Looking for a wee bit of direction here guys. I've run across some basic instructions on fabricating straight tube axles using early Chev IFS hubs (48 thru 54 I seem to recall?) Wondering if anyine has tried it themselves? I have a 52 Frod front end that I keep tripping over and might make a good doner for this project, maybe? The long and the short of it is I'm way too tight to fork out big dollars for something I'm perfectly capable of welding myself, provided I can pick up a few clues along the way. Anyone feel like sharing?
in 1966 I was building a tubed framed Bantam bodied A altered. I made my own straight tubed axle by making new axle ends out of 4120. I inserted the king pins though the new ends and the stock Anglia axel. the stock axle was then used for my "jig". I bell-mouthed the tube ends and then welded it together, pulled the pins and had my axel. It was easier than most because it was staight. A drop would use the same proceedure, but the bends would be tricky. To use the chev stuff use chev axel for the jig. the camber for ford would be different.
It's certainly possible. There's a guy in Johannesburg who has built a few T-buckets with fabricated tubes, some using early Ford spindles, some with spindles of his own design that use VW Golf GTi rear stub-axles. A how-to appeared in a local magazine some years ago. As I recall, the material of choice was 40mm black steam pipe, which is a high-quality 48mm OD steel tube. For a T-bucket the axle had two bends, with a straight section in the middle. You want to have as few bends as possible lest the whole thing go out of plane. The kingpin bosses were 40mm round bar drilled through, and drilled and threaded for the kingpin bolts. The tube ends were profiled to fit the bosses snugly before welding up. The link bosses were similarly 20mm round bar drilled through and threaded, inserted in holes drilled right through the axle, and welded in. He didn't use batwings but bolted the links' rod-ends directly to the axle, with the bolts vertical. The axle was located by 4-links and a Panhard bar. I'd be inclined to use batwings, myself. I've been considering something similar, but with a single large-radius 16° bend in the middle to give me 8° of KPI. That way planarity is guaranteed, and a simple right-angle where the kingpin bosses attach is hard to get wrong. I'm not sure what '52 Ford spindles are like. '49-'52 Chevy spindles are much like solid-axle spindles despite coming off an IFS. That IFS had non-steering uprights with projecting kingpin bosses, instead of the knuckles that are typical of later systems. I've heard that it was about suppliers not having capacity to make enough ball-joints to an adequate standard, so engineers just designed IFS without ball-joints. I've seen some early Mopar IFS that worked similarly, so there might be other possibilities out there for viable solid-axle spindles.
Here's link. Not sure which spindles but I think early Ford has kingpin angle of 9* and early Chevy is 7*. http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Weld-In-Axle-Ends,503.html
The figure of 8° seems to stick in my head for Ford spindles, but I speak under correction. I'll check.
The Speedway ends are for later model Ford 10 deg. kpi truck spindles for use in thin wall 2" o.d. tubing, which is standard sprint car stuff. As NORSONAUTO said, a easy way to fab a tube axle is to use the axle for the spindles of choice as a 'fixture' to locate the bosses. Of course, you will need to turn down the bosses to the correct dims. but it's all pretty simple to do.
Doesn't matter of speedy bill is selling them. Too easy to build your own axle bungs and know what they are made from. The fish mouth tube is pretty much the old standby. I would build a fixture using an axle from which you are going to use a spindle and king pin for a guide. Or look up the specs on the spindle you plan on using. I have an axle hanging on my wall built by a fella in Nor Cal in the early '60s that I'm going to use. But you can bet I'll be building a fixture before I use it just so I can duplicate it. Remember measue twice and cut once you should be alright.
I bought 2" , .250 wall seamless tubing for mine. And a pair of 37-41 Ford kingpin bosses. Have not started on it yet though. The tubing was pretty pricey, about $80 bucks for 5 ft but I figured it was worth it. I think I gave $40 for the bosses. Lippy
I don't know what brand they are, I got them at a swap meet from some streetrod vendor. If a guy had a lathe they would be simple to make. But this way was cheaper for me. Lippy
I've made them for the fed's and such. The jig is very simple and holds the spindles where you want them, then you bend the axle to fit between them and weld it up. I use heavywall chrome moly. There is only one bend on the tube, the boss is welded at an angle - just need to check for interferance for a tight turn, but i've done at least 4" drop.
Does anyone know where i could get the specs of spindle boss angles, lengths, diameters for a 65 chevy G10 cabover axle? I'd like to pull the i beam out an make a straight tube for my g***er, if i can do it for material costs.. rick
I did a search and found this: http://shop.wintecfabrication.com/product.sc?productId=44&categoryId=2 He has them for Ford, Chevy and Econoline spindles. I agree on the lathe, I might get a local Hound Dog to do them for me. I'll try to look up specs on them and post up. Or, if anyone has a reliable source, by all means...
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=300171&highlight=kingpin+boss Thread I started last year (EDIT: 2 Years ago - DOH) with some useful info on the same subject. Yeah, Im slow about getting mine built!
Just got a Tinny's axle last week for mine. I brought up the cast because I'd be afraid to run something that looks like that. I'll stick with my Tinny's.
Pretty much anything that comes from the far east scares me. I'd much rather be killed from something I built. I would hope that the axle bung in question is a forging but I doubt that it is. I here that tinny's make a pretty good axle. Leme know how it works out for ya.
Would something like this distort much during welding, and need reaming/honing out again? I'm planning to build my own straight axle some day soon, just wandering what sort of pitfalls to look out for.
I used my lathe to make the bosses, fishmouthed the bent tube, and used a narrowed stock axle as a jig to hold the bosses in correct alignment for welding. I tacked it together and had a buddy TIG it. No warpage.
H***le? it will take you less than an hour to make the King pin bosses. I have made three front axles. One for Chev Handi van spindles, one for Ford F100 spindles and one I also made the spindles. Easy fun and interesting. I will post pics right here in a moment or two. Don The two axles to the right are dropped although the pics dont really show it. On the last one I tried something different. I built the bosses, fishmouthed them in at exactly 90 degrees which is the easiest unless you have a jig like our friend here. I then bent the KPI in afterwards using a cardboard guage i had made. It worked so well I would do it again. I was surprised how well it worked and how easy it was to get both identical.
I'd like to have an axle made of tube, but bent like the I-beam here (smile axle). Anybody make these?
Or I could widen my Plymouth tube axle. Also, I have a piece of 2 3/8" oilfield upset tubing that has been bent into one long curve. I hear the tubing on this piece is high in carbon and could be brittle.
At $245 for a new Speedway axle I doubt I'd make one. Even if you want the whole kit from grease cap to grease cap, complete with brakes and brake shoes it's still under $800. I figured I'd be better off letting somebody else engineer it and build it. I'll spend my time on other parts of my rod.
Just a note here: Shelby tube is ideally what is used for front axles. It is essentially 'steam fitters' tubing, 4130 chrome moly seamless. (I used 2" O.D., 1/4" wall; 'old Shelby spec') The king pin bosses should be of the same spec, NOT thin wall, and not merely welded 360* around the fishmouth cut. Best scenario: Weld a rectangular piece of 3/16" tab (1"X2") the 2" edge to the center of the boss, parallel to the king pin bore. Slot the ends of the axle, 1" deep, vertically. Now, insert the tabs, align king pins on jig, and weld along the top and bottom slots, then around the fish-mouthed fit to bosses. This is the critical part of the axle. Just think about the end event of a wheelstand.
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