ACKERMANN PRINCIPLE

This is probably a much debated part of front end design. When I looked at the steering arms I could see that there was no Ackermann. The line through the track rod hole and the kingpin ran straight back on each side of the car. The line is supposed to point to the rear wheel contact patch.

It looked to me that the steering arms were on the wrong side so I swapped them.

Now the line through the kingpin is correct however now the track rod won't fit correctly.

There are 2 options. Make a new track rod with Rose Joint ends or heat and twist the ends of the steering arms. A quick heating with the Acetylene torch and a steel rod in the hole allowed me to bend the arms to get the arm holes plumb and square. The track rod now fits correctly except that is now 2.5" short. I still have to mill the hex down to an acceptable size and get it chrome plated and make stop nuts. The heating did turn the chrome blue but is doesn't show in the pix.

 Now I have correct Ackermann and therefore no scrub when cornering or parking. I look forward to driving an F type without this fix to see what the difference is. It was an afternoon of work.

Edit note.
I read in Nev's book that he suggests doing this exact same thing, however he cold bent the steering arms out to correct the Ackermann.