Thread: Low-budget/T-Bucket Pickup

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Originally Posted by firebird77clone

Ok I did some digging. It looks like the 3* is not a fixed angle. It depends on the suspension. Ladder bars being most rigid, require 1* down. Four bar 1.5*. Leaf can be as high as 7* down. This is to compensate for the tendency of the pinion to rise under hard acceleration, maintaining the overall pinion angle at zero or less.

It is nasty mojo for the pinion angle to become positive.

Relative to transmission of course.

I hope I regurgitated that correctly.

All of which applies to a car/truck in a RACE setup, NOT a street application. For a street application the pinion angle should be equal and opposite to the transmission tailshaft angle, to eliminate driveline vibrations, IMHO.

there are hundreds of 46-48 fords out there with a nova/camaro rear end. with the leaf springs the pinion ends up at about 6 + down compared to 3-4 at the trans . i know of one with 120k on it.

And all it takes to adjust leaf spring pinion angles are spring shims--------they are common truck front end items

yep. but it's amazing how many of the the old hotrods are still out there set up like that. i've used the shims on many street gasser cars. use to get them aligned at the place my dads trucks were done.

I plan on using a rack and pinion assembly, mounted under the floor, and connected to the drag link. I am going to have a vertical steering column, or close to it.

I did a lot of looking around, trying to find a rack that is small enough to fit where I want it. I finally came up with this piece, a Late Model stock car rack made by Sweet Manufacturering. These things are $450 new, I found a used one on EBay for $120. When it arrived, it had quite a bit of wear/play in it. So I ordered a rebuild kit for it, disassembled it, and replaced the bushings and bearings in it. It is now working very well. The last picture shows about where I will mount it. I want to build the floor and seat first, before I finalize the steering column location.

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That is a cool little rack. I'm curious if it will have enough travel to turn the straight axle lock to lock?

Wow, that's a little guy, hopefully the kit wasn't too expensive vs a new one.

It has about 5 inches of travel. I hope that is enough. I'll investigate a little more when I get home in a few days.

The rebuild kit was about $45. It came with new boots also.

Originally Posted by Driver50x

It has about 5 inches of travel. I hope that is enough

I don't recall what spindles you're using, but if they have a bolt on steering arm, you could make a shorter arm. This would increase steering effort, but also increase travel at the wheel for a given amount of travel from the rack. It will make the steering response quicker too.

Yep, exactly. The front axle and spindles are from a '65 Chevy Van. I am making the steering arm from a piece of angle iron, so I can make it whatever length I need it.

I got my door mounted. I used a piano hinge as a hidden door hinge. I had to do a little grinding on the door to make enough space for the hinge. I used a mini bear claw latch.

I debated mounting the door suicide style, but I ended up not doing that. I was afraid that one day the door might pop open going down the road and tear itself off.

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I traced my firewall and cut a reinforcement out of 3/4" oak plywood. I wiped off the inside of the firewall with acetone and roughed it up with a 36 grit sanding disc. I glued it on with Gorilla Glue construction adhesive for now. I'll fiberglass the edges a soon as a get a chance.

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I did just about the same thing. It worked out well for me, gave me a place to mount things like the fuse block and wires, etc. Are you gonna fill in the edges?

Yep, I'm going to fiberglass in the edges.

I would suggest that you fiberglass the entire surface. This will waterproof the wood. Over time it will absorb moisture from the air and could swell.