What is it?

[akbat]

Tearing into my new project....a 31 coupe.
The front yoke seems unusual for an A.

It has a double spring with rubber cones inside the spring coils. The spring sits on the crossmember.
There is a rubber donut above the spring, on the yoke shaft. There is another rubber donut on the shaft, under the crossmember, a large washer. (Shock absorber style) and the nut.

The bottom of the spring has worn deep grooves into the crossmember, which tells me it's been this way a long time.

What is it? 50's J C Whitney?

 

[1930artdeco]

Yep

 

[1955cj5]

I had one of those too....Nice to know it was from J.C. Whitney...

Thought maybe it could have been Western Auto....

 

[SeaSlugs]

One thing ive wondered, the original front setup was rather simple with basic springs and whatnot. Why would all these aftermarket companies try to "reinvent" the wheel by creating these completely different setups?
Was/is it because of copyright laws and not allowed to reproduce exact duplicates of the ford parts? Why can we now buy repo parts that are darn near 100% exact? Did the copyright protection run out or are people getting the rights from Ford to reproduce parts?

Sorry for the billion questions...

 

[Mike V. Florida]

One thing ive wondered, the original front setup was rather simple with basic springs and whatnot. Why would all these aftermarket companies try to "reinvent" the wheel by creating these completely different setups?
Was/is it because of copyright laws and not allowed to reproduce exact duplicates of the ford parts? Why can we now buy repo parts that are darn near 100% exact? Did the copyright protection run out or are people getting the rights from Ford to reproduce parts?

Sorry for the billion questions...

For the same reasons we see owners make changes today, newer is better.

As for intellectual property protection running out, ever notice some vendors use the ford part numbers and some use their own? Well about 14 years ago Ford told the vendors that if they were going to use Ford part numbers or even a system similar to their system they would have to pay Ford. Some did some did not even though there is precedent that allowed it. What "little" vendor would want to hire a lawyer to go up against Ford?

 

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

Vermin has one, I took the rubber cones out, they're old & would probably be too STIFF.
Bill W.