1940 Ford Split Wishbones

Poor Boys Garage

Poor Boys Garage

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Hello, I'm wondering what your guy's thoughts on this idea. I have a 1940 Ford split wishbone front end and one of the wishbones is very loose, the wishbone is a hair reemed out where the spring perch bolt goes threw but not much, but I can turn the wishbone and its causing a bind on my shackle and leaf spring pack but the spring perch bolt is froze bad in the axle. I tried soakin it with penatrating oil and also tried heating it with my torch and beating the crap out of it with a large hammer. So far I haven't damaged the threads on the spring perch bolts so I don't want to beat on the bolt any more. The other wishbone is in perfect postion and solid as a rock. I hate resorting to this but I'm afraid all I'm goin to do is destroy my wishbone and axle if I keep tryin to remove the spring perch bolt, but this is goin on a rat rod, so appearance is not a must. Do you think I could get by with a bead of weld all the way around the top of the spring perch bolt where it is square on top of the wishbone and also a bead of weld around the nut on the bottom of the spring perch bolt to the bottom of the wishbone to keep my wishbone solid to prevent movement and wearing of my shackle?
 
When the wishbones are all bolted up, there shouldn't be any movement, because the rear ends of the bones will be attached to the frame. If you have movement something is wrong. I'd set the front end in place, do the loose one up as tight as I could, and then look to see if the ends want re-aligning to suit the angle of the spring. I wouldn't start welding things together. Just because it is a rat rod there's no excuse for bad engineering.

Mart.
 
Sounds to me more like the frozen perch bolt won't let the top part of the bolt (with it's taper) apply the proper amount of torque to hold the split 'bone. I don't think there should really be an interferance fit where the bolt passes through the yoke on the wishbone ends. As Mart said it's going to be a function of the rod end at the rear of the split w/b and remember also that the spring being clamped in the front crossmember will serve to keep things where intended.
If I understand your last comment then no, I would not weld the nut to the bottom of the w/b. If the nut bottoms out (from lack of more available thread) then I would put a bead of weld on the taper of the nut and refinish it smooth to the correct angle. That will allow you to apply torque and at least tighten the bottom of the w/b yoke.
 
There have been several threads in the past regarding removing stubborn perch pins. It can be a real bear! In my opinion, you should yank the front axle and get the wishbone legs separated from it and then replace the pins if need be and reassemble it so's you can get it tight. Probably not what you wanted to hear, but, that's my opinion as to what you should do.
 
This front end came off of an older 50's or 60's hotrod and the spring perch bolt had been ran loose causing it to reem out the wisbones a hair. When I removed the frontend from my Model A to replace all the bushings and king pins I noticed the wishbone was loose when I took the leaf springs off and that the tappered castle nut was missing the carter pin and had wallowed the nut out a bit. I bought a new spring perch nut and tried tighting it as much as possible but that wishbone still has play in it cause of the spring perch bolt being froze and not tighting. I did a trial mock up off the car and put the whole thing togther and with having a loose wishbone it cause the one side to bind and kick the shackle and leaf spring out a little bit, so the leaf spring and shackle will not hold the wishbone in its proper location. Granted this was off the car so the rear of the wishbone is not bolted to the car and keeping it from kickin that that back end of the wishbone out.
 
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You need get the perch bolt out and evaluate the condition of the tapered sockets in
the loose wishbone. It will come apart, taken better than 100 of these apart over the years, and they all came apart. If nothing else get another axle and bones and change over you spindles etc. '40 axles and bones are relatively cheap. Welding this stuff together is not the right way to approach it.
 
Poor Boys Garage said:
Do you have to press the perch bolt out?
Click to expand...

You have to get the pin out. You should use penetrating oil (half automatic transmission fluid, half acetone has been touted as working well.) You can use an axle "knocker" and try to drive it out. (The perch pin has the same thread as a rear axle.) You can try heat. You can try a press, although, from what I've read here, it might need a BIG PRESS. I had one (a model A) that I had to drill a lot out. But, you have to get the pin out.
 
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