The mounting point on the chevy frame is much narrower than the ford frame, restricting the box to mounting on top the frame rather than thru the frame. The column angle would need to be changed if the box was mounted on top the frame it would need to come thru the vertical part of the firewall otherwise the U joint would be at too great an angle to work properly. Raising the box would either require a longer pitman arm which would increase the steering sensitivity or would cause bump steer if the drag link was angled relative to the ground. Ford correctly designed the location of the pitman shaft to be as close as possible to and in line with the rear spring pivot, to keep bump steer to a minimum. Any changes to this position will make a dramatic change in the steering geometry that may not be correctable. There is no good reason I can see for moving the steering box to the top of the frame on our trucks and the risk of being detrimental is high.

 

Man, AX (Chuck) when you speak steering you really know your stuff. Glad to see you are on the FTE side of life. I did want ask, you mentioned earlier in this post about the mounting bracket. To me the "V" angled bracket seems like an item that, if properly fabbed, could be done in my shop instead of paying big bucks to the suppliers. Any thoughts on fabbing a subtle "V" bracket? Must the bracket be solid bar stock or would using 1/4" walled rectangle tubing suffice? How much force is really exerted on the bracket/frame in that area. Any thoughts? Thanks.

 

No reason in the world you can't make your own bracket. Plop the gear in the hole, pay a buddy a 6-pack of Sam Adams to hold it in position and make yourself some carboard templates. Cut them out of 1/4" steel (should be plenty strong) w/ adequate gusseting, weld 'em up and bolt 'em in. If you are nervous, make them out of 3/8" steel and be extra safe. I call myself 'bracket man' since I build mostly cars that no one makes after-market parts for - '36 ****** coupe, '39 ****** pickup (B4 they became popular), '36 Pontiac sedan, Nash Metropolitan. Either make the brackets yourself or don't build the car are the options. In fact even if they do make parts for a car I am building, I still like making my own stuff; saves $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ and doesn't look belly-button like the stuff bought out of rod magazine ads.

 

You definitely could make your own bracket. I've actually designed a bracket that is different than the ones on the market after I bought the aftermarket V style. The advantage of the V style is that it bolts right into the stock mounting holes, so little frame modification is needed to install. If you have some 3/4x2" bar stock sitting around, taps and tap drills and a way to accurately cut the bar and a large enough welder to weld it, it wouldn't be very difficult to make once you saw one. To me I don't have a heavy enough welder, or a way to accurately cut that heavy of stock. Buying a minimum order of that size bar stock would be expensive. Drilling and tapping would be time consuming as well, so the price for the ready made mount wasn't far out of line. The mount I designed is made from 2x2 x 1/4" angle iron with just a small amount of welding that can be done with a home welder. The disadvantage is that a few new holes need to be drilled in the frame. No tapping is required tho so all the drilling can be done with a portable electric drill.

There is a company making a mount out of several pieces of 1/4 or 3/8 strap iron. No offense to that company, but to me it looks cobbled together and not strong enough.

There is a LOT of stress on the mount and frame in use.

Teardropty, contact me offline if you are interested in making your own mount. Thanks for the compliment, I have managed to absorb some useful info in 50+ years of building hot rods and race cars. The mechanics are especially interesting to me, I like to know why things are designed the way they are, and suspension setup is extremely important in autocross racing on the national level.

 

******, I love the 33-34 ****** coupe and pie wagon. I stuffed a CSB in a Metro in the late 60's for a customer.

 

I haven't found one that is designed for the 48-52. I've been looking at all the options... And liked the idea of not having to grind down the side of the toyota box to mount it thru the frame. Also like the design that someone had that uses the orignal mounting holes.

 

The 53-56 mount will work, you'll just have to drill 3 new mounting holes to match the mount bolt pattern. The part of the box that needs grinding is only a 1/8 x 1/8 x 1" nub on the mounting portion that keeps the box from sitting against the frame. It is easy to remove in a couple minutes with an angle grinder.
See my article link in post # 46 above for all the details on using the box on the 48-52.

 

Thanx. I caught the ****** bug in about 1984. This is the only hot rod I have ever owned and the only one I want. I was about 8th grade in school and just discovered rod magazines were more interesting at the supermarket magazine stand than were comic books. I began to devour them each month and every once in a while there were these strange looking little cars that were featured among the ever present Fords. My sister took me to Famosa dragstrip that year and we couldn't afford admission. We stood ooutside the fence and saw a couple ****** come to the line, do giant wheelies and go really fast. I knew then that I had to have one of those.

One day I saw a strange looking spare tire panel sticking out of a schoolmate's garage and asked him what kind of car that was. When he told me it was a ******, I didn't believe him, all I knew was the '40-'42 style. Went to the mags and sure enough, it was a '36 ******. '33 thru '36 have the same bodies, different front sheetmetal. Most of the racing '33s were actualy '35s and '36s with the earlier 'glas hood. ****** produced a bunch more of the later models. ****** 'experts' can tell the difference. I offered to buy it for $75 and he agreed. Another classmate sold me a 331 hemi for $25. Had to work all summer to raise the $100. My next-door neighbor had an old mecury with a transplanted hydramatic so I got that for free. My tranny adaptor was my HS graduation present!

Hacked the car together and drove it during college. Surprisingly I survived that build and tore it down in '72 whe I got my first oilfield engieering job. Didn't get it built 'til ~95 when my family was grown and I had the $$, skills, and tools to do it right.

331 bored 1/8" over to 354, put B&M hydro guts in the tranny, 8" narrowed Olds rear, finned Buick brakes adapted to rear, stock drilled and chromed front beam axle and spindles 4" riser blocks (any hot rod with the front wheels inside the fenders is not a hot rod!!), steel body, home made 'glas tilt front made from a mold of the stock sheet metal, Holley 3-bbl, MII shifter, Torino disk brakes adapted to ****** spindles, 'Vair aluminum steering gear. All the good old gasser parts. It has been my daily driver (in good weather) ever since.

 

Very cool *****'s! Nice DD

 

Thanx. Not a blue oval I admit but has some of the same genes.

 

It's older then me so it's got to be cool!

 

SWEEET! That's even older than me! Being from Buffalo originally I saw a lot of the NE gassers and really loved the ****** and the gasser wars: Ohio George, Hurudka Bros, Stone Woods and Cook, Jim Zakia etc.

 

I just figured out that I got the car when it was 28 yrs old and have had it an additional 48 yrs.

Also just figured out that I have single handedly set a record for hi-jacking a thread!

 

Nevermind!

 

Hey Willys36 do you happen to know what year steering box and pitman arm you have in your pictures.? If you could let me know I'd appreciate it thank you.