Front axle question

Near one end there are usually a pair of raised letters that are forging marks. I recall these as "EE" or "AA" on the passenger cars. Every original car I have seen had the axle installed with the forging letters facing the rear. This may be just a coincidence, but I wonder if this is mentioned in the judging standards.
 
If I recall the holes where the king locks go are tappred. The looking nuts would face forward or rearward depending on how axle is installed. Don't know if it matters or not.
 
I've always seen these nuts facing the rear, and are used to prevent the steering spindles from turning too sharply.
 
The holes where the kingpin retainers go is NOT tapered. The holes go straight through. The axle can be installed either way, they are symmetric.
Rusty nelson
 
George D said:
If I recall the holes where the king locks go are tappred. The looking nuts would face forward or rearward depending on how axle is installed. Don't know if it matters or not.
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Um. I think the holes are "straight through" on the later axles. Some of the early axles have a "direction" relative to the pin - but that was set aside early in 1928 in favor of tapering the "flat" on the pin and having it match the notch in the kingpin.

It is possible to put the pins in with the nuts to the front (in fact the early pins have nuts on both ends), but I think the original setup was the spindle/backing plate mount hits the nut as a limit stop to the rear side.

Heh. One of the early king-pin, pin retainer kits I used had "ordinary" hex nuts as the kingpin-pin keeping nut/stop. I could move the steering wheel to the point where the wheels would hit the fender braces - and achieved a turning radius such that I could turn the Model A completely around within a two car garage - drive in one door and out the other without stopping.

Joe K
 
The retainer holes should go either way, but on used ones they may seem one way.

What I found is slight damage to one side, like from beating the pin out, may shrink the hole a bit. So now the pin will only go in one way. This is just at the edge and cleans up quick with a light filing in the hole.
 
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