New rear axle for my chase car

No pictures, but I got my 3rd member back from the mechanic on Monday. Wednesday I bought the new wheel bearing and inner seals (should they be called outer seals?). Last night I shortened the axles slightly, 1/8 to 3/16" even though they probably didn't need it. And this morning I brough the axles and bearings to work, so a guy back in the shop can take them home this weekend and press the new bearings and retains on.

-Jon

http://gearboxmagazine.com/2012/06/carlos-the-adventure-celica/

Fun article on the Celica and a bit about me.

-Jon

Big update of sorts. I got all except for the panhard bar bracket welded onto the axle housing. I still have to design and build that bracket. But all the Ballistic Fab brackets I had custom made worked out amazingly well. I should have the axle done and into the car by the end of this weekend, I'm hoping anyways. Then comes the interesting part, having a custom driveshaft built. I'm trying to decided, stick with the two piece set-up, which gives me a bit more ground clearance, or convert it to a one piece shaft, which simplifies things a bit, but might take a rock hit or two when trail driving..?

-Jon





And a big thanks to Ballistic Fab...

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Carl S

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john vanlandingham
which reminds me, Alperti: where's your gawddam Toiletta halfshafts?

Are you doing some of those soon? I should send you mine so you can do them at the same time. I bought an astro van last week, and as soon as I finish changing the intake gaskets I'll drive it and start tearing apart my volvo.

Carl send them out and then do like in old cartoons: get a boxing glove and a big ass spring shove them into a box, taped it up and mail it to Alperti Kunkanen with a note stickied saying "Git On it".

See? When he opens it, he'll get the message.
...so I can do his same time

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/2012 11:01AM by john vanlandingham.

The last bit of fabrication done, the Uber strong panhard bar mount...

-Jon

Yeah.
Über über.

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Quote
john vanlandingham
Yeah.
Über über.

It needed the european strength, when it's leaning on 27" tall tires every corner...

Holy beeftacular mount!

You'll bend the boulder before that thing shifts.

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.

Two piece driveline = one more ujoint/failure point. Pillow block and mount to deal with and a slip joint on the back half. Slightly longer time to change out trans/clutch. Ultimately you still have the a chance of rock damage either way.

I'd guess some of it would depend on how much travel the rear axle has and how the driveline/transmission will deal with the compression/extension of the driveline.

Yeah, tough call, but not too tough at this point. When I first built the car, super soft suspension, it was great at rock crawling. Now, with the stiffer suspesion, it's only fair at rock crawling and more suited to high speed driving, like a rally car. So, a 1 piece shaft will probably be the easiest, cheapest, most trouble free solution at this point. If that .5% of the time I do have to rock crawl, and I hit the driveshaft with rocks, then I'll reconsider at that time whether or not to change back to a 2 piece.

-Jon

And a fresh coat of OEM style satin black to make it look like Toyota might just have made the axle this way, just for me...

-Jon

Jon did you notice any "pulling " or tweaking in the tubes when you were done zotting on all the brackets and mountie bits?

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Quote
john vanlandingham
Jon did you notice any "pulling " or tweaking in the tubes when you were done zotting on all the brackets and mountie bits?

I was going to ask about a truss also. JV has had some good pics in the past.

No, nothing I can see at all. If you dig back into my cars build history, the first axle got a 2" tall truss welded nearly the whole length of it, like a trophy truck. That axle had no chamber of toe issues at all. 6-7K miles on it, no funny handling, no funny tire wear. The housing seems to be thick enough and the weld areas spread far enough apart, that it's just not moving the metal around. I tend to weld up the brackets in stages too, giving some cooling time before I put TOO much heat in one area.
Can't wait to get this in the car, and back in the dirt for testing!!

-Jon

From this -


To this -


in just a few HOT hours of work. I got the car loaded up on the trailer and ready to take to the driveshaft shop.

-Jon