Projects Modified Lakester Build (THUNDERCASKET)

I hope he appreciates the time you gained & the frustration saved. We who have watched this from the start appreciate what we've seen you go through on this build and how you stuck with it!
The sawsall is a good idea.

 

Made a cut down blade and got the stubborn bushing out using my hackzall, thanks @adam401 !!! I cut a little deep on the ends and shallow in the middle but that will come with practice and it was enough to let the punch drive it out! I ran a bit through to clean things up and got new bushings in there!

I don't have good pictures because I cracked the lens cover on my phone and still need to replace it.

I got some rollers back on there after we got the spring back on then yesterday I went about shortening a torque tube with my new toy (which is amazing).







I measured three times and came up with 48" for the length I needed every one, using the method outlined HERE.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ening-a-ford-closed-drive-torque-tube.961582/

BUT when I put the front and back sections under the car just to get a look, they appear to have an eighth to a quarter gap! Now, I am pretty sure I absolutely NAILED the measurements on the pieces I made. The Evolution saw cuts with precision. I cut the tail to 18" and the front to 30" exactly (eliminating the center support bearing on the tube I chose). I am hoping it's just something silly with how I was slopping the parts under there and the rear end/spring pulling back from where it should be slightly, so I am going to go ahead and tack it together to get a better look next time I hit the shop.

 

aah what's 1/4" it's a Ford? Looking good ,glad you got the bushings done.

 

Glad you got the bushings out! Just a thought on the torque tube from a machinist standpoint. I'd recommend taking it to a machine shop and having them put it in the lathe so they can take a skin cut on the back face where it meets the axle. I've seen ones guys did that were off just a little bit. Over time it makes your driveshaft coupling get pretty screwed up since they have to "work" a little bit every time the driveshaft rotates if the torque tube isn't dead nuts 90 degrees to the rear end. All a shop has to do to fix one that isn't perfect is to set it up in a steady rest on the lathe. They probably only need to take a .01-.015 off the face but that little bit can throw things way out of wack. I know you cut it in the middle which may or may not help you. I do mine at the very back where Ford welded them. The saw looks like a nice setup!

 

Thanks all! Having the bushings dealt with is a big win.

@jebbesen if I could have gotten a machinist to make the whole thing for me I would have. Finding one that knows how to make these, has time to, has interest in doing it, that will return calls and messages, at any rate, is a very tall order. So, if I'm understanding correctly, you're saying to just true the flange face that mates to the rear end and gasket? That mating surface on the rear isn't really clean at this point either honestly.

And YES, omg, this saw is a game changer for me in my cramped shop. I am going to start moving tools OUT of the shop that don't see a lot of use and this one replaces one or possibly two of those. The cuts it makes are dead straight and consistent. This is the one I got: https://store.evolutionpowertools.com/collections/evolution-chop-saws/products/evosaw380

My machine shop is really an engine shop, so shafts are not his prime area BUT I have been in contact with him about the tt. I will run it by him because I think I need to have him turn the shaft down for me to get an interference fit for the coupler after I cut the shaft I have down to length... once I get this tt sized correctly. Fortunately I have another tt of the same year that I can take another rear section off of easily if it turns out I need more material.

 

So I thought I had a picture of me actually facing off the end in the lathe to show you but I can't find it. My torque tube setup is a little different than yours because I'm running a hybrid Ford Chevy one kinda like a sprint car. Don't get hung up on that. The process would be the same. In this next picture I'm doing a similar operation on my inner driveshaft. On the lathe I'm using what is called a steady rest. It is a setup with 3 fingers that hold the end of a shaft or tube in the lathe so you can work out on the end. Pretty basic old time machine shop stuff.
So picture the torque tube set up in the same way. Transmission end in the chuck and the diff end in the steady rest. Here is a picture of my tube.

Here is how it would be in the lathe. Check on left end and steady rest supporting the right end. You can actually see the scuff marks the brass steady rest buttons left on my tube if you look closely. I've drawn on this picture so it makes sense.
Here is the back end of mine after it was faced off.

You might get lucky and have yours end up super straight/perpendicular. There are probably hundreds of guys on here who've shortened tubes and never faced them but I bet you'd be surprised how far off a lot of them are. If you can find someone with a lathe it's a very quick operation to make it right. Also, I know that most guys on here make their cut in the middle of the tube like you have. The reason I do it at the back is that the tube stays straight and any warpage/crookedness is isolated right to the very back and is easily removed by facing the flange. I'm not giving you a hard time at all with any of this, just trying to be helpful.

