How hard can you push a stock model a in a drag race. what would brake first and why? Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
My first thought is spider gears. Over the years there hasn't been many spiders that survived my side step.....no matter the horsepower
My experience tells me stock Model A's are damn near indestructible. As a 13 year old kid I put my first RPU through hell and I couldn't destroy the running gear.
It depends on the push truck. Usually the push truck will brake first because if the Model A brakes first...... there will be some crunched sheet metal.
The chassis rails are most often boxed and cross braces added...... for SBC engines as an example. Just keep adding metal until nothing breaks.
The only way to truly know is when you are standing on the starting line picking up parts. You never know the edge until you go over it. -Abone.
My dad drove stock Model A Fords for over 60 years. He drove them hard, and put on alot of miles. By far the weakest link in the drivetrain was the poured main bearings. The rod bearings were 2nd.
The cheap reproduction parts will break first. I'm told 4000 rpm tops for dipper rods, school me if that's incorrect. They're darn near indestructible if you keep grease and oil in them. Like said above dumping the clutch can be hard on axle keys.
Back in my mid teens I bought a neighbors model A for $50.00 to beat around in the hills. My friends and I were pretty hard on it and never did break anything. They are a remarkably strong and forgiving car under normal circumstances.
Back in the 40's and 50's a lot of guys were using Ford rear ends in their circle track cars. They ran saftey hubs but were breaking axles at the base of the keyway. We experimented on a stock model A first and lapped the axle to the hub to get 100% bearing surface. Cleaned the surfaces off with acetone and assembled it dry at 150 ft lb with a heat treated high nut and NO KEY. We drove that car like it was stolen and never had the tapers slip so we tried it on the race car with a key. We broke axles once in awhile but never had a taper slip or a keyway mushroom out. More on: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38703&showall=1 Sent from my Mi A1 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Won "X Eliminator" at Colton with my stock pickup. Didn't break anything. Beat a Willys station wagon for X Stock, then a GoKart for X Eliminator (he broke his chain). Big deal for a 17 year old.