Steering Supports and Knuckles

[James_Douglas]

I could be mistaken. For 1949 the change was made on Chrysler and Desoto...it may not have been made on Plymouth or Dodge. A bad assumption on my part.

 

In any event, I would always use the needle bearings if I could get them. All up side and no down side.

 

James

[woodie49]

James, this car has always handled good and is a fun car to drive.  I plan on using the standard bushings to reassemble, assuming they are properly reamed.  However, if i experience any issues, i will try the Torrington top bearings. I am pretty sure it would be an improvement. But I do prefer everything to be bone stock on my cars. I do realize there is a lot to be said for improving the original, but this car will likely see less than 1000 miles a year, and mostly local. In the days when I used to drive to various Woody shows, this would have been more important to me.  I do appreciate the insight.

[Dodgeb4ya]

Light Plymouth's have always steered so much easier than the bigger heavier DeSoto and Chrysler cars.

That's just a Plymouth....nice easy to steer car.

Needle bearings are nice when constantly lubed but....when not lubed enough or the needles fail...spindles can become extremely hard to turn and even jam or lock up.

This because of the tiny thin needle bearings breaking apart and jamming/doubling up against the knuckle and king pin bearing surfaces.

Kinda like cross type U-joint failure.

Typical bushing king pins just get loose and sloppy.

Needle bearings are great if you constantly lube them with only one and same type of grease. Mixing different types of greases when lubing precision needle bearings will cause premature failure.

JMO.?

[woodie49]

Finally got the knuckles back from a semi-local machine shop.  This was the third trip.  First time they were "ready", I could not press one of the pins in manually at all, and the other required near super-human strength. The guy there thought that once I "pounded in all together", the weight of the car on the joint would loosen it all up sufficient to make steering quite easy. We talked for a while and they tried again. Second time seemed like they had not touched it further. I was going to take it back and try elsewhere, but they wanted to send it to a shop they use for all their "unusual" jobs.  Third time seemed like a charm.  These fit quite snug with no side to side movement, but I can push them through the knuckles and supports with some effort. All the grease holes line to the fittings, and it all went back together pretty good. 

 

In addition to the king pins, I replaced the coil springs, shocks, and tie rod ends. I can not fine any tech specs for the tie rod ends (but the sleeves get 20 lbs.), but I an guessing about 30-40 lbs with a cotter pin should do it.  Also, I am not sure about the tightening bolt on the top of the knuckle support.  I think it ultimately just insures that the alignment adjustment holds, so I assume about 20 lbs. should be enough for this.  Anyone actually have any specs for any of these?

 

I'll work a bit with the alignment and rebuild the rear brakes, then its back on the road, Really looking forward to it.  Thanks to all here who have offered all kinds of help.  Really a great resource as well as confidence builder.

[Sniper]

Something seems amiss, or maybe it's just the angle of the photo, but on my 51 the top of the upright is noticeably closer to the rear control arm that the front, iow it's not centered.  Am I missing something?

[woodie49]

Don't know.  Once i managed to get the support into the fork with the two seals, there did not seem to be a bunch of play.  I'll need to go back to the manual to see if there is some quidance here.  I did not replace the bushings or the pins in this assembly.

[woodie49]

I don't see anything in the manual that says to center this or to indicate that it is otherwise adjustable. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of that area before I began the project. I guess if out of position, it would likely affect the castor. I'll know when I ultimately get it aligned.

[woodie49]

Finished up the front end work a couple days ago.  I replaced the King Pins, coil springs (used the MOOG progessive 850's), shocks and tie rod ends. Rebuilt the brakes cylanders as well, since I had it all apart. Really happy with the result. It is very stable through 65MPH, haven't had the chance to go faster. Stops good! Noticeably better over bumps.  I did adjust the toe-in, but I have no good way to check the caster/camber. I have regular nylon ply tires on it, so a good set of radials is probably next on the list.

Thanks to all you guys who helped with this?.  So glad I did not hone out the supports to accomodate the oversized Pins. Here are a few pix of the finished product, including one on the lift - I should have taken this while it was on the road, but the stance was not noticably affected by using the MOOG springs.  I have a little less than a 1/2 inch drop from the back of the rocker infront of the rear tire to the front of the rocker behind the front tire. I read some varying results with the springs - for me they are just right in terms of stance and feel.

[Sniper]

Looks good, I swapped in the same springs last weekend.  As measured on my car, I ran a tape measure from the ground thru the center of the tire to the fender lip and I got an increase of 1 inch in ride height.  I'll drive it some and see if it settles.

[Andydodge]

Woodie.....pleased it all has worked out............I like the view of a nice clean front suspension...........lol................might be time to give mine a once over.......lol............regards from Oz.............andyd