Is one prefered over the other and why? Also is drilling the I-beam type strictly for looks? Thanks, Scott
For me it depends on the type of car. As tube axles go I like the 37 Ford ones with the smile. Its been said that a tube axle should be used with four bar set up and not with split wishbones or hairpins. A straight tube doesn't twist and creates a bind.. The Ford smile tube seems like it would twist. I guess that the hole thing started way back to lighten them. Just some thoughts 'cause nobody else answered you. Smokey
drilling an axle makes it lighter , so it decreases the un-sprung weight....that makes your car ride better and improves handing
Thanks for the info. I have a tube type axle that is going on a 32 roadster. I have hairpins for it already. My problem is..I wanted to have the axle chrome plated and there some pitting in the metal that [the chrome plate shop tells me] cannot be made to look good and last...cannot be polsihed out. The axle is brand new. My next thing was to get an I-beam type instead,I like the look better, that is already chromed.
the i beam looks better under a 32 and the drilling is easy if u have a drill press and looks cool too!
My roadster has a SuperBell tube axle. When the car was built (very early 80s) that was the most common and available. New dropped I beams became available in the mid-80s as I recall, although some may have been manufactured earlier. On race cars, drilled axles lighten the unsprung weight, but on most hot rods, they just look cool.
Just don't take a chromed axle that is not drilled and start putting holes in it. Shortly the chrome will start to peel around the holes and you'll have a ****py looking axle. Always drill it before getting it chromed. Frank
Thanks for the input and info guys. I wil be looking around for a dropped Ibeam that has already been chromed. Any paticular brand better than another?
actually , there real reason you drill any axle is to make it look cool. what axle do you have? who made it? better post some pictures. if you did a search you would find that it is generally accepted not to use hairpiins with a tube axle. guys will argue both ways..i don't want to get into that.
I don't know how much driving you will be doing and on what kind of roads but I found through experience that the Tube Axle with a smile bends I was driving around Asia in my 1923-T Bucket and my axle bent I had to pull the front end apart and bend it back into shape on a press and then weld reinforcing plates on it as there is just to much weight on the axle the I Beam axle is stronger. Just remember its your ***. Heh back home the roads are pretty good but if you drive as much as I do in my car and you use a Tube Axle you will learn what I did.
I thought I remember hearing somewhere that the reason axles started being drilled was on race cars to allow the axle to twist a bit more, letting the front wheels to bite better at high speeds in turns etc? Or was that just a welcome side effect of drilling them to make them lighter? As for Moter's question... I think you're going to find that most early ford I-beam axles, A's to the 36, are going to have some pitting. I also think that the early axles that have been dropped properly and drilled are the coolest looking and probably the strongest most reliable axles you can get your hands on. I also know that alot of guys say that chroming any suspension part is a no-no because it can make the material prone to breaking. I also know that alot of guys don't really care or pay attention to that, including top notch builders that drive their cars hard. You should be looking at some polished early ford axles... www.roadsters.com check it out, he's a hamber too. So-cal is making an aftermarket forged axle now that is available in chrome and drilled finishes...... http://www.est1946.com/forgedaxles.aspx They also make a stainless and polished axle...might look nice with some of the new stainless wishbones that are now on the market!! $$$$ bling bling, money aint a thing http://www.est1946.com/gt2ssi-beamaxle.aspx Steve
The answer to that question will depend on the time period in which it was asked. In the early seventies a real Bell tube axle from the early 50s was the ****. (and still is today) So they started making the Super Bell tube axle. It was so popular that it was like SBCs and belly****ons. To be different we started searching out the old dropped I beams. So then they started to repop the dropped I beams and they were/are everywhere. The easily identified store bought dropped I beams have lost favor to some. Enough so that there are several people that recently started to drop original I beams to get the old look. I drilled an old dropped axle for my 34 P/U in the early 80s and got lots of comments about how different it was back then when the Super Bell was in. It would be ho hum today. I always thought the drilling of the axle was just an extention of the idea of HP to weight ratio. There were holes drilled all over race cars to reduce weight. The heavy axle gave you more for your money per hole and was out in the open and easy to see. It became a race car styling cue. Use what you like. The purists get branded elitists and the web site parts buyers get branded 1-800-rodders so there will always be somebody that disagrees with your selection. Don't worry about it. Build it your way.
Yes I live In Phuket Thailand and I have driven my car around much of Asia unfortunately we have some pretty bad roads here and my tube axle with a smile on it bent and cracked I used a hydraulic 15 ton press to bend it back to original shape and the welded it then I installed two plates for reinforcing in the areas that broke on both ends of the axle then I welded a gusset to the top of the Tube axle this seems to have done the trick. I have had some pretty hard races over the years on some pretty wild roads over here against bikes were there were deep holes which I hit at high speeds so its no wonder the axle cracked and bent. Now I have done all the reinforcing it seems to have done the trick and has worked good got about10 years now.
Thanks Torchman I know a lot of guys can't believe I am driving around the roads of Asia in a T- Bucket. Well when the US Navy comes to Phuket Thailand for R&R I go out to meet the boys with my Hot Rod man you would not believe how many guys appreciated it. Plus the Euopeans go absolutely crazy when they see it. The Asians crowd around my car I can have a brand nerw Ferrari or Lambo beside me at the traffic light and every one is looking at my T-Bucket.
I used to have a tube, but I always loved the look of an "I" beam. I have an "I" beam now and there's no going back. I didn't drill mine, but I will drill it one day. Still can't believe I talked myself out of it when I was doing my rebuild.
