dragster direct drive help

need info on a direct drive setup for my dragster , where can i get my hands on a setup? info if anyone is still making them? my build is at a standstill untill i get this figured out !

 

Mark Williams Enterprises have driveline couplers to suit a number of combinations,
you might try starting there.

 

LENCO makes an in and out box that works great and they have all the couplers you would want .we have two of them on in "GANG GREEN" owned by Larry Payne and "THE PROBE" owned by Ed Golden

 

I have direct drive in my AA/Fueler. I use a Crowerglide 3 disc clutch with a Lakewood can, a Lenco reverser and coupler.

Steve
<DIR>Hosting- 7th annual Nostalgic Show and Go! and swap. Drags, cool car show, parade, special exhibitions, g***ers, rails, stockers, customs and much more. coming Sunday April 5, 2009 to Speedworld. Phoenix, Az -This is Arizonas longest continuest running nostalgic event, our 7th year! www.nostalgicshowandgo.org
Also Hosting- Hosting 11th annual Pontiac Heaven, show, swap, drags, party and all around good time. Saturday April 4, 2009 at Speedworld near Phoenix, Az more info- www.pontiacheaven.org
</DIR>

 

I built my dragster per period 1964. Direct drive. I had no idea either. So I just looked at alot of photos. And figured it out. I found a CAE part that was only half of the clutch deal. And made my own can. Finding the clutch was the hard part. Everyone wants to sell you a modern all billett set up. I wanted just a dual disc long style. Finally McClode fixed me up.

So I woud say look for a orginal clutch can, that has the "candle stick" in it. That is the splined part that goes into the clutch, then has a bearing on it to hold it to the can. Then the other end of the "candle stick" has a spline that the coupler to the rearend splines to. There have been guys that made their own cans out of giant water pipe and caps. As to the candle stick. You could have a machine shop that knows what their doing make you one. The coupler in my dragster is a one off piece made by a gear making company here in st.louis. It cost about $400 to have made. but if you have just a regular old race car and need a complete drive shaft it would cost almost that much for off the shelf parts welded together. I hope some of this makes sense. I am poor at explaining stuff. So hope thes photos help.

 

Will a small block Chevy with carbs be able to pull a direct drive ? You might want to re-think that idea.

 

I was browsing the web for parts for a Boss Hoss gear drive and found a site that had 100's of combinations of drives for dragsters, circle track etc, to link all sorts of shafts, hubs etc. I can't remember the name now though, so I guess I'm no use to you.

Hang on, I just searched Lenco, and this site popped up:

http://www.kenlowe.com.au/driveshafts_couplers_and_covers.htm

 

I'm with Johnny sbc and carbs will not pull a direct drive.

 

the engine showed in the picture is just a mockup engine i threw in it for world of wheels , still havent totally decided on what to run to stay period 64 ish , any ideas? dont have the cash for a blown hemi , but thinking a blown injected small block , or a blown olds ?

so what do i run? a explosive proof bellhousing then the in out box then couple it to the rearend by a mark williams male /female
slined ends? is there any thing being run today that i can research as far as the setups/ sprint cars,dragsters??

 

You dont have to have a in/out box. But that would be handy so you have a "neutral". But lots of dragsters dont have them.

 

We used a sprint car shifter and made a through out arm and bronze coller to tisconnect the drive line on Scorpion V.
dwrfab Don Ross

 

Back in 1962 I had a FMD like something like yours and we tried a direct drive behind a cad with 6 2barrel carb but just could not pull it so we went to a cad lasal box and ran second and High gear with a shaffer clutch. I hope this helps you a little.

 

If it's just for show, get yourself an old Lakewood Clutch Can, and dummy something up.

If you are going to run it, you'll need a new car, and about 1800+ more horsepower. Not trying to be a smart***- just a heads up.

dve

 

When we built this one in '64 we ran a Dragmaster bellhousing/blast can (Pontiac to early Ford) that isn't visible in this pic, then an aluminum CAE direct-drive with a shaft (from the crankshaft to the rear end) inside the torque tube, and the shaft was coupled to an early Ford banjo rear.

Inside the can was a Weber steel flywheel with a Borg and Beck 2-disc clutch arrangement.

 

iam going to run it,why "fake" build a dragster? going to run at the hambs and nostalgia drags when complete. and shakedown runs down at our shop, sitting in and owning a nonrunning car is useless to me, just takes up shopspace!! full aware of the dangers of these old cars, its when you dont consider the ability of getting hurt that gets you in trouble.

 

thanks to all for the pics got my head around what i need . now to start collecting parts .hopefully will be runing by this time next year!!

 

My dragster makes no where near that much horse power. Less than half of that. And will smoke the hell out of the tires, direct drive.

 

I see you run a nut buster we did too , the bad thing with the old Banjo was we kep twisting off the keys to the point we got an olds later and that fix it.

