Any body got a sure fire way to center the steering wheel and set the front wheel toe on a 1956 Ford F 100 pickup?
a) do an intro b) have the front end aligned by a competent shop - good ones ALWAYS center the wheel c) get a book and align it yourself (least desirable for people asking the question you have posed)
just to get you going,jack the truck up at the front axle.loosen the tie rod adjusting nuts.if its not way out of adjustment you may not need to take the tie rod ends out of the spindles.take a tape measure and get a reading on the distance between lh and rh tires on the front of tires then on the BACK of the front tires.adjust till there is a 1/8 diff in measurement.the front of the tires being in more by an 1/8 of an inch(toe in). ONCE THATS DONE.turining your steering wheel.count how many turns it takes to go from lock to lock split that in half.that shoul be center for your wheel.now,you have to adjust the drag link so that it get s your front wheels going straight along with keeping your steering wheel still centered.you may have to disconnect the drag link to get the front wheels pointing straight and the steering wheel centered. then adjust the drag link accordingly to fit in the space between the box and the spindle. its long winded but fairly simple.Im sure others will chime in.if they have'nt already.since Im a slow typer. good luck.
a sure fire way to center it is to remove the wheel center the front end and reinstall. may take a few trys
This is an easy one, a simple old hotrodders trick. Get a paper bag, fill it with flour and tear a one inch hole in the corner. Now drive down a straight piece of road, the wider the better, with the bag of flour in your lap at about 45-50 mph. Once you have the truck travelling in a perfectly straight line, turn the steering wheel so its perfectly centered while at the same time hanging your arm with the bag of flour in your hand out the window, allowing a trail of flour to pour out the corner hole. Keep driving until all 4 wheels are completely off the road and stop. If there's a ditch, it will stop the truck for you. Now get out and pace off the length of the flour trail from where you first turned the wheel to where it runs out of pavement *Note- if the line runs out before the edge of the pavement, you may not have had enough flour in the bag and you will have to try it again, maybe on a narrower road if you're short of flour*. Now count the # of paces from the start of the flour line to the edge of the pavement at a right angle, and the # of paces from that right angle point to the point where the flour meets the edge of the pavement. This will give you measurements to all 3 sides of a right angle triangle, and you can use this to calculate how far off the steering wheel is, simple right? For the alignment you will need a front end shop, but if the truck got stuffed in the ditch while lining up the steering wheel, its likely a good idea anyways. Don't forget to clean up all that flour, a white line leading to the ditch could be dangerous for other drivers, especially at night. Glad I could help, and welcome to the board.
^^^ Dave that is the best response I've read on the HAMB in a long time....(you owe me a can of Pepsi, and a roll of paper towels.)
Its up to us long time rodders to pass these tips on to the younger guys, or this knowledge could be lost forever. Now for guys with older carbs that suffer from vapour lock, here's how to find the boiling point of gasoline. For this you're gonna need a large pot with a nice tight lid, a campstove or barbecue.....
No, but the next time I am driving on the island at night, I am gonna be damn careful about the white line on the road!
440 Dave did you eat paint chip when you where a kid, that is to funny............... I needed a good laugh tonite... thank you...
No paint chips, but I did try to repair one of my fillings with the stick welder a couple weeks ago, boy that sure popped the wax outta my ears. Can't get my hair to lay flat anymore either.
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