would love more info on this watts link setup, is it good for street or just straight line??will it reduce cornering??Lil Beast is going to be a driver..LA, Bonneville, Fla, Georgia...i've also heard that the ford straight axle cars drive really well?? would it make for a good combo for what i'll doing??looks sweet, cooler then a standard panhard bar.........
other then the steep gear, it looks fairly well like what i just bought..be interesting to see what's inside it when it gets here....
I'm running 55 Olds rear of different gearing between them. Never heard of any issues with them. Always heard the 55/56's were favored rears as well............
Drums are hard to get in good condition, I have a pair but may be sold. Scarebird has a rear disc brake bracket kit.
I ended up putting 56 Chevy brakes on my 59 Pontiac rear axel. Moser makes axel housing ends to use 9 inch Ford wheel bearings on a 12 bolt GM rear axel. This also eliminates the C-clips on the 12 bolt. 12 bolts and 56 Chevys have the same bolt pattern for the backing plates. So, I used the Moser axel ends and the 56 Chevy backing plates, drums, and brakes. Had to have custom made axel shafts though. You should be able to adapt any Chevy rear drum brakes, (from 55 up to mid 70's?), to a Pontiac or Olds rear end this way. The Chevy brakes are easy to find parts for.
Watts link is great! It keeps the axle perfectly centered in the car throughout full travel. A panhard bar will move to one side. These links are being used in the newer Dodge Durangos and a few others I can't think off hand. They have been used for years in many different applications and work very well. ******Knuckles
perhaps a better way to state this is that the smaller "root" of the finer spline, and more of them, has less of a chance of developing stress fractures and cracking off, than does a larger spline and fewer. 59-64 olds/pontiac 31 spline axles have a significantly more shallow angle on the spline than even a 31 spline ford axle. oddly enough, the early spools for the olds/pontiac made by Henry's Machine, a**** others, used the large 12 spline size borrowed from champ q/c axle designs
One thing to remember is that the pinion location of Olds/Pont rear axel puts more power to the ground. I wish someone would do a back to back with Chyrsler 8 3/4, Olds & Pont, Dana 60, and ford 9". The ford 9" should be the most inefficient of them all. Yet the Model A is the most efficient, yet not very strong.
well i found thjat the local auto zone carries brake shoes in stock, but nothing on the drums or brakes spring hardware...maybe they'll get luck and find a good pair of drums for it in the tenn swap meet today....
Fusick and Kanter have all brake components for sale. Spendy, but available. I have a set of brackets to convert to late model GM discs. Took them off the diff going in the Willys. Just wasn't going to look right without drums on the rear.
The higher the pinion is placed in relationship to the centerline of the ring gear you end up with a weaker ring and pinion, not the other way around. An old Ford banjo rear has the pinion right at the center, low friction but not very strong. Same for the early Type I VW air-cooled transaxles, right on center for low friction to help fuel economy. Serious racers still using a VW ****** switch to the later Type II bus transaxle that has the lower pinion placement for much longer ring and pinion life. One of the reasons a Ford 9" is so strong is the low placement of the pinion gear, more gear tooth overlap where it mates to the ring gear gives this rear end design much of its strength. But it also increases friction, but not to the point that it makes any real difference in a race car. Plenty of guys have swapped the lower friction higher pinion placement 12-bolt GM 8.875" rears for the Ford 9" and found it made no difference in ET or MPH at the strip.
