So I mounted up my Model A split bones, and the right steering arm is hitting at the draglink knuckle. I am trying to run the steering shaft above the bones. These are pricey Pete & Jake's hairpin arms; they were the only thing I could get to work with the Speedway spindles. Should I heat up and bend? If pics will help, I'll get some up later.
You say hairpin arms. Usually hairpins are the replacement for wishbones. Or do you mean the steering arms are a hairpin shape? Either way, you might need to bend the arms a bit to get your clearance. Make sure the arms are forged, not cast. If forged, heat til a dull red, bend, then let cool very slowly. Don't get them bright red, and don't hurry the cooling in any way with water or air.
They're designed to be used with hairpins. I had knuckle clearance problems with a pair of hoop-style arms, and these alleviated that. I believe these are the same as the old CE arms.
Good photos of the issue get good answers that you can actually use. You probably will only get wild ass guesses without them. One thing, does your axle have the same drop as what the steering arms are designed to work with? On a lot of their front end pieces everything is designed to work with specific parts they sell or in this case an axle with the same exact amount of total drop.
That's not an exact science either though. If they were even made for a specific axle, there are at least four different heights of wishbone it would have to clear. An A wishbone is different from a 32-34, which is different from a 35-41, which is different from a post war. They all have different amount of droop behind the yoke. Too many combos.
So this is what I have going. As far as I can tell, the wishbones were set up for the 3" drop axle. My chassis is 2x4 box tubing. As I don't have the body or power train mounted, I'm considering going to an original A chassis.
Compare your drop to this drop. These will allow your tie rod and drag link to go under the wishbones where they belong. Your current arms appear to have 1-1/2" drop. The ones I posted pictures of hav 3-3/4" drop. Imagine where the arm where the tie rod ends go being 2-1/4"" lower. Pick you finish: https://www.speedwaymotors.com/1937-48-Ford-Steering-Arms-3-3-4-Inch-Drop,25541.html
I suspect what happened to here is a nomenclature issue. You have split wishbones on a dropped axle. The steering arms that you have are for hairpins, or 4-bar front suspension. In each of those cases the tie rod and drag link pass between the upper and lower bars, exactly where your split wishbones are. Some vendors mistakenly call hairpins wishbones. I don't know why. Hairpins: Note where the tie rod goes. 4-bar: Note again where the tie rod goes. Split wishbone: Note once again where the tie rod goes. The only way you can run your setup is deeper drop steering arms, or dropped tie rod ends, as shown above.
Gimpy nailed it as he usually does. A side shot would have been nice though. Side note that little box that says full image helps us old farts see what is in the photo a lot easier.
OP did say he was trying to run the tie rod above the bones though. No mention as to why that is so, but it is doable but always seems to be a rabbit hole of problems. Chris
He said right in his first post that they were Pete and Jakes hairpin arms. Not the deeper dropped arms that he needs. As Gimpyshotrods told him he just bought the wrong arms. Also that mostlikely means that the swap meet arms I bought for my SoCal axle and bones aren't going to work.
Bit hard to tell, but it also looks like a late axle that's been dropped, which allows less swingin' room. By late I mean after '36.
I'm not planning to use them, but I have some hairpins and batwings kicking around. When I mocked them up, it appeared those arms would hit. Thank you for all the suggestions. I will give those Speedway arms a shot. It actually looked like running the steering overhead would give me the least resistance with (what I think is) the Vega box I'm using. Thanks for all the replies. I'm not sure on that axle. I had to have it straightened a bit at a shop, and the guy thought it was 70's era aftermarket.
I ordered a set once, I returned them. Pete and Jakes are much better. https://www.summitracing.com/parts/...Xh5X9bzBBYG7osWJrDFBVIUybeyaWFAgGvfhulmKdH_n4
I have now seen two instances of cars with obvious bends in the tie rod from where the frame hit it. I do not recommend putting the tie rod between two rigid things. While it is not all that likely that the frame will smash it, if the tie rod is above and it does, it will result in a substantial toe-out situation. The results of that are potentially dangerous, especially if you are moving fast, or are in a corner, or both.
That guy was wrong. It’s an original Ford axle that has been dropped. I’d guess a 33-36 or a 37-40. If you take a clear pic from the front we can see better. Maybe you can measure the axle thickness at the perch, as those years were different. The 33-36 was 2” tall and the 37-40 was 2.25” tall.
Get the arms that are bolt through, as in gimpy's post #10 I had the blind hole style originally and they kept coming loose.
The through-bolt ones that I pictured are these: https://www.socalnorthwest.com/store/Item/SOC-001-60305-SOC-001-60306
These should be the forged steel version of what he showed in post 24 Dropped Steering Arms (PNJ-1109) - So-Cal Northwest (socalnorthwest.com) The deep drop arm should have a 3.70 drop
To confuse matters more, 1928 to 1932 also had 2.25" perch bosses. Why they took a brief break from that size, I guess we'll never know.
Spring perch boss distance may nail down the year: 1928-1936 is 36-1/2", but 1932-1936 are knocked out because they have a 2" perch boss, just 1928-1931. 1937-1941 is 38-1/2". 1942-1945 Ford was too busy with the war effort to make axles. 1946-1948 is 41"
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