Caution: early Ford bolt on dropped spindle arms

Guys wake up! Screwing around with front end (especially steering items) is courting danger and death. No way in the world would I stake my life on drop arms held on by two most likely chinese made fasteners.

There is/was a huge issue in the air craft industry with counterfeit foreign made fasteners identified as high strength, yet are made out of the same stuff you bolt a lawn mower together with. Think the stuff for your street rod is going to be any better?

 

You could anchor a stud in them and pin it as well. I've done that plenty of times when the threaded hole was iffy. Use a good stud-anchor compound, install the stud, let it set up and drill through the part and into the stud, drive in a roll pin.

You can make a stud out of a good grade bolt. Cut it off with an abrasive wheel and dress up the threads.

Bob

 

When in doubt of a bolt or nut, go to a parts store and get a US made piece of the grade you want. Most good parts houses have a vast Dorman selection.

Bob

 

The origin of the arms in question doesn't appear to be Speedway. Those look to be Superbell / Pete & Jakes like pictured in this link.

http://www.retrospeedandmachine.com...n_page=product_info&cPath=2_91&products_id=92

The Speedway arms are smooth with no relief cavity on the flat part of the arm.

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/1937-48-Ford-Steering-Arms-1-3-4-Inch-Drop,25525.html

 

Got to agree with you on that one after looking at the comparisons,

 

I have used An and nas for years for work from coast fab - www.coastfab.com
May be the way to go in suspension

 

whatever happened to safety wiring i got pins in everything i can get one in. not trying to be an ass here just for my own piece of mind.

 

Seems to me it will be easy to figure out which part failed first........if the bolt threads look OK (as I thought he said was the case), the threads in the arm failed.......the most likely scenario with Grade 8 bolts and a cast iron arm. The most likely cause of this type of failure is over torquing the bolt, shearing the threads. Safety wiring the bolt would not stop the bolt from pulling out of the arm......a pin might, until the load exceded the shear strength of the small pin.

 

Is the bolt fine thread? I have never seen a fine thead hole in cast. Metric?

 

I'm just glad I'm not dead as I was riding with my Brother when this happened! Weird thing...It drove great!

 

AN, NAS, MS hardware, all good stuff if you know what you're looking at. That's actually a pretty good site, I just spent a few minutes going through it... a good reference.

Bob

 

I doubt the thread was cast in. Hard to get the real precision you need. Fine threads do have a greater holding power.

Bob

 

Is it possible that when the dropped steering arm was installed, the grease fitting actually ended up rubbing against the steering arm preventing it from seating fully against the backing plate. I had this happen and ended up installing longer and smaller diameter grease fittings. Also used Magnum dropped steering arms, grade 8 bolts, and locktite. Very important that the bolts NOT bottom out in the steering arm threaded holes.

 

sure looks like the first ones. He said he got them from speedway. Maybe speedway used to sell the other ones? he bought them a while back.

 

Yea fine threads do create a greater surface area for holding power, but are no good in soft materials. In saying that I would be very supprised if those arms are cast iron, Cast steel or forged more likely. But a few years ago I did buy a set of repop spindles for an early front end which turned out to be cast iron, needless to say they didn't get used.

 

Let's be sure we give the credit to where it is due. Did the American businessman specify the material? Did he specify testing? Did he specify inspection? China has a space program so they must be able to do it right if the American businessman told them what to do and not just to "make it cheap". As consumers it is our responsibility to tell our suppliers that we won't accept "junk".

Charlie Stephens

 

Is that a crack in the backing plate or scratch?

 

That's the spindle on the left and the backing plate on the right. It's suppose to be there.

 

And the plot thickens........





To late.

 

Gotcha ... mating line between them ...

 

All right fellers, lower'em down, we strung up the wrong one...

 

I've got Speedway arms on my '29 AV8. Had to bend them down about 1/2" to get the tie rod into the batwing crotch at full steering lock. I did it cold, with a big ass pipe slipped over the arms, and I can tell you there's nothing inferior about the steel. Considering how difficult they were to bend, and the fact that they wanted to spring back to the original shape leads me to believe they're forged.

Bob

 

Haha! All the Speedway haters better find another band wagon to jump on.

Bob

 

Yep, all sorted. Bias-ply tires were the culprit.

That 1st pic, the arm looks pretty damn short in the thread area. Just how long is it inside there.

 

Bob... Slip that pipe over some Genuine Ford spindle arms and try that bend.

I think you'll find the only 'forging' there is in the claim that states the Chinese steel is.

 

I've used Speedway stuff before with no problems. But I know Cooter here bought some Speedway shackles and the threaded bolt shared clean off while tightening the nut. He had only turned it one turn and it shared into two pieces. Plenty of thread left and not anywhere close to being tight. He spent the money on some Pete and Jakes shackles.

 

So I should not use the blind hole superbells I have and get through hole ones? First time builder so want to do it right.

 

Ive never had any problem with them myself and ive used a few pairs of them, but I really think the bolt through ones which ive just fitted to a car are a better option in my opinion though as they have a bolt and nut, the only setback is they are not as clean looking with the bolt head showing.

 

I've got Superbells on my current rpu project and I am not afraid to use them. I will make sure I chase the threads first and use locktite on true Grade 8 Bolts. We have a fastener supply house close to home and they carry the good stuff and that is what I will use on those parts. I will also make a tapered washer for all the bolts so the head lays flat against the inside of the backing plate.

Don

 

You don't need a tapered washer, you need a washer with a piece cut off so the head of the bolt doesn't foul the raised portion of the spindle.

Mart.