Thanks - I'm in slow-mode for now since I wound up with a strained back dragging that engine hoist around with the weight of the drivetrain. The things we do
Although I have not used this particular setup, if you look at the geomitry of the ball joint in referrance to the center of pivot on the front arm it is the same as the stock single control arm. The rear arm is taking the place of the strut rod in order to allow clearance for the steering rack. There is a support gusset that is not seen in this pic. This is an inexpensive version to put rack and pinion steering in. It is more expensive and more work but the complete assembly is the best way to go in my opinion.
If you take the back part off of this A-frame, you simply have a stock lower A-frame from the mount to the centerline of the ball joint. The main reason that I went with this design was that I wanted to eliminate the strut rods. Most tubular lower A-frames, that eliminate the strut rods, are wide and centered in the crossmember. The extra part of the A-frame that sticks out the front of the crossmember causes the rack to be spaced forward. As you can see from the photos of my Cleveland, there is no room within the pan cut out for this type to be used. I did take member concerns, in mind, about the possibility of there not being enough support at the rear of the A-frame and added a 3/16 thick bracket.
personally i would fabricate a bracket for the rear grommet for that arm. a couple hours with a sheet of stock steel and some tools would do you good. the amount of flex you will get off of that would be crazy.
Already taken care of. Plus there is the gusset, that Full Tilt provides for the rear spacer tube, that' I didn't get welded in yet.
More progress - got the Cleveland in place After going to a car show yesterday and actually seeing another Maverick in the wild, I got some incentive to finish up one of my projects and that was to get the mighty Cleveland planted in place once and for all. I had to build a new trans cross member because the 393 has to sit an inch or so further forward to have the MII cradle & rack fit within the pan cutout. I based it on a 6 cylinder cross member to give me the most room for the V-Gate linkage. I'm using an aluminum front engine plate made by Campbell Enterprises out of Virginia. I bent up 2 small bars that go right through each frame rail so they can be welded underneath, on top of the frame and to the cage. These are a planned part of the cage but they also back up the 2 steel mounting ears which the front plate bolts to. I also staggered the mounting bolt holes so the stress is spread out a little more than if they were in a straight line. Then I finally got to trim the plate down to where it looks much better than the plain rectangular plate that Campbell sends you. I also received my tubular top A-frames so they got added to the mix too. Still have a lot of welding to get to as there is a lot of things just tacked in for now.