Front axle questions

[busman]

I have a superbell 4" drop I beam axle with hairpins and am using 40 ford round back spindles. My question is do I have to heat and modify the steering arms? Tie rod looks like it will clear the hairpins but the steering arms do hit the axle. It does look like I will have a tight enough turning radius.
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[Bonehead]

Can you move the arm to the top?

 

[T2T]

I used these from Speedway Motors..............worked good. I did have to do a little grinding on the inside.

 

[bob w]

I didn't bend the stock steering arms on "Big Dodge" and the turning radius is a bit large. Same axle and spindles as you have. It is not a problem generally, just have to go back and forth an extra time in tight spots. I do know that it was common to heat and bend the arms for more clearance but I have never done it myself.

 

[busman]

Thanks for the replies.

 

[dogpatch1]

if your turning radius is looking like you can turn left and right far enough leave em. i have heated them to move them up or down. but you dont want to bend them any closer to the backing plate this will screw up your ackerman geometry of the front end and the car just wont free roll on turns freely. goodluck, dp1

 

[donsrods]

The old hot rod way of getting clearance for a dropped axle was to heat and bend the steering arms, I did that on my '27. It takes a couple of bends to get it done.

First bend it to heat the arm very close to where it attaches to the spindle so you can move it very close to the backing plate. (what you are doing is making a tighter bend to get the curve further away from the axle.

Second bend is to move the end 3-4 inches back away from the backing plate, so the arm lays in the same plane it did originally.

A third bend is sometimes needed to bend the ends of the arm down or up to let the tie rod lay in a nice position.

The idea is to heat slowly but eventually very red hot, then do the bend and let it cool naturally, no water or air to speed up the process. Some people say they have the arm magnafluxed after to see if any cracks have developed, but I never have and no problems have ever come up.

Another option is to cut off the arm entirely, dress up the stub, and use one of the many bolt on arms like the guys pictured. I used these on my '23 and they work very well.

Don