Heres my take on fixing broken bones on an open drive set up the first two are of what i started with. ill let the pics do the expaining on how i fixed it with a solution i know will work!
and to clarify, im being a smart ***! The car had a top shift open drive trans and a open drive conversion on the rear end, so there was no really reason to have it be open drive so i went back to a torque tube set up, a set up that is proven to work fine. I think there were just too many experts telling him what to do on the project. JEFF
I think that has to rate as the worst open drive conversion I've ever seen! Nice job with the reversion to closed drive. It's so simple it's beautiful! Mart.
The tube is a superior form of control arm for a cross-spring or coil suspension, simple, rigid and without binding...the only reason to get rid of it, IMHO, is to adapt a modern trans and/or axle that forces alternatives to get the advantages of more gear ratios. If using Ford trans and rear...I've never understood the reason to go open.
Exactly, i was like, so you have a open drive 48 truck trans....and a banjo rear.......wheres the torque tube!!
Right on! The only reason I've ever contemplated the open drive conversion is if I go with a T5 behind the flathead.
The major reason for radius rod failure, out side of the fact that those radius rods should never be used for that application, is that they were bolted rigid to the front mount. Doing so transferred the torsional twist to the weakest point of the arm until it broke. Good example of why not to do this and why radius rods should be mounted with some kind or rotational connection joint.
Damn, I'm glad you clarified that a bit man! I took a quick look earlier today and thought, "***us has lost his mind, I see nothing about fixin' bones"... And for the record, I have never been able to understand an open driveline conversion with all those parts either. I had a customer a couple of years ago that wanted me to build an "A" ch***is like that, 'cause he had "one of those really rare and sought after '42 pickup boxes..." He ended up taking somewhere else.
the bolt was loose so actually it did pivot so that really didnt cause it but yes if it was tight it would cause some problems. they also had 3/8 bolts holding the wishbone onto the rear end which should be 7/16s bolts, so theres some more slop!
Built-in slop is a lot cheaper than fancy bushings. I always laugh when I see a post from a guy asking for open conversions for his banjo rear. I laugh even harder when he says he's using a pickup toploader. They won't listen when you tell them a torquetube is the way to go.
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