Great tech thanks Bill. Can never have enough info. Mine is a beater persay lol. Plus I have other axles and rearends to take parts from. I have heard about the the key shearing but if you are running a mild banger or stocker no problem. If you have something more wild then more then likely you have swapped out the model A rear to something more stout. This is the banger thread so I assume most of us are running less then 125hp lol. More like less then 40hp in reality at the wheels.-Weeks
hotrodjeep, If you haven't got one yet, may I suggest a standpipe type fuel filter. You never know what's going to shake loose inside an old tank while on a trip. Snyders sells the best one I've seen. It's larger than most and doesn't reduce your fuel flow enough to affect a stocker. The older, smaller ones did. Snyders PN A-9193-T They cost $3.90+shp, but I've seen them solve some bad problems. Luke
I followed this thread and it worked flawlessly. There is more than one way to skin a cat, but I have heard that shims should be used as a last resort due to the fact that they wear out and things get sloppy. Chances of things breaking/shearing become greater. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=124112&highlight=model+brakes
jeff, remember that all the car pics and scenery tend to run together...but the ones that make you grin are the ones with you or other people you know in them. air tank with air lug wrench screw drivers (flat, big enough for timing screw and hub caps, and phillips) vise-grips needle nose cresent wrench rag oil water extra belt if you have one extra water pump if you have one extra generator if you have one short piece of jumper wire to jump fuse or polarize gen (unpolarized gen will toast the reg real quick.) wrench for battery conections extra distributor if you have one. repair manual(s) (for how to time it and other small stuff that might come up) several extra fuses extra headlight bulb extra tailight bulb extra fuel filter hand cleaner old
whoops....hit enter... old coveralls or carpet to roll around in the dirt with (good looking girl will work too) hammer lots of smiles and aaaauuuugha's and wave to the kids!
duct tape wire cutters bailing wire (safety wire) extra coil if you have one extra condenser if you have one feeler guage to set point gap finally....don't forget a drop or 2 or oil in the distributor oil hole and the gen oil hole if it's been more than 500 miles since the last few drops.
Thank you for the tech link info. Great tech but very involved to still have to use a shim on the rears like he had to. Its easier to use the later front spindles also and you generally can find them as easily as model A spindles because they generally come with the brakes also which you need anyway. The later model spindles are also beefier but we are only running bangers so weight is not anything more then stock would be but if anyone upgrades to a bigger engine v8-60, v8-85 or later flathead then they should run a little beefier spindle correct? I like to fabricate alot but if I can make things work easier I am all for that too. Thanks again Chris appreciate it bud.-Weeks
I'll pack some tools and for now the only exta parts i have are a tranny and a shift knob. I'll be changing to my fancy orange swirl glass knob for the trip! I'll definatly take the camera and most likly my wife will be following me back home so if any problems arise she'll be close. I also want to get some pictures of me at speed on the highway. Definatly lots of smiles!!!! and I'm in Iowa so I love to wave at strangers !!! What I've got: Air tank, Tools, Jack, Lug wrench, Insurance card & registration, Gas can, Camera, Camera, Jumper cables,(with a Pos ground do I hook it up Pos to Pos, or Ground to Ground?) What I need: Rad. cap 3-4# right?, Points, condenser, Belt, Antifreeze or Water?, Oil 10w30?, Fuel filter, Gas money Should I worry about the air filter? Thanks A Bunch Guys! Jeff
bubble gum and cut down half-jack (5 pound sledge on a 16" handle). hip flask full of something potent.
I installed a later set of spindles up front on my car, so the front was a bolt on. On the rear, I rotated the backing plates liek that tech showed (wish I would have just flipped them upside down) and machined the drum and backing plate. Bolted everything together and it fit like a glove. Fabbed my own M/C pushrod off the orriginal brake junction shaft and everything works well. It was a little fabricating and some figuring out, but all in all I would say the brake swap was pretty easy. Now that I've done it once, doing it again would be a lot easier
Actually the "A" rear end is stronger than you imply. If you get a chance look at what is under Art Chrisman's dragster. Or Vic Kings dragster. On my modified we run 5.30's at the hill climbs and start in 2 nd gear. When Jay drove it he would wind it up and slip his foot off of the clutch. Stock model "A"'s shear keys. Halibrand made 2 different center sections for the "A" rear end. One with 1" wide pick off gears for midgets and one with 1 3/8" gears for sprint cars. Model "A" rear ends were used because there were more ratios available for them than any other rear end in the 30's and 40's. Take a look at a "vintage" Getz Gear list The only advantage of a V8 rear end was the saddle bearing on the pinion. The axles are basically the same On the "A" rear end the pinion will push the ring gear away and try to climb the ring gear breaking the rear end or gears. This is prevented by installing a snubber which stops the ring gear from moving or flexing under stress. Another trick is to turn or grind the axles so that they are slightly smaller in dia. in the center, this causes the axle to work like a torsion bar and will absorb the shocks better. This is what Vic King did to stop axle breakage on his dragster. Maybe some of the posters on here only have 40 horses but the reason they are here is because they want more. Installing things like a snubber is an inexpensive way to build a stronger rear end and save the expense of upgrading to a later rear end and spend that money on the engine.
