VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1933-1936 Retrofit Beam Axle Identification needed

Howdy: I am buying my cousin's 1934 DA 5-window business coupe - it'll be delivered in a couple of weeks. He passed away two months ago although his friends in their local car club in Washington have been helpful - but - the car has a "castor wobble" above 35mph according to my cousins wife and the club's mechanic. My cousin had retrofitted a "later 1930's" front solid axle to get rid of the unreliable IFS and to add hydraulic brakes. The wobble may have caused other damage (idea's?), but I need the expertise from this club to somehow ID WHAT year the axle came from. It's hard to order parts w/o knowing that info! Is there some sort of ID number on the axle and where would it be? Any help will be appreciated. Thanks! PS: Except for the axle, brakes, and a later 235 engine, the car is stock.

The first thing I would look for is out-of-round tires or bent rims or a balance problem.
I would much prefer to have the original knee-action units. It makes the car much more of a pleasure to drive.

We had a friend with a '37 Coupe that was changed from knee-action front end to solid axle. He tried everything that he and the best front end guys in the area (his brother-in-law is a Chevy dealer) could think of. Finally gave up and went back to the original front end. Drove like a dream after that. I don't pretend to know why but was told they felt that the solid axle setup just could not be mounted correctly on a knee-action frame.

Thanks for all of your help - and anyone with further suggestions is welcome to pipe in. I was going to start with repacking/checking bearings and balancing all four wheels and tires and a complete alignment although until I know what year it is, I won't know the alignment specs -or are they all the same for the beam axle? From there, it'll be time to check tie rods, kingpins, etc. The club's mechanic does not remember the car always having the shimmy issue as they used to travel to meets down in Tacoma at 55mph - so hopefully it's only a bearing/tire issue. Comments?

Hi,
I would check all of the components that you mentioned first before I tried to align it. If any thing is loose it won't do much good to line it up until it is fixed. I don't know how to figure out what year your axle is but someone on here may. I would think if you used the specifications for a straight axle for the year of your car that you would be close. Another thing to check is are the shocks connected and working? Hopefully they also put the straight axle shocks on the car.

I had a shimmy problem once. It turned out to be a broken spring in the tie rod...good luck.

There should be a casting (forging?) number cast into the front of the beam, which you could match up with the numbers that are
identified in the online master parts catalog. Should give you a good idea where it came from.

My guess is the axle is from a 33-39. From what I understand the 33-39' axles are used to convert the knee action to a solid axle as they have the wider spring perch spacing. If the axle has a hole at the top near the king pin location it's a 39'. It was used for the shock mount.