Offset cross shaft for MII

Bob K · July 16, 2007, 04:00:33 PM

I am not getting enough positive camber on the MII in my 52 convert and am wearing the inside of the tire.

I have used all of the slot and still need a little more. Does anyone make an offset cross shaft that will solve this problem or must I get the grinder out and elongate the slots a little more?

B :?: B

enjenjo · July 16, 2007, 07:39:01 PM

I don't know of any offset shafts for a Mustang, I can see where they could come in handy. It would not be a big deal to have some made at a local shop.

Grinding the slots work, unless the shaft then hits the shock tower.

You might be able to take a pair of shafts, weld a piece on the inside, and cut it away where it hits the spring tower. This should work with longer slots.

41woodie · July 17, 2007, 11:18:39 PM

Hey Bob, I'm in the act of correcting a similar problem in my 40 pickup. The crossmember that was installed by the PO, was manufactured somewhere in eastern Kansas and I at first thought that it was incorrectly manufactured because the cross-bolts hit the shock towers before the camber was correct.
I finally cut notches in the side of the shock towers in order for the cross bolts to reach the proper point for camber. The slots were already long enough for proper bolt movement. When I finished cutting the slots and eyeballed the alignment I took the pickup to an alignment shop. We got the thing up on a rack and looked it over from the bottom up. It turns out that the bottom of the shock pockets were in contact with the shocks. Basically the the crossmember was bottomed out on the shocks, had worn holes in the body of the shocks, leaked out the fluid and for all purposes I had very little suspension travel. It could move up (off the shocks) but could not travel any further down then the spot where it contacted the shocks. When the shocks were removed the truck then settled to the point it should have been sitting at all along. When it settled down the shock pockets no longer interferred with the cross-bolts and the alignment could be set correctly. We cut and ground the bottom of the shock pocket, changed to a shorter KYB shock, installed Chassis Engineering replacement springs and EUREKA I have a suspension.
What's weird is that I had driven the pickup 2500 miles in that condition, a friend had driven it and neither of us thought there was a problem of that degree. I guess all of my suspension was in the sidewalls of the tires, and a nice soft seat.
You might want to take a long hard look and see if you have a similar problem that is the REAL problem. The short slots may just be a symptom not the root of the problem.
Oh to answer the original question, before we discovered the real problem I was unable to find anyone making an offset cross-bolt, but if it turns out that the short slots are the only problem there is no reason you couldn't grind them out longer, or you can have custom top A-arms manufactured that are longer and would allow proper alignment.

river1 · July 18, 2007, 02:23:24 AM

hey bob

elpolacko (steve) knows ALOT about the MII front ends. you should give him a call see what he suggests.

602-278-6800

later jim

Leon · July 18, 2007, 02:31:01 AM

Quote from: "Bob K"I am not getting enough positive camber on the MII in my 52 convert and am wearing the inside of the tire.

Turn the tire around

GPster · July 23, 2007, 02:33:10 PM

Years ago Frank Odo described a similar situation and he was going to correct it while building his '40 pick-up. There was a chassis builder out by him that had a solution. He welded a steel upright on the top of the spring tower. This upright was placed so that the cross shaft could be rotated 90 degrees in it's bearings (?) and fastened to this upright with bolts on a horizontal. This would allow camber adjustments to be made with the normal "U" shaped alignment shims between the cross shaft and the new welded in upright. Now my explanation may not be very good but the pictures in the article made it look like it would work. I don't recall a re-jection of the idea in the magazine. OR Can the lower ball joints be moved to make the adjustment from the other end? GPster

tomslik · July 23, 2007, 02:53:44 PM

check in to offset bushings.
i've got a set for a challenger....

Okiedokie · July 24, 2007, 08:50:32 AM

GPster, I remember the article you speak of. I think it is only to allow adjustment with shims as opposed to serations on the arms. I really think you would only need this in racing that put hard side loads on the suspension. In fact, there is a company in Dallas [?] that makes a plate that bolts on and does the same thing. They are used mainly by the repo Cobra guys. I always enjoyed Franks articles and he was good to come up with neat stuff like this. Wish Street Rodder had not replaced him.

Pope Downunder · July 24, 2007, 11:36:30 PM

Quote from: "Joe Gaddy"GPster, I remember the article you speak of. I think it is only to allow adjustment with shims as opposed to serations on the arms. I really think you would only need this in racing that put hard side loads on the suspension. In fact, there is a company in Dallas [?] that makes a plate that bolts on and does the same thing. They are used mainly by the repo Cobra guys. I always enjoyed Franks articles and he was good to come up with neat stuff like this. Wish Street Rodder had not replaced him.

Frank Oddo 'Shop Manual' did stuff on the MII alignment issues that 'may' be covered in some of these:
Vol 19/06 June 1990, 21/03 March '92, 22/02 Feb '93; 25/10 Oct '96 r 30/02 Feb '01

From my database.

enjenjo · July 25, 2007, 12:43:23 AM

Quote from: "GPster"Years ago Frank Odo described a similar situation and he was going to correct it while building his '40 pick-up. There was a chassis builder out by him that had a solution. He welded a steel upright on the top of the spring tower. This upright was placed so that the cross shaft could be rotated 90 degrees in it's bearings (?) and fastened to this upright with bolts on a horizontal. This would allow camber adjustments to be made with the normal "U" shaped alignment shims between the cross shaft and the new welded in upright. Now my explanation may not be very good but the pictures in the article made it look like it would work. I don't recall a re-jection of the idea in the magazine. OR Can the lower ball joints be moved to make the adjustment from the other end? GPster

I've set up a couple Mustang front ends like that. The downside is it raises the inner pivot point on the upper arm by about an inch. This gives a lot more camber gain when cornering, which is not desireable. I have used it when doing a Mustang front end using taller splindles, like Crown Vic spindles.