December 2009 Archives

I left for St Louis yesterday morning at 5:30 am. Roads were wet and slick all the way to Chicago so I kept it at 50-55mph getting passed by trucks the whole way. I turned onto I55 and headed south to St Louis. About 30 miles out of Joliet, without any warning at all, the rear of the truck washed out and turned me to the right. I corrected for the skid but it was too far gone. I felt the trailer jack-knife the rear of the truck and it was pushing me down the road at right angles to the road at 50 mph. I hit the manual over-ride on the electric brake controller for the trailer brakes and when the trailer wheels grabbed it jerked the truck straight. The whole rig moved to the left and I felt an impact but thought it was the force of the trailer brakes. I eased into the truck brakes and got everything stopped on the left shoulder of the highway. At that time I looked in the rear view and saw the tractor trailer into the side of the trailer and I realized with a sinking feeling that we had collided.

The trucker was from Michigan also and had seen the whole thing. He kept saying "You were totally jacked man". He was travelling with his young son who was sitting up in the cab freaked out and crying, no doubt from seeing my trailer coming rushing at him across the highway. We were not alone in our Ice-capades as there was a woman in a pickup stuck in the medien after spinning three times. She also stated there was another spin out but they had a 4x4 and avoided getting stuck.

I moved the trailer further off the highway as the traffic was still screaming past and we were concerned about someone else spinning out and colliding with us. The trucks front bumper had scraped down the side of my trailer starting at the front axle and ending at the rear door, with the worst damage to the left rear wheel and left rear siding. I jacked up the trailer and put on the spare wheel but it looked as though the axle had been bent as the wheel was angled out at the front compared to the front axle. Plus all the aluminum siding was hanging off. 200 miles from home, 200 miles to go, and 400 miles back with a fully loaded trailer. I was not looking good.

About 30 minutes later the salt trucks had gone by (thanks but too late) and the first cop arrived. He made sure everyone was OK but he was out of his jurisdiction so we had to wait another hour for the next cop who was in his jurisdiction. He had us move to the right shoulder of the highway were we sat for more than 1 hour. I later learned that the truckers name came up as a wanted felon but it was apparently a case of mistaken identity and he was not arrested to my knowledge.

3 hours later the police had finished their paperwork, I was cited for "Improper use of lane" to the tune of $75 to be paid via mail. At this time they allowed me to proceed and I headed to the nearest truck and trailer repair shop south of Odell Ill at Exit 201. I got there without the tire exploding and they spent 20 minutes checking out the axles and chassis and installing 6 screws to keep the siding from flapping about. I was charged $41. Even the mechanic was embarrassed by the amount and apologized but his boss had no sense of humor when I commented on how expensive his screws were. Compare this experience to the one we had in Seymour Indiana where we had a flat tire repaired for free because we were out of towner's needing help. Makes me want to buy a John Mellencamp CD.

They also recommended I head back to Michigan with an empty trailer but I was committed so I continued on regardless. I stopped several times over the next 200 miles to check the tires but they were not wearing excessively nor overheating so I continued on. Plan B was to abandon the trailer or find a scrap yard to sell it to, and rent a trailer to bring the Ute back on.
I was in constant contact with the seller so when I arrived 2 hours late it was no surprise. He was also meeting some guys from Bowling Green Kentucky at the same place to sell them a pro-mod chassis and as it happens they arrived within 5 minutes of me. I loaded up the Ute and drove 35 miles north on I55 to the Super 8 in Staunton Ill where I had a room booked. Again the tires seemed to be travelling fine. I arrived there at about 7:30pm and went almost immediately to sleep as I'd been on the road for almost 14 hours.

Next morning it was cold (4F) but the roads were dry and I made good time. Every time a truck passed me it buffeted the trailer in such a way that I now believe that my rig jack-knifed due a combination of ice and the truck I ultimately collided with trying to pass me at 70mph, way above the 55mph speed limit. Of course this idea appeared to late to suggest it to the police and probably would not have changed the outcome anyway. The rest of the trip was uneventful, the spare tire held up (I did have two spares just in case) and I got home about 3pm, in about half the travel time as Day 1.

More information about the Ute as I make room in the garage for it and unload it from the trailer.

