John why not copy one of the most famous lakesters out there, Tom Beatty's 1950's lakester frontend (see picture).
He used an "A" axle as it is flatter. Turned it upside down and re-bent the ends so that the camber would be right. This then allowed the axle to be pretty close to the arch of the transverse spring for better aero. The axle was now almost a straight axle.
He also reversed (swapped side to side) '40 ford ('37 to '48 are the same) spindles so that the drag link would be in front of the axle and close to the same plane as the axle/spring was in, again for better aero.
The wishbones where split to the sides of the car and he used center steering with a right side pitman.
From the picture it doesn't look like he is running that much caster. The car ran 188 mph in it's first trip to the salt (1951) with a 296 Merc flathead and a 3-71 Navarro blower setup. He entered the 200 mph club in '55 with a 211 2-way average. In '62 he bumped his B Lakester record to 243 mph running a blown Olds, so the caster seemed to work fine for him.
If you can find "THE RODDER'S JOURNAL" Number 12 there are lots more pictues of the car and a good article on him and the car.
They also mentioned he ran this car at high speed on a dirt oval for an exhibition and mentioned how he would make 200 mph U-turns on the salt
.
The other thing is these front end pieces aren't that expensive if you hunt around as not many rodders want the "A" axles so you could easily set up 2 front-ends. One for the street and one for the salt.
c ya and have fun,
Sum
