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Made some more progress today. I mocked up the general shape of the arm out of two pieces of 1/2" pine. The board I was using was 5.5" so the top part above the ball joint will be 1/2" thicker. I actually glued a piece to the top to get the correct thickness and I have shaped the square section to the left to clear my dual piston brake calipers. (more pictures of the further progress probably tomorrow)
The arm will require spacers machined out of 1" round bar stock to max strength and will be 1" on one side and 1.5" on the other side. I don't like how far the arm is off of the spindle but the 1" bar stock should make it strong enough and I have a couple of other strengthening ideas.
Obviously the bolts I used are way to long, but they are what I had. Once I confirm this will work I will get the correct mounting hardware.
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OK so here it is, including the brake caliper. 
Next step is to pull the car in the garage and make sure there are no clearance issues. I am worried about the tie-rod mounting hitting the steering stop on the LCA before I get my full OEM steering travel. If that is the case than this project was nothing more than an excursive in wood working 
Might be a few weeks before I can get this part tested due to needing to do it on the car, but as soon as I have a result I will report back. If it works than I will begin cutting the arms out of angle iron and once I have them done and shaped I will fabricate the understructure that will support the rest of the brake caliper and tie the arm into the caliper mount.
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Looking good! Pics are awesome. I will keep my fingers crossed for you regarding contact with the steering stops on the LCA.
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FAILURE!!!
I pulled the car into the garage and got things mocked up. First thing I did was tape some cardboard to the floor so that I could mark the spindle turning radius.
I then pulled the spindle from the car and installed my modified spindle. There were several issues first the bracket I designed didn't clear the LCA in several locations. I probably could have modified it to make it work, BUT I don't gain much turning radius before the new arm bottoms out on the LCA (orange line) so there is really not much point in continuing on this project. Yes I would gain a little more turning radius but not not enough to make it worth the time and effort in modifying the parts.
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Well that is unfortunate! Full marks for effort tho!
Couple of thoughts:
Would you have got to the factory turning radius with the spindle mod in combination with the rack mod you did a while back? I'm assuming the lower control arm would still cause interference?
Secondly, is there another centre steer rack out there that has more turning radius than the J car unit that hasn't been discovered yet that could be used in conjunction with the t-bird spindle?
Last edited by dan_6776 (April 17, 2017 5:12 pm)
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Can you just screw on a different horizontal leg on the your mock-up fixture to test different configurations? Maybe you can get there with slight modifications.
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dan_6776 wrote:
Would you have got to the factory turning radius with the spindle mod in combination with the rack mod you did a while back? I'm assuming the lower control arm would still cause interference?
Secondly, is there another centre steer rack out there that has more turning radius than the J car unit that hasn't been discovered yet that could be used in conjunction with the t-bird spindle?
The "mod" to the rack is not viable. When I first did it I thought it would work but it didn't pan out. As far as a "different rac" R&P steering by it's very nature has less total travel.
Can you just screw on a different horizontal leg on the your mock-up fixture to test different configurations? Maybe you can get there with slight modifications.
Yes I could modify the arm to clear however it would be tough to do and the new tie-rod location interferes with LCA and limits total travel to the orange line so there is not enough potential gain to make it even worth my time.
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