Thread: Any body used a gear drive before?

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oh and i forgot, when i got home i opened the trunk of the car to find brand new tie rod ends (all 4 ) new adjuster collars, new ball joints, brake pads and 1 new rotor, that there is worth more than i paid for the car, woohoooo

gottabuild1,
Never been to Glenwood, we spend most of our time at either Cordova or Tri-state raceways up by dubuque. I glenwood 1/8th or 1/4?
If you run ladder bars make sure they have good rod end protectors on the fronts and keep a close eye on the housing tube welds to the center section. I have seen many with welds crack at that point. many years ago before we started putting back braces on the housings, I even had the pleasure of dumping rear end grease on the starting line, which they absolutely hate,
when the housing tube broke completely off. What a revolting development that was. kind of difficult to get the car out of the way too, tends to waste a lot of the track officials time and patience.

Originally Posted by kitz

I ran a Jackson gear drive in my Monte and put 20k miles on it with no problems. The noise was OK at 19 years old but no more.

I have heard in here a lot about 'harmonics' but I have never seen any data or FFT of the torsional response in the cam system in any engine to verify exactly what that issue might be. Sure seems to be plausible in my gut but with all the oil lubrication there is also much squeeze damping residing inside the engine as well.

Anyhow I will not use a gear drive again ...............

Kitz

you need hard data well the last 470 bbc engine i work on the cam and roller lifters were trash engine and had a gear drive crank was crack thru out . I CAN SEND YOU 120 POUNDS OF $HIT that i do not see go bad is it seam to do when a gear drive is add to the mix that may not be your hard data .just heavy that engine did not leave with one on it when done .to say you can not VERIFY when they use strait cut teeth and have added lash you shoulds know well they will make added HARMONICS you can not say that strait cut teeth with added lash will not added to HARMONICS ?and oil should not be used to dampen a pice of $hit it would take very thick oil like 90 DATA if it sounds bad then i will say it is doing some thing in time thats not good for the engine. it is hard to keep alive valve train in a big roller engine valve springs cost is about 350. for ok springs and good soild roller lifter are 300 .why not try to get the most out of your parts ?THAT WOULD NOT BE A GEAR DRIVE and not use any thing that could not help the life span of the engine. to say that the data may not be there and any one still puts in the part then i would say you are not a engine builder that is not thinking much

I run ladder bars on single leafs street and strip... it's okay. The ride on the street is a bit rough and I won't be flying around many corners, especially on 16.5" wide mickey's but never had any problem hooking it up on the strip....

Two cents,

-Chris

ladder bars work ok. not very good on bad roads my chevy has them on it and i floated the rear end and rides good .i just would not use the track rod on the street. had one car was very loose going in a corner . go to a panhard bar keeps the body and rear end center to the car so when you turn in to a corner the front of the car is working with the back of the car with the track rod there is a disonnect to the front of the car to the back

^^^ agreed... I try very hard to avoid potholes, man hole covers, dips, you name it because the ladders are not very forgiving of rough road... and don't corner worth a darn...

but you can take the corners slow and more than make up on the straight away

Originally Posted by skids72

^^^ agreed... I try very hard to avoid potholes, man hole covers, dips, you name it because the ladders are not very forgiving of rough road... and don't corner worth a darn...

but you can take the corners slow and more than make up on the straight away

not so i give you a ride in my chevy thing is like on rails man

^^^ how wide are the gumballs?

i for get ? first sign old age or to many drugs when young they are comp T/A as big as you can get under the back of a 50 about 10inch

That's cool... I should have been speaking more of ladder's in general but I was referring to the ladders I have on a narrowed rear with 31x16.5x15 mickeys which don't like to corner... I have no doubts about your setup and would love to go for a ride if I ever make it to the neighborhood

Originally Posted by skids72

That's cool... I should have been speaking more of ladder's in general but I was referring to the ladders I have on a narrowed rear with 31x16.5x15 mickeys which don't like to corner... I have no doubts about your setup and would love to go for a ride if I ever make it to the neighborhood

well it was in yours the car came off a lot in lakewood about 29 years ago

Groovy.... I was just a "few" years from my permit in those days.... But dad was selling Fords

Originally Posted by 41willys

gottabuild1,
Never been to Glenwood, we spend most of our time at either Cordova or Tri-state raceways up by dubuque. I glenwood 1/8th or 1/4?
If you run ladder bars make sure they have good rod end protectors on the fronts and keep a close eye on the housing tube welds to the center section. I have seen many with welds crack at that point. many years ago before we started putting back braces on the housings, I even had the pleasure of dumping rear end grease on the starting line, which they absolutely hate,
when the housing tube broke completely off. What a revolting development that was. kind of difficult to get the car out of the way too, tends to waste a lot of the track officials time and patience.

hmmmmm. So we would file this incident under how NOT to make friends and influence people?????????

Yeah dave,

That happened in a little track in Osceola Ind. back in the 70's. The track prep was negligable anyway and everybody complained about the poor starting line traction he actually shut the race down for the rest of that day and made us stay and help him clean the track with paint thinner. It is really amazing the way 90w soaks into asphalt. That and anitifreeze... been there done that too. A guy can learn a lot after 40 years of making mistakes.
John

Best advice on gear drives...... take it off your wish list. If you just like the whine sound of the drives, save you money and buy a blower. Sounds much better and actually boosts performance as well. If you already have the blower, then you really don't need anything else.....except lots of money for gas.