Yep.....a real barn find! A friend just picked up a front engine dragster rolling frame. It has an early olds rear end in it with a magnesium pig. Look's to be a mid/late 60's deal....set up for a SBC/'glide....and it was FREE 'cuz the guy said it wasn't any good to anybody because it was furnace brazed! been sitting for 25+ years. Still has the fibergl*** body where the chute packs into the body. I donated a 0 mile fresh "as in new" ***embled 283 short block to the deal for free rides when it is done! Motto is low on the dollars and high on the fun factor!!!!!!!!! Looking for a spool for it. He tells me it has 16 spline axles, don't know what year this would make it. It is currently a peg leggger with 4.10's and an a set 5.56's in the box waiting. What years did Olds run 16 spline axles? How hard to find parts? Anyone still make parts for this rearend....or is this why it is still an open rear?
Last time I checked Mark Williams still made parts for the early olds, I think Strange Engineering might also.
If the pig is magnesium,it sounds like one of the old M/T centers and I believe they were Pontiac(which is essentially the same as an Olds).16 spline axles sound like 55-56 Pontiac.
16 spline stuff discussed on pg.2 of this thread. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=129676
i have a complete 56 ish center with 430's...and a locker setup instead of spiders.....all i know about it ....it wouldn't fit the olds rear in my anglia ....nor the 61 impala we had.....lol make someone a killer deal on it.....together or in pieces.....brandon
forgot to ask .....whats the wheel base......that usually will get ya pretty close on the year......brandon
165"....no pics yet due to the fact that it is blown apart and my friend has it all over his garage in various states of cleaning.
Curly, most of the early dragsters had open rears. It was not until the 70's that lockers and spools became popular. I have an old copy of Drag Racing USA with a story by Ed Pink about how he made the spider gears live. Before your buddy runs the car he need to either read the posts in the other thread currently running about old front motor cars, and/ or have the frame sonic tested. Some of the old cars were "O" too thin to start with and do not age well. That said, if it is 165" wb it may have been built prior to the less is more era. At that length it is right at the break point of when lightness became a mania. Roo Man
back when everyone tried to make a hemi car weigh in at 1000 pounds....old school noodle cars......leave out as many braces that you do not need....thin tubing....165" ....probably around 65 or so....just guessing.....brandon
Before spools (late 50's to late 60"s), we welded the spider gears and it worked great. But then we spun the tires from one end of the track to the other therefore we didn't laod the axles too much. That doesn't work too well today with the tires we have.
16-spline sounds like '54-6 Olds/Pontiac to me. You won't get much from Mark Williams or Richmond. Very little is the same as '57-64 rears. But you might find a few small components like bearings and fasteners, possibly. Do your homework. But don't waste your time trying to find gears, posi's, or spools. That being said, I'd like to know if the spiders interchange. Can locking spiders meant for converting '57-64 open rears to locked, be used in '56 and prior rears? Anyone know for sure?
Give me an accurate diameter of the axle flange and the bolt circle diameter and I'll look it up in the Hollander's Interchange for you. Overall length, too, if you can.
A new "Cacklefest" car perhaps? See if you can find out some history on the car from the previous owner. I wouldn't get too excited about changing anything on it until you really know more about it's history. It could be a diamond in the rough ! "Furnace Brazed Joints" do sound a bit shakey though.
Well, I'll step up and ask (some others may want to but are embarrased???) What exactly is "furnace brazing" on a frame? I know furnace brazing on small items like you buy from a store, --I Think-- Item "loaded" with solder put into a big furnace and everything flows together, ...That isn't what happened to this frame is it??? enlighten me please?!?!?
Yes, that is what furnace brazing is. It is done on the internal fins of racing torque converters (as well as a modification that can be done to the old Dual-Range Hydramatic toruses). But I am unaware of anything else that this process is used on in a race car.
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