Building a 30 coupe with reverse eye front spring, 4” drop axle, 37 spindles. Currently have a 1 3/4” drop steering arms. Tie rod has spherical rod ends. Clearance to the front crossmember is approx 1 1/4”. Is this enough, or should I bend the steering arms to gain additional clearance. Notching the crossmember is also an option at this point. What would be the safest way to gain clearance, if additional clearance is needed. Thanks Ken
There are steering arms available with 3 3/4” drop. Might be too much drop. BTW, I’m using the stock A wishbone, uncut. Yes, travel would be more than 1 1/4’. Really don’t want to notch crossmember unless absolutely needed. Building a hot rod sure is fun. Ken
What do you have to stop your Down travel? Once you have that in place make sure you have that much space between frame and tie rod. Not much more to it than that.
Are you talking about a 1.25 gap from the tie rod to the crossmember like front to back? Or is your stuff so tight that you have 1.25 vertically until you hit the flange of the crossmember on the back side? A picture could help. If it’s front to back I’d turn the wheels and see if it hits. If your talking vertical 1.5 is normal compression for a front suspension like yours. I would try to get some more clearance but you don’t need a mile. My first step would be to hang the tie rod off the bottom of the steering arms. If you already are doing that I would take the easy rout and get yourself some dropped tie rod ends. Though this would require both that your steering arms have a 7 deg tapper in the hole to accept a tie rod end, and that your tie rod itself would need to be narrowed about 8 inches because the dropped rod ends have a much longer end to accommodate the drop. That being said it is VERY common for that back flange to be trimmed for fan/ pulley etc clearances so it would t be outside of reasonable to cut it for tie rod clearance. I would just make sure you do some searching on threads about trimming it before you go chopping away and make sure your conservative about what you chop off. Some photos of your current set up would do wonders for getting you some viable opinions Hope some of hat was helpful
Yes, bump stop, thank you LOTHIANDON1940. I know a lot of home built beam axle cars don't have them at all. Some just let the shock bottom out. Some actually plan ahead and install them. Unlimited free travel is not a good idea.
Right on, @wizzard! I've seen (and built/repaired/ RE-built) many 'hot rods, only a few were fitted with bump stops. (not often stock length; most were hack sawed some, to restrict contact other than large bumps) Most owners say, "No! This is a clean frame hot rod!" Metal-to-metal contact over bumps is 'bogus'. (thanks, Bill & Ted) BTW...If you lose the spherical rod ends, use the Ford tie rod ends, gain 1/2"+ with the offset. (Also, gain some smooth long mileage with tie rod ends. Spherical rod ends are seen on smooth paved speedway race cars, NOT street driven cars.)
Follow-up: I purchased the 3 3/4” drop arms from Speedway, allowed another 1 1/2” of clearance while utilizing actual tie rod ends. Then it was discovered, at full lock left or right, the tie rod still just touches the wishbone. A little heat massage to bend the arms, and all is good. I like the idea of a bump stop, where or how does that fit in. Thanks for all the feedback. Ken
Good question. For me it's part of the build when I'm starting from scratch. On Beam axle cars It should always be between the Frame and Axle. I generally set up for 2.5" down travel, in the end it may turn out to be more like 3" once spring pack is built for total weight. I set up my chassis for as close to final ride height as possible then using just a main leaf to hold axle in place make a 3" spacer and mount it between Axle and frame and move on with the build. Now I know where everything will stop and make sure I won't have any contact with anything else on total chassis down travel. Photo shows that spacer sitting on the Axle below the frame. Once done I build a spring pack to hold the load and when necessary I add a spacer for final ride height. When in doubt if I have travel room without contact I can remove spacer, drop frame to contact with Axle and then I know what's going on. I like using these. They are 32 Ford rear axle stops. About the thinnest on the market that actually work and easy to mount. For an after thought ya just need to get creative. Do a google search for bump stops, there is a countless number of styles out there.
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