Quote:
Originally Posted by marty in Ohio
I have a question in this vein, but a little different. I read this thread and looked at the picture that dirtrack49 posted in post #5 yesterday. Then I looked at the front axle of my car. In that picture the nut on the spindle lock (Les calls it a grooved locking pin) is on the front of the axle. On my car it's on the back of the axle. I looked in the Les Andrews book and it shows the nut on the back. Does it make a difference?
Marty
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If you mean the king-pin lock pin - then yes.
Two reasons.
One: the hole for the lock-pin in the axle is "straight" - and can be chased with a reamer to clean up rust. However, the lock-pin itself embodies a "key-taper" which is made to match a keyway/taper formed into the king-pin itself. Thus without the king-pin in place the lock-pin CAN go completely through the hole and fall out the other side. It's the king-pin groove which makes the lock-pin lock.
And - there is a left handed king-pin and a right handed king-pin. They are marked and normally go in their spot.
Unsimilarly, the "key-ramp" portion of the lock-pin are both the same right to left, but not front to back. If the lock-pin is installed from the wrong side, you end up with the key-ramp thus formed "the other way." Doing this the topmost round heads of the king-pins are then made "misaligned" to the brake shaft lever housings they are supposed to mate to.
The difference is not large and it may work even with the pins backwards but read on...
Two: the acorn style nut used on the lock-pin is quite tall compared to acorn nuts in real life. This acorn nut is required to "limit" how small a turning radius you can turn - on the back of the steering spindles (king-pin side) there is a recess which "hits" and is thereby formed a limit in turn by the acorn nut.
If the acorn is on the wrong side then it will hit - but not necessarily at the right spot. Your turning radius may be affected.
An additional warning for your reading. Back in the 1970s when I did my first front end - I bought the then-available king-pin kit which included the pins, the retainers, the bearings, the bushings - in a word it was a "kit" and included EVERYTHING.
Except the lock-pin nuts were standard nuts and not the acorn nuts required. I threw all the old stuff away since it was rusty and I used only what was new - because it WAS new. And rationalized "This must be how they make the kits now."
With the wrong nuts in the right place I found the turning radius of the car was such that I could turn a U-turn in my father's garage - which was only a two car (24') garage. A short turning radius was convenient for moving the Model A around and to put THREE cars in a two car garage.
After driving a while I discovered there was some hazard in what I now had - without a proper turning radius limit it became VERY possible to flip the car at speed on the road. Fortunately it never really happened - but going around a turn on two wheels almost happened - and having it nearly happen made me examine the issue. And eventually replace the acorn nuts and do it right.
So given the ready availability of "kits" back then I imagine that there may be other Model A's which don't have the proper turning radius limits out there today. Check to be sure yours is not one of them.
Joe K