Worked on the shifter handle today. Measured, looks like I need 6" back and 3" taller. Sketched it up. After a lot of cutting and grinding, and a little welding- Installed, it works fine.
Love sticks. Most everything Ive built has ran a manual. Still have a 4spd. toploader with shifter setting under the bench for the next project. Scored big on it 40.00 My 56 F100 is a manual [keeps the wife from driving it]. Like your work.
CoolJunk, Do you have a reverse lock out? I do on my Supershifter and its really short. I wonder how to lengthen it too. Any ideas?
It's a Hurst Indy shifter, no reverse lockout and no positive stops as the competition plus has. Would like the pos. stops.
I understand the family deal. On another note Tim went out first time this year and ran in the 10.20's at 135 m.p.h., not bad on a new engine. Jon
Took the Falcon to the local cruise night (towed, not street legal) everything working good, no hard launch yet. Today I fiddled with the clutch linkage and put the boot on.
Took it out for a couple of launches at an abandoned parking lot last night. Launched hard with limited traction and got through 2 gears. Will take it out to Lapeer Dragway this weekend to see if I can get through the quarter. It will take some learning.
"And now the bad news" Went to Lapeer Dragway Sunday, did a couple of warmup hops on the return road and it was looking good, went to the line for the first pass, launched at about 2500 and it made a violent jump, broke the left axle and nocked the pinion snubber off. I will have to upgrade the axles and come up with a better traction controll method. Pix later.
Mike Sietsma Willlys is also a 4 speed nut . His gasser has a Volare /Aspen od four speed in it with a hurst shifter. Mikes while an old school gasser in everysense of the word isa street driven car so he wanted some mileage fuel wise. Back in the day many racers uses a good 3 speed shifter on their four speed and a little rod straight up through the floor with a ball or handle on it for reverse. This eliminated accidental reverse shifts and looked very cool as well. Somewhere back in my mind it seems BIll Jenkins had this set up in one of his cars as well. Don
My car isn't done yet, but here's my contributions: For slipping the trans in, I always use studs instead of bolts. Thread the Grade 8 studs into the bellhousing, and they'll automatically guide the trans home. Just a little fiddling to get the input shaft into the pilot bushing, and it's done. That's one of the biggest tips I've ever developed! I talked with a guy who had a national record-holding Nova back in '70, and he owns one of the original '69 Hemi Super Stock Barracudas: The Nova and the Barracuda both have slick-shift (crash box) Hemi 4speeds. He cracked the case on the Nova regularly with the 3-point mount. He started with a solid mount, went to hard plastic, went to a factory rubber mount, and finally used a block of pine 2x4: the wood kept the trans from breaking. On my '57, I'm using front block mounts, and the factory bellhousing mounts with a Lakewood bell, and the trans will bolt to the back of the bellhousing and hang there in space. I've talked to a lot of racers about this, and they think it's not a bad idea. It should definitely keep the case from breaking due to leverage and force. The trans I've got is a slick-shift Hemi 4-speed built by Liberty, with a Hurst vertical-gate shifter. The case is an old Direct Connection aluminum race case that came with a large bearing in the front of the case for the counter shaft to register into. With a leaf-link rear suspension, and my 400hp 283, it should be a fun car to drive. My engine builder suggested launching the car at 6,200rpm. Yee-haw! -Brad
Thanks Brad54 for the info. Today I disassembled the 9" Broken left axle Broken pinion snubber Plan is to go with some better 31 spline axles. Also need a new plan for axle controll, the stiff springs and pinion snubber are not up to the job.
Nostalgia look..make traction bars or lift chassis but ride will be stiff. Not so traditional but what will work great are Calvert Traction Bars. Be prepared for T-10 to blow up if you have any traction and horsepower. Back in the day when all you did was smoke the Atlas Bucrons the T-10 held up. But with any traction, especially using drag slicks, you will shuck the teeth off the gears like corn off a cob. Ford top-loader or the mopar hemi trans will be better but worth big dollars nowdays. Have fun and good luck. Got a 4 speed in my 56 Chevy but gave up drag racing the old parts after blowing the Muncie cluster gear out of the bottom of the case at Pomona.
Look into a "slipper clutch". Mcleod soft-lok or Ram 470 type. They take some testing to get dialed in but once you get 'em right they work great. Car leaves easier like an automatic and won't break parts like the twin you have now. The sintered iron disc slips and then grabs when it gets hotter and grabs harder at higher rpm's especially if you get the counterweight pressure plates. You will end up loving these style of clutches and you can also dial them in with more static pressure for street driving also. Takes about 15 minutes to tune the clutch from race to street driving. Read about setting them up and racing with them on this website. Tons of info. www.umtrnorth.com
Get a DANA 60 rear ,,,you will NEVER have an axle problem ,,ran the same one for 10 years in my drag cars/ trucks ,,never even changed the gear lube ,,,BUT ,,had lotsa clutch changes ,,but easier and cheaper to buy new clutch discs than rear ends ,, Just My .02 Werth ,,
Oh ,,in front of my DANA 60 ,,i ran a Muncie M-21 with smooth syncros ,,a poor mans crash box ,,it NEVER broke ,even tho it was behind a 396 Big Block ,,runnin' in C/GAS ,,
The big bang theory I was using the line lock on the fatefull launch. I have been reading that many 4 speed users do with a light break pressure. With the excitement of the first strip run I probably had the breakes locked down and it did seem to break instantly. I am in the process of looking for better 31 spline axles at a budget price. Can budget and dragrace be used in the same context?
I had an old school 55 gasser that had a 1 ton Chevy truck axle some years ago. You could not break that huge thing. It weighed a bunch. Came with 5.80 gear and detroit locker, I switched to junkyard 4.56, if I had that I would not be afraid to drop the hammer at 6000.
Got new axles, Yucon cut to length 31 spline. Cut one axle with 14" chop saw. Wow is that a tuff cut. The axles and related parts came from Drivetrain Parts in Las Vagas. Good service.
The first axle I cut about 1.5" from the end. It was very hard to cut. The second axle was cut about 5.5" from the end. It cut a lot easier. The hardness must be greater near the end. I hope this is not a problem. Got to go with what I got now.
Waiting for a couple of parts, wheel studs and 31 spline mini spool. Should have it back on track for our next Great Lakes Gassers event. (3rd annual Marion County Funny Car Nationals)
Got the mini spool this afternoon, installed in the ring gear carier, then I discovered that the 31 spline axles will not fit in the carier. so I am stuck again. Need a different carier or full spool.
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