If you Drag Race, PLEASE weld your axle tubes.

[EcoBoosted F-150]

Kinda dumb to this but i did have my axle welded in my jeep D30 for the same reason. I have a buddy that has a Watts Link on his 11 GT, does the W.L. do the same thing ? i asked beacuse i have been interest in getting a watts link.

 

[Norm Peterson]

A Watts link won't put nearly as much stress at the axle tubes to the housing attachment points as a hard launch will. Mostly, the WL puts loading along the axis of the axle tubes (plus some local bending at the attachment clamp in the case of a chassis-mounted "football" only).


Norm

 

[EcoBoosted F-150]

gotcha so it just spreads the abuse evenly along the axle tube instead of it all generating at the wheel end and ending up hitting hard at the housing.

 

[Norm Peterson]

I guess you could think of it that way.


Norm

 

[EcoBoosted F-150]

sounds good, prob gonna do both to mine anyways.

 

[Sharad]

So is it better to have the tubes welded or to get those upr braces?

In my opinion, it's preferable to do BOTH. However, these S197s are relatively heavy. If a person is regularly drag racing their car, I think it's reasonable to start looking at a Strange Engineering 9".

Define better?

IMO, welding is superior to bracing.

On another note, another person fell victim to the twisted tube this weekend at NMRA.

I'll post pics of the carnage when I get them. He got it tore apart and is taking to Mosier for a revamp.

Is it on your car? There is a thread on AFM talking about this, and someone insinuated that twisted axle tubes are only a problem on high hp cars. It is with the utmost respect and serious intention NOT to cause drama that I point out GT.350-R's car is a perfect example of what I've been talking about. Not big power, but it's running relo brackets and launching hard.

 

[GT.350-R]

No, not my car. It's a buddy of mine, with a car very similar to mine. 300 horse car leaving at 6500rpm on radials.
You can bet your ass mine will be welded before the next race.

 

[rayS197]

No, not my car. It's a buddy of mine, with a car very similar to mine. 300 horse car leaving at 6500rpm on radials.
You can bet your ass mine will be welded before the next race.

Are you still thinking about our track rental @ MIR in October? I know thats a haul for you.

 

[el_jefe]

I twisted 2 rears on my 03. what i finally did is have a friend who is a machinist drill 2 holes in the pumpkin thru the axle tubes and put a 3/8'ish solid stock of metal thru both.

The last time i twisted mine i had the axle tubes welded to the pumpkin. It just ripped the welds off the pumpkin. Problem with welding them is that the pumpkin is cast iron and the tubes are steel. So welding is naturally not going to stick well to both. Especially the cast iron. When it happened i was going into 3rd gear. That was a ride for sure since the slick hit the fender and slung me into the opposite lane in front of the guy i was racing. To give you idea this is the run that i broke it on. Its a shitty video but will show you that i wasn't even launching that hard. The run before i broke i ran 11.38@128 launching at 4000-4500. On this launch i was hitting it at 5500-6000 with a quick slip of the clutch. the next i was going to try to hit at 6500+.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M35y4edGQbY

In my opinion i would just get a che axle brace or something along those lines + weld the axle tubes.

 

[GT.350-R]

Are you still thinking about our track rental @ MIR in October? I know thats a haul for you.

Send me all the info. I really like that track,and will make it if I can.

 

[BMR Tech]

OR....you could build one like we did for our S197 Drag Car.

Cheap!

 

[BMR Tech]

Whoa...big...

 

[Diabolical!]

I would suggest welding without any weight on the axle. Otherwise it is quite possible that you'll add some negative camber and/or toe back there that you don't want.

Heat + weight on axle tubes is one of the ways us corner-carver types intentionally put a little (or a little more) negative camber into a stick axle.


Norm

I don't think it would be possible with weight on the axles anyway. You need to let the rear suspension hang to get to where you'll be welding.

 

[Diabolical!]

Kelly, why isn't BMR selling that?!

 

[BMR Tech]

Kelly, why isn't BMR selling that?!

We actually do.....for the early model cars (muscle cars). We have a full torque arm suspension / watts link system that we sell with a rear housing.

As for the reason why we do not offer them for S197's....we simply do not have the capacity at this time. We are lucky that we are able to keep up with our current volume of S197 parts.

 

[Sharad]

No, not my car. It's a buddy of mine, with a car very similar to mine. 300 horse car leaving at 6500rpm on radials.
You can bet your ass mine will be welded before the next race.

Smart move!

Kelly, why isn't BMR selling that?!

I used a Strange 9" in my street/strip car. They're very heavy duty.

http://www.strangeengineering.net/newprod/Rearsheet.html

 

[Diabolical!]

Nice! Roundabout $$ estimate on one of those monsters?

 

[rayS197]

Kelly,
Seeing this is turning into a common issue, would the team @ BMR be willing to entertain coming up with a bolt-on solution to the problem in lieu of welding?? Im just thinking for joe the homeowner who doesnt have access to a welder or trust someone with welding up their axle tubes. Just a thought.

 

[BMR Tech]

We have a substantial amount of Product Development right now on our plate, so I am not sure it would be something that we would, or could jump into at this point.

Keep in mind, we develop and manufacture suspension components for over 15 platforms. Although S197 has quickly become our bread and butter, we cannot forget about the GM platforms (it hurts to say that!)

We are also developing a full line of '79 - '04 Mustang suspension pieces right now.

I will put a word in for it, but I need to prove that the demand is there. I can prove that there is an issue, but if the demand is also there....well, that makes it much more convincing.

 

[weather man]

Ask the numbers guy how accurate his radiator brace forecast was! You guys have a good rep. It will sell well and fit logically into your S197 chassis lineup.