 

Gocha, yeah, that is what I thought you meant. I am not entirely sure how to even check if that surface and the one it mates to is perpendicular to so fine a degree. I am trying to focus on broad to medium strokes still and just get this lagging build put together, honestly, but I will make note of this.

I don't know anyone who has a running lathe at this point other than my engine shop. Machinist friends I have no longer take any joy in running or maintaining machines at home so none of them are able to help me with this kind of thing. I am just trying to get the car together enough to move under its own power.

 

In the early 60s I had a '48 Chevy fastback that had vacuum assist shifting, I hated that so my dad & I did tranny swap. We had to shorten the closed drive line 2 1/2". We did it at the shop where he was working. He was a journeyman machinist but there was no lathe in the shop. He set up a fixture on a band saw to do the cutting and we turned the piece into the cut by hand. When it came time to weld the tube he tacked it and rolled it on the welding table and eyeballed it tacked, tapped, rolled , tacked, tapped.......... He used the same process on the shaft except he rolled it on the floor. I drove it for a couple of years sold it to a guy that was still driving it in the early 70s when I moved. Precision Eyeballing is real!

 

LOOK I MADE IT GO TOGETHER!


...with some creative jigging that took a bunch of clamps, angle iron, and roll bar tubes. It LOOKS straight when I run a piece of angle along all the sides. It also LOOKS like it will fit and that mystery quarter inch gap may have been an illusion or due to the rear going slack on me. I will figure it out when I actually crank the car up to install the TT all the way and clamp it down.

 

Tried to get the torque tube test fit yesterday and did not quite make it. Something keeps interfering in the last inch and I cannot get it to seat. I suspect the U joint but without a second set of hands I determined I was not going to get it on there.

Any ideas, tips or tricks?



The radius rod mount point ended up maddeningly close to where it is needed. So close, in fact, that I was able to tighten the bolt and effectively get them to clamp on to it.

 

Is it getting the tube into the bell on the transmission? It has been a long time since I did one of those on a Ford. Could the U-joint be reversed? Crap or bur in the splines? Are there different U-Joints?

 

There is no shaft in the tube. I think the U joint keeps falling down and pressing against the tube.

 

Well, that did not go to plan. I got it mated up but now I cn't get it back up under the car. The spring hits part of the body and doesn't look like it is going to clear the lip of the crossmember enough to seat in there and I don't have much of an idea what the correct next move is other than shave a little bit off the tube until it fits maybe.

Is this a normal thing to encounter? Am I missing something simple? Is my torque tube actually too long?

 

Did you mess with the spring perches at all? If not it appears the tube is too long.

 

The perches are unmodified other than being flipped like they have been since the beginning.

I do have another tube to cut a new tail from if I end up screwing up but I wanted to get some opinions before I start going at this like a deli slicer. I have a surgery coming up on Monday, so this may end up being a month or so before I can get back to it if I don't figure it out by this weekend.

 

Take a hammer and a bar and smash that fucker into the crossmember. I have the spring before the rearend on my 34 (also an A spring on a 48 rear). Its tendency is to force the torque tube down or the spring rearward. When it's all in place its good and the shackles arent bound or anything but you have to get it there.

If then it doesnt fall into place you may have a length issue with the torque tube.

 

THE DEED IS DONE! Thanks @adam401 I needed that reassurance to not just go on a cutting spree. I ended up lining the spring up into the crossmember first and using a pry bar to guide the tube in place, a screwdriver to wrangle the loose U joint, a jack under the transmission to finesse things, and a ratchet strap to pull the rear up.



Car is sitting now (on tires that are too small out back but OK)

 

Keep an eye on the shackles & pins for wear & alignment.

 

So, I've been laid up a while. But right now, I need to figure out how the drive shaft is assembled into the torque tube.

I can't really make sense of the drawing on VanPelt or figure out what I need to buy or who to buy it from.

I need to get the shaft assembled into the shortened tube and seated into the neck correctly so I can mark and cut it for my machinist to turn down for me.

 

We’ve also put a thick board across the spring and a ratchet strap from it to the trans cross member and pull it forward.

Also why when pulling these cars apart it’s not uncommon to see a lot of grease on/inside that crossmember

 

Pat, to my eye the speedo gear mount looks like the torque tube is out 180*?
Does that matter? Anybody?

 

That might have helped! I ended up lifting the whole ass end frame and all, getting the front close, partially seating the spring, getting the front closer, then fully seating the spring and maneuvering the front onto the transmission with a pry bar.

...I am pretty sure it is in the right spot. I thought I marked the tube. Is the speedo housing not clocked to the driver side?

