Before I tear it apart.....wishbone questions

[Bamamav]

I need a little education on wishbone mounting, the ball end. Here's the story...when who ever put the Chevy into my Lincoln, they set it back so the turbo 350 would be sticking out just past the crossmember in order to mount it. It fits well under the original floor tunnel, but the bottom side is where the problem is. The ball mount for the wishbone is on this crossmember, and the legs of the wishbone are hitting the front corner to rear center of the transmission pan. It was driven like this, I don't know how long, but long enough to dent the pan. I think they realized the problem and tried to cover it up by placing rubber strips between the pan and the wishbone!

OK, I first want to say, I don't want to deal with splitting the wishbone. The front spring mounts are on the front of it, and I don't want to have to pie cut it and try to get the angles right. I want to simply drop the bone mount about 2". I know that I will change the caster a bit, but doubt it will affect it too much. I have found a mount for Fords, commonly listed as AS-2083 by several different sellers. It looks as though you unbolt the cup, bolt in the mount, and bolt the cup back on. But here's what I don't know [S........is the cup a two piece deal, or is it just half a cup on bottom and flat on top? I have looked at mine, but can't tell without taking it apart, and I don't want to do that just yet. I looked at some pics of one for a T Model, it was a two piece affair that split in the middle, I think mine should be the same as a 41-48 Ford car, but I don't have a pic to verify that. I also saw a line drawing of the bottom cup in a Lincoln parts catalog, but it didn't show the upper part.

So, anybody got a pic of the wishbone ball mount for a 41-48 Car? Is it two separate cupped pieces that bolt together in the middle and bolt to the crossmember, or is the top piece a part of the crossmember? If it's part of the crossmember, I'd think I would have to have another bottom half to use as a top on the drop bracket.

Here's a link to one of the places selling the drop mount, I've found several places offer it. I think it's a Chassis Engineering piece......

http://www.heinzmanstreetrods.com/catalogsections/Heinz2012Cat/HeinzmanCat2012 20-24.pdf

So RRR's, anybody able to educate me?

 

[Dirtyrat]

If its like 28-31 from the pictures I saw it was a 2 piece that bolted through? At least the replacement mounts were... There look to be several kits that involve splitting and moving the wishbones out a short distance, I'd guess that would be the way to go its inexpensive, just time consuming...

 

[IAM-LDS-2]

Don't know about educating any body but here is a thought from experience . I call it the rule of " 5 " . Any time you change something that the vehicle manufacturer has engineered , you risk screwing up 5 unrelated things . Now in your particular case , I'm sure Henry and his "engineers " put that wishbone where they did , because after much T & E ( trial and error - they did not have computer models back then ) they decided they had it where it needed to be. As you are already aware any change WILL have an effect on something , How many things will , Just 2" , effect ? Only your T & E will tell that. How many miles a year will you travel , how fast will you be going etc maybe the effects will not be so bad and you decide to live with them . A car maker can't sell a product with things that the owner/driver will have to " live with ". However rat builders have to learn to " live " with a lot of things . I say go for it -it's only metal or rubber or skin . I mean what could go wrong ?

 

[Bamamav]

Oh yeah, I understand the deal on changing things. That rule was already broken when they put the Chevy motor and trans in, so I'm just continuing on, breaking rules as I go, but trying to stay close to what Old Henry designed....[