Can't say we're rotating the earth with the progress on this thing; but the "Mild Steel Missile" is a full length chassis now, and the "bar" is out. The block is hanging on it's mounts. There is a lot of work in progress on the front axle assembly as well. Now I get to watch it sit for another 8 weeks until the new class gets around to live work...
The other day I went to the local Home Depot- Gardening Dept as asked the help there Where they kept the $20 money trees? The look was pricless
Sounds good to me, Cant quite understand why you did the upper framerail under the motor like that, also the crossmember just behind the motorplate. What is the crank hight measured at the front?
I realize it's a little different. I wanted some height for the diagonals beside the engine, but still wanted a low look to the upper front rail, so that's what we came up with. The 2 bottom crossmembers are really just keeping the rails parallel for now. The back one needs to be moved rearward slightly to line up for the pinion anti-rotation plate, and the front one may get moved back to the trans mount location. Crank height is 10" at the snout, and I did end up setting the axle housing for a 32" tire at 3" clearance.
Do not use a rear tranny mount , just let it float in the chassis. Install the trans with a deep pan and run diag ("K") from the center of the pinion crossmember tube to the lower frame rails as far foward as you can and still leave enough room to get the trans out. Adding height to those frame rails serves no purpose other than put more of a load on the weld and uprite where the upper rail attaches. Watch for cracking later on.
Nice to see an update, you should have posted pics of your students working on the chassis, , What's the reasoning for the upper frame rail dropping down ahead of the motor, Just curious , I don't remember ever seeing one like that, Tim Jones
Well the car looks about the same, but we did come up with a 'Glide case for mockup. Also had a Corvair steering box donated. Luckily I have a student in this class who is an experienced machinist, so I showed him how to reverse the input shaft and lengthen the pitman shaft to fit the dragster chassis. It turned out pretty nice! Hopefully this week it will be mounted in the car. Thanks Keith (rooman) for the good advice on this.
The corvair box looks great , the ratio is kinda slow straighten the pitman arm or fab a longer one will help.
No problem in how you reverse a Corvair box, but how did you lengthen the pitman shaft? It looks like one piece.
I'll take that as a compliment! Haha. We used heavy (.156) wall DOM tubing. The pitman shaft was cut and machined to leave a male plug on each end that press fit into the ID of the tubing. The tube was beveled and also drilled to allow "plug" welds on each end. Then it was all TIG welded together and turned smooth on the lathe. NOTE: I am totally confident in the fab work on the shaft and box. Having said that, I would NEVER trust this type of modification on a street vehicle. The skinny front wheels on the dragster simply won't generate enough resistance to worry about it failing.
Well, there's been a little more progress made. The front spindles are roughed in, as is the axle itself. The spindle pins were recycled from a Pro-FWD drag car rear axle with direct mounts (modern wheels , but that's what we have...). The rest was shop built by students. The ugly MIG tacks on the chassis are slowly being replaced by some really nice TIG welds. We'll just keep truckin... After next week it will be 6 weeks before any more gets done...
Cool school project My friend Roger is a teacher, and they have also been doing a race project, A modell T gasser Kjell ................................ Taildragger&fenderless
And the axle was hung from the hairpins with care, In hopes that a torsion bar soon would be there... That's about as Christmasy as I get. Yes, it's all mild steel, YES it's all too heavy...and it's also all we have. In case you're wondering about the extra tabs on the batwings, what would a sixties style digger be without a little flower power???
Question???? Any thoughts on how or what you are going to use for a steering arm off the spindle?? Radious rod mounts off the axle seem a little close to the spindle
Bruce, I had just planned on building short arms for it. The hairpins had to be that wide to clear the torsion bar tube. I probably made the bar tube too long... I think we'll have another look at it, thanks.
I was refering to the arm back to the steering box, you are going to need a big whoopty in it to clear and get the ratio right.
Got it Bruce. The reason the batwings are so close to the kingpins is so the hairpins would clear the long torsion bar tube. Luckily everything is still just tacked together... C-10, The spindles were made by bending a piece of 1/4" 4130 plate, and then wrapping another piece around it and TIG welding them together. They were bored in the milling machine to accept the spindle pins at an 8deg KPI angle. The spindle pins themselves are left over from an O/T FWD drag chassis that was scrapped. I believe they are Anglia-based. Those and the (modern) direct mount wheels came from S&W Race Cars.
Well, sometimes you (I) just screw up. I have the rules, so there's no excuse... The rules say that the distance from the rear axle mount upright to the next upright tube forward must be 28" or less. Ours is 35". I've looked at literally dozens of photos of FED chassis in the process of designing this thing, but most of them are clutch cars, or use a shorty 'Glide; so it never occurred to me that the tubes at the motor plate were going to be further out than the rules allow. We've already started on the "K" braces from the rear axle tube, and I really don't want to cut all that out if I don't have to. Yes, the finish welding was premature, but the guys got "go fever" and I was busy with other projects... So, here's my question. Would it be ok to add an upright in 2 pieces as shown by the red line in the picture? That upright would be intersected by the lower portion of the "K" brace shown in orange. I really don't think there is a strength issue the way it is now. The "K" braces are much larger than the rules call for (1 1/4 vs. 3/4"). Again, I know it's "different", I'm just wondering if it will get through tech with the mods (as an injected small block bracket car).
The Jalopy Journal
