Should I be pissed or is this my fault?

somebody on here a while back had an issue with a speedway steering arm breaking in half while they were driving, i believe that one ended up only as a close call too.

 

Yup, everything was tight. I'm bringing both pieces to lunch tomorrow so fab32 can do some analyzing of the failure.

 

lowsquire...any chance of getting a pic of your spring perch setup? I think it would be very helpful here.

 

Hey Glad you are OK.

My 2cents. If that is a casting then machined then you could well have a weak spot in the center of the casting. Depends on the quality of the company that cast it. I think there was something a while ago about cast axles vs forged. Castings are not always perfect. Also if the thread is machined and not rolled there could also be issues there.

 

So, who sells Quality Forged front axle components ?????????

 

I think it is a combination of many, many factors....

The crack in it is surely the "start" of the problem, but when did it crack?

is it fatigue due to oddball stresses?

Was it cracked during manufacturing?

Did Your kid brother do his impression of the airborn scene from Ferris Beullers day off in it while You were at work?

Was the metalurgist responsible for tensile strength testing at his interpritive dance class that day?

Here are my inherent problems with that set up.

#1- The fastener itself is of insufficent strength to hold the front of Your particular car up for an extended amount of time. (except for the fact that we know dozens if not hundreds of boneheads running around with that EXACT set up on the front end of heavier cars.)

#2-Clearly, the part is faulty. (again, How many of these things has Speedy Bill sold? cross that number against how many have failed...)

#3. You're an idiot that somehow damaged the part. (except for the rest of the car seems to be holding together fine, suggesting You're not an incompetent Knucklehead after all)

#4. cast versus forged versus welded versus grade 5 versus grade 8.
( see number 2. and taking into account the huge number of vehicles I have seen that have far lesser materials holding more weight in a worse bind. example? look in the rear wheelwell of an expedition next time You see one of the swanky 4 wheel indy suspension ones. Note that the entire rear spindle is held upright by a stamped steel tie rod end over an aluminum chunk None of us here would expect to hold up a cup of coffe.)


point being this. Is it a lousy design? Sure, but by nature, a solid axle on the front of a car is just that. it is susceptiblr to twisting/shearing/jarring loads over every pebble in the road. is it unsafe...not really. Just harder on parts.

what I think happened is You simply got a bunk part.I think it is in Your interest to inform Speedway of the failure (this may be one of a bad BATCH of these. Mabey they will send You a freebie. Mabey they will send You a whole new kit. dunno...They've made right on parts not manufactured by them in the past, and in the last 40 Years, I am willing they have done it more than once.)


a suicide front end isn't called that because they're all love and roses, but for arguments sake, there are worse designs still in use all over the world doing more important things. (if they were that bad, Semi trucks wouldn't be using solid axles. or drum brakes, for that matter.) Fuck, Trains still use solid steel wheels.

and as far as wheels go, I think some of us are trying to re-invent them.

Call speedway, see what they say.

 

Looks like the part was failing by fatigue, followed by a quick impact that broke it through (the RR tracks).

I'll bet that the crack initiated at the root of the first or second thread from the spring mount. If the shaft wasn't fully threaded, then it would probably be OK to use.

Maybe you could weld a bung to the outside of your hairpin mount to use a longer spring mount, like a shortened stock Ford piece?

I agree that you really need to get the threads out of the area that is being fatigued.

 

Is this cast iron or steel?

 

If stainless bolts were used, they lack strength. There is even a a warning on line about using stainless bolts in heavily load situations. I use Gr8 steel and nothing but despite their "funny"colour.

 

Didn't realize Speedway was going to the Chinamen, guess I must have been in denial or something, sure will verify the origin of my next order. Thanks.

 

Man, glad you and the car are alright Scott. A bit late to see this. We run the same front end on our roadster. Wish I had some more insight on the failure, but ours is beaten thousands of miles a year. (knock on wood) I don't know if ya got a bad part, maybe overtightened, or the opposite and was riding loose for an unknown period of time? I know I check mine pretty often visually and usually slap a wrench on em at the beginning of every spring when we start to bring er out and drive again.

Call speedway and get a new part and some new underwear.

 

I ordered some rear axle retainers that were advertised as made in the US. When I got them, the box said "Made in USA" but the parts had stickers on them that said "Made in Tiawan". So I sent them back and bought some from Tardel. In terms of the quality of Speedway manufactured parts, I doubt they have a single engineer on staff to look at the design of the junk they're building and selling to the public. It's a miracle someone hasn't been seriously hurt or killed yet. Chances are pretty good when that happens, they'll be sued out of existence. Kinda like Jammer back in the 80s.

 

I'm not knocking Speedway, they are like old friends to me out of nostaglia, I guess, if nothing else, but I did come across a part of theirs made in Manilla, Pilipines, it was wrapped in the Manilla newspaper. It isn't worth it to try to save a few bucks, always buy the best parts possible, USA being the best.

 

Yes, the boxes WERE made in the USA.

I had the same with Summit parts, boxes read 'Proudly made in the USA' but each part inside had that little gold metric import sticker on them.

 

might have missed alot, admittedly didnt read entire thread, but think i agree with LuxBlue - could have just been a bad part for whatever reason, and maybe a bad run, so Speedway should be told regardless of fault. And from my experiences they will remedy/replace/do what they can - and yea, sourcin parts and materials from the third world just sucks - wish I/we had a real viable failsafe solution for that

goes without sayin - but thank god/whoever that your alright!!! wonder if theres a way to come up with a decent lookin safety device to come into play if this type of failure occurs again - safety latch/chain/stop er sumthin?? (i know id be a bit sketchy the first few times I take it to 80-90mph again - not tryin to jinx ya tho man!)

somewhere else in this thread spoke about inspection - true that this exact failure may not have been readily noticeable, but I wonder how many guys actually reinspect (and how often) shit, as a forklift trainer I teach guys in warehouses to inspect forklifts DAILY, and they arent subject to the rigors we put shit through on our hotrods!!

good luck in resolution!!!