As far as handling goes, personally, I prefer an I-beam axle and hairpins because the flex (or twist) in the axle works through the hairpins to provide an anti-sway function. You can take some of the anti-sway out of it by drilling holes or slots. Also, I like the looks of it. Unless you're going to chrome it. Then I like the looks of a chrome tube axle more. The cromed I-beams I've seen look mottled to me. It really doesn't matter if you're more than 10 feet away. Tube axles are lighter than drilled I-beams. It's usually recommended that you use a 4-link due to the tube's inability to twist. If you use a 4-link, you have to have a panhard bar - thereby loosing much of the weight advantage. The 4-link does allow for more suspension travel. I think the I-beam and hairpin's travel are easily sufficient, though. It's not like you're going mudding in your hot rod. It might come in handy if you live up a steep, diagonal driveway, though. You may also find that you need an anti-sway bar with the tube and 4-link to keep from leaning in the corners, unless you're suspension is really stiff. There's even more weight and complexity added to the mix. There's more parts to wear out. It makes it look cluttered to me. I like the clean, simple, traditional look and functionality of a drilled axle with hairpins or split wishbones. But I'll still like you and think you're smart if your priorities lead you in a different direction. Rod and Custom Magazine had a good article. Here's a "Reader's Digest" version: Only after the war (wwII), when Detroit started to crank out bigger and brawnier V-8 mills, did frontends begin to change. Suddenly flatheads were no longer top dog, and with the removal of the stock engine and transmission and the addition of a Cadillac or Lincoln engine, the reticulating ball wishbone setup was no longer applicable. As a result, early hot rodders cut the ball out of the system and bolted the ends of the wishbone to the framerails, devising what is now known as a split wishbone. About the same time people started to realize that the lower you got the frontend of your car, the better it would look and handle, and "dropping" the axle was the best way to accomplish this goal. TUBE VS. I-BEAM While tube and I-beam axles both accomplish the same basic task, each has its own positive and negative traits that need to be taken into consideration. Tube axles look more aerodynamic, are built out of smooth steel tubing (making them easier to chrome or paint), and are extremely rigid. I-beam axles are either cast or forged, so they have a porous surface that can be more difficult to chrome without leaving nickel shadows in the channel that runs down the center of the axle. I-beams are also slightly flexible and can twist as a car goes over uneven terrain. "The only reason to run a tube over an I-beam or visa versa is personal preference," says James. "Since the nostalgia wave has kicked in, the ratio has really increased in favor of the I-beam, so we are actually developing a 5-inch dropped I-beam that will offer the best of both worlds: the drop of a tube with the traditional look everyone wants." What is interesting to note here is that for many years the only radius rods available were either the split wishbones or a more refined version called hairpins, both of which bolted to a single mounting point on either side of the frame. This worked great with the dropped I-beam axles that were available at the time, because the radius rods allowed the axle to move up and down and the flexibility of the I-beam allowed the axle to twist slightly when necessary to accommodate strange torsion loads going up driveways or over speed bumps. However, when the tube axle became popular, some argued that its rigidity and inability to flex could exert extreme pressures on the single mounting point of the radius rod, which could cause it to tear right out of the frame. As a solution to this problem, Pete & Jake's came up with the four-bar radius rod system, which had two mounting points on the axle and two mounting points on the frame, with aircraft-style rod ends on all four corners, allowing plenty of movement at all angles. The system worked great, and yet to this day many rodders are still mystified as to whether a tube axle can properly function safely with a standard split-wishbone or hairpin setup. James takes issue with the steadfast rule that four-bar systems must be employed with tube axles, explaining that there isn't a great amount of travel built into the frontend of a hot rod in the first place. "If a car's total front suspension travel is 6 inches, meaning that the wheels can move 3 inches up and 3 inches down, then the most an I-beam axle can twist is 6 inches in both directions," James says. "Now if one wheel is loaded and one wheel is unloaded as a car with a four-bar goes though a driveway diagonally, the radial twist in the four bar during that period is greater than the radial twist in an I-beam axle, because there is more freedom of motion allowed by the four-bar system. If anything was going to break from work hardening or twisting, it would be the four-bar setup since it is built lighter than a heavy-duty tube axle, but that has never been a problem in the many years that the four-bar has been on the market."
There have been numerous discussions on most of the hot rod forums about cast versus forged on I-beams. The majority has always said that the forged are stronger. It used to be there was only 1 choice, now there's 2. C.E. and SoCal.
There's the Super Bell aluminium I beams. Drilled & plain. They aren't cheap but look pretty nice and are super light.
Lots of guys on here producing excellent original dropped axles. For a visual only here is one of the new SO-CAL Axles we are installing in my Dad's RPU- cast axle coming out.
Please excuse my ignorance cause I'm only familar with beam axles on Chevy trucks.Some front axles are cast iron? Would that be a cast iron like an engine block or some sort of "mallable" cast steel ?
My 32 was started (but never finished) in the late 60s/early 70s with a 50" tube axle. I'm using that axle in my current build along with hairpins. If it doesn't work out I'll change it but until then its a painted 50" tube axle for me.
I see your sooooo old you remember preparation A well I also remember that and can't help but notice we are up to H now so what does that say about us eh !
I'd use an original Ford I-beam, dropped. If you are at the Lone Star Roundup look for Joe from Joes Speed shop.com. He will be there with some axles and can answer any questions you may have. Good Luck. Lucky667
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