Drive It Like You Stole It

DRD57 · April 07, 2004, 12:24:06 AM

Picture

enjenjo · April 07, 2004, 12:29:26 AM

That yours Don?

unklian · April 07, 2004, 12:29:57 AM

Interesting.

What type of rear suspension?
Any other damage?

DRD57 · April 07, 2004, 12:58:48 AM

After driving around on the * roads of North County San Diego, I noticed a puddle of gear oil under my Model A when it was parked. A closer inspection revealed a crack that went almost all the way around the weld. It was being held on by about 1.5". Discretion prevailed and I called AAA for a 102 mile trip back to my shop Sunday afternoon. Today when I pulled the car out of the shop to turn it around it broke the rest of the way. It's all apart now. It'll get Tig welded back together with some gusseting to prevent further failure.

river1 · April 07, 2004, 01:47:22 AM

OUCH

glad you found it off the road and not on

any chance that it started with your excapade (your blowout) on the way to AZ a while back?

later jim

Gilles · April 07, 2004, 02:40:02 AM

A friend of mine had exactly the same problem on a 34 Ford. He sent back the Currie 9 inch from France to USA to have it fixed. They found one axle not exactly the good size.
My opinion is that the rear suspensions bottomed too much.
Isn't the same problem on your car?
Or maybe your new heads makes too much power!

Gilles

purplepickup · April 07, 2004, 08:25:44 AM

I kind of thought studeboy's comment on the HAMB had some merit. You and the '30 might want to visit your local exorcist. I'm not sure if exorcisms are covered by your health or car insurance but with your history there is definitely a pre-existing condition.

It's a good thing you found it when you did. There's a lot of people that don't even notice puddles of oil under their cars...or if they do, they figure they'll check it out when they get home...DUHHmb..

rumrumm · April 07, 2004, 08:57:28 AM

Quote from: "DRD57"Picture

Wow! I have never seen anything like that happen. Pretty frightening. I think I'm going to have my priest bless my car when it is done.

GPster · April 07, 2004, 09:26:09 AM

When they moved it around after accident with it Did they put it on a flat bed or tow it? I have known of a time that wrecker operaters have run their chains with "J" hooks clear from the front of the car to the rear axel to hook it to something that wasn't questionable as far as strength. I've even known them to cross the chains under the center of the car so that none of the big pieces would fall off on the road while traveling. Was this the same side that had the fender crunched? Maybe there's something bent under there that wasn't noticed and it put everything on a strain and that was the weakest link it the chain? GPster

Phat · April 07, 2004, 09:28:20 AM

You should never cut a housing there nor should you go dressing up the welds. Have some one build you a new housing and have it done on a jig. I build housings all the time and also fix some of the fine curries and Mosers that are brand new and bent out of the box. Those tubes should never break just bend when done correctly. H ell i have rear housings that came out of circle track cars that are bent like a pretzel and did not break. Cant see the whole deal in the pixs but it looks like to much fluff and buff on the welds. Something i also have a problem with on frontends. Man you are one lucky S O B LOL Glad nothing bad happened. Check you axles and diff also when you have it apart. It may have bent the left axle. That AAA card is one good investment!!! LOL Wish i could post a pix of the jig...pretty easy to make and they pay for themselves pretty quick when you can show a customer his brandnew rear end is bent. They are a must when you weld any brackets to the rear as it will pull the rear all over the place. (heat the size of a dime will knock a rear out over and inch) Dont gusset it...get it out of there...it will never be right. Another little trick if you do any drag racing..paint a line down the axle in a straight line. Next time you have the axle out just look and you can tell how much you have twisted it....you would be very surprized at how many times you find them start to twist. Again glad you did not get hurt or destroy your car.........

Dirk35 · April 07, 2004, 10:08:40 AM

Hey Phat, there anyone near OKC that you know of that can fix rear-end housings?

beatnik · April 07, 2004, 11:21:02 AM

Holy Smokes Don!

That's crazy, at least you caught it in time and it didn't happen on the street or under power.

I'm really suprised considering you have a four bar setup.

Bruce Dorsi · April 07, 2004, 10:37:43 PM

Quote from: "DRD57"A closer inspection revealed a crack that went almost all the way around the weld.

Out of curiosity, Don, was it the WELD that cracked, or the metal NEXT to the weld?

Can you tell where the crack originated? (Top?, Bottom?, Front?, Back?) ....That may give some clue as to the reason for the failure.

Bruce Dorsi · April 07, 2004, 10:48:28 PM

Don, I'm also wondering if you have any indication of how (or why?) it failed.

Does the metal appear to be sheared, or does it appear to be torn from torsional stress?

I know, lots of questions! ....But, maybe I can learn something from your misfortune.

I'm a firm believer that things can always be worse! ...Consider yourself, lucky!

DRD57 · April 08, 2004, 01:16:46 AM

Quote from: "Bruce Dorsi"Don, I'm also wondering if you have any indication of how (or why?) it failed.

Does the metal appear to be sheared, or does it appear to be torn from torsional stress?

I know, lots of questions! ....But, maybe I can learn something from your misfortune.

I'm a firm believer that things can always be worse! ...Consider yourself, lucky!

It appears the weld had poor or no penetration and the weld is what broke.

I think it cracked from taking a beating on the terrible roads in SoCal.

People who have never been here think our roads must be great because of the mild weather but the fact remains that we have millions of vehicles on them every day and there is very little time (or money) to keep them in good repair. We have as many potholes, uneven bridge abutments and poorly done repairs as anywhere in the USA and this car gets driven a lot.

It's hard to consider myself lucky whne my car is in pieces on the shop floor but you are so right. If it had completely broken while ripping around a curve up in the mountains I'd be toast.

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