 

You are very fortunate not to have been seriously injured or worse. The only cast parts I've ever used were stainless pieces from the Deuce Factory. My original '32 3-W was hit head on by an out of control van. The Deuce Factory parts, bat wings and long 4-bars were bent but nothing cracked or broke. Good engineering would dictate you use only quality forgings, such as original tested Ford parts, or mentioned investment cast stainless from a reputable company. Steering and suspension components, brake levers and pitman arms have to be the absolute best quality. But correct design is as important. Anyone who knowingly uses cast iron parts of unknown manufacture is asking for trouble.. In the '60s I ran a C/Gas '55 Chevy. I saved my money until I could afford to have a race shop install a tube front axle. The spring was mounted similar to yours but all components were chromemoly and tig welded. I never was concerned about the front suspension and the car ran 11:20s with a small block. Your life and car are too valuable to use poor engineering and inferior parts. All who have suggested you replace the front suspension are offering good advice. Continued good luck to you, The FOGGER

 

maybe you over tightened it ? this may cause this
just as engine head bolts they do strech and may even snap if torqued to hard !

 

Thanks again for all the advice, input, and concern. I haven't talked to Speedway yet and I work until Sunday so I don't have time to be on the phone with them during business hours but I do plan on sending them pictures and seeing what they have to say. For the time being I will look to other suppliers i.e. P&J or SoCal and see if they have any forged pieces with rolled threads on at least 5/8 studs.

What I'm taking away from all this is I probably got a bad part, although the design isn't that great with the stud being mounted in shear. I have been kicking around the idea of a new chassis and when I do the spring will be on top of the axle and the axle will be under the framerails. It's just about time to put the hot rod away for the winter and I'm really making some progress on the roadster. So it looks like I'll be getting some better quality parts and at least I learned something about quality materials and sub par engineering. Pretty crazy a $7.00 part could've demolished my car and put me on the wrong side of the grass.

 

That's quite an understatement.

 

four-thirteen is correct. Never, never, never put threads in the shear plane. The root of the thread acts like a stress riser and a crack will occur. The other consideration with this type of design is the fit of the bolt (shoulder diameter) to the hole (ID). The best design will have a snug fit, no play, before you run a nut on.

 

That bolt was defective or cracked. That's why, when I get stuff in, I toss out their bolts and replace them with either ss or #8's. Some of the stuff I've seen from these distributors, I wouldn't put on a bicycle. Replace them all!!

 

You're right about the OEM, but that part actually has an enlarged shoulder that goes thru the batwing in a press fit to take the shear load, and a large face contact against the plate. The threads are mostly loaded in tension. It should have held.

As I posted earlier, racecars use single shear mounts for coilover shocks all the time. POS part quality is my guess on this one.

 

My dad has taught me to always check the coupe's suspension parts... nuts, bolts, brackets, rod ends, shocks and springs after every trip or before the next. We even catch small things sometimes. I see the importance of that ritual even more now thru your experience.

Glad you're okay.

 

After reading the entire post , this is the answer that has my vote !!! We jsut had one like it in the shop and the spring was bottoming out ....

 

I would concur with four-thirteen. The pic clearly shows that there was a wobble going on in that joint for a while. It's obvious that the cause was insufficient bearing surface in the joint, in other words, not enough shoulder surface for the load. Once the batwing hole enlarged enough that the first thread was put in shear, the fracture started.

I would be surprised if there isn't signs of this happening on the other side. No doubt a design flaw, IMHO. At this point, the batwing must also be fixed.

 

He said the shackles were 45 degrees at ride height.

 

Lucky: Did you get this problem sorted out ?

 

I'm not trying to start an argument here, I'm trying to understand.
My'29 HAD a spring behind suicide set up, I think Total performance. In order to get more ground clearance, I bought a Speedway spring over axle to move everything up.
My perches are made from 5/8 bolts welded up with drilled out rod, HELL for stout. The axle I bought from speedway was drilled for the 1/2 inch perches that are the subject of this discussion, and I had to drill the holes out. I'm not concerned with these perches failing as the car was an altered in it's previous life, and there have been many, many wheelstands in the car's history.
After all this you guys don't care about, my question is, why do you think a spring over is stronger than a spring behind? Since the Spedway axle still uses the same bolt through hole design as the spring behind axle with the only difference being the placement of the spring, isn't the load on the perch the same in either position?
This has me wondering if sometime in the future I don't want to start looking for a tradional forged axle with Ford style perches to install under my rod. Thanks, Mike

 

My question is... did it break across the threads of the bolt or across the shoulder of the bolt. If the shoulder doesn't go through the thickness of the batwing before the thread cuttings begin, then you'd have to expect failure.

Here's just me and what I would have done in the first place... and you still can....


Weld it...


Oh yeah... it looks like the top link hit the bottom of your headlight mount and bent that too.


JOE

 

Just a note that forging your own from good steel (ex: rear axles) would be a simple blacksmithing task...

...then lathe work, a 5/8" diameter with a tapered section toward the spring and a radius into the shackle area, and threaded only at the other end...

OTOH, spring-over style offers the safety fallback of a broken spring setting down atop the axle (especially a beam axle)...