Been doing a little research on gasser axles. I'm planning to stub out my car and go with a "period correct" straight axle. I was given a Chevy truck axle, but after poking around the internet, the only I-beam axles that seem to have been used in competition were Willys axles. Most of the others appear to have been straight tube axles. Does anyone know what kind of axles shops like Blair's Speed Shop used? Were they solid? Another option appears to have been a '40 Ford axle and a set of split wishbones, but I question how much weight or stress the spring can handle. Would a '40 Ford axle and related spring hold up a big car during any kind of street driving? Is there anyone on here that was racing, say before 1967, that can shed some light on what was actually used in competition? Is Blair's still around? I know that Speedway offers a straight axle set-up, but I've heard that they are weak, and for light-weight applications only....any leads on where to get an axle that will hold up a full-bodied '50's sedan?
good question,,i dont see why a chevy pu truck axle wouldnt work,they are not too wide,plus bolt-on disc brake kits are avaliable to change over to 5 lug.
I know it will work, but was it ever done like that back in the heyday of straight axles? I haven't seen any old pictures of race cars with truck axles..only a few cars from the 70-80's. If I were to try and maintain an authentic vibe, where would I get a real straight axle, or at least how were they made? What wall pipe and or what kind of spindle ends?
I run a Spedway tube axle in my '64 Rambler. Parallel leaf, Ford spindles, GM disc brakes, 392 hemi. Been driving it on the street since '93. Are there stronger tube axles?? Sure, but I don't think they're necessary for the street.
mas will custom make a axle any width ....they are heavy duty.....in a number of differnet spindles.....the speedway stuff is probably about the same thickness....thinking they are 1/4 wall....lots of different ways to suspend it.....leafs ....cross spring....coil overs.... hairpins ...wishbones....they were all pretty much used during that era....check on gasser madness for some pics....also get your self the larry davis and don montgomery gasser books ....lots of stuff in those......brandon
I'm sure the poor-boy hot rodders back in the day who couldn't afford a new tube axle would have robbed a beam axle off an old pickup truck. Back then people used what they had available more often than not.
I don't think they ran solid tube axles. Ask them: Blair's Speed Shop 2771 E Foothill Blvd. Pasadena, CA 91107-3442 (323) 681-8644
I've got the Gasser Wars book, but it's more about the Willys, and who won what more than how they were actually set up... I'm kind of looking for something that would have ran in the unblown gas classes. I'd like to go with either a '40 Ford I-beam, if it will hold up, (What's the most weight you'd want to put on something like that?) or the parallel leaves. Got a contact number for MAS?
A '40 Ford used the same kind of front axle as the same-year pickup truck. Unless you are going to put it under some sort of gigantic vehicle, it will be plenty stout enough.
It's gigantic...a '58 Edsel Corsair... That's why I'm trying to find something stout enough that might have been used in the lower unblown classes before 67-ish....
That isn't gigantic; probably only weighs 4000 lbs. Certainly within the load limits of a '40 Ford axle. Gigantic would be twice that weight.
I found a '57 Chevy hardtop in a field once, had a Chevy PU axle under it and mags. So I would say yes.
Early sixtys vans gave up a lot of axle systems for the home built gassers. Econoline and the Chevy Van. Remember there were a lot of cars that didn't win the big events to get their picture in a magazine. The staight tube axle wasn't too pricey at that time...probably not too bad today. It gets the front up there by eliminating the drop between the spring pad and the king pin boss.
In my opinion you don't even want to consider a mono spring setup for anything you want to drive on the street even the slightest. I believe that this setup is one of the biggest reasons straight axle setups have such a bad rap. I've never heard anyone say they were comfortable driving something like this on the street as they handled like shit, this setup was used for one purpose and that was going straight 1/4 of a mile at a time. The one thing I can say about the chevy truck setup is we have 3 cars in our club with that setup, 2 are on the road and the setup does work and handles very good. My friend Lonnie has done a ton of reserch on this and might be able to answer the question of how much they were used in the 60's, I'll ask him and see what he says.
That would be nice. I'm sure the Chevy truck axle will work fine, ride nice and all of that, I was just curious as to how authentic it would have been. I had forgotten about the econoline axles, those are getting spretty scarce...
The Jalopy Journal
