MTFCA Forum

Helping a guy that has a 1912 put together car with a lot of incorrect parts.
Ran out of threads on the tie rod and still have too much toe in, over 1/2". The tie rod is 46-3/4 which from what I can find is correct.
Thinking might have bent spindle arm. I noticed an approx. 3/8" difference when measuring from the inside face of the spokes to center of the tie rod bolt between the sides. Sorry don't have those numbers in front of me now. Even if I take in account that 3/8", still would have a lot of thread sticking out the yoke to just get that 1/4" toe in.
Could someone measure the distance from the inside face of the spokes to center of the tie rod bolt of a known good setup and let me know.
Maybe I am going the wrong direction with this but bent arms is the only thing I can think of at this point.
Thanks

Is this put together chassis going to be for a speedster ? If it is and it has a dropped axel then the king pin to king pin distance is probably not stock Model T and will give results like this. Does the car have the correct early tie rod with the toe in adjustment on the left and a fixed drag link ball on the right ? Using a later tie rod with the adjustment on the right at the drag link ball and having a correct length drag link for the correct tie with left side adjustment will cause problems like this also.

No, mother-in-law body, straight axle.
The tie rod is the later style with the ball at the adjust end.
The spindle arms are the straight type for over the axle wishbone.
I will have to check on the differences between the two styles of tie rods. I have one with the ball at the fixed end but the threads are gone at the fixed end yoke. Thanks for the heads-up on that!

Whatever other problems you may have, you certainly seem to have some bent spindle arm issues, as you suspected. The 3/8" difference is one thing, but at that point, you can't count on either spindle arm being correct.

After looking at the two types, the fixed end ball vrs the adjustable end ball: Should not have any bearing on the toe in. That would be more an issue with having the correct drag link to match the style of tie rod. The drag link is the correct length for the year but would explain why the pitman arm is not centered. The ball is closer into the yoke on the one with the fixed ball than the one with it at the adjustable end. Other than the location of the drag link ball, I don't see any real differences in the yokes between the two styles of tie rods.

Jerry VanOoteghem wrote: ↑

Wed May 21, 2025 10:52 am

Whatever other problems you may have, you certainly seem to have some bent spindle arm issues, as you suspected. The 3/8" difference is one thing, but at that point, you can't count on either spindle arm being correct.

Thanks, I will need to do more checking on the spindle arms.

It was the spindle arms, well at least one of them. Swapped them both out and was able to get more or less correct toe in. Still have to address the drag link but that is for another day.

A 1912 drag link will have forged ends. One end is brazed and riveted in place , the other is on a coarse thread and has a locknut so you can adjust the length/angle at which it sets. Snyders used too sell an excellent reproduction, but I think someone reported them as no longer available.

Allan from down under.