It’s been awhile since I’ve read Smokey Yunick’s entertaining, colorful, and seemingly endless autobiography, but I recall his depreciating those who relied on what he called “cut and try” methods in lieu of analytical thinking and the use of data. Unfortunately, we all fall into this trap once in a while, and that statement definitely includes DIY classic car owners and perhaps even the engineering staffs of Big Three automakers.
Those who have followed my previous COAL updates on my 1963 Thunderbird may recall my problems (that those in the Thunderbird world label “oversteer”) with the steering system. Smokey Yunick, more accustomed to NASCAR Chevelles than slow, heavy cruisers, might scoff and say that oversteer is a loose ass end, or something else comically vulgar. When referencing a 1961-1964 Thunderbird’s behavior, however, it occurs when a light steering input rewards the driver with a lurid, abrupt lane change that becomes more lurid and abrupt as speed increases. It’s usually worse in one direction than another (right in my car’s case), and the steering gear is usually blamed – something along the lines of the spool valve, etc. Therefore, after driving the T-Bird on pins and needles for a year, I replaced the steering box with (two) rebuilds, new solid mounts, and a new rag joint, in addition to replacing many of the suspension components such as ball joints and bushings. As I previously mentioned, it was no longer frightening to drive, but also not something to which I’d throw a stranger the keys and say, “See what she’ll do!”
I’ve driven the car in this condition for a couple of years, but I have noticed that the right front tire has had an odd wear pattern on its outer edge. It must be said that I own more home alignment equipment than most do-it-yourselfers, and I keep a close eye on that sort of thing. I also give both front wheels a hearty shake at 12 and 6 and 9 and 3 almost any time the car’s on the jack. I was missing something.
When I got home from a recent 100-mile trip on the expressway, I reconsidered the idler arm. A notoriously weak part from the factory, the piece on my car had been replaced in the past, and I never noticed any play during my time underneath the car. As Smokey might say, however, I had been asking the car the wrong questions; therefore, I jacked up the passenger wheel under the control arm, left the driver’s tire in contact with the ground, and yanked on the tire with a snapping motion in an attempt to avoid any movement at the driver’s tire. Sure enough, there was a fairly significant amount of play in the idler arm, and at least 1/8 inch of in-and-out movement at the tire.
Looking in my 1960-64 Ford parts book, I verified something I had read online. Ford’s engineering staff seemed to be guilty of using the cut-and-try method of engineering. The idler arm on the 1961/2 Thunderbird was apparently so weak that it was reengineered for mid-year 1962. For 1964, they beefed it up again (evidently not getting it right the second time), and that final version is the one that veteran Thunderbird owners recommend for all 1961-1964 Thunderbirds.
When compared to my once-replaced 1963 unit, it’s easy to see how much more formidable the 1964 idler arm is. Saving metal in a steering component that’s tasked with guiding a nearly two-and-a-half ton car seems like false economy, but there are myriad examples of automakers being penny wise and pound foolish. Strangely, I could not feel any play in the old idler arm once it was lying on the garage floor, but I had had to use a significant amount of force at the passenger tire to discover the problem.
The new part was an expensive piece from Rare Parts, Inc., a company that produces hard-to-find parts for all sorts of old cars. It seems like an extremely well-built component that is the only option for those needing a new idler arm.
Needless to say, the car’s behavior is now…better than it was. At speeds up to 50, it’s much more stable; at expressway speeds, it’s still somewhat overeager on right hand sweepers. Sigh.
With all this being said, I must say that Ford is not the only party guilty of the cut-and-try method in this short discussion. Obviously, it took me nearly three years to diagnose a sloppy idler arm. It took me almost three years to notice that the passenger outer tie rod was bent (although its replacement made exactly no difference in how the car behaved on the road). One day, I was lying under the front of the car, pondering something, when I noticed that the tie rod didn’t quite follow the arc of the lower control arm. Oops.
This reminds me of a conversation I had with a classic Lincoln vendor a couple years ago. He recommended rebuilding the entire front end of any old car so one knew it was right. I tend to only replace what is obviously bad, because old parts were often far more well-built than new parts; in fact, I simply assume that I’ll have to return a new part or two during the course of any job. In this case, however, the vendor was probably right, although I still chafe a little at spending around $250 on an idler arm.