 

King Ch***is you goning to love this one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzmquQKO4T0


DID SOMEONE SAY SMALL BLOCK CHEV HUMMM...

 

Never had a problem with the banjo except when the bottom frame rails broke and caused the driveline to twist. That broke the torque tube and snapped the splined end off the pinion.

 

I never really had a problem with the banjo it's self just the hubs keys on the end of the axel would twist off and we would put a lot of tork on the hub nut's to try to stop them from breaking but once one had twisted off it would hog out the inside of the hub.
once you twist off the key on one hub all the power would dump onto the other wheel and was a handful when you let off it would pull the car hard to one side so I would just push in on the clutch and hang on if you know what I mean an ride it out.

 

The object is to NOT spin the tires. Call Crower (***uming you are running a Crower clutch) and they can give you a place to start, both counterweight and static, etc.

Ive been around this stuff for a little while:

Here is our DIRECT DRIVE 200 mph Jr. Fueler in 1969:



And here is our DIRECT DRIVE (2:90 Gear, 44 Gallon Pump, 44 amp mags,etc.) A/ Fueler (modern)



My point is, if your gonna go direct drive, you need to be burning nitro. Cause nitro likes a load, blah blah blah.

If you the car is for show, or exhibition, well, cool- go direct drive widdit.

If you are going to RACE the thing and go direct drive, well, see my above post.

 

Not to hyjack the post but one of the Knuckle Busters was telling me about your digger.
Glad I finally got a look at it. Hope to see you make a p*** or two @ MOKAN this year.

 

I am not a clutch expert or a big time racer. It is clear you know your way around this stuff. BUT, I want my car to smoke the tires like in '64. And it will. I just wanted to make a point to "los punk rods dave" that you dont need 1800 horse power to make a direct drive work. My clutch is locked up. To smoke the tires. I am not interested in trying to run the best number I can. I just want to show people how it was in 64 with tire smoking diggers. My clutch is a dual disc long style.

 

Hey King:

Gotcha man,

Bad advice on my part anyway (talking to kids soccer coach while typing)!!!


Anyway, I have been in situations where I was trying to help somebody get a car on the track, ended up spending a bunch of money trying to make an outdated car work, when we could have started w/ something that didn't need a bunch of modifications, ultimately safer, etc...

That punkrods fed looks to be a neat old car though!

Best,
Dve

 

Neat car, good restoration, But johnny Fast has got it right.

That carburetted small block really won't come close to turning a tire...let alone smoking them on a present day, VHT- prepped track.

Back in the day the staring line had a little rubber on it but it was still basically just asphalt.

Any track I've been on this century has been prepped for bracket racers who are absolutely nuts over low 60 foot times.

I have not seen an unprepped track in many years...in fact Don Garlits brought his old high- gear- only carburetted 392 Chrysler, on nitromethane to Indianapolis about 8 years ago and he could not spin a tire on the prepped track.

After trying to run in the middle of the track and failing he finally staged his car right up against the right guard rail and was able to get a little smoke off his 8.20 x 15 Racemasters for about a hundred feet, but when he angled into the center of track the moter was pulled down into a severe lug by the VHT-sticky track.

Personally I've actually had my tennis shoes pulled of my feet while trying to stage a car!

A normally-aspirated, direct drive small block gas dragster probably won't be able to clean up and run 'till about the 600 foot mark.

Hope this helps, just trying to give you the benifit so experience.

 

Above... I hit the "Post" key too quickly.

The last sentence should end of experience.

 

engine that is in car was just a mock up for car show , not going to run tunnel ram carb setup , trying to get a 392 hemi temporaryily going with a 671 blown, alcohol injected 327 until i can afford the hemi, found a rebuilt 392 for 8,000.00

 

back in the 90's we ran exhibition smoke runs with out injected sbc rails (shorty 98" wb) and a 59 muncie trans high gear only single disc clutch. we used to over inflate the 8.20 x 16 M&H picrust tires to 45 lbs ,line up on the outside of the lanes out of the groove(were the loose rubber junk ends up) and a pit member would wipe the tire surface with a damp rag then bring up the R's and dump the clutch....presto smoke. here's a pic of my buddy bob bilbo useing that same principle at the east stroudsburg airport back in the 90's...of course he's running a blown injected 392 hemi and a direct drive on an airstrip with no rubber on it but it's cool anyway.
Paul

 

And remember this cause it hurts not too.

Even if your car "can" smokem using a direct drive, when on a new style track with sticky **** on it, and you do get traction, which you will sooner or later (usually at about 200 feet), you will be lookng straight up at the stars/sun. These old direct drive cars, like mine, were engineered back in the day to smokem most of the way down. Traction was obained slowly begining at about 900 feet or so.

But, go for it, have fun....................we are.