Small update from today!

I welded the axle tubes onto the diff casing and straightened out the bent leaf spring mounts. Tomorrow I will weld in some fillets to make the spring mounts stronger as they seem to be suffering from the leverage effect from the slapper bars on the launch ?  Hell ! I may even clean and paint the axle case

The axle case is now ready for sand blasting and powder coating

The time and effort involved for me to clean the 40 year old casing good enough for me to paint it and get a nice finish just gives me a headache. My friend will do all the work for around $50 all in !!

Perry, Welding the tubes to the housing is always a good idea. The small rosette welds holding the tubes in place aren't strong enough for high HP where you get traction. Thanks again for keeping us posted.

I'm now looking into trimming the wheel flanges down to fit the recess in the MGB drums. But as the stud holes in the flanges are 15mm that only leaves about 2mm of metal around the edge if I use the 5 x 4.5" holes.

The MGB studs are obviously smaller, but I havent measured yet !

I'm not too concerned about the lack of metal outside the holes, but I'm wondering if the studs when pressed in will mis shape the thin outer wall and stop the brake drum dropping on?

If this does happen I can weld the studs onto the flange and then turn any extra metal off the outer edge of the flange. I would like to keep my original MGB rear brakes if I can without compromising the strength of the wheel flanges. OR! I could see if I can find some brake drums with 5 x 4.5" bolt pattern that are 10" x 2" which is what I think the MGB brakes are ?  Time for some research methinks ??  

Perry, Ford Ranger pickups over here have 9" and 10" brake drums with 5x4.5 lug pattern.

Thanks Jim!!

Thats good info mate
My friend has an old Ranger in his yard ready to break ?

Perry

Dag nabbit!!  He sold the Ranger

I'm going to find some cheap wheels to get me by for the near future now. Because I have a dream of seeing Cragars on the MGB now

I've loved the look of these wheels since I was a kid. And as my 60th Birthday is only 5 years away I feel I owe it to myself to have Cragars on the car in 2015 or sooner  

8-9" Cragars on the rear with Hoosier slicks and maybe skinny Cragars on the front or some centreline front runners with 4" tyres would look so cool I think .. That would make one hell of a track picture at launch with wheels in the air ??

So now I have a plan for the final look of the wheels. but first I need to get some rims so I can go racing when the axle is finished.

Perry, you might want to reconsider those Cragars. They rust, and there's not much you can do to stop it. Matter of fact, despite their popularity (or maybe the cause of it) they really are some pretty cheap wheels. I put a set of brand new ones on my MG way back when and within a year they were going bad. By the time I could replace them they had turned brown and flaky. The joint between the rim and center looked none too solid too.

Now for a really GOOD drag wheel you might look at the polished Centerline Classics. Forged, around 11 lbs each (light as you can get) and strong. Keep 'em shined up and they'll look good forever. Only flaw is the silicon center seal but that can be removed and re-sealed if it starts to leak.

Jim

Cragars have an aluminum center. That's the part that the chrome flakes off of first. Been known to break.

Personally, I like Weld Superlite II or Pro Stars for a good looking drag wheel.

http://ba5ff4f7910368ced8d0-fdac4e44cc35e2759af294e7b095ba3d.r33.cf1.rackcdn.com/weld-draglite-mustang-drag-wheels_7850.jpg

http://ba5ff4f7910368ced8d0-fdac4e44cc35e2759af294e7b095ba3d.r33.cf1.rackcdn.com/5-lug-weld-pro-star-mustang-drag-wheels_5368.jpg

Thanks Jim and Carl.....

Possible disaster averted eh??  

Now I have more possible wheels to look at

I'm out for a days bracket racing tomorrow with a normal car. But when I get back I'll do some pics of the axle case in powder coat and the next alteration that is required to the 31 spline shafts ??

Regards
Pel

Welds are heavier.

Jim

Perry, Check out these wheels:       http://www.team3wheels.com/production_wheels.html

Thanks Jim!
I like the look of some of those

Yesterdays bracket racing was a real blast. I did this last year in the tow truck because the MGB does not hot lap.  But the truck is in the garge broken so I used the hire car instead. A compact Skoda automatic

46 entrants, 3 rounds of qualifying and eliminations. I got knocked out in the 1st final. Won the 2nd final and got knocked out in the 3rd semifinal.  I came 3rd overall which was cool. Overall winner was my friends wife inher Jag XK8 auto. And this was only her secnond time on track. She did a RWYB 3 weeks ago and liked it. And although the car is slow she is a demon on the lights and the car is consistent.

