I'm building a T bucket, and was just curious what the current school of thought is on heating and bending stearing arms to correct the ackerman angle on a suicide front axle setup. I know it used to be common practice "in the old days" but then lots of things were done then that perhaps shouldn't have. I believe the spindles/axle that I have is from a 36 Ford. Cheers, OC
Ideal ackerman angle is when an imaginary line is running from the center of the rear axle through the center of the tierod and kingpin center. If the draglink is behind the axle (looks best & most correct way of doing it) the tierod center will be slightly inboard to make the ackerman correct. If the draglink is in front of the axle (blah suicide) the tierod center should be bent towards the tire/wheel so the imaginary line will intersect the kingpin center and continue on to the center of the rear axle.
From what I've seen and been told - you can heat and bend them - just let everything air cool - no water cool downs. I believe this is so the metal doesn't harden/get more brittle. I did this with a sway bar and did some pretty drastic bends to make it fit ... 17 years later it's still working.
After heating & bending have a bucket of sand to throw them into, that way they cool really slow minimizing damage. It's ALWAYS a good idea to have them magnafluxed afterwards.
heating and bending steering arms is very traditional.....done i many times...just did it last week what was the question?
Don't concentrate the ehat in one spot, don't melt the metal, let it air cool slowly. These are forged steel parts so heating and bending is no problem. Cast parts, not so much.
Really listen to what Kirk said about setting Ackerman. When set, as he described, your car will arc turns correctly. I am always suprised how many cars aren't aligned correctly, especially those with the tierod in front pf the axle. This has been covered many times and there are still people who want to argue how Ackerman should be set. Research the many available chassis design books for more information.
I'm well aware of what proper Ackerman angle is about. my concern was with the heating and bending of the arms to attain it. Cheers, OC
plym49 gives best answer. Some people make the mistake of over heating on one small spot and making cracks. Even the heat wide and 360* cherry orange and bend slow.
I heat and bend them all the time and can second to keep the heat off of one point and use sand for cooling.
I save a bucket of ash from the wood stove and use them to cover up heated parts. This lets the parts cool slow and does not cold shock them like a bucket of cold sand .Even heat all around ,Bend slow.Cool slow.No worries.
Excellent idea about using ashes to cool the part in (I use a woodstove in my shop anyway). I always worry about sand having moisture in it, which can cause ugly things to happen. Thanks for the encouragement. I guess I'll give it a go. OC
I cool my parts in a small toolbox and wrap the part with insulation, works like a hot.... errr cool damn -Shiny
The Jalopy Journal
