Hot Rods What's it like to live with a quick change rear axle under your hot rod?

What's it like to live with a quick change rear axle under your hot rod?

I have seen photo's where a lot of you have hot rods with quick change axles and I have always wondered about driving with them locally & on road trips. HRP

 

I am also curious about this, and also how often does anyone actually change gears...if ever?
Thanks
Chappy

 

I have an old Frankland QC under my '27 T roadster. I have a lot of gear sets from the dirt track racing days. I have had from 3.55's to 5.23's in it. Depends on what I am going to do. It only takes about 10 minutes to change the gears. Some gear sets make more noise than others. I have a few that are pretty quiet, I think. The pipes are loud enough to cover any rear end whine. I am even still running the spool. IT'S A HOT ROD!

 

I have a Halibrand 201 in my 27T Modified. They are most always noisey, some more than others. Between the big Olds engine, the top shift early Olds 3 speed and the Q.C. rear end it is very noisey but I love it, real Hot Rods are noisey!

 

I have a 201 in my 29 Coupe. The whine isn't real bad. The exhaust and other Model A rattles cover it up. It is nowhere near as loud as the gear drive my brother used to have in his pickup.

When I first built my Coupe I used to switch the QC gear around for play time. But after a few times I just left it with a decent midrange ratio.

 

I have one in my '32 coupe. It has the straight cut gears which do whine. I'm getting use to it and kinda like it. It has a 3.54:1 ring and pinion and the setup under drives this to about a 3.81. I will probably never change the gears, but do like the look.

 

I've ran one for over 40 plus years. I have both a Halibrand, and a Winters. The Halibrand is noisier. But I love the whine of a Q.C. rear, gear drive, or blower. They all play a symphony, with the exhaust, mill, and dirt track tires, etc. And no, I don't change the gears very often. { I'll add a funny little note.*} I've had a passenger ask me, what's that whine? I said, Oh No! the police are chasing us!!! lol Ron.....

 

Used a QC in many of my race cars,I raced for over 42 years, an won an average around 8+ races a year,at least 1/2 with a QC rear.
I would not use one in a street car,my self.
It's a great design,for the race track ! I broke them in near every way pos.
Noisey depens on many things,but most make more then can be covered by open EX at less then wide open.
Hope that is simple. The QC gears set that are cut angled,not straight are a little less loud. STP with the heavy 120+ lub would help a little. All that = if you do not race* an need the gear*,I go with Don't !
There is faking it, an then more fake,or real race cars. .....It's your car,have the fun as you like !

 

Remember, if it's too loud, you're too old...

 

If it not loud you can't hear...

 

I have a 201 in my roadster with a flathead and a merc 3 speed with overdrive. When I first put the car together I ran 3:48's in it. After I got the overdrive sorted out I flipped them to the 4:11's and ran those for a while. Always wanting more, I swapped in 4:30's in the fall. With the overdrive it's still fine and a lot of fun around town, but if I was planning a longer run I'd swap to something like 3:78. So yes, I change the gears a lot. As mentioned they have a whine, which I think just screams hot rod. I've got tailpipes out the back with no mufflers also, it's all part of the experience.

 

I have an early Halibrand QC in my '32 roadster........I use the 3.78 straight cut gears.......fairly noisy, but I am part deaf anyway! But...with all the exhaust and wind noise.......who cares?? Do not regularly change them out, but it's quite easy to do it.

 

I have a 29 model a with a 427 sbc,t-10 and a frankland QC,I have the
Helical gears they are quiet,but I only have 150 miles on it.I have change gears 2 times. I do Have about 15 sets of normal qc gears,I haven't tried yet.

 

I got to disagree with that the older I get the quieter things seem to be.

One can be noisy. They make helical cut gears for them but the difference in noise seems to be minimal to me. If I had a good one I would run it, I would want one of the bigger ones that they make for roundy round cars. I had a friend in high school who had one under a flathead car that he raced once in a blue moon, that was when the gears got changed the rest of the time he ran it with the same gear all the time.

