In the spirit of keeping the car very close to the 1951 build I am staying with the T96 three speed and the Hurricane motor. Plan is to both race and highway drive, so a "quick change" feels like my best bet. It is my "dream" to race the car on my 65th birthday, May 1st 2026. Motor and trans teardown starts Christmas day, pretty straight forward. Front axle is original and needs a full rebuild, but have some spare parts and good sources, shouldn't be too complicated. It's the rear axle that worries me. The Amilcar has a narrowed rear, crudely done and not narrow enough...other than that. Looking for advice and sources for parts. Staying with manual drum brakes. Small car with 10 1/2 x 1 1/4 front brakes (so looking for smallish rears) Happy to convert juice brakes over to manual (crazy i know) Have NOT decided on torque tub or open drive shaft, leaning toward open. Have not finalized width, Front axle is 40 backing plate to backing plate. Would like the rear axle track to be slightly wider, but until I sort out drums and splined hub adapters, lets just call it 40. It has 1/4 elliptical springs so lugs need to be welded to the axle tubes, I THINK underneath. Torque arm will be needed . Would like you use ford stuff other than the center section. Would like center section that is correct for early 50's. Have NOT decided on final ratio, still doing some math and will be running both 17 and18 wheels. Horse power? Hope to be around 90. Thoughts? Idea's? Words of wisdom? Bits and/or pieces? Other threads I should look at? Thanks "pops"
I am a great fan of the Willys F head as I have one in my 1953 Willys Jeep. Not sure what all the options may be for your rear axle.....but...if you insist on a quickchange.....you may want to look for something out of an old midget race car which would give you a narrower setup. There were a gazillion variations from homebuilt based on narrowed Ford rear axles to Halibrand and others. I am pretty well cleaned out of stuff, so I don't have any complete axles....just some misc center sections that would need a lot of work. With the current state of midget and sprint stuff, I would think you could find a reasonable setup out there. Have fun
Are you aware how Ford banjo style rearends work? Are you willing to go through the special machine work to narrow the tapered ends of the axles? Might be best to order up a new Winters with whatever width you want, and it will look like a Ford to 99.9% of the people who stick their head under there.
Winters make reproductions of early Ford rear axle side bells, but with a difference in as much as they are not tapered along the full length ( like originals) but have a straight, parallel sided section towards the outer end. This allows for easier fitting of axle brackets and the ability to dial in the overall casing width. I understand they're available separately, or as Alchemy has already said, get the complete unit in the required width. Chris
With the work involved narrowing ford banjo axles you could just convert to 9” axles and order the correct length during that. Kinda sounds like he already has a center section? If he’s using a ford front axle finding a slightly wider ford banjo shouldn’t be to hard out of stock ford stuff depending on what that front axle is. we really need a more specific existing parts list and photos.
My solution on a similar car that will also be used for cruising and track time is to use Ford 9", dressed up to look like a QC. I know it doesn't check all the boxes you are looking for but, dang, it sure saved me lots of h***les with older stuff, gave me modern brakes (both hydraulic 4-wheel and hand-brake operated rear-only), and is so easy to narrow I did it myself. [see my avatar build for details] There is a fine line between keeping every piece era-correct and ending up with a car that is practical for both cruising on cruise nights and beating the snot out of it at a local short track with fellow vintage racers. I crossed it.
I have faked like @THE FRENCHTOWN FLYER shown above If just for Look , If actually wanting a Q-C order new & if under stand correct make look older By making taper cones for Axle tube Weld , Epoxy body filler ?
Tim, you've been here since the beginning , have you completely missed the "Specials " and "CycleCar " threads on the main board ?
First i must say i had a Amilcar a good 35 years ago. It was a M2 Special and not a CGS like you have. Sold it which gave me enough deposit to buy my house with decent property where i can still continue the old car hobby today. For rear axle have you thought of the little Ford Anglia/Prefect that we so often see in the vintage dragrace threads. Otherwise how about the 1947 Austin A40 Devon/Dorset rear axle which i think was even used 10 years later in the bug-eye Austin Healey Sprite ( this might even be narrower ) btw , welcome to the H.A.M.B.