Put in a 3.64 Posi third member out 64 Bonneville, into my 57 Olds Super 88 hardtop, J-2 car last month. Had to have axles made with 31 splines, and 29 1/8" long. 1957-58 Olds/Pontiac rear ends, 29 spline. 1959-64 , 31 spline. Also 1957 no posi made yet. 1958 first year for posi for Olds/Pontiac. Took it out for a test ride. As you can see it works great! <!-- / message --><!-- attachments -->
I have, and run the original 58 olds/pont rearend, spool ,gears, and axles in my ride and run in 8 second range about 800hp @ 1900lbs The spool and axles are the original HENRY`S 10 spline, I am a little leary about the 10 spline with the traction of todays tracks, and have been preparing to install the 35 spline spool and axles.
i received my new speedway watts link kit for Lil Beast today...it looks pretty cool too!!!will have to trim down the tubes about 2-3 inches it looks like....waiting for march to get here and get the rearend fom tenn at autorama and see what's in itgear?? posi??spool...now i have to start looking for shocks and rims...
Did you ever get Hardware and drums for your rear? I have a couple of drums and prolly most of the springs (used). It seems like I remember that the spring kits for most of the 11" GM Rear brake set ups work (mid 70's pick ups and particularly early to late 60's Pont. Olds and Buick is what springs to mind) with the possible exception of the E-brake crossbar spring and anchor pins. But the pins are available by themselves I'm prety sure. At any rate I know someone who would know for sure what does and doesn't work on 'em and I can prolly get 'em if you still need 'em.
no i haven't gotten any brake items yet...in the pics it shows it having a brake shoe on one side...maybe Earl will see this and respond ..he's keeping the rear end company till he heads up to detriot for autorama...all i know so far is that it has axles and a center in it ....[/ATTACH] hell i don't even know what all the brackes on it are for. but i'll keep ya in mind for those drums and spring kits...shoes are in stock at the local auto zone....
Here are a couple of Wagner hardware part #'s for ya. 57 Olds-11x2 drums F19469 57 Pont. 11x1 3/4 drums F19471 Gotta get to work.
57 to 64 OLDS an PONTIAC are the large ones. OLDS 57 31 Spline. THE DRAGSTERS USED THE SMALLER 55 & 56 units with no issues. DEPENDING ON WHO YOU TALK TO, SOME LIKE THE 3 RIB PONTIACS and FUNNY CAR DRIVERS SAID OLDS 2 RIBS MADE THE PINIONS LAST LONGER? BUT ODDLY ENOUGH, 3 RIBS WERE FOUND IN OLDS AND PONTIACS. 9" FORD - PINIONS LIKE TO SHOOT OUT THE FRONT WITH THE BOLTS FAIL. AND THE OLDS AND PONTIACS ARE MORE EFFICIENT< HIGHER THE PINION THE MORE EFFICIENT THE REAR AXEL. 8 3/4 MOPARS ARE EFFICIENT AS WELL> A GREAT TECH ARTICLE WOULD BE TO COMPARE THE DIFFERENT TYPE OF REAR AXELS FOR ACTUAL EFFICIENCY, POWER TO THE GROUND. TAKE ONE CAR< WITH A BASELINE POWER, SIMILAR TO A PROJECT X STORY. COMPARE 12 Bolt CHEVY, 9" FORD, 8 3/4 MOPAR, OLDS & PONT 9.25, OLDS & PONT 55/56 Unit, QUICK CHANGE, EARLY FORD, DANA 60, etc. THAT WOULD BE A KEEPER ARTICLE...............
I have posted this before but can't seem to find it in a "search" so I'll add it here. Here is some info on rear drums for those Olds/ Pont. rear ends in those g***ers and altereds. The drums in my MG where shot and I could not find new 57-64 drums so I dug into some Bendix and Raybestos books and came up with a perfect interchange. Bendix # 140201 24# drum measures 4" wide and fits these early rear ends. It also fits; 82-76 Checker 89-76 Pontiac 95-71 Buick 95-75 Chevy 93-71 Olds 95-91 Caddy It is for a 11" x 2" wide shoe and has a 5 on 5" bolt circle. Raybestos # 2057 and Carquest (what I got) #8873. Cost around $50. bucks shop price.
57 2 rib Later 3 rib BTW I used brake springs and hardware kits from my 63 Impala to convert to self adjusting brakes.
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