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Just installed a three inch dropped axle and swapped out the drum for disc brakes on the front end of my '56 F100. The tie rod ends are now rubbing on the inside of my tire. Should I have seen this coming? I am using the recommended tie rod drops. Is the culprit the drop....the disc conversion...or the combo of both?
Thought about wheel spacers as temporary fix and changing offset on new rims as a final solution. Just can't figure out why I seem to be the only one experiencing this problem. My wheels are 4" offset....tires L 78-15.
It seem to me the problem wound have to be the dick brake kit. Is there a way to tell if the face of the rotor hub is in the same place as the face of the brake drum? It sounds to me like the wheel has moved in closer to the frame. I wound call the manufacturer but the solution is different hubs, wheel spacers or different off set wheels.
Measure the hub face to hub face distance.
1. put the front of your .truck of jack stands
2. take off the wheels.
3. use a carpenter square to the floor to find the face to face track width.
This may have changed due to the disc brake conversion. you may have to add spacers on the axle or on the rotor face. Good luck.
Can you install wheel spacers between the rotors and wheels? I presume it wouldn't take much. Just a thought.
Used a 1/4" spacer which moved the tie rod end off of the tire about 1/8". Enough though to be able to move it around the house while do everything needed to get it running. Thanks
I used a 1/4" spacer but mine hit the drag link on a hard left turn. I think mine was caused since I used lowering springs and moved the axle up to the center of the wheel well. My wheels are are standard backspace but are seven inch and not six or five as the stock wheels are. Working on these trucks is like playing chess you have to see a few moves ahead so you don't run into problems. Good Luck
OK, so the truck is just a picture I had on my computer. Don't know why it's there. The picture below is not good but shows the area of the tire where the tie rod end is touching.It's touching the same place at each end.I got the drop axle from Sid @ droppedaxles.com Didn't want to say the name because I don't believe anything he has done is the problem. He was working with me until I had to turn my attention to other matters.
Take a look at the front track width. I read it as 58.08" I don't have my glasses on so am not sure. Check the center to center distance on the tires of your truck. The distance should be that number. If it is not at least 58 1/16" you need to add spacers from the rotor surface to the rim. the track width should be correct. One other problem may be rims with too much offset moving the centerline of the tire in too much or possibly just too wide for the truck. Good luck.