Heres a pic i have saved ages ago from a thread here. Rear axle looks narrow. Close look shows small rear drums, not big like the front drums. Maybe axle and wheels from the little British model Y Ford, 1934 and up. Must be some small stuff floating around at the swapmeets.
You could look for two English Thames e83w rear axle bells and shafts, these are a v8 banjo but with one short side as the motor was off set. 2 would make a narrow banjo that’s fairly bolt together. But what width are you hoping to achieve is the question?
If an original Ford banjo is used, later style axles and housing ends can be figured into the mix, if period aesthetics are an issue there have been some "dummy" machined tapered ends to bolt on so the old style look is achieved, not sure if these were an actual marketed item or one-offs. Keep in mind, this will add 3/8-1/2" per side to overall all width, may not be an issue on an open wheel type car.
1950 custom built steel converted quick change with real nice axles and housings. Stock 59 1/4" width at the outside of wheel flange same as 1940 Ford front axle .$4,500.00
Wow, Thanks for many replies... I will respond tonight, but a little more info for now. This is the car (Blue one on the left) at a show couple years before I bought it. I worked on the previous owners cars, the red and yellow Bugatti t37's along with some other iron. He "hot-rodded" the Amilcar in 1951. The VSCCA considers it a legacy car and will let me race as long as I don't stray too far from the 1951 setup. Also the last owner bought the car before WWII and was a really cool self taught machinist / engineer, so trying to honor him. A Winters Axle would likely be fine. I have not torn my axle apart yet. It has the wide "A" drums with the outboard parking brakes. If I go to a narrower drum / backing plate setup, how much narrower is that setup? Perhaps I can use my tubes. Happy to mix and match years. Not a fan of the overdrives that came on the t-96 trans. Considered a divorced overdrive ( I have put Lay****'s in several Bugatti's), but if I can do the quick change, that is a better fir for me and "could have been" done in 1951. Pulling the trans and motor Christmas day..... I will inspect the rear more. More to say, have to get back to work.
I THINK my center section is an "A". The torque tube was shortened to land on a cross member then an open drive shaft between that than the trans. The Bells (axle tubes) have been narrowed, weld is just inboard of the picture. The previous owner did the work himself, likely to very exact standards. You can see that my springs are 1/4 elliptical, and that is my limiting factor for narrowing. It looks like I can cut off another 1 1/2 inch per side. Is it worth it? Will a different backing plate and narrower drums bring the wheel in a couple of inches per side? Winters says there center sections are for 1935 an up, can I use my bells and just get "guts" from a later rear? Did I see (somewhere) half-shafts with 10 inches of splines cut, and you just cut off to the length you need? So many questions.... I have watched a video, Ford Banjo Rears 101, I'm trying to learn about this mixing parts...trying to avoid the really stupid questions. People say there is no such thing as a stupid question, to which I say, "challenge accepted"!
The A parts will not work with V8 size parts, which is what the Winters stuff bolts up to. If you want to re-use all your ***embly with a quickchange center, you need to search for a Halibrand 101. There was one in the HAMB cl***ifieds recently. If you think you still need your rear narrower, I would recommend not going that direction. Pretty sure any sanctioning body would allow a new Winters product since they have been building QCs since way back when.
If it was mine (and money not an issue), I'd probably go with a new Winters, with late style 8" Ford axles and have it narrowed to fit your desired width. You'd have to consider the brakes . . . going to later 8" or 9" Ford stuff would work and give you a heck of a good brake in a light car, but not fit the period. You could run Bowling Brothers backing plates (Lincoln/Bendix style) and drums - at least they'd be a 40's style brake system (though hydraulic). Once you have things figured out, I'd buy the complete rear (brakes and all) from one vendor who knows how to make it all work. You want "one throat to choke" if there are any issues. Lastly, as you'll be having brackets (springs, torque arm, etc) welded to the rear axle tubing, you should have all of that welded before they cut/reweld the outer axle bearing ends back on. The housings will distort, so putting the ends on LAST (after the welding) helps ensure that the axles are running true to the center carrier.
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