a transverse leaf spring set up in the rear? I don't think i caught that part.

-Chris

 

Interesting read.

 

I dont have enough leaves to make up the spring-just the master leaf and 2 others.Havent found any for sale,just complete springs. Also the rearI am using is set up for semi elliptics.Poor excuses-I really just want to do something different I reckon.

 

Could one of you folks tell me what,if anything is wrong with these pictures? I drilled a couple of pieces of scrap to mock up the radius rod mounts.It is 7 inches from the bottom of the frame rail to the center of the mount hole.Seems I dimly remember about a 4" distance there the last time I did this??

 

Pretty good day.Got the thing to roll(wheelbarrow style) .Steering box seems to work fine as does front suspension.Note hi tech field expedient steering wheel and trendy pink wheels I believe I will mount the rear end solid for the moment just because its so easy and can be done without harming anything. I can change it when I decide how I want to do it.

 

Stein...Mock up the height of the front with spring loaded: (when the engine/transmission are in it)
Spring will flatten, and the wishbones can be mounted 'higher' at rear.
Actually, they should be mounted more like 4" below rail, caster can finally be set by 'V-ing' the wishbones behind the joints of the yokes, then welding them up. 5*-7* positive caster at ride height. (front and back)
Be sure of total finished curb height before final welds...
I'd bet a want ad for some 'A' leaves (or better, a '26-'27 T spring, they're lower, and the leaves are not as wide as A's, so can ride 'softer' when leaves are 'adjusted' in number!)

 

Mike thank you for your help!That is some good info. I had mentioned a couple of posts back that I dimly remembered about 4",glad to know I remembered that much at least.

 

I reckon I am going with the transverse leaf.Could one of you please tell me the distance between the spring mounts on a model A rear end ? My spring is 42 1\4" C to C setting on the bench.

 

49.5" perch to perch centre on a model a,48.5" c to c on a 40 spring behind rear,either will work fine.

 

Thank you very much!

 

Well after several days work I got the rear end in the car.A lot of the delay came from the magic smoke escaping from my stick welder.I am sure you are all aware that electricity is actually smoke.If the smoke in the wires escapes your electricity is gone.I had to go out to the big shed and dig out another welder,then it turned out the plugs were different so I had to install a new wall outlet,etc.Now I need some 1" or so tubing for radius rods.I am out,so I reckon I will search tomorrow.

 

I started building rear radius rods today.I got a couple of pieces of 1" tubing and a couple of heim joints.Ended up making the end plugs that accept the heim joint and the rear mount bolt out of a fairly late model HD axle that was in the scrap box.What a piece of crap steel! Hard and soft spots all through it.Didnt use to be like that.I wanted to mount the radius rods off the spring plates on the 46 rear end,so I had to make a mount for that.Here I have the axle turned down to be a drive fit in the tubing and am parting off the 4 plugs.Here are the plugs,2 have to be bored and tapped 1\2" X 20 and 2 have to be slotted to accept the tab that bolts to the rear mount.Here is the plug driven into the front of the radius rod after drilling and tapping.Each of the plugs has a hole drilled clear through it and the tube and a piece of 1\4" round stock in the hole as a rivet. And after welding.Between the drive fit,the pin and the weld I am hoping the ends stay in place-------And the rear mount with the rod on it. Last the rod and mount mocked up on the chassis.

 

The brackets for the radius rods will not stand up to any torque run through that rear axle. And mounting them through the frame rail is also not advisable, it's only about 0.125" thick.

 

Thank you for your advice.I had figured on using a piece of 3\16" plate inside the frame where the radius rod bolts on.I have done it that way before with good results. Please tell me why the rear mounts wont work .I suspect you are thinking they will bend where the plate that bolts to the leaf spring plate is welded to the rest of the mount. I thought of that but am going to try it and see.If it does I can easily reinforce it.If it is something else please tell me.

 

They will want to fold where the spring pad and plate bolt together. Best bet is a bracket that gets welded all around the tube to control the axle wrap. The two links will also bend at the pinion tries to climb the ring gear, you will need links to the top of the tubes as well. Like this:

 

Thank you very much for your help.A perfect example of what makes the HAMB great! I didnt think the problem through. I was trying to avoid welding on the axle tubes ,but I believe I can see how to fix this.