Up Front

 

I loosely assembled the front end on the jitney yesterday. The kit is complete with everything except the pieces to connect the steering box on the left side of the frame to the steering arm on the right side spindle - pitman arm, drag link and a couple of Heim joints. I need to order some fine thread nuts as well. All the hardware is fine thread grade 8 with lock nuts. Since I'm going to have to put things together and take them apart a couple of times, no since wrestling with the lock nuts, especially since some of them are of the nylon insert type and they're not supposed to be used more than once.

The tie rod is a couple of inches too short but that's no surprise. The kit is designed for a 48' axle and mine's 50". I'm planning on machining an extender that I can screw into the tie rod and screw the rod end into that. I'm also going to get a large nut I'll drill the threads out of, slip it over the tie rod on the end with the left handed rod end and then tack it on. That'll make it easy to adjust the toe-in/toe-out without having to unbolt the rod ends from the steering arms. I'll do the same with the drag link. 

I need to figure out where and how to mount the steering box. I eyeballed it a little yesterday but it would be nice if I could clamp to the frame. Speedway has a couple of different pitman arms. I'd feel better if I could have the steering box clamped solid to give myself more accurate measurements for the pitman arm and the drag link. I can then get those ordered along with a coupler to attach to the steering box to get a start on the steering shaft.