A body drag link - dropped?

Does anybody make a dropped drag link for A body cars? I was thinking someone was making them, Bondo Bob or someone like that maybe? I think the center section was tube with forged ends.

Not sure. I dented my pan both sides and put my bar on the grinder. Works ok now, but a new bar like your lookin for would be nice if available.

Yes, Bondo Bob makes them as far as I know.
He advertises on here.

I modified an A body drag link to fit a friends oil pan with a pass through in the pan. We raised that one, but you could drop one the same way within reason. I just welded in a piece of round bar in on top of the original bar, then torched away the old portion of the link. Clean it up with a grinder, done. We moved that one about 1 1/4 inch up.

Just make sure that not only is the tube seam welded all around the circumference, but that you give it a few extra butt welds for extra measure of safety.

We can make a drag link dropped to whatever number you need

Okay, I'll give you guys a call.

Nice to know some thing is available to fix that issue.

I had a buddy straighten the drag link on the white Duster i used to have so it would pass through the square hole in the super stock pan
Cost 60 bucks. He is an outstanding welder, took him an hour he said to set it up and make it straight like i wanted it

I used solid rod. I would never use tube for a deal like that. It took a lot of welding to build it back up, but looks great 20 years later.

Any chance someone has some pictures of a SS/AA car engine bay without the engine? I'd like to see what sort of steering linkage setup they are using on those cars these days.

I looked on-line at some SS/AA cars for sale but none of them had good pictures of the front suspension. Mostly just exterior pictures and pictures of the cage or rear suspension.

Andy most of our cars have lowered links with a tube welded in for lightness. I can take a picture of mine soon and post it. Most are lowered because the motors are lowered so you have to drop the link to clear the block skirt.

WRT "put my bar on the grinder"
That makes me nervous, reducing the diameter in the middle reduces stiffness in compression a lot (no effect on tension - the other direction). It may bend and allow the wheels to toe without you knowing it.

The difference in stiffness (resists bending in compression) of a solid bar vs. a heavy-walled tube is pretty small, but I suspect that a one-wheel impact (curb?) may fold a tube (buckling load) but not a bar of the same OD. I don't have real numbers but a 1" solid bar is only about 7% stiffer than a 1" tube with 1/4" wall, and a 1-1/8" tube with 1/8" wall is stiffer than both.

IIRC back in the day the original link bent under load, and the cure was a piece of angle iron welded in the center - doesn't need to be full length, my guess is a 12" piece would do the trick.

That is what I was thinking. It doesn't seem like it would be too hard to cut the ends off and use them to fabricate a 3 piece bar with the center made from tubing. If a guy wanted to get fancy the ends could be made from billet steel with a spud on them and then a tube welded in between for the center section.

spud and then the center tube. that's the way mine is with some extra butt welds on the end. Lighter by 2 Lbs.

Yeah seems easy enough. I don't know of anyone selling this setup though. I don't think it would be hard to be make the ends, just a chunk of steel with a couple of tapers and a spud. The center tube could be straight or have a Z bend at each end. Should be simple enough to do with a tubing bender. I don't know, maybe this is what Holt and others do?

Whats the price for a custom drag link to fit a 67 A body with BB?

Back in the 70's I think in the big Direct Connection book it might have said to heat the pitman arm and the idler to lower the drag link. Anyway, that's what I did to clear the pan at that time . Bent them both down to the same measurement from the ground and had a re-allighnement done. never had any steering problems at 130MPH. Now have a tubbed pan with the same steering modification.

Back n the early 70's Roy Johnson had a 71 Challenger that he ran in IHRA and NHRA SS. He took the stock tie rod drag link, cut/sectioned it about 2 inches in from the inside hole. He then welded on 2 plates made from 1/4 inch steel. One on top and one on bottom. He then welded the cut piece of the tube and gained about 5 inches to the rear. This moved the center section of the tie rod to the rear of the oil pan, back close to the trans bell housing. He avoided the tie rod tube thru the oil pan with this set up. I always thought it looked unsafe. But he ran that car for many years with that same drag link on it.
Hope this helps.

I always thought it looked unsafe

If there's enough metal, and someone with good intuitive grasp of the forces involved it will work.

bump steer alert!!!

I don't know who might have a problem with bump steer but my Barracuda pulls the wheels in 2 gears on every run and never had a shake or direction change upon landing.

There's is no way to increase bump steer with this unless you change the pitman/idler arm locations or ratios. The bend them down thing works because you are bending both ratios a close to equal amount. The drag between the two could "V" back to the rear bumper.

Any concerns with bumpsteer are quickly verified by checking tow variances through the range of travel. I made the mistake of swapping to front steer rack and pinion with a modified stock k frame by an unqualified chassis builder and quickly learned the importance of performing the same check. Easy fix if it is introduced but important to verify non the less.

I had this problem on the original 2X3 chassis in my Challenger. I found out that the rack needs to be level with the steering linkage at ride height. It's pretty common sense. If the rack has steering arms that connect to the spindles at down angles, what happens when the suspension is compressed? The toe goes out. There's a little more to it but pretty simple.

The center part of the center link isn't going to have any effect on bump steer but the location of the tie rod ends will. Changing over to a '73 link from a '72 link will change the tie rod end locations so that could cause a bump steer issue. That is one thing I need to verify.

So I've learned a few things since I started this thread. I pulled the front suspension out of the Duster and got it mounted up on a fixture so I could work on it. I swapped in a '73 style center link and noticed that it is longer than the '72 center link. So that moves the inner tie rod points out towards the wheels which will reduce bump steer. So the '73 style center link should be better for bump steer than the '72. I don't think I knew this before.

The '72 tie rods do bolt up to the '73 center link but there is a lot of angle on the tie rod ends since the inner taper points down and the outer taper points up.

I'm going to put the suspension back in the car and see how it looks. If the tie rod angle is too severe then I either need to modify the lower ball joints so the taper points down, or just swap over to the '73 knuckles.