managed to get the car running and took it for a 1 mile drive before heading right back. car has wayy too much steering slop, the steering wheel is no where close to straight when the wheels are pointed dead ahead, she pulls instantly to the right if i let go of the wheel, and the shocks - if any lol - float up and down like a fat kid diving onto a waterbed for a twinkie. was still kinda fun though! so before i go off buying new bits or swapping to a new front end setup, any basic procedures i can do to even get to a base level? i ordered a service manual but it isnt here yet. and for a worst case scenario - if the whole front end needs to be rebuilt does it make sense to go with fatman fab or something to get the M2 setup etc. I know those arent traditional parts but i plan on keeping this car and want it to be safe, dependable and get down the highway ok. a VERY quick glance at rebuild costs is about 1/2 the cost of a weld in/bolt in IFS conversion. i would rather spend more one time if thats the best way than to spend nickels and dimes trying to get it right. - jason
My 41 drove the same way when I drove it home after buying it, I ditched the stock knee action stuff and got a Chassis Engineering MII setup and used a Flaming River power rack. Drives very well now.
I'm in the process of changing out my OEM front on my '48 Fleetline to an M2 setup. The cost to rebuild was within $100 of replacing with original style parts, and even after a rebuild I've basically got a brand-new 60 year old front end. I went with Chassis Engineering for a crossmember, since the original front was bolted in and I didn't see any reason to reinvent the wheel. Ordered from JPL and got the same price CE quoted, but JPL included shipping in the cost. Showed up in just a couple of days.
in the '60's my '41 hopped down the road we called it the "FROG". it still has the same front end on it and i drive the shit out of it! get it up on jack stands and check it out is it shot? I'll bet its ok, if its drivable??? the '41 had an interesting steering arm that had rubber in it. well that was all shot. not shure about yours but I welded it solid! can you get the grease out of the steering box? pump it full of stiff GUN grease (grease gun) and adjust the box (set the worm gear as close as needed) there is a good chance your tierods are rebuildable? not sure.. does that car have tube shocks???? if not fab up some mounts and put some new shocks on it. give your self about 1/8 toe in now let use know how it drives????
what did you expect ?? thats how they were built , they all did that with some wear and tear, i had one 50 year ago and it was a bouncing jackrabit then
One of the hazards you run into with these old rigs is that they usually come with worn out suspension. As the others said above the cost of rebuilding that suspension completely is right at matching the cost of swapping in one of the MII style front ends and it may be more if you have to pay labor to have it done. If you were planning on a suspension swap later I'd say that now is that later time.
Don't even bother with the stock stuff, do the MustangII. I would never recommend FatMan stuff, they comprimise the geometry too often for my tastes. The problem with the stock stuff is two fold. The steering geometry on those cars with the two seperate tie rods sucked right out of the box... Badly! They hadn't quite figured it out at that point quite yet. Then there is the knee action upper arm/shock thing that leaked oil from the year after it was born and never seemed to be stiff enough to control the bounce. Things did improve with the next generation of this front end design in the '49-'54 cars, but only marginally. Not worth the time for a transplant whereas a properly installed MustangII will make the car drivable and happy in todays traffic. I still prefer using a stock Pinto/MustangII crossmember when I do the transplant, but I live in the dessert southwest where I can still get them anywhere.
The Jalopy Journal
