1962 steering unstable when going around right hand curves | Page 3 | Ford Thunderbird club group 1955-2005 T-Bird models

1962 steering unstable when going around right hand curves

  • Thread starter Thread starter Forbird
  • Start date Start date
Forbird said:
The rear suspension is completely wasted. Maybe all original. Everyone I have talked to dismisses the rear suspension immediately. After I get new wheels and tires the rear suspension is my next project.
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On a trip to CA I lost one of the links for the rear sway bar on my 92 explorer. The vehicle started to get unstable, sort of a back and forth wobble that was unsettling. Stopped almost immediately and found that the link had popped off and put it back on and all went back to normal. I also recently discovered an interesting thing about the design of the leaf spring rear suspension on some MoPars back in the day. It may also be true of our tbirds. The axle is not mounted in the midpoint of the leafs but more toward the front. You'll often hear that's to help prevent axle windup under load, which is undoubtedly true. But it also has another feature due to being mounted there as well as the difference in the height of the front and rear shackles. Due to that geometry, when the car goes around curves the car part on the inside of the curve goes "up" whereas the part of the car on the outside of the curve goes "down" due to the car leaning over The effect of that up/down is that the leaf spring on one side gets effectively shorter then the leaf spring on the other side. That shortening actually "steers" the axle in a way that improves handling on curves. At least that's what the Mopar Engineer said on one of those old black and white films the auto companies used to put out to tout their cars great engineering and advanced features.

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i believe 62's had steering box insulators which are three rubber cushions between the steering box and frame. Mine were deteriorated on my 64 and affected the steering. The steering box had been replaced by the previous owner but the insulators had not. i got underneath the car and had someone turn the steering wheel back and forth while I observed the linkage. I immediately saw movement of the steering box. I replaced the rubber insulators with solid ones and this tightened up the steering significantly.
 
pltmgr said:
i believe 62's had steering box insulators which are three rubber cushions between the steering box and frame. Mine were deteriorated on my 64 and affected the steering. The steering box had been replaced by the previous owner but the insulators had not. i got underneath the car and had someone turn the steering wheel back and forth while I observed the linkage. I immediately saw movement of the steering box. I replaced the rubber insulators with solid ones and this tightened up the steering significantly.
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Thanks I will take a look.
Tom Alpers said:
On a trip to CA I lost one of the links for the rear sway bar on my 92 explorer. The vehicle started to get unstable, sort of a back and forth wobble that was unsettling. Stopped almost immediately and found that the link had popped off and put it back on and all went back to normal. I also recently discovered an interesting thing about the design of the leaf spring rear suspension on some MoPars back in the day. It may also be true of our tbirds. The axle is not mounted in the midpoint of the leafs but more toward the front. You'll often hear that's to help prevent axle windup under load, which is undoubtedly true. But it also has another feature due to being mounted there as well as the difference in the height of the front and rear shackles. Due to that geometry, when the car goes around curves the car part on the inside of the curve goes "up" whereas the part of the car on the outside of the curve goes "down" due to the car leaning over The effect of that up/down is that the leaf spring on one side gets effectively shorter then the leaf spring on the other side. That shortening actually "steers" the axle in a way that improves handling on curves. At least that's what the Mopar Engineer said on one of those old black and white films the auto companies used to put out to tout their cars great engineering and advanced features.
Click to expand...
Yah I definitely need to rebuild the rear suspension. I put a heavy duty sway bar on the front and I don't think the rear has one at all.
 
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