 

I just picked up one for my 65 chevelle Monday.
Could be a fun project.

 

Well I would take a '65 if I could not get a '64. LOL
(I was not aware that you had one of those when last we spoke.).

Jeff (@flamedabone ) has one under his A sedan that he has run for decades. he changes the gears all the time. Seems like less than half an hour for him to do it and he doesn't have to run 2,000 miles against the rev limiter to be able to run 10s on the other end before he drives home.

 

I have a winters "champ" QC in my 32' sedan. I changed the gears around when i first got it on the road, and havent changed them since, but its nice to have the option if i wanted to. Every gearset is a bit different on noise, the current pair i have in right now have a definite wine to them, enough that ive had buddies in other cars thinking their rearends were going out just to find out its my car behind them. I run open straight pipes on a 420 hp motor so the noise of the rearend must be pretty substatial to be heard over the exhaust. They're expensive rearends initially, but for the sex appeal its worth it. Worth it enough, that my new model a coupe i'm building, i'm running another QC in it as well.

 

My roadster has a winters QC with helical cut gears. Between the 471 and the QC i'd say the blower is the noisier of the two. I am deaf in one ear and perhaps all the noise from my car will eventually destroy the good one but what a way to go! There are upsides to being deaf, I hear less people honking and swearing at my driving...Maybe I'm getting better at it.

 

I always wanted to install one under my touring T, but they cost more than I had in my car.

 

Danny are you thinking about putting one under your sedan?

 

Have V8 QC with 3.54 ring & pinion. Some straight cut gears are almost silent, some sets howl like a banshee. It seems like the sets with a big difference in tooth count between the 2 gears are more likely to howl. The QC has been trouble free for 50,000 miles. Greg

 

No sir, I was talking with a friend that is looking at a project that has a older Q/C , I think it's a Frankland and if he makes the deal he intends to remove it and the 3 speed transmission and use a 9" Ford along with a 4 speed and hook it up to the hemi that's already in the car. HRP

 

Sounds like a lot of work to just be Ho-hum

 

I know a guy with an old quick change in a 32 roadster. SBC with gear drive cam. It sounds like a siren going down the road.

 

I also have the Big Winters,, Champion in one of my Stude Conestogas.
Around town, not bothersome at all. You almost have to "listen" to hear it. On the freeway, it is a bit noisy, but if you stop "thinking" about it, it's not really annoying. Matter of fact, it's kinda fun to get next to a car and hit the throttle to MAKE it loud, depending on the passengers in the car.
I haven't taken it drag racing...yet, so I don't know how things will go at the track. But right now, not any problems, other than a bit of leakage at the outer gear cover at the main case interface.





Mike

 

Mine was fine, at certain highway speed it had a high pitched whine but not an unpleasant noise, just something you noticed. Didn’t bother me nearly as much as the typical wind noise at highway speeds. It also made it great for when I flat towed the car too, just pull a spur gear off and good to go. Once my wife drove it in a parade I swapped gears around and gave her a 6.70 ish ratio for the parade she loved it, she just let the clutch out and just crept right along at an idle in first gear.

 

<<<<<<
As you might remember, I had a 201 V8 Halibrand under my roadster. For 30+ years.
And as far as I know, it’s still going, up in NH.
With straight cut gears, it was noisier at certain speeds than others. But I think that the wind noise was worse than the whine. Probably why I have hearing loss today.
R&P was 3:78 and it ran a 3A gear set it’s entire life.
It was converted to 28 spline late model axles and bearings, open driveshaft and had all HD bearings, based on some now old R&C and HRM articles.
Dan’s Metal Polishing and Chrome in Adamsville did the excellent polish job.

 

I'm biased, but that is the dumbest thing I have read on here today.

 

I like big butts and I cannot lie,
You other brothers can't deny...

 

...