Steering: Bell Crank hits radiator

[clarkwd]

I'm putting an Eaton setup from a Hawk in my 55 and the ram arm on the bell crank is really close to the radiator. I can think of some fixes, but before I goof around is there a normal fix for this.
Bill

[RadioRoy]

Are all the mounting holes on your 55 in exactly the same places as on the Hawk?

[Alan]

Without pictures we are just guessing.

[doofus]

Did this on my 53 Turbo Coupe. took some fiddling with rad. support, ground a little on rod end also. believe i may have used a different support as car was built from bits and pieces but it all works with a 1/2 in clearence.between rod end and rad. Luck Doofus

[bezhawk]

I have used a chevy starter shim under two of the bell crank bearing block bolts to tilt them to gain clearance. A single shim spans both bolts is why.

[jrlemke]

How thick is the shim? -Jim

[Alan]

This is a power steering arm? And the Ram part is hitting? From the looks of it you could grind a little off the end of the arm. They have quite a bit of forging flashing on them.

[StudeRich]

I cannot think of any Parts that matter that are different from a '55 C or K Model to a Hawk Steering system that would prevent it from being a "Bolt-on".
However if you have a Sedan or Wagon you have several problems.

[clarkwd]

I took a bunch of pictures of the 63 GT Hawk Raffle car at York and it looked to me like the bottom of the radiator on the Hawk was quite a bit forward of the bellcrank.
Bill

[karterfred88]

Looking at the 63 Set up, looks like 1/2" is, what it is. Remember the motion in the bell crank moves it away the further from center you get and neither the radiator nor the bell crank move in relation to each other (hopefully) so what ever it is, it should be okay. Many Avantis with short style engine mounts have less clearance from the top of the ball end to the crank pulley, and they get away with it-even with the engine moving around. Only way I could see getting a more comfortable clearance would be to find a way to move the radiator further forward-but I don't think there is enough room do that and close the hood. Or, you can do what Studebaker did to get pan clearance on the tie rod end of the bell crank--dent it with a hammer, but probably would get the bottom radiator tank to leak.

[bezhawk]

How thick is the shim? -Jim

They come in varying thicknesses, but you can stack them. Remember a little at the fulcrum point moves it much more out at the ends.

[altair]

I would not recommend fiddling with the steering geometry as serious turning errors will occur. I would look at shimming the radiator forward, maybe only at the bottom.

[bezhawk]

I would not recommend fiddling with the steering geometry as serious turning errors will occur. I would look at shimming the radiator forward, maybe only at the bottom.

Tilting the fulcrum of the pivot does not"MESS" with any steering geometry. The radius of pivots are exactly the same.

[Xcalibur]

Something is WRONG. I cannot see well enough from the photos to tell what is the problem, though. Grinding, etc. is only bandaiding it.

[clarkwd]

These pictures are the best I can do in this light. Hope the notations on this one explain my problem.
Thanks for your help.
Biull