Hey y'all! ;D I'm new hear, so here is the basic story. I just picked up my 1941 Plymouth (P11?) and have removed the front clip to get a good look at everything I am dealing with. For starters, it has a '79 Buick 3.8L and the rest of the drive train seems to be from the same donor. The factory steering gearbox has had u-joins added and what looks like an 80's oldsmobile steering column installed. The gearbox has been mounted under the frame and an inch or two forward from it's original location to clear the engine.
This is where my actual issue starts. As a result of the gearbox being relocated the front wheels now turn at diferent rates and the pitman arm and whatnot are only about an inch or so off the ground.
Eyeballing it, it does not seem as though I could put the steering box back in it's original location due to lack of clearance from the motor swap.
Has anyone delt with this sort of problem and perhaps come up with a relatively simple solution? I want to keep my frame and suspension original but am open on further steering mods and/or power steering. Thanks, sorry for the long first post. ;)
This forum is dedicated to factory stock vehicles mostly. With all the modifications you describe, you are probably not going to get much assistance here. I suugesst you try some of the sites dedicated to Hot rods.
By the way front wheels are supposed to and do in reality turn at different rates, as they are travelling two different arcs as they describe a turn. Check the internet for ackerman angles of ackerman steering.
trying to go back to a stock setup after a major maodification can be quite the headache..and often as you see by what you have..not everyone forward thinks the modification prior to the actual cutting and end up haeing to modify more and more stuff and the more they find the wear and tear of the mental just to get it doen make for cheapened work and major shortcuts..shoulds like nothing shy of a reqork is needed...look to the Fatman R&P installation to address the headaches you now have with the current sterring setup...even with this there are still modifications that may need be down based upon what other suspension mods you may be intertaining, like dropped spinles, sholck relocation and disc brakes..
Thanks for the replies, yes, I posted knowing that for the most part users here were more about a vintage restoration with very little modification. I'm just trying to work out the issues that were already there when I got the car and hopefully I can eventually bring her back to stock. I'll definatley look into the ackerman steering, perhaps they are turning correctly and I just need to realign the front end (very toe out). But I'll still need to address the pitman arm's distance from the ground.
I definately know I need to rework something. I'll look into fatman R&P, perhaps it will at least give me some ideas.
Thanks for the feedback guys.