i had a bad sag in the frame on my 24 Fordor so i took everything off and had a bare frame to work with ,after much work the frame is straight and level in all directions,we installed the radiator and firewall to check for this alignment and installed the hood everything is perfect! we re-installed the engine and rear end and the engine appears to be cocked to the drivers side about 1/2" is it possible to heat the pan arms and re-bend them to level the engine? I tried using a shim but that throws the neutral adjusting screw way out, the nearest pan jig is in Cincinnati about six hours from here.Any thoughts or ideas?.Thanks ,as always there are a lot of good ideas.
Rick

Rick: Where is here? I may be closer. Thanks, Dan

If a shim puts the neutral adjustment out, bending the pan ears would likely do the same. The parking quadrant is fastened to the frame. It would seem to me, that something else might be out of alignment than the ear.

If you put a tight string from the front to the back of the frame, does the frame sag in the middle left side, or is the right side bowed upward? Are the diagonal measurements from front to back the same either direction?

It would seem to me more likely that the right ear is bent down than the left one bent up.

A jig would be the best way to find that out. Any heating and bending without a jig would be just a guess, and might cause more problems than it would solve.
Norm

Do you mean to say that the engine sits higher on the right side than on the left? Or, do you mean that the engine is shifted to the left?

Mine is tilted the other direction, so I put a 1/2" plywood block under the right arm a few years back. . I noticed yesterday it's tilted more, so maybe it's time to pull that poor old, cracked, warped pan and fix it.

Mine may be warped from a grabbing clutch, while yours may be from jabbing the tranny brake.

rdr

Rick, as others have said, it's hard to say if bending the pan arms would level it or cause other problems.

I will say that when heated the pan arms can be bent rather easily. I just had help doing that Tuesday night on my pan from the fellow in Maine that stores the Maine Chapter's pan jig. Mine was one of the straighter pans to start with that he had done so it was easy.

Mike

Thanks for the comments,Tom Stanzione came over and we used a plumb bob on the radiator inlet and heated the right side ear at the bend and lifted up and kept checking and then did the left which needed to go down 3/8" on one side and 1/8" on the other,the radiator lines up,the hood fits and the firewall is lined up so all looks good,next step is to put the body back on and maybe the doors will fit better with the frame being aligned now it had an upward bulge on the left side which threw everything out of line.Thanks again, Rick in Knoxville,TN

Rick: I am in B'ham Al. Dan

How did you straighten the sagging frame? Did you send it out, or did you do it yourself?

If you did it, how was it done?

I'm thinking I am going to have to do this to a frame I have, so any input on this subject would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Steve

I have straightened a Model A frame and just finished my T frame. The A frame was easier because of the extra beef and center crossmember which helps to keep the frame rails from twisting during the re-bending.

I have threaded inserts in my concrete floor so that it is possible to chain the front and rear of the frame to eye bolts. An alternative is lashing to railroad ties or homemade heavy wood beams. The technique is to lash the frame rails front and rear and jack up the frame in the location of the sag. It is a little scary because you have to bend the thing quite a bit further than straight because it springs back. It may take quite a few tries at increasing the amount of bend until it stays level. You may have to bend in several locations. I found that it was best to add wooden crossmembers from side to side, cut to fit, and clamped in place, to keep the frame rails from twisting while this re-bending is accomplished. The T frame is flimsy compared to the A. Use fishing line or similar, stretched a known distance above the top of the rails to monitor progress.

Steve,

I helped Rick with his frame. It was indeed pretty out of shape.

Basically you can bend the frame by attaching a chain at 2 points and using a bottle jack or a porta power to apply opposite pressure. The key is to find out exactly where the frame starts its bend, where the center of the bend is and where it ends.

To do this on Ricks we put the bare frame on stands and then used a long level to make sure one end was level from side to side then using stands and shims we worked our way down the frame checkign that side to side level until we found where it started to run out of level, found the peak and then the other end of the frame was low by a bit as well. We measured to see if the frame was square at this point as well and it was out by a fair amount. As you probably know the top of the frame rails are flat so it is fairly easy to run the level

We also ran the level from front to back on each rail using it more as a straight edge than a level at this point and it was pretty easy to detect the bump where the center of the bend was.

The jack then was placed at the peak of the bend and the ends of the chain were tied a few inches beyond where the bend starts and ends and then applied pressure at the peak.

Two things happen when you do this, One the frame bends back toward its correct level position but the other is that the frame has a tendency to twist as well. We worked one problem at a time so we pushed the frame rail a little beyond the level point to allow for the spring back when pressure was released. After about 3 or 4 runs at this it was finally level from side to side.

The rail was a little twisted and also was bent in toward the other rail at this point. We then put a long piece of angle iron in the straight rail to act as a stiffener and applied pressure in the middle of the inward bend on the bent rail. Again 3 or 4 small adjustments and we were straight again.

The twist was very easy to take out at that point. I cant even recall what we used but anything that will grab on or go through the holes in the rail to allow you to twist will work.

Once completed we check all the level points side to side and front to back again and it was right where we wanted it. Taking the bend out of that rail made its front to back length longer and when we verified the square dimension it was right on.

We then went over the frame to insure that all the rivets were tight and solid throughout the frame.

Sorry to be so long winded here, hope this helps.

Good,
I'm glad it worked.
Norm