Hot Rods Steering arm

Not sure what they were thinking doing this, maybe someone here has a clue. I'm going to buy new pitman arms and redo it back to stock. They raised the front suspension up and bagged it. I'm getting alot play with those heim joints

 

It's on my 39 chevy

 

That is seriously scary. Take all that stuff off and put stock tie rods back in it. I'd guess they were trying to keep the tie rods level after dropping it. Does it have dropped uprights?

 

No they did the suspension like this. Cut a section out to get it lower

 

Should I run drop steering arms?

 

If you can find a strong dropped steering arm to take the place of that atrocity, then do it. But also realize that actual automotive tie rod ends are a better part for street use than those Heim joints.

 

I'm going to swap those heims for tie rods but I don't understand why they decide to add those spacers on the steering

 

They added the spacers because the angle was one of the following: to extreme an angle, was hitting something during it's articulations or turning left to right or was binding due to the stock tie rod end not having enough articulation. I will say that it looks like you have a lot of inward camber on the top of the wheels. Can't imagine it handles very well. If the Geometry for the front end is that far out of whack I do not think proper tie rod ends alone are going to solve your problem. Maybe temporarily, but I imagine the new parts will fail prematurely. I hope I am wrong in my assumption for your sake.

Only thing I would say is maybe check this website for some of the parts you may need. If you can Not find what you are looking for Maybe call them up they probably have something that will help you get out of that setup.

https://www.spcalignment.com/

 

I ordered a complete rebuilt kit for front but was hoping to fix this issue while I wait for parts

 

There is a whole lot going on with that front end. One thing i see that may be a problem is it looks like they may have flipped the uprights upside down to get it to drop. The king pin location on the upright should be much closer to the lower control arm. Like the picture below.



You may want to look into a pair of these from Fat Man Fab or Chevs of the 40s.


Check this article from rod and custom, it may help you. Yes it's for a 49 but it is the same design and some of the parts interchange.
https://www.hotrod.com/articles/0912rc-1949-chevy-suspension/

 

Looks like to me they were trying to keep the tie rods on the same plane as the lower control arms.

 

I pulled the spacer and ran it without it. Notice at my ride height the arms are sitting at angle. With the bags aired all way up the arms are level so guessing I need to run drop steering arms

 

Anybody ever modify there own arms?

 

We drop the original arms on 37-48 Ford spindles all the time. The forged steel can be heated and bent. Get them hot enough to be able to bend (with lots of force required), but not too hot so they are drippy.