Right!
Back to the axle....

Only just in from Mothers days visits so I have not had any the in the garage this weekend. But I did trial fit one shaft by measuring the distance from the mating face of the wheel flange to the rear face of the shaft bearing so I had a measurment to work with. The spool is not fitted so the shaft is not sitting perfectly level.

I slid the brake plate and bearing cap on and got it to sit in place. I slid the shaft in to the required distance (+/- 1-2mm)  as it was by eye. And it all looks good so far.

The wheel flange is trimmed on the O/D by 6mm and the recess in the brake drum will be opened out by around 4-5mm so it will sit on flush. I'm using the 5 bolt holes nearest the flange centre. This has left as much meat on the flange as possible while allowing clearance for the brakes and the metal taken out of the brak drum recess still leaves a raised face to locate over the wheel flange so it all lines up on centre.

Next job will be to pull a complete brake assembly off the car as I'm using spare backplates for the mock up. Then I can see if there will be any interference issues with the brakes themselves. So far it looks like this may not be a problem.  Then I need to find some studs to fit into the wheel flanges to see if the back of the studs foul anything behind. I cant see this being an issue either.

In order to fit the bearings in the right position I will have to remove about 7mm of the raised section between the back of the wheel flanges where it meets the section of the shaft that is machined down to fit the bearings. Then the bearing shoyuld push on to a defined face and stop there in the right position. This has cheered me up somewhat as I was expecting to have to press the bearings on to a specific marked point and get it spot on.

Now I have another question about C clip eliminators ??

I'm assuming that the bearings will need around 3+ tons of pressure to press into place. These will be clamped into the housing with the existing brearing plate which has an oil seal fitted which pretty much mounts snug onto the thicker portion of the shaft just behined the wheel flange. The car only turns corners at low speed when in the pits. Do I need to worry about a C clip eliminator that would be pressed onto the shaft? I'm using the correct bearings to match the shafts so I assume they will not be a loose fit?  I dont think I will have enough room to fit a C clip eliminator kit. So for safety's sake should I add some chemical metal to bond the bearings onto the shafts or should I add some small tack welds on the diff side of the bearings to fix them to the shafts?  I can do this by cleaning the coating off the bearing hubs and pressing the bearings into place. Then add some tacks with the big Mig at work while coating the bearings in heat sink Gel and wet rags to prevent any damage to the inner oil seal on the bearings?   This is all prototype stuff this time round so I'm not bothered about trying new things

From what I can see the C clip eliminator is just another clamp that is pressed onto the shaft like the bearing? Does this clamp need more pressure to press onto the shaft than the bearings? If it does not need more pressure to press it on then 3 good tack welds will suffice I think??

Sorry for the long ramble guys... I'm just thinking out loud at this time.

Here is a shaft and back plate mounted very close to where it should be..

Regards
Perry

Perry, C clip eliminator doesn't apply to the 9" or MGB pressed on bearings. It is for the 7.5/8.8 to eliminate the C clips on those axles. For the dragstrip on those axles are OK, but leak if doing corners. Best to convert those axles to 9" press on bearing axle retention. No welding necessary, .003 interference press fit and 4 bolt flange keep the axle in. What outside axle bearing did you find that is MGB OD and large 9" ID(.003 smaller than shaft).The spacing of axle flange has to be right for whatever brakes you are using. Might want to copy MGB stock flange to backing plate.

Thanks Jim
The bearings I have are the ones specified for the shafts which are SKF 6307-2RS-3C.

These are a stock item at work so they are free to me. This bearing is 1mm larger in O/D than the MGB stock bearings and 1mm thinner. My mate is going to grind the 1mm off the O/D and make a pair of 1mm shims this week. To get the mating face of the wheel flange in the right place he will remove 9mm of the raised shaft section just behind the wheel flange to extend the section where the bearing will press on.

Thats good that the press fit will do the job

The existing seal in the MGB bearing retainer plate fits quite well over the thicker section of the shaft as well. I may get some new ones or even take the shaft and retainer to a local bearing and seals place to see if they have anything that will fit a little better.

