Just before Christmas last year, I bought myself a quick-change for my banger-powered coupe from Kiwi Quickchanges in New Zealand. Here’s what you get for the money…. You also get a single sheet of A4 instructions which helped but as this was the first time I’d stripped an early Ford axle, I was on a real steep learning curve. First thing you’ve got to do is pull the old axle, tube and ‘bones assembly. Lay the axle on the floor and remove the left-hand axle end from the banjo. The carrier assembly with axle shafts can then be removed from the rest of the axle. Once that assembly is out of the way, the torque tube can be removed and so can the driveshaft. The driveshaft comes out – with the pinion – through the side of the banjo once the two large nuts have been undone. The other axle end can then be removed and the original centre section thrown away or used in the garden as art. Carefully disassemble the crown wheel carrier and axles. Make sure the spider gears are marked so they can go back onto the same part of the yoke and that the shafts are marked LH & RH. It’s not a good idea to get them mixed up. The quickie uses the original A carrier, crown wheel and pinion. The pinion moves to the rear and is driven by the shorter of the two new shafts, via the drop gears at the back. The only serious modifications that are needed internally involve machining clearance from the middle of the carrier and the spider yoke. You can see the machining in the centre of the carrier, this is to clear the main input shaft - the one that in effect extends the drive shaft to the rear of the casing. Once that has been done, it is simply a case of reassembling the axle as you would a stocker, using gaskets as shims to check for carrier bearing pre-load and backlash. Because this QC uses stock A innards, the tolerances and pre-loads are identical to standard A. Once you have assembled it all, it should look something like this….. The new centre section uses the same 600W oil that stock A’s use, the rear section uses EP90 gear oil. You’ll need to weld a threaded bung into one of the axle ends to take the oil and it’s a good idea to drill a small hole to act as a breather at the top of the other. By the way, the driveshaft needs to be have the tapered end removed and the shaft resplined to just under 50” in length. A six spline adapter is then used to connect it to the input shaft on the quickie. Oh yeah, forgot to mention. The aluminium casing used different bolts to original, a much coarser thread, so I found some new bolts but had to trim them down to fit. It was doing this that I managed to crush my finger tip between the vice and the saw frame. This photo doesn't do the pain justice. The nail split and the flesh underneath it peeled back causing me to use up all the established swear words, revisit some of the older curses that never really get an outing, and then start making up my own brand new vocabulary of nasty words you can't repeat at the dining table or in front of young children. Once any fingers you have left are healed, it is time to get the dreaded spring spreader out and fit the axle. Much caution is needed with these springs, as you know they can pack a real punch. The long-awaited test drive was great fun. I haven’t sorted the speedo out yet, so I don’t know what I was doing but nothing passed me for ages! With 31” tyres and 3.48-1 gears, 3000rpm is about 80mph. I don’t think I was going that fast, but it was certainly scooting along nicely. By flipping the two drop-gears over, I’ll have 4.11’s to play with. That may be too low for my little banger so Winters will be getting a call this month.
This is something I've always wondered about, thanks for sharing. You really don't need all 10 fingers, as long as you keep the thumb, there's lots of extras.
Geez - I saw the finger last Sunday - it wasn't even bent or bruised. No blood, scars, or swelling. I think he's just whinging... Quit yer moanin'! You'll get no sympathy here!
Fuck that no sympathy, I smashed my middle finger today at work, but didn't take any nail, just lots of meat down to the bone. Where is the Kiwi Connection out of? I'm lookin' for one for my A rear for my modified. What brand is it?
The finger incident happened about 5 weeks ago, I'm a quick healer, what can I say! The quickie comes from Derek Thomason based in Nelson, New Zealand. His phone number is +64-3-544 7826. His email is [email protected]
Great Tech, do you have any details on the machining involved? Also could you scan a copy of the inst sheet and is it any help?
This installation sheet could've be a lot better. There were one or two bits that I really had to decipher before commencing with the build. I'll dig it out later and scan it in. I think it may have some of my own demented scribblings on it as well. The machining was needed to clear the carrier assembly from the main input shaft. Once you have stripped the spider gears and the axle shafts out, fit the two carrier halves back together. You then machine a 25mm wide area from it's centre, 4mm deep. I've marked on this photo the area to be machined. The spider yoke will need to have it's edges ground down to suit and the bolts that hold the two halves together will need a small relief filing into them, as becomes apparent when you assemble the carrier. A friend with a lathe comes in handy for this part of the build and it was all done in an hour.
Sorry Continentaljohn, can't find the damn sheet anywhere. I'll try and get another one emailed to me.
I havn't visited here for quite some time, dang computers..... It's good to see that it's all in Artiki, I'm still saving, It's good to see some pics, and you are still happy with it, Cheers Outback
It's been in two or three weeks now and I love it. It's the best thing I've done to the coupe, aside from pressurising the block. Apart from the fact that it looks real trick, swapping the ratios over completely changes the car. 3.48's with a built banger is just so much fun, the torque and high gearing totally demolishes even steep hills. Changing the ratio takes about 10 minutes. My next plan is for an overdrive so I can start playing with really low gearing and still be able to cruise at a respectable speed.
Shame the images are now missing from this very informative post. Was hoping to refer to this post to fit my Kiwi QC...
Wish there was a way to restore the pics in this thread Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app