Made some progress this weekend. Axle arrived Friday late afternoon and it was go time. Brakes and rotors and shock kit on. Going to set motor and build trans crossmember before i mount the sway bar kit and panhard bar. Tires are a little wide for my taste, but got all 4 for $50. Will work for now. Almost finished with the lower end on the flattie, bearings checked good, and i found a later style oil pump and pickup in my stash. Hope to have it in by Tues Sent from my LG-LS993 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Towers are only 8 inches above the frame. Looks tall with nothing else to compare it to. Sent from my LG-LS993 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Alright, mocked up the trans and motor tonight. Looks like i will not have to split the wishbones, but i will have to make some notches for the solenoid and governor. Dont know yet, haven't got under it to tell, but thinking i may have to c notch one side of the wish bone. Anything wrong with that ?
Have another question for those who know, does this spring look to compressed? It had 14 leaves when it came off the car. Book showed should of had 12. I took 5 of the 14 out, so i have 9 now. Too much?
I dont know if this will help or not, but Chassis engineering sells a bracket to drop the rear mount point of the wishbone a couple inches. If you can see it in my attachment, its the lowermost photo. While Im here, do you or anyone else know where to purchase the four main body mounting rubber pads? I got a kit for the smaller frame rubber mounts but have not found the main 4 (or the 8 for the running boards either)
That is the same kit I bought for my 41. It does not include the 8 running board pads OR the 4 main body mount pads. I bought mine fro Obsolete and classic parts. I called them and they did not sell or know who sold these rubber mount pads.
For the body to frame mounts and running board mounts check with Sacramento Vintage Ford, Mac's, Early ford Store and C&G in San Diego. I had to buy 2 sets to get everything that I needed but that was a while ago so they might have it all in one kit.
Looks like the X member box might make access to the governor a little challenging. Hopefully it will at least fit in the space. You have to allow for a little twisting from all of that flathead torque too. As for the the solenoid/wishbone issues. I am no expert but I would be reluctant to cut and notch the wishbone. The spacer would be helpful but may change your front axle camber a little. I don't think there is all that much movement of the wishbone that close to the pivot point but that is just an assumption. It would seem that the lower the car the less movement you will get out of the wishbone. When working on that front axle and spring height stuff keep in mind that you still have over 1000 ponds of body to add on which will lower the car some more. I kept watching mine get lower and lower as I added weight to the car. I eventually I had to swap from the reversed eye spring to a standard spring to get tire clearance.
Got a few more big ticket items out of the way this weekend. Got my new fuel tank installed and the fuel line run up to the engine. I had to go with an electric fuel pump since the mechanical pump hits the front cross member with the engine mount setup I used. But no big deal, I've run electric pumps before without any problems. I also got the rear shocks and brackets mounted and installed. Just waiting for the body pads I ordered to come in and the body will be going back on. I also ordered the front shocks and mounting brackets today along with the pan hard bar for the front suspension but I can finish that with the body mounted. I wanted to get as much done on the chassis before putting the body on. Obviously, its so much easier doing all this from the top instead of crawling under the car!
Also, still had some day light left so I decided to lower the body onto a safer work area. The floor boards are in very good shape but had a lot of surface rust. I crawled under and got my black and decker grinder going with a wire wheel. What a nasty dirty job!! I got about 3/4 of the bottom of the floor boards done when the grinder gave up the ghost!...lol... I sprayed an etching primer on what I got done and will spray paint or undercoat it when I get a new grinder and finish up the back part. You can kinda see in the first photo the surface rust I still need to address. But...still got a lot done today!
I just installed a similar pump on my 40. Mine was branded K&N but otherwise looks identical. Much quieter than my previous red pump. Much smaller too.
