Heres my dilemna, I have a 31 Ford Tudor that I'm turning into a real early 50's traditional ride. My question is How much does splitting the wishbones front and rear really affect the ride and geometry of the car. I know that when old man Ford designed the car the axles were meant to pivit around a central point and that point being the perches where the springs mount. The wishbones are designed so to travel with the angle of the axle or rearend in corrilation by which it is transferred to the road giving an overall good to really good driveability and handling. How much does splitting the wishbone affect performance??? Is it really worth affecting performance just to have something that I feel looks good and that is what the traditional hot rodders of today say is right or the way it's suppossed to look. Maybe I'm wrong and splitting actually would improve driveability!!! Wouldn't Ford have changed design for the better if this were the case?? Maybe it just comes down to a LOOK vs. Tech. The thing is when this car is finished I plan on driving the hell out of it, it will be my daily. I just want the car to be adept to the road as well as being a joy to drive so that would entail doing the job right the first time. I need comments from both sides!! If you were going to build again what would you do? Do you have plans on changing your existing set-up? Note: I don't want to hear any "Put a MII frontend in it either!!
Split um! It will help the drivability in that it will increase roll stifness a little. The stock wishbone attached to the bellhousing so that's a problem with the flathead. Gives more room for exhaust, etc. You can weld in bungs or just clean up the ends of your bones and drill and tap. I have some I could trade for yours??
If you are building a late 40's or early 50's rod, I'd say leave'em alone, you WILL get the most out of a fairly stock style chassis that way. Although, if you want the car to sit half way low to sub-teranean low, you'll need to split the bones front and rear. That is why they were split in the first place, it becomes an interference issue. Go too low and all of a sudden your stock wishbones are hitting the frame. If it were me, I'd build it low, box the frame and run split bones, but I'm just an artist type so take it for what it's worth.
What engine/trans/rear are you planning on using? How low? These are questions that need to be answered first.
A lot of what your asking is dependent upon how low you plan to go ( dropped axle?) and choice of motor and tranny. All will factor in clearance issues as MBL said. Lowering your car will have a loss of original suspension travel from what the original bones had been intended to do.A larger engine will also factor in .Mounting is another issue. So, what are you planning to do in terms of drop/axle and engine?
Splitting bones is based on engine and trans clearance, period, not looks. In my opinion it would be best left alone if your engine and trans don't have any clearance issues. Nick's sedan(gold metalflake 31 in a past issue of CK Deluxe) has a 283 V8 and TH350 trans, and had unsplit bones, they were even driled and chromed, looked bitchin, they had to have a mount fabricated to bolt up to, but that car drove really nice. It was only channeled the height of the frame(4"s?) and wasn't sitting on the ground like mine is, Hope this helps.
There is something that has NOT been considered in this discussion. If a "beam" axle (stock or dropped) is used; it can twist when the front wishbones are split and moved out to the frame. (and one front wheel passes over a bump) BUT, if a "tube" axle is used; a great deal of strain is transfered to the wishbone attachment points. The tube axle will NOT twist. In effect you create an antisway bar out of the arangement and the axle is FAR stronger than the best ends that you can mount on the end of the wishbones. Result .. broken ends or mounting pieces. Solutions, A. Leave the wishbones alone. B. Switch to a 4-bar setup. Split wishbones on rear axles. If you search back in the old TECH threads, you can find a LONG list of reasons; that attaching the wishbones to the frame and SOLID mounts on the axle is a "disaster waiting to happen." Cracked welds, broken brackets and broken ends. (Doesn't matter how big the tie rod or heim ends are) In a word, DON'T DO IT!! Even for the "trad" look. (unless you design a system to allow for the twisting of the rear axle when one wheel passes over a bump! ) It CAN be done, but make sure you know what your doing.
Just FYI, My 36 Ford PU is running the original front end with a 327 and power glide. I run at 70mph all the time. With that said I do want to lower the beast, so I will ether split the bones or save them for another project and install a 4bar as you can't see them anyway.
Ford DID install split wishbones on one of their products......In 1947[more yrs?]the Lincolns had factory split wishbones and they even kinked em to clear the inside of frt tires! They mounted[rubber ball] about 16" apart on the transmission crossmember.
Split split split split split split.........ok you guess i would split em because it is what would have been done in the 50's but also for clearance and better handling.I'm sure the guys in here will be more scientific about angles and so on but basically split bones give you better straight line stability...........Marq
oh and to get over the whole tube axle affair you use tie rod ends so that the bones cantwist freely but still keep longditudinal rigidity (that is right aint it guys)i'm hoping i explained it right but if not i'm sure i'll get stamped on..........Marq
on my 30 Tudor I am running a Flatty and 48 trans and banjo. I am splitting the front and using a 4" drop AXL. if you use rod ends ( I used ford stlye) the axle twisting issue is minimal. I have the same set up in my T roadster and it works great I am however leaving the rear wishbone intact (since I got the while trans/torquetube/brakes/banjo from the same car it almost bolts right in. that's my 2 cents...
What I plan on running is a late model 8ba with a toploader behind it. Power to the ground will be through a 40 rearend shortened to accomidate for room. the frontend will comprise of a 4" dropped I-beam and dearched reversed eyed springs that will bring down the frontend about 7". In the rear I Z'd the frame 3" and lengthend the frame 7" to mount a 40 ford front sping. This all being done the car is still not necessarily sitting in the weeds. Digger Dan brought up my main concern which is the tortional strenth issue. When you split the bones, you run into a wrath of problems all for the benifit of what I can see is just looks.
HRH As you know, Mine are split. If you do the math on it, my rear axle should have cracked in half about 3 years ago. On paper something has gotta bend in a split wishbone setup. So far it's workin well, but I'll be making some rearend changes eventually. I've discussed this with several folks who's opinion I hold in high regard, including Andy, Rudy Garza and a few others. There's alot of opinions on the issue. Fact is, you will have less stress on the components if you do not split them. Will it be too much stress if you dont? Only your wishbones know and they aint talkin.
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