Cracks In My Rear - Page 2

John Poling · #21 (**permalink**) 07-28-2003, 04:12 AM

Rick,

The A&C is not a donor style car. With the exception that it uses a Mustang II front suspension and a GM steering column everything is custom made to fit this chassis.

The rear is a 9" narrowed to fit. The one that is in mine is a thin casting (acording to Advanced Chassis) and will be fine as is for my intended use and if I choose to ever race it regularly I would need to brace the rear of the housing to keep it from flexing. I didn't build mine to race it rather enjoy mostly street time, it probably will see an occasional strip run and possibly an SCCA event though.

In the future there may be an upgrade like you speak of but that will be well after most of the others like larger front brakes.

Thank you.
John

RICK LAKE · #22 (**permalink**) 07-28-2003, 05:39 AM

John Polin Hi John 2 thing and I will stop busting your chops. That rear broke with 700 miles on it. I doubt that you are pounding on the car already and cracked the case, You have guessing 400hp and broke already??? You crack a seam cruising at 70 mph and that oil gets on a rear tire and you have to stop or turn quickly GUESS WHAT? it's not going to happen. We have had people die already in this Club. You have Family, friends, and enemys that don't need this to happen either. Brace the rear if nothing else. I lost 3 friends 3 days before Chistmas this year and it sucked. 2 accidents and one cancer. Holidays are a REAL bad time to be without your family members or head of the house.

I have a jag rear in my car, they say that the rear is go for 450 hp. I have had the rearend redone with chromemoly arms, stub shafts, stronger carrier, rear cover support for the bearings and caps. Reengineered the whole setup for safety. It's your Life. If that case cracked in one spot it could crack again. Rick Lake ps total cost for rearend repair 400.00$ your LIFE PRICELESS

John Poling · #23 (**permalink**) 07-28-2003, 06:38 AM

Rick,

You've been "bustin' my chops"? I didn't know that. I thought it was just friendly input.

NO!! I am not one of those people that think the proper way to break in a car is the way you're gonna drive it although that is what I am doing since I don't intend on racing it regularly. I am planning on adding the brace to the rear end. I actually have found only one crack and it was not due to too much power, it is in the rear of the center section where a cover would be on a GM rear. This was caused seemingly by someone getting carried away with cleaning up the factory (from Ford) welds to make it look cleaner. What I thought was a crack in the tube was actually my axle vent leaking. I found this when I put it on a lift and got better access to the underside.

I appreciate the concern you have, the last thing I want to do is take my Wife's retirement fund away from her (a.k.a. killing the snake), although she'd be a lot wealthier as a Widow.

Thank you.

John

John Poling · #24 (**permalink**) 08-04-2003, 04:42 AM

Happy August All,

I got the rear in and out last week with the added brace on the backside, new adjustable lower control arms and a vent hose. I tried to use the adjustable uppers from A&C but they wouldn't fit my set up. It's amazing, I can now push the car around by myself, I have never been able to do that before evidently because I was getting that much binding in the u-joints. Before the adjustable lowers it was running a 5 deg upward angle on the front u-joint and a 7 deg downward angle on the rear u-joint, my drive shaft angle was around a 7 deg upward angle (from the transmission to the rearend) relative to the ground. Basically the u-joints were fighting each other and using a lot of engine power doing it. Now the angles are 1/2 deg downward angle on the front u-joint and 2 deg angle on the rear u-joint. My pinion angle went from approx 7-9 deg upward to about a 1/2-1 deg downward angle now. The best part is there is no more vibrations or clunking sound coming from the rearend.

If you would like to see the brace that I added to the rearend for stiffing, go to my picture gallery. Because of the shock mounts, I had to use a "Single Rib" instead of the more traditional c-channel design. I used 3/8" thick plate for this and custom fit it to the back, then about 4 hours of stiching it together and viola, boy does it look beefy in person. I would recomend all of you doing something similar to this to help strengthen your rearend from A&C. You could have it in and out in a weekend and have a much more bulletproof rear and not experience the cracking problems.

Enjoy.

John

RICK LAKE · #25 (**permalink**) 08-04-2003, 04:55 AM

John Poling Rearend looks great. I can sleep better at night now

I'm sure the cracking problem is solved. What's NEXT????

Rick Lake ps just a little sauce on the chops.

John Poling · #26 (**permalink**) 08-04-2003, 05:43 AM

Rick,

Next is probably the cooling upgrade and front brake upgrade.

John

ps. ya' need a napkin or bib?

