Messages

1

Dan Dishon's Transmission Den / Re: Good Powerglide Build Book?

« on: November 27, 2021, 06:06:02 AM »

First of all I would like to apologize for the terrible picture quality that I posted, I hope that these are better. I’m going to blame it on poor lighting in the trailer.
 I’m adding some new pictures and a couple of sketches.
 The steel plate is shaped like an upside down letter U which is attached to the frame and the 8 3/4 rear end carrier is for anti-rotation. The coupling cover is wrapped 3/4 around and welded to it and the shifter arm assembly are attached to that. With the reverse lockout on the shift lever and neutral safety switch it should meet most rule requirements.

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Dan Dishon's Transmission Den / Re: Good Powerglide Build Book?

« on: November 07, 2021, 12:21:03 PM »

If you are considering making your own shifter the tube style that I made for my dragster has worked flawlessly. It’s fairly simple, mounted on the eight and three-quarter rear end and connected with just a little bit of linkage, no cables. It’s operated with one hand and I can disengage the reverse lockout with my thumb. Actually it is a shifter, anti-rotation plate and coupling cover in one.

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Your Builds / Photo Gallery / Re: Tube Notcher

« on: September 18, 2020, 04:19:38 PM »

 I’m calling the machine a "center line tube notcher", which is the principal on which it is to function. Attached is a photo of some of the parts that I have for the notcher. A 6 inch three jaw chuck, looks like I’m going to have to bore out the thru hole so I can insert a 2 inch diameter tube also a 2 x 5“ channel that I had made up and it will be the base of the machine. A ball screw and matching ball nut that should give me precise z-axis positioning , an acme screw for the cross slide, a couple of aluminum hand wheels and a bunch of bronze bushings and some ball bearings. A rotary encoder for a digital position readout and finally my notebook with drawings and notes for the build. Looks like I only need to machine up about 40 parts and I'll be good. LOL

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Your Builds / Photo Gallery / Re: Tube Notcher

« on: September 15, 2020, 01:31:26 PM »

So, the design I’m working on would be like a small lathe with a small 3 jaw chuck at one end to hold the tube and a carriage that you could move with a drill and hole saw cutter mounted to it. I would like to think that it could cut a notched tube to 40 inches or so out of a full length of tubing, no rough cutting to length. It would cut at a range of angles and have precise positioning, I have purchased a number of parts and pieces for it and hopefully it’ll work as planned.

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Your Builds / Photo Gallery / Re: Tube Notcher

« on: September 15, 2020, 01:14:09 PM »

Thanks Paul. My problem is that the tube notcher that I would like doesn’t seem to exist, except for some very expensive plasma tube cutters. Most notchers cut one end and then you try to made the second end to the correct length and clocked right with a "Sharpie Marker"! What I would like to be able to do is cope one end reposition and cope the second end and be complete. This could be done with a vertical mill on short tubes but once you change the angle of the head you have lost your position. So my goal is to make a notcher that would do this, but keep the cost reasonable and make it not too complicated (sometimes that’s a real challenge for me) LOL.

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Your Builds / Photo Gallery / Re: Tube Notcher

« on: September 14, 2020, 02:46:19 PM »

 A few years ago I was giving serious thought to building a replacement chassis for my old front end dragster. After doing a bunch of research it look like the FED build would actually be three projects. (1) make a chassis jig, (2) cut the tube ends for near perfect fit and (3) finally assembling & welding the chassis. The chassis jigs mostly seemed overly complicated in order to assist in measuring and the fitting of the tubes. In the machine shop we referred to this as "file and fit at final assembly" (that is sarcasm).
 That brings me back to the tube notching operation, in my mind I should be able to take a precise measurement and then cut the tube for a precise joint. In fact all the tubes could be precut from a detailed drawing, but that may be stretching a little bit. So my first project I’d like to share if there’s no objection is the building of a new type of tube notcher. After all we know the world needs another tube notcher.

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Front Engine Dragsters / Re: Potential FED Build

« on: January 20, 2020, 04:38:30 PM »

Wow! I didn,t see that one coming. Bye bye

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Front Engine Dragsters / Re: Potential FED Build

« on: January 19, 2020, 07:43:58 PM »

I don't remember having a problem with brake fade but I do use the chute most of the time. What I do remember was the first time at the track with this car. I couldn't stage or hold it in staging lights without it creeping which really got the starter POed at me. Anyhow (here is the tip) I changed the master cylinder to a smaller bore 3/4 or 7/8, put larger wheel cylinders from the front of a AMC and got rid of the metalic linings. After that no problems, I only changed to disc a few years ago to get rid of all that weight of the drums backing plates etc.

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Front Engine Dragsters / Re: Potential FED Build

« on: January 19, 2020, 02:05:41 PM »

Lynn
I did receive your email and took a few days to reply, hope you did get the answers to your questions. That being said, you mentioned that the 8 3/4 that you have has 10 x 2 1/2 brakes and respline the axles. Do you plan to use the drum brakes, if so I have a few suggestions if your interested. I'm saying that as a budget builder who had to make a lot of parts rather than buy them.

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Front Engine Dragsters / Re: Potential FED Build

« on: January 12, 2020, 05:06:09 PM »

First time on the forum. Anyhow my spare 8 3/4 chuck measures 11 5/16 from axle center to the end of the pinion thread, hope that will help. My dragster is 145 inch wb with the motor out 31 inches, the motor center line dumps down about 7 degrees. I believe it to be a mid 60's dragster but it was a bare bones used chassis when I bought it. It now has a 8 3/4 rear end, shorty glide, hand brake and the driver sits low in the seat. I have had over 40 years of fun with this car at the local strip