Wishbone mount

[Bamamav]

How much can you lower the wishbone mount before you start having issues? The brainiac that put the motor/tranny in my Lincoln has the tranny pan almost touching the bones. As a matter of fact, the wishbone has been hitting the pan because it has dents in it!

I'm thinking I can lower the mount 2"-3" and it will clear fine. I can't split the bone because it's a spring in front, the spring mount is the bone, and I don't have a way to bend it out.

 

[dmw56]

When you lower the mount you will increase the camber. Just measure the camber when you have it lowered 7-10 is ideal. More will work but will increase steering effort.

 

[Dirtyrat]

I think you mean caster rather than camber...?

 

[bob w]

Some people make a pie cut in the bones to pull them out to the frame and leave the spring mount portion in its original location.
If you drop the wishbone at the ball end that much you will probably have to cut a wedge out of the bones and weld them up to keep the caster at the original setting.
Your car is pretty big and heavy so I wouldn't want too much caster in is as it makes it harder to turn especially at low speeds.

 

[Bamamav]

How much clearance do i need between the bones and thepan? The mount is right at the back of the tranny pan. I plan on power steering at some point, might need to do it now before I start driving it......

 

[dmw56]

I think you mean caster rather than camber...?

Yes I mean caster. Thanks.

 

[RPM]

Rather than moving the bones, would it be possible to raise the tranny up 1/2" to get the clearance you need?

 

[Bamamav]

Not without building a hiigher trans tuunnel. Dam phhone!

 

[Old Iron]

Bam, ya only need 1/2" clearance, can you add a little to the bottom of the bone mount to get it ?
These front ends are not my forte so, any question I ask can seem really smart or really dumb and can be ignored [P

 

[Bamamav]

Old iron, I figured the bone would move more than that, like when one wheel drops in a hole and the other goes up over a bump.

 

[cfavrett]

Fix?

This might b a dumb idea and Im sure if it is someone on here will notice it and call it out but I was thinking you could take your spring off and mock something solid up in its place. Then split your bones and bend them out with a little bit of heat one at a time. That should keep your center right.

 

[Bamamav]

I found a bracket that bolts up in the original holes and drops the bone to clear the pan. As soon as I get some greenbacks up, I'm going to order one.


I may be thinking backwards on this, but by dropping the bone mount, I will actually be taking caster out instead of putting more in.
The axle sits like this --I , so by dropping the rear mount, it will sit like this /, not actually that much, but you see what I mean. The longer the distance between the axle and the bone end, the less the axle actually moves, so the less it will effect the caster. Too much caster, like on a shopping cart, would look like this \, right? So, with the long bones it shouldn't move over a couple of degrees, where if you had the shorter bones, it might move several degrees because the lever point is shorter. Does this make sense or am I thinking all wrong?

 

[BlueNorther]

straight up is zero degrees caster.
your last example would negative caster.

 

[BlueNorther]

here's a good link to straight axel science and alignment:

http://www.streetrodderweb.com/tech/0902sr_science_of_straight_axles/viewall.html