Technical The Allure of the Quick-Change Rear End.

I just bought an old race car with this halibrand champ rear.

 

9" and 8 3/4 mopars mostly. And there was a little bit of artistic license, I don't usually knock a u-joint cup off or forget to put the drain plug back in! I was having a little fun with it.But I DO usually end up with 90 w in my hair!

 

.....I don't know, I'm certain this will never go into a real racecar....but I gotta believe it would be a pretty cool addition to the lil roadster. Maybe one day I'll get the gumption to rebuild the center section and fab new bells, brakes and 5 on 5 1/2 axles. 60s vintage Paul Kollstedt Quickie.

 

I have changed ratios in the lanes at Pomona in under 10 minutes. You get good when you do it enough times under pressure.

 

I have 2, the Halibrand was the start of our '32 project, the Frankland will end up in the Gasser

 

Kinda like changing the gear in between the consi and the feature. Especially if you have developed a good set of calluses on your fingers so the gear teeth don't brand your finger tips. Those change gears can get pretty hot after a few laps.

 

Takes like 5 mins, no reason to drain all oil, we do it before every dyno test on sprint cars and late models. I have a Franklyn going in my 34 pickup I'll have the cruise set around a 3.00 gear and the fun set prolly a 4.11 or 4.56.

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has been years since i changed gears but i remember it took a long time until the lube quit running, maby i had too much oil in rear part. franklin and franklyn are different companys, jim franklin was in ruskin fl. in mid 70's... have xtra sets of gears for halabred rear if interested, think they are 3 gear sets, came w/dragster i bought in 1975... still have it.

 

There were no Franklin or Franklyn Quick Changes
There is a Frankland (Jim Frankland, Ruskin FL) still in business in PA
and a Lynn (Lynn Franklin, St. Paul MN) long gone.

I have been down this road!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Quickchanges look good under most any car, but are especially at home under Track Roadsters, being race inspired. The one in the photo is an 11 bolt Halibrand Champ, with steel 3/4 ton truck housings. I built the car for a customer, and after 2 years it was ready to take him for a ride. I had a bucket of change gears (hand me down race parts), and selected a ratio and installed them. We headed down the road, it howled something awful, we could hardly hear each other talking. My only prior experience was with V-8 units and I was plenty nervous, thinking are Champs this loud ? I installed a new set of helical cut gears, problem solved. He has approaching 25,000 mi on it, with no complaints.

 

Back in the day, when nothing was "harmful to our health", they packed the change gears with white lead to quiet them.

 

When you step on the gas with that HEMI, the torque will transfer to that rear end and the rear end WILL twist and your rear wishbones/trailing arms will bow and eventually crack....because you have eliminated the "torque tube" and have not added upper axle housing ladder bars to prevent this from happening. Just some advice. My .02

 

Its not there to look cool, it makes changing gears on the salt much easier !

 

Only reason I want one....

 

The Haliband Champ I will be running under my A stockcar.

 

magnesium Jones hanging in the back of my coupe

 

Is the wide 5 pattern on the Champ rears the same spread as early Ford? 10-1/2" or whatever it is?

 

Yes, just about the only "Stock" thing on a modern Stockcar.

History of Wide Five Racing Hubs-

Stock Ford 3/4 Ton Iron


Late 50's Early 60's Michigan Safety Racing Hub. This is what I am running.


Early 60's Alum


Early 70's Frankland Disc Brake

Modern Racing Wide 5

 

Looks like it has open backing plates.

 

Thanks for the lesson!

Yes it does have skeleton (?) brakes.

 

Nice

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It is not too evident in the original photo, but this one illustrates the P&J Ladder Bars which control axel wrap up very effectively.

 

To add to what Robert J. Palmer said:
Most of the stock car hubs use 5/8" lugs. But Moroso makes a 1/2" lug with the large knurl so you can use real Ford passenger car wheels.

 

This Champion stuff evolved originally from the Ford 3/4 or one ton truck rear, both for the bigger R&P and for the full float axles...the aluminum stuff, especially hubs and drums, was a natural move away from the tremendous unsprung weight of the iron truck parts. Also, those trucks were never tremendously common, and TWO dead trucks were needed to assemble a QC rear from Ford parts.
An alternative of years back was a fairly simple conversion allowing use of the full float axles and hubs on a passenger rear. Some of the hardware from that allowed use of the big hubs on Ford FRONT ends, making the circlatrack use of the wheels as bumpers substantially safer...

 

This is the critter, we call it a "split in the middle".

 

Marty
That thing looks pretty bulletproof. What gear ratios did they come stock with? How much wider than a stock banjo were they?

Gary

 

Gary, the two ratios for Champ rears are 4.11 & 4.86. I would bet the Timken pictured would be 4.86.

 

I'm seeing that Winters is also offering a 4:57 R&P option. Not sure where that came from. I'm thinking that 4:86 is that preferred ratio today.

I'm a little out of touch on my sprint car technology, but when I was active everyone used 4:11.

 

I have one of those I need to sell....whats a fair price?

 

Better music than a radio!