I've just ordered 10 wheel studs from a local supplier. The holes in the wheel flange are 0.590" which he says is a stock item at the race shop

So things are moving on nice and steady now!!  I have to work all next weekend but I'm hoping to have the machine work done middle of next week so I can start assembly and maybe have it together over the Easter holidays. Fingers crossed

Regards
Perry

Perry, COOL! Lots of pictures for others to follow.

Tonight was the first proper trial fit.

I wasnt far off with my guesstimate about where the shaft would end up as per the previous pictures.

I had both shafts trimmed back to extend the area where the bearings will press on. I used a spare bearing and took the O/D down by 1.1mm on the belt sander so it was a slip fit in the casing. Then took about 4thou out of the bore of the bearing so it was a slide fit onto the shaft with just light pressure required to push it on by hand.

Then I fitted the bearing and brake back plate onto the axle case and slid the shaft in until it hit the stop up against the bearing.

It looks pretty darn good I must say

At least 5/8th" clearance for the back of the wheel studs, but I just need to trim a chamfer onto the back of the wheel flange to clear the bottom brake spring. Cant really see it in the pics but there is about 10thou clearance. I'm just worried about the spring vibrating and touching the flange. I fitted the brake assembly with temp bolts and nuts. When the brakes etc are fitted and the bearings pushed on I will have to fit the bearing retainer plate bolts from the rear and use a modified spanner to hold the nuts while I do it all up.

And you can see the shaft will need to be trimmed to size when the final fit is done. I cant do this until I have the spool back from the machine shop though. The splines in the spool are not central, so I'll need to measure and mark the outside of the spool to show where the splines are and then strike two marks onto the diff case so I can fit the shafts without the spool and mark the pints where I need to cut. This will be done on the loose fit bearings. When the shafts are cut (long on drivers side and short on passenger side for my UK car) I can then assemble the brakes etc and press the bearings into place on the shafts in my mates hydraulic press.


So far so good I think ??









Brake drums are now being re drilled for the 5 x 4.5" pcd and I hope to have those in a few days. The only issue at the moment is the width of the bearings. They are 1.2mm thinner than the MGB bearings so I nedd some shims. Luckily, the shims for the diff are just about the right size for the job. And I had one at 1.5mm thick and fitted that inside the beraing retainer cap for the tril fit this evening

I'll get my chap at the machine shop to trim two spare shims down to 1.2 mm on the surface grinder this week.

More to follow when I can get some time off work

Regards
Perry

Re drilled drums fit perfectly

I should have the spool back on Friday this week

I've decided to use cap head bolts so I dont have to take so much metal out of the spool flange for hex head bolts and a socket.  Not sure what the old bolts are regarding strength. I assume 8.8 or similar. The cap head allen bolts are 12.9 rated so should be ok?

I'm still waiting for my wheel studs, but a friend dropped round a set of used studs from his Ford axle in his MG Magnette tonight so I can drop them in loose for lining up the drums on the drive flanges so I can drill and tap for drum retaining screws

This weekend I will be fitting the spool and crown wheel / ring gear so I can do the checks to make sure the gear mesh is still as it should be.  If all the machine work is correct the sshould mesh within a few thou of where they were originally. It wont be long before I have to take the cutting wheel to the shafts to make them the right length. Having looked inside the spool I can see that it was splined all the way through, and then the splines have been trimmed back to give a lenght of splining in the spool which sits with even splining either side of the spool flange. I guess this is done so each shaft (despite being odd lengths) has the same amount of spline contact at the same point from the area central to where the power is transferred into the spool ??

As you can see in the last picture, the axle case has been sandblasted and powder coated to tidy it up a little.

Moved on a bit today!

Got the spool dialled in on the mill and drilled the new bolt circle. As the existing holes are where they are it was always going to have some holes close to each other. But I'm happy with the result so far. I still have to counter bore so 6 of the bolt heads will sit low down at the same level as the existing bolt surfaces. But the two bolts in the thicker section will stay as they are. The bolts are 12.9 strength cap heads and will be fine for the job.  I wonder if I could buy a spool that is not pre drilled?  This would be great for me.

I sat back in the sun today while my Son in Law and my mate Mike got to checking gear mesh. After 2 hours and lots of measuring we concluded that I need to move the crown wheel away from the pinion by 10 thou. I made a mistake when surface grinding the side shims  DOH!!