It will take a few hundred miles or more to determine if my repair has a positive effect on right front tire wear, but I can’t imagine it won’t. What has become clear to me is that I will never change. I will continue to purchase relatively inexpensive cars in mediocre condition that the marketplace for one reason or another finds less-than-desirable. Then, I will proceed to spend too much money on mechanical parts that don’t actually raise the value of the car, while completely ignoring the fact that shiny paint and arrow-straight bodywork are pretty much all that matters to the average old car buyer. To twist one of Horace’s Epistles for my own use, “Try with a pitchfork to drive out nature, she always returns.”
As a man well known as an iconoclastic genius, Smokey Yunick would probably agree, and then he would probably cuss me out for working on a bloated plushmobile and not always getting it right. Well, I try.
Previous Thunderbird COALs:
“… while completely ignoring the fact that shiny paint and arrow-straight bodywork are pretty much all that matters to the average old car buyer.”
Guilty as charged.
Theres less mounting points and bushing area on that new idler than on my Hillman Superminx and your car weighs twice as much and has 3x the horsepower at least no wonder they wear out.
Well, looking at the pictures you share with us, the paint looks shiny and the bodywork looks arrow-straight on everything you have. The Dirty Dart, I like to think you’re just too busy to just get it washed and then it too shall conform but something called The Clean Dart doesn’t seem as fun so…. 🙂
I’m curious what percentage of your total annual mileage the (modern) Focus gets overall. And of course it just starts and drops into gear instantly, likely saving you a cumulatively large amount of time on cold mornings as opposed to the others that can then be invested into stuff like replacing idler arms.
I enjoy these updates, especially of the T-Bird. Thanks!
I put about 10,000 miles a year on the Focus, as it’s my go-to-work and vacation car. I did, however, just put a good three of four hundred miles on the Skylark yesterday driving to Grosse Pointe for the Eyes on Design show, where I took enough pictures of cars to write 50 articles.
Honestly, all the old cars can be started and driven away in under 30 seconds on most mornings. Regarding the bodywork and paint, some of the cars are better than the others. The T-Bird is a twenty-footer. It has three paint jobs and the last one was definitely by an amateur. It looks good in pictures, but there are a lot of small flaws and the passenger quarter has some poor bodywork.
I’m glad you enjoy reading about the fleet…I love working on them and writing about them.
Oh, yeah, your fleet is fun. And varied. While I don’t have a personal historical connection to any of the models you own, I think I could easily spend a whole afternoon or more in your garage just looking at the cars and everything there is to see including stuff like the Sun analyzer and other stuff. Whenever you show a picture of the garage it reminds me of the little museum in Ypsilanti with the Corvairs and a bunch of other cars that we saw at the Detroit meetup. Very comfortable.
Oh, I love the Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum. Unfortunately, it’s been closed since last March, and I’m worried it may not reopen. The proprietor recently passed away (Jack Miller of Hudson fame), and the regular Orphan Car Show didn’t happen this year either.
For me the dillemna is that I’ve seen so many examples where “let’s just cut and try” solved a problem with seemingly no easy workable solution, so it’s tough to dismiss. lol
Aaaron65, not sure if I mentioned it before or not, I know I thought about it. I owned EXACTLY your Bird as a nice old car, but they hadn’t caught on yet. It could be the car, but I doubt it because I sort of know where mine was packed into a dark hole.
I had intended to rebuild and “civilize” the steering. One thought was to install a damper (hydraulic shock type) at the center link.
As often happens, I just got used to it and pretty soon I could just relax and “thumb” the wheel around at 300 mph. lol
Anyway, has any Bird owner tried a hydraulic damper on the center-link?
I’ve never heard of anyone using a damper, but I tossed around adapting a rack and pinion; I read about one guy who put one in a ’64. That would be a LOT of fabrication, and even then you’d have to worry about sourcing strong enough steering linkage parts. Apparently, that guy used a Cavalier rack.
You’d have to get into bump steer and adapting it to the steering column, etc, which might be beyond my pay grade. On the other hand, a damper might calm that initial “jump” the steering makes in that one direction; after that, the steering is fairly linear. Not a bad idea.
The steering gear in our ’56 Olds leaked fluid all through the 70’s, apparently from a design flaw. Dad finally had a ’57 steering gear box installed. I can’t remember if that was before or after it sat for 6 months waiting for a new master cylinder to be located.
I would be OK with buying the car with good paint and straight body work. I can do mechanical repairs and body work is darn expensive.
