Another build thread? Yep, my track-style T

[firebird77clone]

metal has the irritating habit of moving when you weld it, regardless of how careful you place the beads. Do you send the rear ends to a shop ( with a 20 ton press ) for inspection after welding, just in case it did warp?

[J. Robinson]

Yes, metal (especially steel) does have that nasty little tendency... But, no, I don't send them out; I don't know of any place in this area who has such equipment. I check them with a straight-edge and if they are badly warped, I have my own way of dealing with it. In short, I use the tendency of metal to "draw" when it's welded to bring them back into tolerance. For a better explanation with pictures, look back at page 8 of this thread.

[firebird77clone]

I do remember that page. You just lay some weld on the side that needs to draw. BUT.. just how close does close have to be?

[J. Robinson]

.. just how close does close have to be?

I don't know, really. Everything on an automobile is built "within tolerance". I don't know what the + or - tolerance is on a rear axle housing when it's manufactured. I can tell you this: the farther from the center of the axle housing that the warpage takes place, the less effect it will have on the misalignment of the wheels. Also, the wider the rear end, the less effect warpage has on alignment. For example, if I have a rear end that is 60 inches wide and it is warped 1/4 inch forward (that's pretty extreme) as measured from the center to the end (30 in.), that pulls the wheels into a toe-in situation of about 2 degrees per side. The same warpage on a narrowed rear end of only 30 inches in width (1/4" over a 15 in. distance) would amount to almost 4 degrees of misalignment.

For me, I check the axle housing with a straight edge from the center to the end. If it's within 1/10th of an inch (.100"), that's good enough. The misalignment of the wheels would be less than 1/2 degree and that will never make a discernable influence on handling or tire wear.

[Dave Severson]

I check mine with a fixture...consisting of a center section with a pair of .750 thick aluminum "donuts" replacing the carrier bearings and the correct sized aluminum "donut" on the wheel bearing end and a long rod going all the way through. The housing is quite easy to straigten by using a weld to draw the housing, or when complete putting the entire housing in press to make it straight again.... We used to play a bit with camber and lead on the dirt track housings...with mixed results.......

[firebird77clone]

I hadn't even considered wheel misalignment. Iwas thinking in terms of .001 on the gears and bearings.

[J. Robinson]

Generally there is enough clearance in the splines of the axles & spider gears that they can run misaligned a few degrees with no problem. The carrier bearings and ring & pinion gears are not affected. The outer axle bearing may suffer slightly if misalignment is severe enough.

Dave Severson (above) mentioned playing with rear camber and lead on dirt tracks. Back in my stock car days, we did some of the same stuff on asphalt. We tried bending the right end of the rear axle housing up and running a slightly larger tire on the right rear. The net effect was to get a couple of degrees of negative camber on the right rear wheel for improved bite in the corners - it didn't help much, if any, but it didn't hurt the gears or bearings.

[Itoldyouso]

We are kinda shadetree in the respect we don't do any rear axles on a jig or true them when we are done, but knock on wood, we've never had any seal or bearing problems after welding brackets to them. I think if you keep moving around and don't let the heat build up in one spot for too long, you are ok.

Like I have always said, there is the real world and then there is the perfect world. We rodders get away with stuff all the time that the experts say can't work.

Don

[J. Robinson]

We rodders get away with stuff all the time that the experts say can't work.

Don

Amen!

[Gastrick]

We rodders get away with stuff all the time that the experts say can't work.

Don

Wow, isn't that the truth. Good one Don

[signshop]

A friend of mine who races road course Mustangs always had trouble getting enough camber in his rear axle. To stay hooked in the corners he would generally run a strategically 'bent' axle in the races and have no problems with it. Sure the seals/bearings would wear but his was tweaked quite a bit. So it can work even in high stress situations. Fortunately the rules have changed and that is no longer needed.

Mike

[J. Robinson]

Tried to do some sandblasting last Saturday... First the humidity was causing water condensation in the air hose and clogging my sandblast gun nozzle. Then, when I could get it working, I could only go a short distance before I ran out of air pressure and had to wait on the compressor to catch up. I guess my old air compressor is just too tired to do this type of work any more. Jeez! It's only 33 years old...

Seriously, it was rated at 5.7 cfm @ 90 PSI when it was new (30 gal; 2 hp). I'm sure it's below that now... So, I went to Home Depot and bought a new one. This one is 60 gal, 3.2 hp and rated at 10.2 cfm @ 90 PSI. WOW! What a difference! As much as I normally hate sandblasting, I'm looking forward to getting back to it now. I'll keep you posted...

[Itoldyouso]

Isn't that frustrating........blast a little and then wait for the compressor to build back up? Been there, done that. A good compressor sure makes a difference. I'm like you, sandblasting is NO fun.

Don

[Hotrod46]

JR

Looks like you're coming along pretty good. I've been following along, but haven't been posting much lately.

You'll be going together for good soon! I'm looking forward to seeing it in paint.

I tried to blast the other day, but couldn't locate any sand! Seems that some guy bought all the fine sand in the area. Bought it by the pallet load from 3 different places! I wound up doing all the smaller stuff in the bead blasting cabinet. I wanted more "tooth" than the beads gave, but it was the best I could do. Luckily I had just enough sand on hand to do the frame and rearend.

Mike

[firebird77clone]

I had been holding onto a vibrator motor and control for several years at work. Then when I had the opportunity to sign it out and take it home, decided that I would probably never do the project anyway. Was planning to make a vibratory sand sifter.