Roscoe · #27 (**permalink**) 08-04-2003, 05:56 AM

Watch those adjustable lowers. It will move the wheel position in the fender well. Better off getting adjustable uppers.

Roscoe

John Poling · #28 (**permalink**) 08-04-2003, 06:07 AM

Roscoe,

I have both upper and lower arms but the uppers as supplied by A&C will not fit. The adjustable lowers installed are abot 5/8" longer than the ones they replaced and didn't seem to noticeably change my positioning in the well. When the uppers wouldn't fit, I was pretty peaved thinking the same as you mentioned and figured I was going to have to custom make a set of uppers for my car and still might, time will tell, but for now it's looking good and I intend to take it back to Advanced Chassis for them to look at.

BTW, Joe Trombley from A&C sent these adjustables to me free of charge. THANKS JOE.

Thank you.
John

Roscoe · #29 (**permalink**) 08-04-2003, 06:09 AM

Why won't the uppers fit properly? Can you modify them to fit?

Roscoe

John Poling · #30 (**permalink**) 08-04-2003, 06:14 AM

Roscoe,

The brackets on the rear housing for the uppers are spaced too far apart for the design of the new ones. My originals were solid aluminum square bars that had a busing on each en allowing it to be pressed part way out so that it would compensate the "Not exact alignment". The new one do not have this adjustibility side to side. Yes, they can be modified by making a new short end and putting an offset in it.

John

Roscoe · #31 (**permalink**) 08-04-2003, 06:20 AM

How about using a large heim joint?

Roscoe

John Poling · #32 (**permalink**) 08-04-2003, 06:44 AM

Roscoe,

That's an excellent idea and will probably work. I am such an idiot sometimes, why didn't I already think of that? I will go home tonight and see if that will give me the clearance I need and check the short end thread size and thread count and then check to see where I can get it from.

Thank you Roscoe.

John

PNJSNAK · #33 (**permalink**) 08-04-2003, 04:12 PM

John: Let me know what size of heim joint and part number you get for the uppers. I just picked up a set of adjustables from Pete Clark and Pete said I may have to go to the heim joint. Pete also said to don't forget to put spacers in, or the heim joint will move around.
Bye the way, I had my rear welded up locally and told Joe T about the costs and he sent a check to almost cover the costs. Saw your thread about the Pig pointing up and mine is the same. That's why I had to raise the rear adjustable shocks up 3/4" so I did not bottom. There is a contact point on the frame cross member, so I got the adjustable bars to tilt the rear downward a little and hopefully can lower the car down a bit.
Jim

John Poling · #34 (**permalink**) 08-05-2003, 04:27 AM

PNJSNAK,

My rear axle was pointing at about a 7 degree pinion up angle, was yours this bad? Joe T. told me that their jig for putting the control arm and shock mounts on the housing should point the housing up at about 3 degrees. Some of the problem I was having as far as bottoming out was the top of my pig was hitting the crossmember that is right at the top of the transmission tunnel when the car was sitting at the correct ride height. The other factor in the bottoming out was the shock mount brackets as welded to the axle housing were rotated to such a degree that my spring seats on the coil overs were resting on that axle bracket to such a point that at times my shocks were contacting the springs. Before I removed the rear from the car last week for the welding, I spent some time and ground part of the top of the axle/shock braket so that contact was not made with the spring seat and adjusted the rear ride height so that I had about 5" of clearance in the wheel well to the tire, that seemed to cure the bottoming sensation.

When the adjustible arms were installed, it rolled the rear housing to such a point that now the axle/shock brackets are not even close to making contact with the spring mounts and the pig has about 2.5"-3" of space between it and the cross member, before it only had maybe a half inch with the car sitting at the correct ride height.

As far as the welding and the brace, all it cost me was the electricity for my MIG welder and about 4 hours welding time this past Saturday.

I will definately let you know the details of the Heim joint when I do that, it may be a while though as I do not really need the adjustable uppers, but since I have them, I sure can't let them go to waste now can I?

To say the least, when this whole thing started I just about threw in the towel as I have had a lot of stupid problems like this with my A&C build that it doesn't sound like many others had. Joe Trombley on several occassions was the saving grace with his willingness to go above and beyond where he had to. I really appreciate what he has done for me regarding this issue and some others that I have had.

Also a big THANK YOU! to all those here on CC who take the time to help a fellow Gearhead out in time of dispair.

John

Roscoe · #35 (**permalink**) 08-05-2003, 06:35 AM