I was looking at the Chassis Engineering website and apparently they are out of the axle business. I knew they had been acquired by Heidts, but I assumed they would keep making the dropped axles. Just curious who makes an aftermarket forged, dropped axle? I think SoCal is making their own now or at least they have one on their website. Good thing I had Sid drop my axle a while back.
Pete and Jakes took over the Axle stuff from Chassis Engineering. At least that's what I heard. They are now selling forged axles and not just the cast super bell.
It made sense to me that they didn't want that portion of C.E. Heidts makes Streetrod stuff, and are known for their Independent front ends, They have solidified themselves in that market, and they make a good product. But none of there stuff is geared toward a car with a solid axle on the front. It looks like C.E. was divided up amongst companies that would carry on C.E. quality. The one thing that I noticed was that all the Rear leaf spring kits have gone up in price by about 200 dollars. Good thing I wanted a Posies set up anyway.
There was an article in the Rodder's Journal a couple issues ago. Super Bell/Pete and Jake's bought the Chassis Engineering tooling and is having axles forged here in the US. It sounded like quite an ordeal to find a forging house in the US that would do them due to the size. Here's a link to one: https://www.peteandjakes.com/parts/...d-steel-i-beam-axle-47-king-pin-2-perch-boss/
Do P&J put the logo on both sides (front and rear) of their axles? There is no caster built into the axle that I am aware of, so assume that they could be installed with the logo to the rear if it is only on one side of the axle, correct? Glad to see they are making the forgings in the US.
Education for today, I didn't know that Chassis engineering inc. made axles. From looking at the https://chassisengineeringinc.com/ catalog they are slowly adding products back into production possibly as inquires come in with enough interest to produce the item. I bought one of the last sets of 292 Chevy six in a 47/54 AD truck chassis mounts they had in their close out sale days before the company sold and they are some nice pieces. The axles sound like a better fit for Pete & Jakes than Heidts. I can imagine the hassle of finding a company to forge them in the US in the smaller quantities they would need. For some of those outfits a small order is 10,000 units.
I bought an axle from CE a couple of years before they sold to Heidt. It was a SoCal axle. They told me that they had ceased making their own.
The original Chassis Eng was in corn country & John Deere Co. did the forging. JD stopped forging the axles a couple of years before CE quit the business.
I had question about my C.E. install and call Heidts and they have people they that worked at C.E. to help. Very nice and helpful.
I just received some O.T. parts today, ordered from the CE link but received email correspondence from Heidts, great looking parts and welds but came unpainted....the photo showed painted parts damn it and for the price I think they should've had paint.
FYI - I talked to Jason at Pete & Jakes last May about their axles. I ran across one of their axles "used", but only used for mock up, so I wanted to make sure what I was looking at. This is what he told me: They have made their cast axles since 1978. In 2018 they also started making forged axles. The forged axles they are now making were originally made by Vintage Chassis Works, then Chassis Engineering. Here's an interesting fact - their cast axles have the logo on both sides of the axle, but the forged axles only have the logo on one side. This is an easy way to identify what you're looking at, unless someone has ground the logo off of course. I know most people prefer a forged axle, but there is nothing wrong with cast either. My '36 Ford has had a cast axle under it for 35+ years, and is still going strong.
"I know most people prefer a forged axle, but there is nothing wrong with cast either." Uh oh, the can o' worms be opened!
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