Caution: early Ford bolt on dropped spindle arms

Bolt on dropped spindle arms. They are suppose to be safer then heating and bending the stock arms, are they though?
My brother and I were driving my 39 pickup the other day out to a guys house to pick up some car parts. Everything was fine till when I was dropping my brother off backing down his driveway. The front tires ruffled up the gravel a little bit. I pulled forward and everything seemed fine. They drug again when I backed in my driveway. I was surprised to look under and see my passenger side bolt on steering arm just about ready to fall off (cross steer, so also the one hooked to my steering box). I figured the bolts loosened up, nope, pulled the threads right out of the arms. one bolt pulled out, the arm bent until it hit the axle. The other bold was barely hanging on. Probably a good thing the axle was there to kind of stop everything. I had checked the torque on the bolts last Fall (Grade 8). Thee day before this happened i had it up on a lift. I was visually checked everything and even shook the arms, they were tight.
I kept thinking it must have pulled loose right before we got to my brother's house. There is no way that arm would go down the road about ready to fall off like that. Well when we left the guys house with the car parts it was dark. He called the next day and said looked like my tires drug a little when I backed around in his driveway. I instantly felt sick! Its a good drive out of town to this guys house. Very nice drive but it consists of: Divided 55mph windy highway, drop offs, a river, dam, trees, etc. It could have gone bad if the other bolt would have completely let go. I think I will go back to dropping stock arms. Anyone else have any problems with those arms?

 

Dang close!!!!

 

Whose are they ? We have two cars with them on them right now.

Don

 

Speedway

 

Did the bolts break, pull out, or losen up ?
Didn't that missing bolt make some racket bouncing around in there ?

 

Hotrod said the bolt pulled out of the (soft) threads. Then the arm bent...

I love the aftermarket stuff that's such an improvement on Genuine Ford Vanadium steel.

Some, yes. Most, no.

 

Have never seen the threads pull out but have seen the bolts loosen after a time--a 40 I did developed a little shimmy one day--bolts had gotten loose---now use locktite on them--no issues since

 

Threads pulled out. It still drove great, no noise!

 

while not as nice looking , i prefer the Chassis Engineering arms with the through bolt holes when i use a bolt on steering arm. no blind holes for me

but , heated and bent original fords are the way to go if you can

 

I have used lots of those arms and have never had a problem except when I had a bolt that was just a hair too long and bottomed out and broke. Locktite helps. The stock arms are not long enough when putting a dropped axle on a fat fendered car. I only use Magnum or Superbell also, not Speedway.

 

I've built all my cars with Ford spindles and steering arms. If the arms are heated and shaped correctly and allowed to slowly cool there should be no problem. I agree with belle, if you need to use aftermarket arms buy the forged Chassis Engineering parts with the through bolts.

 

was it made in china i wonder, by 5 footers with little or no education or qualifacations

 

The threads pulled out of one hole on one arm? Throw up your arms and say i gve up, i'm going back to stock heated and dropped arms. You don't say who made them, did you pull them off and inspect them closely? Do this and post some pics and tell us which brand. I'm not picking on you i would just like to have a little more info if possible.

 

I'm building my own right now...maybe I will make them bolt through...

 

Yikes!!! Glad that didn't make itself apparent at speed!

 

Exactly. Guess where the others are made. (not Detroit)

 

The very reason I use stock parts whenever possible....

 

Ok, I'm just kicking ideas around here, not suggesting anything you did. How long was the bolt that was threaded into that spot ? Reason I ask is, it is very easy to use one that is too long and it bottoms out and damages the threads, or if it is too short not enough threads go into the arm.

The biggest problem I have had with running a bolt through an early Ford spindle and backing plate from the inside is that the area where the bolt head seats is not perfectly flat. It is tapered a little and I have had to make some tapered washers to get the bolt to seat up nice and flat. The upper steering arm on my 27 fastens in with bolts from the inside and I had to do that with it when I mounted it lots of years ago. I will have to do the same thing when I finally mount the steering arms on the new rpu I am building.


The original square headed Ford bolts were made to lock into the tapered center section of the spindle to keep them from turning while you tightened up the four nuts on the outside. When you run a half inch hex head bolt through there the head is larger and part of it hits on that tapered section, not seating flat.
Don

 

They came from Speedway. It says there are forged steel, but that china steel is not the same as Henry steel. I'm not giving up and going back to bending them. I bend my own axles and spindles already. This pickup already had the arms on it when I got it, so I was going to leave it since it was already done. Not now though. If I'm going to trust it, it is going to be one forged piece.
"These 1-3/4" drop forged steel steering arms are popular on Model T - 1934 Fords with 4" dropped axles and four-bar or hairpin radius rod suspensions. Will attach to '37-'48 Ford spindles and accept 11/16" Ford "tapered" tie rod ends (both the top and bottom are tapered to allow tie rods to mount above or below arm as needed). You can drill-through with a 5/8" bit to use spherical rod ends."

 

Good point Don. They were the right length. He used stock grease shields with allen headed bolts with lock washers. If you use allen head, the shoulder clears the spindle flange.

 

Harv, His second post (#4) states they are Speedway's.

 

I have been suspect of the deep drop bolt on arms. The mounting bolts hold the steering loads but new bending loads are put on the bolts by having the load so far below the bolt holes. It would rock the arms about the bolts and try to pull the bolts out or fatigue the bolts. I put a set on a car and added an extra arm that went up to a bolt hole on the top of the spindle.

 

I do not have college engineering education, but what kind of pull would it take to pull threads completely out?

It just sounds like it was loose first, and worked the bolt around a bit, damaging the threaded bore.

It seems impossible that you could pull those threads in an engineering test in a lab.

 

Say no more.

 

+1 to me it sounds like this is more logical than just having the threads pull out. Or the treads were damaged during instillation, partially striped? I don't know, just seems odd to me.

 

Chassis Engineering makes a good product in my opinion.

 

Very possible they lossened up or something... Either way, I had it up on a lift the day before. You have to remember where the leverage point is on those bolts. It's not like grabbing and pulling straight out on something, it's like using a claw hammer to pull a nail out. They have leverage working against them like earlier mentioned.

 

Just looking at the pictures, it looks like the bolt fell out, or the head sheared off. Wouldn't the hole for the bolt be ob-longed a bit if it was pulled out of the spindle? I'm not trying to call you out, I've just never seen something like this. Kinda of has me spooked about the superbell's I have on my truck.

 

are you sure those aren't cast?
none of my speedway catalogs are claiming those type of steering arms are forged.
perches and lower shock mounts - yes.
but not those type of steering arms.
and how far in was your bolt? how many threads were engaged?
doesn't seem fair to blame this on speedway, without all the facts known.

 

The one bolt was laying inside with grease shield with the threads off the spindle arm gawled to the bolt threads