Tie rod and drag link rubbing
 

I checked under my 28 roadster and noticed that there was some evidence of rubbing between the drag link and tie rod. About 1/4" or so clearance when steering straight ahead, which is not enough. When turned either way, no issue.

Reading in Les Andrews' red book, he said that rubbing is caused by a weak front spring. I don't doubt his advice, but replacing the front spring is a bit of work. It is something I will do if that is the problem. Any other potential causes of this condition? I don't see anywhere where it is rubbing when I turn the wheels, but maybe when I am driving the car?

I saw somewhere that someone was looking at a camera recommendation to record the suspension of their car while driving. That is something I could try.

Bratton's catalog has the measurements for a good spring, but that requires disassembly. I am not opposed to doing that, either, but don't want to if I don't need to.

Thanks

Re: Tie rod and drag link rubbing
 

My tie rod/drag link also showed signs of rubbing. All the wear marks were rusty just like the rest of the tie rod so what ever caused it was in the forgotten past. We have owned the ccpu since 1962.

I did replace the front spring with new, but little improvement in the clearance. This ccpu had a 12 leaf front spring and I replaced it with a 10 leaf, so I suppose it was a push.

What helped with the tie rod/drag link clearance was installing a shortened pitman arm.

I like the steering feel and effort needed, it's much better than it was before with the original pitman arm.

I have all new steering arms and the original type steel cups, and king pin bushings and bearings are new.

The picture shows the old tie rod. I punched a hole in it just to see how close it was to failure....

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Re: Tie rod and drag link rubbing
 

Mine is nowhere near that bad. I thought about the shortened pitman arm as a potential solution. Thanks for sharing your experience.

Re: Tie rod and drag link rubbing
 

Think carefully before you install a shortened pitman arm. My brother in law has just bought his first A and the previous owner installed one. I drove it home for him and what a trial that was! There was about 1/2 a turn free play in the steering wheel and the feel was awful. We went back to the original and the free play was reduced to about 2" and the drive was quite good. I wouldn't have expected such a difference in the freeplay but that is what it was.
I had toyed with the idea but after that experience, I won't do it.

Re: Tie rod and drag link rubbing
 

You have to make sure the shortened pitman arm is a tight fit on the sector shaft. I had to clean up the gap in the shortened pitman arm where the bolt pinches it to the sector shaft so the fit was good and tight.

Also, the remainder of my steering, king pins and bushings have been replaced, so everything else is pretty tight.

I first put the shortened arm on a couple years ago, before everything else was rebuilt. I didn't like it then and went back to the original arm. But now I like it.

Re: Tie rod and drag link rubbing
 

What you say is pretty right. In the example I gave above, everything was good in the front end except the king pins are loose in the axle eyes. I have no doubt that contributed to the issue.

Re: Tie rod and drag link rubbing
 

My suspicion is that your Model "A" had an incident in its life that bent the front the steering arm. Changing the front spring is not going to fix this problem because the steering arm and drag link are relative to the axle. The steering arm is a forging, so it can be bent without heat. Take the car to a spring shop that services trucks and they will fix it.

Re: Tie rod and drag link rubbing
 

Some tie rods are hollow with solid ends. Sometimes these can be seen by the "weep holes" on the bottom.

Others are solid all the way through. I have both kinds hanging around here.

Joe K

Re: Tie rod and drag link rubbing
 

The shortened pitman arm would have nothing to do with the drag link rubbing on wishbone. Somethings bent.

Re: Tie rod and drag link rubbing
 

If you don't believe this is an issue, then have someone stand on the front bumper and tell us what the clearance is now. When driving, the bumps cause the spring to flex past static loading. It will rub WAY more during driving.

Re: Tie rod and drag link rubbing
 

Just went thru the exercise of checking steering am, replacing spring, new tie rod and shortened pitman arm; the gap between the 2 parts improved. Check other Barn threads: a shortened pitman arm will usually require an adjustable drag link to get the steering gears centered with the minimal freeplay to solve Snyncro's issue in post 4.. I made my own.
Also the gap from the spring eyes to the axle was enlarged with the new spring. There was a little evidence of wallowing on the top of axle flange which initiated the entire process.

Re: Tie rod and drag link rubbing
 

"If you don't believe this is an issue, then have someone stand on the front bumper and tell us what the clearance is now. When driving, the bumps cause the spring to flex past static loading. It will rub WAY more during driving."

That is my suspicion. It isn't rubbing when it is sitting still, so it has to be rubbing while driving.