440 '48 Plymouth Coupe

[1946Austin]

Probably wont take much to either modify the drag link to lower it, or even convert to cross steer. If it has tabbs on the spindles for mounting the caliperr brackets, then you can sandwich an arm on them with longer bolts and fab something up.

[milner351]

I've never built a car like this so this is probably a really dumb question... can you mount a steering box on the outside of the frame, or, mount a rack and pinion to the tube/solid axle?

[Bully]

Looks great!

[hauen]

can you ...mount a rack and pinion to the tube/solid axle?

I've always wondered that myself, if you had a steering shaft that could take all of the motion going on you would think this would be a great way to totally eliminate a bunch of weight, all that monkey motion linkage, and best of all, bumpsteer!

[racingsnake440]

You can mount a rack and pinion on the axle if you use some sort of sliding coupler in the steering column but I don't like the way that looks.

Mounting a Chevy pickup steering box on the outside of the frame and cross steering it was one option I was considering. The axle has Chevy spindles so it would be easy and cheap to get a steering arm set up from Speedway. Ideally I think I want to use a push pull setup and make use of the steering arm that's already on the axle.

Going to finish mounting the transmission and get the front suspension attached while I decide how to tackle the steering.

[hauen]

Vega box mounted up like they do on solid axle Fords? One would think it's gotta be a lot lighter than most cross-steer boxes, especially a truck box.

[1946Austin]

Keep it clean, whatever you do! Mounting anything extra just clutters up a really nice straight axle, and that's part of the reason for going straight axle! Making a new arm, reworking the arm, or whatever to make it push pull is great. Just be sure the drag link from the box to the arm is level, so it's on the same plain and wont give you bump steer. A little angle wont cause it, but I've owned some straight axle cars that could switch lanes on a hard bump! They had 5"-6" of difference between one end of the drag link and the other. By reworking or reloacating the arms I was able to get rid of all the bumpsteer issues.

[racingsnake440]

Still pondering steering options so decided to get on with some other jobs first. Tacked some box together to make a trans crossmember - still need to add a couple of gussets and round off some edges but wanted to get it in the car before I ran out of daylight - I'll tidy it all up when I pull it back out for final welding.

Also got the mounts for the rear of the front springs tacked in and cleaned up some of the frame.

Finally a pic looking from inside the car showing the engine/trans and headers in place.

[Huskinhano]

Boy you're moving right along on this! My vote is for cross steer if you can. It'll ake it steer much better by getting rid of a lot of bump steer issues.

[1946Austin]

Nice fab work! You must be going a little lower in front with the axle above the springs?