Thread: Any body used a gear drive before?

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hey 41willy's i see your from iowa, i am in council bluffs, you should bring that beast of yours down to the strip by glenwood if you havent allready been there

oh and i forgot, when i got home i opened the trunk of the car to find brand new tie rod ends (all 4 ) new adjuster collars, new ball joints, brake pads and 1 new rotor, that there is worth more than i paid for the car, woohoooo

gottabuild1,
Never been to Glenwood, we spend most of our time at either Cordova or Tri-state raceways up by dubuque. I glenwood 1/8th or 1/4?
If you run ladder bars make sure they have good rod end protectors on the fronts and keep a close eye on the housing tube welds to the center section. I have seen many with welds crack at that point. many years ago before we started putting back braces on the housings, I even had the pleasure of dumping rear end grease on the starting line, which they absolutely hate,
when the housing tube broke completely off. What a revolting development that was. kind of difficult to get the car out of the way too, tends to waste a lot of the track officials time and patience.

Originally Posted by 41willys

gottabuild1,
Never been to Glenwood, we spend most of our time at either Cordova or Tri-state raceways up by dubuque. I glenwood 1/8th or 1/4?
If you run ladder bars make sure they have good rod end protectors on the fronts and keep a close eye on the housing tube welds to the center section. I have seen many with welds crack at that point. many years ago before we started putting back braces on the housings, I even had the pleasure of dumping rear end grease on the starting line, which they absolutely hate,
when the housing tube broke completely off. What a revolting development that was. kind of difficult to get the car out of the way too, tends to waste a lot of the track officials time and patience.

hmmmmm. So we would file this incident under how NOT to make friends and influence people?????????

Yeah dave,

That happened in a little track in Osceola Ind. back in the 70's. The track prep was negligable anyway and everybody complained about the poor starting line traction he actually shut the race down for the rest of that day and made us stay and help him clean the track with paint thinner. It is really amazing the way 90w soaks into asphalt. That and anitifreeze... been there done that too. A guy can learn a lot after 40 years of making mistakes.
John

Originally Posted by 41willys

Yeah dave,

That happened in a little track in Osceola Ind. back in the 70's. The track prep was negligable anyway and everybody complained about the poor starting line traction he actually shut the race down for the rest of that day and made us stay and help him clean the track with paint thinner. It is really amazing the way 90w soaks into asphalt. That and anitifreeze... been there done that too. A guy can learn a lot after 40 years of making mistakes.
John

Short version of a funny story... In my early circle burner days in a Super Modified, had never raced on an asphalt track, had an opportunity to go race at the Minnesota State Fair on a paved track. During the heat, couldn't figure out why all them guys stayed on the bottom and played follow the leader, nothing like the circle burnin' I knew on dirt!!!! Anyway, after a serious discussion with the car owner (Dad) I decided to run up top, allow the engine to rev a bit higher, and go win the thing!!! So for the feature I did...This was in the days before they had tach's or rev limiters that worked on a magneto, but the engine didn't SOUND like it was revving too high!!!!!......I went up high on the green flag, and sure enough was leading the dang thing coming down the back chute. When I got the lead after my long run on the top of the track, I moved to the bottom, twisting the snot out of the engine, and threw a rod out the side of the block (well, actually two rods out both sides and the bottom of the pan) depositing 8 quarts of DA Speed Sport racing oil right in the racing groove in front of the other 19 cars.... Well, a huge wreck was the result with cars bangin', flippin, and wall hittin'----only 8 cars were able to contiue, we barely made it out of the pits alive!!!!!!!

PS--This was an invitational race, we never got invited back!!!! Decided I just wasn't cut out for circle burnin' on asphalt.....

I run ladder bars on single leafs street and strip... it's okay. The ride on the street is a bit rough and I won't be flying around many corners, especially on 16.5" wide mickey's but never had any problem hooking it up on the strip....

Two cents,

-Chris

ladder bars work ok. not very good on bad roads my chevy has them on it and i floated the rear end and rides good .i just would not use the track rod on the street. had one car was very loose going in a corner . go to a panhard bar keeps the body and rear end center to the car so when you turn in to a corner the front of the car is working with the back of the car with the track rod there is a disonnect to the front of the car to the back

^^^ agreed... I try very hard to avoid potholes, man hole covers, dips, you name it because the ladders are not very forgiving of rough road... and don't corner worth a darn...

but you can take the corners slow and more than make up on the straight away

Originally Posted by skids72

^^^ agreed... I try very hard to avoid potholes, man hole covers, dips, you name it because the ladders are not very forgiving of rough road... and don't corner worth a darn...

but you can take the corners slow and more than make up on the straight away

not so i give you a ride in my chevy thing is like on rails man

^^^ how wide are the gumballs?

i for get ? first sign old age or to many drugs when young they are comp T/A as big as you can get under the back of a 50 about 10inch

That's cool... I should have been speaking more of ladder's in general but I was referring to the ladders I have on a narrowed rear with 31x16.5x15 mickeys which don't like to corner... I have no doubts about your setup and would love to go for a ride if I ever make it to the neighborhood

Originally Posted by skids72

That's cool... I should have been speaking more of ladder's in general but I was referring to the ladders I have on a narrowed rear with 31x16.5x15 mickeys which don't like to corner... I have no doubts about your setup and would love to go for a ride if I ever make it to the neighborhood

well it was in yours the car came off a lot in lakewood about 29 years ago

Groovy.... I was just a "few" years from my permit in those days.... But dad was selling Fords