I worked on many T-Birds way back in the day. I worked for a farmer/truck driver. He was a T-Bird collector. I would make runs to the local Ford junkyard for parts to repair the various Birds. The junkyard guy didn’t really like stripping pieces off the Birds. One day the junkyard owner offered to sell all the Birds to my boss, and now we are in the T-Bird junkyard business.
I do remember these early 60 Birds having very light and sensitive power steering. When I went on to working for GMC I would occasionally come across a truck with very light and sensitive steering. The torsion bar in the spool valve would work loose causing this, time for a new spool valve. The spool valve are tricky to install, the outer shell of the valve indexes on a pin on the side of the worm gear. You take a measurement before removing the spool valve and check the depth again when you drop the spool in. If you get it wrong you are going to be overhauling the steering gear.
I think your experience with the spool valve is the problem now; there are no new ones to be had these days, and the steering gear was only used from 1961-1964. Apparently in ’65, they went to a new design that was also (I believe) used on the big Fords all the way up to the late ’70s. I should have bought a ’65!
I went for a walk late last night, and crossing the town’s main drag, a white Square Bird was the only car on the road.
That would be a cool painting. 🙂
The tire wear pattern already established will tend to continue even after the repair. Maybe that would be enough to cause a continual issue? Remember changing out the rubber bushing idler arm on my 1960 Falcon to an aftermarket one with ball bearings. Big difference! Nice T’bird. My neighbor’s father owned a small Ford store when yours was new and he drove a different one at least every year. Got rides to school in them.
You’re right about tire wear patterns; on the T-Bird, I swapped the tires from right to left, which sometimes seems to help, but the damage is done once they’re worn.
These are always fun reading. Be thankful that you got a 63 and not a 61 that is almost impossible to keep in alignment coupled with a 1-year design on the forward rear leaf spring shackles that allowed far too much action in the spring/axle geometry.
But they are so sexy!
I’ve read about the ’61, including your comments about your T-Bird! For a three-year run of similar-looking cars, Ford certainly made several fairly significant changes along the way.
I’m a Ford guy who knows nothing of these year-to-year engineering (rather than styling) changes, so all this is fascinating—the Thunderbird’s idler arm going through four iterations, and then the other little stories I learned in the comments.
I understand the 1949 Ford had a whole lot of improvements later on, and would be interested in other stories of such fixes (I’ll try to remember some of the stories my father told me about running changes on the big engine castings at the Cleveland Casting Plant)…
Those stories about the casting plant must be interesting; Ford has a reputation for making wholesale changes whenever they feel like it! 🙂
This sounds familar. I did a couple days of the Old 27 tour last month in my ’65 Chrysler and started noticing a pull/clunk when braking, that turned out to be the idler arm.
After replacing it, I have not noticed any real difference in steering, but it is definitely less twitchy under hard braking.
It’s interesting to see the different solutions to the same problem that the different companies came up with. Chrysler made the mounting brackets part of the frame, so the idler just attaches with a bolt straight through two ears. It looks like the tie rods attach directly to an arm that is part of the spindle assembly, while Chrysler made that arm part of the lower ball joint
Your Thunderbird appears to be a twin to my dad’s. It’s problems were endless, and probably contributed a lot to my Fordaphobia that I’ve had pretty much my entire life. His trouble plagued ’62 didn’t help either. The T-Bird came home early fall of 62, and within a week had it’s first overheat. The head gaskets were done the first time around Halloween or so, and another set were installed around Christmas. Along with the engine issues, the transmission shifted very abruptly and soon was “rebuilt” for the first time about Feb of 63. By the time it got warm outside, coolant could be smelled again. I had been smelling it for some time and told my parents, but I was 7 so they ignored me, until the passenger side head gasket started weeping and even they could smell it. Head gaskets again, and at that point my parents ordered a ’64 Caddy and the T-Bird was sold to some poor sap. I saw it slowly rust away over the next 10 years or so as the buyer lived about a mile from us. At that point, my father was “Done with Ford”, but in 1969, he would buy a Lincoln MKIII, and he hated it so much he traded his brother straight up for a ’69 Cadillac Sedan De Ville, a car he had until health issues stopped his driving in ’73. He loved the Caddy, it was totally trouble free the 4 years he drove it. Sadly, it was destroyed when he passed out and hit a telephone pole with it. How he survived is a total mystery, as it looked like one of those horrible high speed crashes where nobody makes it out alive, let alone a 60 year old guy with serious health issues and never wore a seatbelt.