Coil overs on a Ford Straight Axle

[Huffy047]

Anyone ever put coil overs (2) on a 42 type Ford straight axle? With the stock spring pivioting from the center of the frame, it seems like a tricycle to me. If the springs were kept close to the frame and out of the air I'm thinking the car would be more stable at high speed (160)?

Thoughts?

[SPARKY]

To be competive in MOST roadster classes you will need to go to the systems that put everything in the wind shadow of the grille and axle  they use coilovers doing that.

[Huffy047]

Say a push rod arrangement? The real question is will it improve the handling?

[Peter Jack]

The handling will be more controlled with the lower end of the shocks out by the wheel or a linkage accomplishing the same thing. On the other hand if the application is lsr then you're much better off with the shocks hidden from the airflow. The handling won't be as good, but if it's engineered correctly it will be satisfactory and the ultimate speed will be higher.

Life and racing are a series of compromises.  

Pete

[manta22]

I don't know if it is allowed by the rules, but how about a pushrod-operated coilover located out of the air stream?

Regards, Neil  Tucson, AZ    Lake Tahoe, NV

[dw230]

You mean behind the grille shell?  Been done for over 40 years.

DW

[Bob Drury]

  Don't forget you will need a panhard bar and while you are at it, I would suject using a Vega steering box with cross steer.  Bob

[Huffy047]

We have a panhard bar and hair pins, the goal is to make the car more stable. If I stand with my feet togather,
I can be easily be pushed over, if I spread my feet out , it becomes very hard to push me over. The stock Ford spring is in the center of the frame, so the force is in the middle of the frame? just does not seem like a good place to me.

I've built many street rods over the years with straight axles, for street speeds they are fine, this was the third trip to the salt and the fastest we have run and the car was not that comfortable to drive, and it does have a Vega box.

The nose of the car is like a track roadster with the front wheels hanging out, putting a push rod coil over arrangement inside of it would be easy and take some stuff out of the air. How ever I am looking to improve handling above aero.

[Peter Jack]

Using push rods would work well and if they were made with aerodynamic tubing they'd cause very little resistance.

Pete

[SPARKY]

how much scrub radius and caster do you have

[panic]

A pushrod and bell-crank allows the shocks/springs to be turned 90°, so that the cross-section is presented rather than the length.

[Huffy047]

The car left the shop to be cleaned, but the rims are 5" wide with no offset on 40 spindles, so I would say very little scrub angle, castor is around 8 deg, we had a 4 wheel computor alignment done before we left, it was perfect, weight distrubition is 40/60 with 60 on the rear.

[SPARKY]

I would bet the scrub radius is over 3" it should be very close to ZERO when you turn the stering wheel you are "Weight Jacking the car"  it hunts-- then you are "chasing it"  what dia. frt tires do you have??

[Huffy047]

When the car comes back I'll check it. I really feel it's not tht bad.

Thanks for all the input, a local racer here suggested putting a sway bar on the rear to tighten the car up, I'm looking into that.

[Geo]

You cannot feel scrub radius when driving on the street.  It only shows up (if incorrect) under emergencies and never is noticed if correct for your car.

You need to check it by measuring the hub and wheels.

Geo