Hey there, guys. I am slooooowly putting together my project and it involves a Frankland quickchange rear rebuilt with new tubes and Ford 9inch tube ends. Well, me and the kid welded suspension mounts to the tubes and i am fairly sure i warped the tubes a bit, even though i followed as much advice as i could find. So. i'm taking it to a shop to look at, but he's pretty sure he doesn't have an alignment bar spacer that fits a 3.5" OD bearing race so that he can locate the bar and true the tubes. Where do fellas go (in the Kansas City to Wichita range) to get a QC with modern ends aligned? I thought the amount of circle trackers in the area would be of help, but they all use bolt on birdcages instead of 9 inch housing ends.. Thanks in advance, - Rick
I checked mine on a flat, levelish, surface and used a digital angle gauge, comparing crosses angles on the surface (= mounting surface of axle bell) and in similar positions on the axle ends. Did it before during and after welding. There was some slight movement iirc during the process but it was gone by the end. Chris
A quick change rear is a challenge. I've done several customer ch***is with Winters steel belled QC's. My welder has a sequence that he uses to ensure the rear stays straight. Most of the rears used full circle ladder bar brackets and full circle rear spring hangers which minimize rear end distortion. If I have any doubts I use a couple pieces of 1 inch angle I've made to bolt on the ends and I measure across these both up and down and sideways. That tells me if the rear had any issues. Tough to straighten if you screw up.
You could give Pat at kc autoworx in Kansas City a call. They narrow rear axles for customer cars would be my first thought to call them. (816) 421-2244
Why would a shop that deals with shortening rear end housing’s care if it’s a quick change? I mean it’s a bar with stepped bushing’s as a jig that holds the ends true. Or am I missing something?
It's a totally different animal than a differential with side bearings with caps. With that type, you can install mandrels in the caps, to slide the bar through for proper alignment at the ends. Unless you have a special piece that takes the place of the carrier in a quickchange, for the bar to fit through, that I have not seen, you have nothing align the ends to.
What we used to do with the quick change in the modifieds was place it with tires and wheels in 2 milk crates, and keeping the tires/wheels from spinning, spin the qc 180 degrees. With a trammel bar set between say the front of the tires/wheels with the ujoint yolk pointing to that side, roll the qc, and check out the spacing at the same place when the yolk is 180 degrees opposite. Being careful we could get it within 1/16 inch.
I get that. But how much fly poop does one need to find in the pepper? I’ll explain. How complex is it for the average Joe to find the center of the housing and or bell end of an axle tube? Seems to me a plate with bolt pattern of bell end and center hole for the jig would all that’s needed.
If the plates were 1" thick and had a center hole bored with just enough clearance to slide the bar through.
That's a good way to check a complete rear axle ***embly. You can check the housings in a lathe, between centers, and I will need to check mine when I complete the welding. My lathe will swing 18", but that's not enough to clear the spring hanger on a 40 Ford housing, so I will have to pull the bed inserts out, that increases the swing to 23".
Wouldn't the yolk slide off the QC when you rolled it? They're really slippery unless they're hard boiled.
If the bell is on a flat machined surface (I like my bandsaw table) and it measures true all around to the housing end wouldn't it be fine when ***embled? Also, why can't you just slide the axle in and see how well the parts play together? If it goes together what's the worry.
i ordered axles for it and they didn't really want to go in without some obvious off centering at the ends. that's how i figured the tubes were warped by welding. But you make a good point about standing the bells on a surface plate to prove it.
Not necessarily. If the bearing end is not centered with the bell end, and is also ****ed (ie, flat surface of the bell and flat surface of the bearing housing not parallel) then there is the possibility of the measurements being the same all around the perimeter of the tube (bell to bearing housing), but the alignment of the components being way out of tolerance. The bearing housing must be centered with, and parallel to, the bell end. While many have gotten by with other methods, the best way to guarantee accurate alignment of the entire rear end ***embly is by using the appropriate pucks and bar, with the appropriate jig or centering plate between the bells.
Only happens when you get under it and look up... Then the yolk is on you! Hey, I was an enginerd, not an English major. And any paper I wrote always got the thrice-over by lexicographical engineers. Go ahead and look that one up...
The Jalopy Journal