Regardless, now that I know it fits, I need to put the shaft back in there with whatever internal hardware it requires (I am unclear on this) and mark it so I can cut it to length.

 

On my stock ‘30 tube, it’s on the bottom passenger side. I had to stop and disconnect it once when it started screaming at me for lack of cable lube.

Go Man, go!

 

While I still need to figure out the internal hardware needs for the Torque Tube so I can measure and cut it, that's stuff that involves a bit more crawling around and heavier work than I am ready for just yet.

SO, in the meantime, I've been chipping away at a couple items that have been holding me up and confounding me for years. The steering column drop and the headers!

I've never found an off the shelf solution for the exact size I needed to back up the F1 column drop in the car, so I bought a roll bar clamp like we are using on the Basura-T and a couple off the shelf tabs from Speedway. It worked like a charm! It is now so sturdy, I can shake the entire car by the column.





SW: Part # 91007215 Weld-On Chassis Tabs, 2-1/2 Inch with 3/8 Hole
Summit: Allstar Performance ALL14483 - Allstar Performance Roll Bar Tube Clamps 1.5"

Wit that long awaited victory under my belt, I revisited the headers I had abandoned years ago and managed to get them moving along again. I've moved the steering since I touched them last so the back pipe is now the middle pipe. It came close to fitting but in the end I had to order some tighter mandrel bends (I hope they show up soon) so I can finish that run. But I have the run for the back tube cut for both sides now so I should be able to mirror them when I move to the passenger side. I'm going bac


No, it is not resting on the frame.
I've also been doing some fill welds on the nose AND we found the 28 only Model A open car latches fit the T doors we have on both cars. I'm off this week so I'm going to grind all this mess down and hammer any heat booboos back up. I've been cooling the welds with air and that has worked well so far.





- the only difference with these latches seems to be that they have the nicer Model A style handles with the threads for a knob.

 

Been keeping on the nagging projects with the headers and figuring out nerf bars, headlight & shock mounts.

I've actually got something to show with the headers. I have the driver side tacked up! It still needs to be finish welded and cleaned up but it's there! The tube for the center ports came out a bit more dramatic than it needs to be but it will work and I can probably pull the steering box out without going under the car. Not sure how I feel about the 3 bolt flange and turnout yet (thus the noncommittal booger welds back there). The flange does allow me to run those big beast mufflers however. I have tubes cut for the other side already too.

 

Gonna break this one out into a couple posts. First off, I got my drive shaft cut down and it is NOT too short! I still need to do some work to get it set in there to be sure but that was a 2 man job so it has to wait till I have help next weekend.


SO, since grinding out header flanges is my least favorite activity (I've been doing it anyway), I picked on the nerf bar/headlingt mount problem. I came up with a simple T bar that looks like a key and bolts into the frame. THe first cups I made to try and mount the 36 headlights stock wasn't going to work without a mess of frustrating work so I dropped that.

 

I finally settled on a simple solution to the 35/36 ford headlight mount head scratching. These replacement plates & hardware from #otbgear work. I could just add a flat plate with a hole in it to my nerf bar they will be easy to pull for racing if I can ever get this rig running & get it accepted for a vintage race.

This also takes the stud down to a half inch, btw, so it is a great solution for using these buckets on anything that's not a 35/36 Ford.

The car now has functional headlight mounts at road legal height. I could stand to drop them an inch or two but this is good for now.



The plate lines up to the factory holes up front. All I will need to do is drill two holes and fill the back. This position leaves enough articulation to point the headlights down what looks like 10° so I know I won't be struggling to not be sending up the bat signal when I adjust them. This is a big win. I may use this method on the #basurati as well.

 

Only a month behind on updates here. I haven't gotten back on the pas. side header because I dread running the die grinder when it's HOT and I'm sweaty. The idea of thousands of little steel toothpicks stuck to my arms and legs just is not on my summer to-do list. If I ever make headers for a FH again I'm going to try to find a tabbed flange like the one we got from Hells Gate Hot Rods for the Basura-T slant six.

I've settled on my shock mount design and have the headlight/shock-mount nerf bars tacked up now. I used a long threaded bung and a half inch bolt ultimately.



Moving on from there, I realized my radiator was going to be a problem with clearance, so I picked up an aluminum one, which, guess what, also has clearance issues! The steering box is RIGHT THERE and the hoses are in such a position that I've decided to run a 59ab crank mount fan setup, meaning I need new water pumps, crank pulley, and a 12-13" fan (I am working with prewarford.com to get most of that together). Pix of that mess later.

 

Good progress !

 

Looks great @patmanta !