To save the aggro of re grinding shims it will be easier to take the spool back to the machine shop and have 10 thou taken off the spool face
I think it looks quite nice in Silver Sparkle powder coat.

So I'm another step closer to getting the axle back in now !

Perry, I know you are not done but, the thick part of the spool should be spot faced to have a flat surface under the allen head. The ones that intrude on the holes should have a countersunk hole and spacer under the heads.

Thanks Jim!

Thats on the menu for this week.  I'll drop the spool back to the machine shop after work tomorrow and hopefully he will get it done in a couple of days.
I have also decided to drop the idea of making shims to go inside the shaft bearing retainer caps to make up the difference in thickness between the Ford bearings and the MG bearings. I'm just going to trim 1.25mm off the mating faces of the bearing retainers so they will bolt up with no shims inside.

I'm going to use ARP washers under the allen bolts I think. I have spares on the shelf from old ARP head stud kits that I only used 20 bolts from. So I sohuld have at least 16 spare washers in the stock somewhere?

Wheel studs should be at the shop on Wed so by Thursday I may be able to start getting the brake ends fitted and the bearings pressed into place.

I'm in no rush at the moment. I still have 6 weeks in hand too make sure all this prototype kit goes together as best it can so I can be ready for testing in early June.  

I have learnt so much in the last 2 months while I have been playing with the rear end, and its been a lot of fun for me to be honest.  I cant believe how calm I am about having missed so much racing since the 19th Jan when I broke it again. Normally I would be getting quite twitchy, but as the end result should be a sub 9.5 pass after shakedowns I'm happy to wait.  An dif that goes ok I'm going to start looking at adding some power and then start aiming for the 9.4's

Regards to all from a lovely warm and sunny UK today  67 degrees and no wind.. Hell, I even cut the grass today.....

Perry

Perry,  When you get ready to bolt up the Allen's for the last time, you should use blue Locktite on the threads  and torque in back and forth pattern in 3 stages.

Perry,

Your determination and unyielding drive to complete this project is an inspiration.
I particularly enjoy your problem solving and "oh that won't work, we'll just do this instead" attitude.
I can hardly wait to see it run.
Well done.

Cheers
Fred

Thanks Guys!!

A little more progress today. We trimmed another 10 thou off the spool face and got it pretty darn flat. I blued the face of the ring gear and spun it on the spool to see good contact marks all over

We bored and paired the washers on the lathe from EN40 steel stock so I now have nice hard washers !!

We re milled the bolt holes as well. But now my bolts are too short Ha Ha!!

No problem as I can call my nut and bolt guy in the morning and he will post me some 3/8 unf 12.9 grade bolts in 3/4" length to replace the 1" I have now.  

I have mounted the spool and ring gear on the table and with a dial gauge all I can find is 1 thou of error all around the mating face. And the ring gear has been checked with a feeler gauge all round to make sure there is no gap evident with the bolts just nipped up gently in sequence.  So I think I'm going in the right direction ?

Its holiday weekend coming up so on Friday I will clean everything with carb cleaner and make sure all the surfaces and holes are clean and dry. I will then bolt the items together as per Jims comments with loctite and ensure I reach the final setting of 65 ft/lbs in sequence.  On Saturday I will drop the spool in and start checking mesh on the gears so I can figure out the final figure I need for the spool bearing shims.

I have had the 1.25mm ground off the bearing retainer caps so they are now ready to install when I have re ground the wheel bearings.

I hope to have a call from Webster Racing tomorrow to say my wheel studs are in the UK as well.

And if all goes ok this weekend I may be ready for final marking and cutting the drive shafts to length?  But I do also need to tidy the garden and take lots of junk to the rubbish tip as promised to my long suffering wife.

I can now see a small glimmer of light at the end of this tunnel now. And I'm looking forward to shakedown runs by the end of May I am hoping to get back out and drop straight back into mid 9's on the 1/4 for shakedowns in the near future. And then I will be gunning for a sub 9.5 pass as my starting point on the way to that elusive 8 with the MGB.

In the meantime I have to crew for my friends Methanol slingshot on 26th as well as another friend who is rolling out his Ford Capri avec 598ci big block !!!  Should be a hoot.