Ok...Got a lot done today.....I put together a set up for my front shocks. After taking measurements I ordered the upper shock mount brackets, shocks and lower spring mounted brackets from Speedway motors. It all worked out perfectly. Looks good too! Here are the Speedwaymotors part numbers: upper shock bracket PN 91636001, lower shock mount bolts: PN 91036095, Lower spring perch shock mount brkt.: PN 91036120-pln, and lastly, the shocks PN: 91046221. The upper shock brackets are a bolt on type, but I plan on running a weld on them. I also installed the front Panhard bar to go along with my 4 bar set up. It was possibly one of the simplest things I have had to do so far.... Also, a question was asked about my solution for finding the body mount pads, this was my answer: I could NOT find any company that sold the 12 body mount pads made for the 41 Ford. They include the 8 pads for the running boards and the 4 MAIN pads for mounting the body. I determined from the kit that I did get, that two of the pads would be perfect for these locations. Well I didnt want to purchase 6 more kits at about 40 bucks each just to the pads I needed!! I found out that ALL these kits that are sold by various companies, all come from Dennis Carpenter restoration parts. So I went directly to the supplier. I explained what I wanted and the item number as noted on the instruction sheet that came with the pads I already purchased. They put together a package containing only the 12 pads that I needed and mailed it to me for about 20 bucks. I have them on the chassis now. I can scan and post the installation diagram for you and show you the pads I ordered if you want. Also, Im not going to use the original gauges, so I purchased a universal fuel gauge sending unit. It reads from 240 ohm full to 33 ohms empty which is the standard for modern aftermarket fuel gauges. The one I ordered is a Dorman# 55818. I got mine on Ebay, for 26 bucks shipped, but Advance auto also sells this product. It will work with most all aftermarket fuel gauges. I will wire it up and run it to the dash board so when I do get gauges it will be a simple plug and play. I want to have as much done as possible before the body goes back on. I hope this info is helpful to others doing a similar build. Just ask if you need any specific details.
Making some progress. Found a old trans part to make a blister with. Had lots of porosity in the weld today. I'm sure it's from the paint, even after grinding before. The frame plate will cover the left, but in tree air on what to do with the govonor side
The other day I installed a universal sending unit into the new gas tank, the vent line and a new filler hose. (I also ordered a digital gage set up for the dash which will work with the sending unit) Then I finished up all the welding on the rear axle spring mount pads and also welded all the bolt on parts. The parallel leaf springs, motor mounts and the front and rear shock mounts were all bolt on assemblies, but I feel better also having a few beads of weld to keep anything from coming loose in the future. With all that done, there is no longer any need for the body to be sitting up on stands. So yesterday I positioned the chassis under the body (I had been working on the chassis for over 8 hours) and called it a night. Today I got the body lined up with all the mounts and lowered the body down on the chassis. The body mounts I special ordered worked out great! Cant wait to drop the engine/trans back in tomorrow to see how she's gonna sit. The rear looks to be about 2 inches lower using the new leaf spring set up. Here's a few pics. The first one is a shot of one of the body mounts I had special ordered. Seems to be a perfect fit!
Looks like you are making some good progress. I'm bogged down cleaning out the water jacket on the flathead. I did manage to find the right 90 weight gear oil for the trans. Also got my fuel tank mounted up tonight. Looks like you have a very soild body to work with also. Keep up the good work! Sent from my SM-J327P using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Thanks bud...Glad to hear you are also making progress. I got a few rust issues to address, but Im not planning on building a show car... Gonna be black satin and pinstripes .....As long as I know she will stop and go safely, that is my main concern. I think I have accomplished that.
I was thinking of these on my 41 also. it has a dropped axle and steering arms which put the tie rod below the scrub line with 15" wheels. I want to mount the tie rod on top of the steering arms instead of below. Is there room with the 4 bar to do this, I know with the wishbones it'll wedge right up against it if I try. thanks
I have the dropped axle and dropped arms on my car. I am pretty sure my tie rods are not lower than my 15 inch wheels. Also using a reversed eye spring. I can double check and measure when I get home if you'd like. I may have goofed, but I think I checked safe.
My axle is stock but I have a reversed eye front spring. If I mount the tie rod on top (I plan on changing to rod ends) I have plenty of clearance. But the steering rod is still too low. I will have to either bend the stock steering arms up a little or use dropped steering arms that I bought. Im pretty sure if I just heat and bend it will work out fine though. Here's a couple pics of what it looks like now.....( its sitting a little high because the engine and trans are out)
thanks which steering arms do you have . I ended up with the ce arms because of clearance issue with the magnum axle
It looks like plenty of clearance now. I thought you hade the dropped axle in the car already. Did you taper the holes in the top of those steering arms to get them to seat? Also the 4 bars look to be pointed downward or is it the angle of the picture? Thanks for taking those pics by the way I appreciate it
Im going to drill the holes out to 5/8" and use rod ends. The four bar looks like it does because there is no weight on the front end with the engine and trans out. As of right now, I dont plan on using a dropped axle. It looks low enough to me with just the new spring and reversed eye. I wont be able to really decide until its back together to see how the stance is.
I double checked it out last night and all is well. I have magnum arms and magnum axle. The rod height minus wheel height gives 1 inch clear(not counting zirc fitting). I also have plenty of steering linkage room with the radius rod.
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