Bill, have any tech or pics on installing a snubber?? Wasn't 1934 the first year for the saddle bearing?
1936 was first year i think.....ya...lets see some pics......also...tranny gears and rearend gears were sometimes softened so they weren't as brittle. This was common in the 50's when the hot fuels, olds, sbc, and hemi's cam on the scene....(i use the word hemi very losely here as most of us know all the early overhead twin sticks were "hemi's".) Even Dontov knew it was one of the best designs....and still used today and it's about......what...a 85-90 year old design!
Chris? Just wondering why you wish now that you had just put the rear backing plates up-side down. Less work? Functionality? I've thought that having them higher would be better for bleeding.
got a quick question...bratton's sells a nice thick, cork pan gasket for an A. Who sells on similar for a B? I'm tired of this thin paper stuff. I've tried Brattons, Mac's, and Paul Ellis. Paul's were the best but still not as good as the A pan gaskets from Brattons.
I think you can buy sheets of cork at hobby shops and small sheets at the auto parts store. You could make your own. I've done it with some gaskets.
It was sort of a pain re-drilling the holes and pluggin the others. It is also tight to run brake lines. It just looks way easier to mount upside down. I don't think bleeding is an issue, at least I have heard it is not and I've seen lots of cars that run upside sown backing plates. Just swap sides so the large bore on the wheel cylinder is forward, as is the E-brake tubes.
Chris, I don't have any how to photo's but I can post one of the snubber on my quickchange, The main difference between the job on the quickchange is that it is on the rear as the pinion is on the rear of the differential. It consists of a (in my case) Bronze bolt and a boss welded into the axle housing bell. It needs to be placed slightly after the ring gear has passed the pinion center and I use .005 clearance. I always heard that the stock rear end was okay up to 60 horse power but I discussed this with Joe Mac and he said it was an old wives tale as the "A" rear end was used on a lot of sprint cars. A friend of mine built a "Rat Rod" 29 tudor and he used a stock "A" differential behind a SBC and it is still running. Just keep your nuts tight!!
Anyone that sells "Best" brand gaskets can get them. I get the cork "B" gaskets from CW Moss in Orange Ca., they always have them in stock. Best "Graphite" head gaskets are my preference too. I have never had any problems with them. Jay Steel told me not to run anything else but these when running a High Comp. head. They may cost a little more, but it's cheap insurance. Never re-use a copper "sandwich" type gasket, unless you are one the road and that is the only way you are going to get home. $40 buck spent on a new gasket is better then trying to clean water out of the crank case. Solid copper can and does get reused all of the time, but it should be annealed first. Bill, I too am interested in the Model A rear end beef-up tech. Is there a snubber for the pinion too? Chris, If you mount the wheel cylinders on the bottom, wouldn't it make the brake lines vulnerable to snags and the possibility for the lines to get ripped of the car if you snag them on a road hazard? .
Yeah, I thought of this, too. That is the main reason I did it the way I did it. I mean, not like I'm booney-bouncin this thing on the back roads, but a lot of banger guys might drive their cars like that...plus you just never know what may lie on the road ahead. I guess this is just a good reason to upgrade your car with a slick Jag rear with fancy inboard disc brakes
Especially the polished version...and you can't do that without 22" billet wheels. Too much bread for this poor dumb kid
Eh, I don't know that you guys had seen the coverage in World of Rods, but here's a shameless plug anyway. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=385661&highlight=tres+hambres I've been a bit behind in the Monthly banger thread. Last I read was all the talk about gas tank crud, which is what I happened to be doing to my old tank now. I hope this problem has plagued me for the last time in a while at least. Gaters -
Finned coil installed. Made an aluminum adapter bracket to offset the spacing of the holes in the firewall to the holes in the coil (didn't want to drill new holes in my firewall). Scratched my head at how to attach the plug wire to the coil, has a threaded knob instead of the tradition style plug in with a boot, BUT I got it! lol.
So ive been very busy triin to finish movin into my new shop and open up. but i ripped the fenders off the banger and threw some old bentspokes on and have been rippin around town!!!! within the next month im gunna drop the front axle. T rear spring. juice brakes and some navy blue paint!!!!! 3" chop maybe?? what do you guys think?
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