mopowers
Well-Known Member
I remember reading a Spicer manual that said they are nodular iron. High nickel filler is probably best, but I migged mine with standard mig wire after preheating with mapp gas and it turned out great.
8 3/4 to Dana 60
- Thread starter cpearce
- Start date
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Why spend the time and effort to peel of .060" from the tubes?
Perches for 3.125 tubes are available from places like Calvert. Weight saving, meh, not going to be significant enough to notice. JMO having worked on this stuff over the years. Same as the Dana weighs more, car should be slower, nope, no change.
I agree with the preheat and using 7018 stick IIRC or you can try with MIG and std wire. Problem will be impurities in the cast section when you do it. Preheat pretty darn hot and try to slow cool it.
Perches for 3.125 tubes are available from places like Calvert. Weight saving, meh, not going to be significant enough to notice. JMO having worked on this stuff over the years. Same as the Dana weighs more, car should be slower, nope, no change.
I agree with the preheat and using 7018 stick IIRC or you can try with MIG and std wire. Problem will be impurities in the cast section when you do it. Preheat pretty darn hot and try to slow cool it.
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In all reality, the reason for turning it is to clean up some pitting. I agree on the weight, not really an effort to lose weight.
There is a tool that was used on one of my 8 3/4 housings where some welding was done. Tubing sander or some such thing. Fits over the tube no need to rotate the housing.
Smooth as a baby's butt.
Also
The reason you can lift a car by the center of the rear end when it's NOT an 8 3/4.
perfacar
Well-Known Member
to weld casting to steel you use 316 sst rod, 3/32 works the best. sst will weld to cast and steel, do not use 7018 or 6011, just food for thought. I was pipe fitter before, also, no need to preheat ,weld at room temperature
B-body size is 1/2” (2-1/2” vs 2”) more so housing needs to be 1/2” shorter than the 8-3/4 housing on each side if your wheels-tires fit proper now. Springs and all hookups will change over from 8-3/4 to Dana. IIRR driveshaft will be 1-3/8” shorter, might be wrong on that?!
Yes, we have size all sorted out, and axles delivered. Will be a total assembled width of .5" narrower than my assembled A body 8.75.
Welding the tubes to the housing is not a big deal if you can get the area clean enough. I have MIG welded dozens of them and you don't need any special wire or rod.
Tom
Tom
jimjimjimmy
lobsterman
If it makes you feel better you can weld them but theres no need , the tubes are a very tight friction fit and there then plug welded .
I’ve seen them break the housing too.
jimjimjimmy
lobsterman
i would think the housing would break before two plug welds would spin but i have been wrong many times before , i will start welding them in the future . Big power stick cars and slicks will find any weak points fairly quick .
the housing itself would spread open with tube going back and forth. One of my Dana’s was in a 55 Chevy street car, 350-4 speed 5.86 ratio with a spool, ladder bars. When at track he used a 10” slick and gave no mercy on that car. When I got the rear tubes were bent bad, heated up housing to close the cracks then welded housing and tubes. I cut and sliced tubes till they were straight again, once welded and ground one couldn’t tell it had been abused. It’s now under my 72 Cuda, was a 70 GTX rear. I made up my housing jig a long time ago, easy to check using that. I had bought the rear for the spool-axels to use in my 64 Savoy.
jimjimjimmy
lobsterman
would you have a pic or three of the jig you use .
weedburner
Well-Known Member
I'm glad I didn't weld the tubes on this rear, if I had there would likely have been far more damage to the car itself. This was the result of a near head-on collision with a Tundra...
This was the typical 3" tube that was pressed in with 4 plug welds. These cars are 4 link from the factory, but I had removed the upper links and installed a torque arm to control housing rotation. If the tube had not spun in the housing, the brackets would have likely been ripped off the chassis...
Here you can see the bent tube as well as how far it spun...
Downside was that when the tube spun, it also ripped the brake line off.
With ladder bars, traction bars, or a 4 link controlling housing rotation from the tubes, I weld the tubes. But with a torque arm or active pinion snubber controlling rotation on the housing itself, I usually don't bother.
I don't have a pic of my rear alignment jig in a rear, but I do have a pic of it being used to align an engine block with a transmission case while I was fabbing up a bellhousing...
It's basically a long solid steel 1-1/2" dia shaft, with machined steel pucks that fit in the bearing bores.
Grant
This was the typical 3" tube that was pressed in with 4 plug welds. These cars are 4 link from the factory, but I had removed the upper links and installed a torque arm to control housing rotation. If the tube had not spun in the housing, the brackets would have likely been ripped off the chassis...
Here you can see the bent tube as well as how far it spun...
Downside was that when the tube spun, it also ripped the brake line off.
With ladder bars, traction bars, or a 4 link controlling housing rotation from the tubes, I weld the tubes. But with a torque arm or active pinion snubber controlling rotation on the housing itself, I usually don't bother.
I don't have a pic of my rear alignment jig in a rear, but I do have a pic of it being used to align an engine block with a transmission case while I was fabbing up a bellhousing...
It's basically a long solid steel 1-1/2" dia shaft, with machined steel pucks that fit in the bearing bores.
Grant
jimjimjimmy
lobsterman
thats damn nice , your giving me ideas is that 3/16 mild steel ?
@cpearce
There is a bunch of talk right now about making the D60 stronger.
What are your plans for the car once finished?
How much HP do you plan to run?
Standard tires or slicks?
There is a bunch of talk right now about making the D60 stronger.
What are your plans for the car once finished?
How much HP do you plan to run?
Standard tires or slicks?
4 speed, slicks, 600HP.
In the process of narrowing and modifying, I thought it would be a good time to have welded. This may be overkill, but I wish to have all of the housing modifications done before powder coating it.
My thoughts is to run strut rods from each end to a bridge affair on the cover (out about 8”) with heim joints to keep housing from bending forward.
A little more progress. Axle tubes have been turned down to clean up the surfaces of any pitting. Cuts have been made to correct length, with a chamferred cut. Initial mock-up shows we got the lengths correct in relation to the axles. Things are coming along nicely.
A suggestion, set the housing vertical when you weld the ends on.
Please, tell me more.
There’ll be slop even in the tightest jigs, I move mine around to find the center (1/8” sometime) it gets the axel splines to ride centered in the carrier. Think of a 1/4” rod in a 3/8” hole setting horizontal. The other important part is getting the bearing square on the end.
33IMP
Well-Known Member
5.86?!? WTF?
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