Turning radius??

airbrushguy

I bought a '49 Super Six w/262 six. Love the car, reminds me of the '51 I had way back when I was 17., except for the steering.

Maybe I've forgotten but the turning radius seems tremendous! Can this be changed or adjusted without subframing it and putting rack and pinion on it?

Thanks

airbrushguy

The turns of the steering wheel.

Lee ODell

Your memory has faded like mine. Hudson age didn't add any turns to the steering wheel after all these years. Had the same experience a few years ago when I bought my 52 hornet. Age on my body has made it harder to turn it around. One of the joys of the golden years. ha ha.

If you make the pitman are longer, that will reduce the number of turns but you better have the arms of a ape to turn steering wheel. I don't recommend doing that.

I started over inflating my tires recently to make it easier to turn in city driving. Also, the Hornet is now easier to control at high speed on the free. Having been in the wheel alignment business over 50 years, I've learned there were a lot of tire tread separation problems when tires are underinflated ( for softer ride ) but never saw a tread separation problems when car tires were overinflated. Even those I found to be 20-30 lbs overinflated. I found a few with up to 80 lbs air pressure. If you want to know, I run with 45 lbs in my tires rated for 35 lbs. I was pleasantly surprised when the car handled much better on the freeway.

Lee O'Dell



Lee O'Dell

KTRON

With so many turns of the wheel required for tight turning, did Hudson offer a steering wheel spinner accessory? If so, any pictures of one?

Chris

Per

I brought my '46 Super Six brougham with me to Kenya, where I was working for two years.  I had the most comfortable ride of anyone on the washboard roads in the rural area where I worked.  The car got lots of attention. One time, a man asked me if it had "American steering"!  My answer, somewhat sadly, was "Yes".  

The European cars had fewer turns lock-to-lock, like modern cars, but on gravel this was OK. The steering was not too heavy.  This man was not fond of the many turns, lock-to-lock, that American cars of the '40s and '50s had.  

Now, if a person has never driven a car with this kind of steering, it is a shock.  Add several inches of play makes it even more difficult to adjust to.  Yet, when when these were the typical cars around, we took it for granted. However, it was never easy to avoid a pothole!

Per

Lee ODell

Back in 1959 my Dad gave me a 40 Plymouth 2dr sedan for my 16th birthday. It had similar handling I remembered experiencing when I got my 52 Hornet. It took me hundreds of driving miles to learn the finesse to feel COMFORTABLE driving that Plymouth at highway speeds. Had to learn all over again when I got the Hornet. Starting slow and gradually increase speed as comfort level increased.

A family story I heard was Grandfather borrowed his sons 50 Ford with "broody knob" as they were called around here. The knob got caught in his long sleeve shirt coming out of a turn and almost crashed the car. My uncle never saw that knob again.
I still see them available for sale. Some with naughty and some with nice pictures on them.

Lee O'Dell

airbrushguy

Your memory has faded like mine. Hudson age didn't add any turns to the steering wheel after all these years. Had the same experience a few years ago when I bought my 52 hornet. Age on my body has made it harder to turn it around. One of the joys of the golden years. ha ha.

If you make the pitman are longer, that will reduce the number of turns but you better have the arms of a ape to turn steering wheel. I don't recommend doing that.

I started over inflating my tires recently to make it easier to turn in city driving. Also, the Hornet is now easier to control at high speed on the free. Having been in the wheel alignment business over 50 years, I've learned there were a lot of tire tread separation problems when tires are underinflated ( for softer ride ) but never saw a tread separation problems when car tires were overinflated. Even those I found to be 20-30 lbs overinflated. I found a few with up to 80 lbs air pressure. If you want to know, I run with 45 lbs in my tires rated for 35 lbs. I was pleasantly surprised when the car handled much better on the freeway.

Lee O'Dell



Lee O'Dell

Ha, you're probably right! I actually was so "ashamed" back then that I didn't have a '51 Merc that I used to street race any of my friends I could. I just don't remember having that many turns of the wheel when we had to avoid the cops. I later got a '65 Corvette that not only was quick steering but had extra holes in the steering arms to make it quicker, tougher parking though.

I was just hoping someone was going to tell me of a "secret" adjustment like the Vette which would help this.

I have radials on it and I guess most of my arm-weary experiences have been in the garage/yard jockeying it in and out of the garage. Maybe once I get her on the road, I'll be more forgiving.

Thanks everyone.

RL Chilton

I was just going to bring up the tire issue until I just saw your last post.  Yes, of course, radials are going to make it MUCH harder to steer than original-styled bias-plies.  Especially in the driveway or in a tight parking lot.  Easier on the road when you're rolling.  Radials actually put quite a bit of strain on your steering linkage if you muscle it around a lot (like in the driveway).  Better to get it rolling just a bit before you start turning it, rather than cranking while sitting still.  A good fix to this is to add power steering if you want the radials.