Caution: early Ford bolt on dropped spindle arms

Looks like I know what I'm doing tomorrow......One more question though, did you happen to put some loctite on the bolts before you installed them?

 

That is a quote I pulled straight off Speedway's web site. I already tossed the bolts away, but there was probably an inch threaded into the arm. I'm not blaming anyone. I said, "Caution: early Ford bolt on dropped spindle arms". I did not mention any manufacturers good or bad when I started the thread. Someone asked where the arms were purchased.

 

I didn't install the arms, but deffinatly use red loctite.

 

Thank you. The Speedway haters are all over this one as you'd expect, but it's difficult for me to condemn a product based on an isolated incident without knowing all the facts, particularly since the part wasn't installed by the owner.
I want to see forensic photos of the hole and bolt if available.

Bob

 

I went back and really stared at the pic.


That was loose for a long time.

Take a look all around that bolt hole. Reddish/Rust color stained. Anyone who has been around working on stuff for decades has seen that rust dust staining where something was loose and twitching. Example besides a loose bolt: a crack will do that on a frame; it will leave the same exact stain.

I know that was loose, I'd bet the farm.

 

Bob, I will try to get you some when I tear down for the new spindles.

 

Pete & Jakes make some good arms.

 

You are correct that loose stuff will do that, like lug nuts on a truck. However, not the case here.
Here is different angle. it also shows how bent that arm is. Now are you going to say it came loose cause I don't wash the underside of my truck?
You owe me the farm! lol

 

Is any body checking the quality of the threads in any of these parts ?

 

I forgot to say, It was a ant farm. I will send it out to you ASAP

Were'd the rust stains go?

 

I was redoing my kingpins this weekend and found a bolt lose as well.Used red locktite as well.............

 

Haha!

 

The threads on the bolts still looked pretty good. The arms, obviously not.
This whole thing could be a number of things: loose bolts, cross threaded, over torque, under torque, torqued dry, metric and SAE threads matched together, bad manufactoring of arms or bolts, fatigue, abuse, human error, etc. I have my guess of what it was, but that doesn't matter. I just wanted to share so everyone keeps any eye out.

 

Dons Hot Rods comment about the spindle edge getting in the way of tightening the bolts reminded me- of grinding a flat on the side of a couple of lock washers that would fit into that place and give the bolt- in my case- nut a surface to sit on above the edge of the spindle... I wasn't concerned with the integritty of the lockwashers...
Karl

 

I like to use the chassis engineering dropped steering arms if im building something thats going that route, they have thru bolts, ive never had any come loose on that type.

a couple buddies of mine have steering arms like yours that came loose, 2 different cars. we lock-tighted them.

Regarding the radius in the spindle where the bolts go what i do is take the grinder and grind a a round notch into the round area where the backing plate pilots onto and i grind it big enough so that i can use hex head bolts, im not too keen on allen bolts, i dont ever really feel like i can put as much torque on them as regular bolts.

wheather or not you want to save you steering arm you could heat and bend it back into place and heli-coil it. you might even just think about heli-coiling the new ones. heli coils are very very strong.

 

The OP did what a good member is supposed to do, he alerted us to a problem he had so that we could keep an eye on ours. Without a metalurgist doing a failure analysis, we will never know what caused the problem, it could be the part and it could be something else.

In any event, thanks for giving us the heads up, those of us who are using similar arms can be a little more watchful of ours now.

Don

 

I know what you mean about the allens, but these are big 1/2". I have a socket drive for them so you can actually torque them up good. Huh, never new that about heli-coils. I always thought they were kind of weak. What makes them so strong? I am just going to bend another set of spindles. I would have more trust in them. Good to know the trick though : )

 

Exactly, thanks Don.

 

That's what I thought.

I had considered bolting and welding mine on.

 

I have a socket drive for em too, i just dont like em

when i ran the engine machine shop at my work we did alot of repairs with the heli-coil, even alot of head bolt block repairs (newer junk cadis with aluminum blocks) but i think it has something to do with the bolt not actually pulling on the original material and the insterts kinda wedge in there if that makes sense, at least thats my take on em. when ever im goin to put an aluminum intake on a car i always heli-coil all the hole weather they need it or not, just saves the trouble of one messing up once its on the motor. if you look at alot of the "good" aftermarket aluminum heads they come with all the hole heli-coiled alread.

JEFF

 

That makes sense. Thanks Jeff

 

Ive just used a set of SoCal dropped stainless ones with the through bolts and a nylock nut on the back side, the through bolt as opposed to the blind hole just seems a safer option in my opinion, at least you can see if the bolt has worked loose at a glance.

 

Helicoils are made to be used in softer material where strong threads are needed. Most common in aluminum and brass, less common in precipitation-hardening stainless steels and rare in steel itself. They are made from corrosion resistant stainless steel, most are cad plated and some have special coatings on them. A lot of the strength comes from the class of fit between the insert and where it's being put into.

Bob

 

Someone with a machine shop could do a hardness test of the part, but you would have to know what it was made of first, but short of having the actual composition down to the hardness, the only thing to do would to compare the hardness at the threaded region and a few other spots away from it.

I suspect sloppy threads were the probable cause. But who runs a thread gauge into a tapped hole of anything that they buy? And how good is the bolt that goes into the hole?

All you can do is rely on good assembly procedures to work in your favor. I like to use a flat washer to spread out the load, add a spot face if you have to and of course a lock washer or use safety wire. The red Loctite is pretty good too, but for a steering component, I'd use it in conjunction with a lock washer. And of course the proper torque.

Bob

 

Were they that gold colored steel that Speedway uses? That's some shady shit...

 

I lost the bolt on my steering arm on my second trip 30 years ago. I was lucky and it happened in a farming community. They had genuine John Deere bolts in their boxes. Ain't a parts store in my area that would have a 1/2" fine thread bolt in stock...they did. It was my fault from not torgueing every thing up after the initial test fitting. I heard the bolt hit the fender and all of a sudden it got very wishy-washy.

 

I can also confirm that they are (allegedly) forgings ….. I called speedway and asked once when I needed to heat and bend a pair.


I would think the best thing to do is put studs in them ?

 

May want to have torque wrench calibrated - in case it's off and you over torqued unknowingly ... Also red lock tight and perhaps safety wired next time - good that it happened slow and thanks for sharing for others here

 

Though we're quick to jump on the part quality, as you point out, there's lots of possibilities here.
You may never know since someone else installed the arms and may have istalled them incorrectly. That would be my bet; over torque, etc. causing damage to the threads. And when threads pull, they go quick (the arms passed your inspection a few days prior).
Loctite won't keep things together if the install wasn't done correctly.

If one has to install blind hole steering arms, I agree with loctite and safety wire.

 

I bought mine back before I knew about the CE ones (pre-internet, I just ordered catalogs from R&C and SR back then) My Speedway arm loosened up after about 2 year of driving, I probably never put Loc-Tite on them the first time, but it's on there now.

They made a clunking noise on bumps going around corners, that's why I checked them.

Now don't get me started on the disintegrating spring bushings from Speedway... They only last 2 years??!?! Grrrr!