Help Please... I have a vintage axle that when I first got it I thought it was a vintage heated and formed axle like a MOR-DROP or DAGO but after cleaning it up it appears to be forged like this. A guy I know looked at it and he said he thought it was an old Cragar axle. Could this be?? Can anyone shed some light on this cool mystery axle. Thanks.
Could be a 42-46 dropped axle, most of the 47-48 ones have the extra hole in the web between the axle bolt and kingpin knuckle for the tubular shock mounting studs.
It doesn't look like other dropped axles that I've seen, the shape and form appear to be from the forging. When I got it someone wrote "40 Ford" on it and it has a 41" perch pin dimension.
That's just a regular old dropped postwar Ford axle. Look how it is necked down in cross section between the perch and kingpin bosses. Lots of those axles were not drilled for the optional tube shocks.
See the second axle down...this is what your axle started life as... A 47-48 Ford axle without the tube shock holes. Neal
Based on the pics, would there be anyway to tell who dropped this axle??, or was it something that alot of guys were doing in there garage back in the day. Whoever did it seems to know what they were doing.
Looking at the indentation between the pin boss and kingpin,i would say SATANSSHO4 has it.Dropping a 48 Ford axle will not change the shape of the indentation.My $.002
I don't think so. Compare the "exact" shape of the indent on the OP's axle, and look at the Cragar pic. That indent is not uniform up near the very top. The upwards facing "comet" tail sweeps more to one side, and I can't see how that can happen with a normal "stretched" and dropped axle. If you have dropped one yourself, it would just look odd that the point heads off to one side.
that is a super rare axle.... dropped by non other than world famous zorro...see the z stamped in there....it belongs in the smithsonian... .seriously guys? ....first off you are comparing to a drawing , not a actual picture... so-cal ,crager(ansen) ,bell auto ,jc whitney god knows who else got their axles from only a few places...more than likely mor-drop or the blacksmith the stewarts used.... its like saying i got a model a quarter pannel from mac's , an another guy says mine is better it came from snyder's....they both came from brookville origionally....how many places you think make model a quarter pannels? you guys dismissed rich b's response...he knows his shit...he has probably only dropped hundreds of axles....like he stated where it necks down....that is where it is starting to pull apart from the heat
Did you read the Cragar ad? They state in therer that the axles were sold on an exchange basis only and dropped in a "special process"...meaning they were a stretched Ford axle...just like a Mor-Drop...and quite possibly done by Mor-Drop.
I don't think anyone is trying to dismiss anyone else's expertise on axles, people are just asking questions as to it's origins. It would be really cool if someone on here worked at Cragar duing the early 60's and knew who did their dropping for them. To me it sure looks like the one in the old catalog picture. Don
I'm just a young rodder but what I was thinking is that it's a ford axle dropped by somebody FOR cragar. Does anyone know who dropped for cragar or did cragar drop them. This is just a question that I don't know the answer for. If you drop axles and are reading this can you show me a pic of one of your axles that you drop that look like this
Crager was a pretty big company and did a lot of casting and fab work in house, they were not a catalog store. Chances are good that they did drop their own axles. I mean as long as we are making conjecture I may as well guess with the rest of you. That doesn't change the original question, the kid said someone said it was or may be a crager, no matter how did the deed it comes down to does anyone know if it is a crager or not? or is there really any way to tell?
Thanks for all the advice here with this beam, I got it now, and I understand better a little of the history of drop axles. I'm glad it wasn't a rare 'Zorro' beam, LoL, cause I swiss cheesed it, and now it can find a home under my car...
I just found this post. If you still have that axle, what is the kingpin to kingpin dimension? Thanks!