How To Heat and Drop Early Ford Steering Arms for Dropped Axle Hot Rods

This time at the Quick Speed Shop I'm going to show you the old hot rod trick of dropping early Ford steering arms to clear a dropped front axle.
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#hotrod #fabrication #restoration

[@stevierudy5022]

Ye 'O Blacksmitty @ work! Look at that!!! Good Job!!

[@Raydawg]

One of my favorite tools

[@billbly1691]

Great video

[@redneckmachineshop1754]

Shouldn't you put a pin down the two king pin knuckles to prevent mis-alignment when the control are was heated and bent ? Might prevent some distortion or slop in the king pin bushes?

[@QuickSpeedShop]

I don't think its neccessary. The heat is all concentrated away from the bushing holes and the spindle is mounted securely across the face. There isn't enough force to misalign the bushing holes by doing this by hand.

[@redneckmachineshop1754]

@@QuickSpeedShop Was sort of concerned about warping- as welding heat causes distortion for the surrounding areas from heat transfer, even without force? Probably not critical with thick bushings

[@QuickSpeedShop]

The spindle is way to thick to warp with the controlled heat from the torch. Warpage is more is a concern with sheet metal.

[@redneckmachineshop1754]

@@QuickSpeedShop OK-- but I have had warpage with pieces of angle iron that were braced on one side. Never hurts to be too careful. But I guess the alignment of the king pins can be taken care of with the softer metal bushings?

[@billmiller7138]

Put the flame underneath pointing up at the arm most of the time. Heat rises.

[@philippehousset8290]

A few concerns, if dropped by 45 deg and straighten back it makes the arm shorter and the steering range will be modified. Would it be better to stretch it as you bend it to keep the same king pin, pivot / steering arm distance?
How do you control the 45 deg to make sure the other side is the same?
And what about the ackerman angle?
I will need to do that job for the first time, any advise welcome

[@QuickSpeedShop]

I just eye-balled the 45 angles to match them up. The steering angle doesn't really change, you're just lowering the tie rod attachment point. I built the tie rod to the new arm location so I don't know how it changed from undropped location. I didn't measure any Ackerman angles, but I'm pretty much just dropping the tie rod holes straight down. Its not an exact science.