I spoke to the seller of the HQ Ute yesterday and he had an interesting drive from Texas to Springfield MO in bad weather, nearly wiping out several times on ice. But he assures me the Ute is safe and undamaged in his enclosed trailer and the current plan is to meet tomorrow (Monday) at the truck stop opposite Gateway International Raceway just outside St Louis MO. I decided to take my enclosed trailer instead of the open one to keep the Ute from the elements and getting covered in snow, ice and salt.

My enclosed trailer is really a 20 ft construction trailer that I traded an old RV for several years ago. It's been great for extra storage space and being a trailer the City can't hassle me. I did have to buy two new tires for it and I'll be carrying two spares just in case. I'm going to try and do the trip down and back in a day but I'm prepared to spend the night somewhere if I get tired or my co-driver can't make it for some reason.

With all the brackets tacked in place I removed the housing from the car and set it up on the welding table. Finish welding the brackets is not hard but there are a few things to keep in mind.

Weld a little at a time. Even though we are dealing with 1/4" thick plate and tubing, excessive heat can still warp the tubes. Refer to your welders chart for the correct heat and wire speed, take your time and weld about 1" at a time and alternate sides.

Leave the rod ends bolted in when you weld. Because you can only reach the outsides of the brackets with the welder, the weld is going to want to spread the brackets apart when it cools. Leaving the rod ends and bolts in place prevents the weld from pulling the brackets.

Use the supplied boxing strips. The Chassis Engineering ladder bar brackets come with boxing strips that attach across the brackets, leaving reliefs for the rod ends. Some bending and forming is required here to wrap the strips around the brackets. I started welding at one end of the strip and used the BFH (Hammer) to form the strips to the brackets. I prefer to use the "stitch" weld method here as its easier to control and gives a TIG type look to the weld. The stitch method involves a series of short weld "bursts" moving along the seam.

Note also the bottom brace which is 1-3/8" .120 wall DOM tubing from Alro Steel. Alro sells "drops" of DOM tubing for $1.89/lb (prices vary with the market) and have a wide selection of sizes.

I had just enough gas in the bottle to finish the housing so I'm done for the day. Finish welding the frame will have to wait until I have recharged the welding gas.

Been a few weeks since my last post, spent mainly at work and waiting for the rear end to arrive. I picked it up from Lanes and it is a gorgeous piece, full welded with housing ends and back brace. I set the housing up at ride height (half the tire diameter 14.5") on jack stands and assembled the ladder bars. Lay the ladder bars on top of each other with the bolts through the rod ends and adjust until they are exactly the same length. Then install the brackets and bolt the front rod end to the frame. Use a square to reference the outside of the frame rail and center the housing in the chassis. Make a mark referencing the outside frame rail on the housing, I used a plumb bob for this, then measure 3/8" to the inside and mark again. The second mark is where the outside ladder bar bracket lines up. I found it useful to zip tie the bracket to the housing to keep it in place while you square it up and tack in place.

Diagonal Link

The diagonal link locates the housing and prevents side to side movement. It does the same job as a panhard bar, but because corner forces are not an issue for a straight line car, we can use the diagonal link instead. Chassis Engineering sells a bolt in kit specifically for their ladder bars (3/4" bracket up front, 5/8" bracket out back). Unfortunately, the bar is only 35" long and because of my wider frame width (34") it was not long enough. I had to add 2-3/4" to the center of it using some scrap tubing.

Shock Mounts

With the ladder bars and diagonal link installed, time to install the upper and lower shock mounts. Chassis engineering sells a "mock-shock jig" that is basically a dummy coil over shock. Lanes doesn't stock them so I made my own from some 1/2" DOM tubing drops from Alro Steel. I got lucky as the same tubing was exactly the size I needed to extend the diagonal link. The Strange single adjustable shocks are 17" fully extended and 12" fully compressed so I took a swag at the shock length at ride height and made them 14" long. You want to make sure they are both the same length and that the T's are square to the body. Use the shock jigs to assemble the upper and lower mount brackets. Cut the upper mount crossmember to a snug fit between the frame rails and use a zip tie to attach the upper mount brackets to the crossmember. Chassis engineering recommend leaning back the shocks 5 degrees to allow for up and down housing movement, use an angle finder to achieve this. The centerline of the shocks should be 2" from the inside of the frame rail. Mark the upper crossmember 2" in from the frame rail and use a square to transfer the mark to the housing. With the lower bracket square to the housing and vertical to the floor tack it in place on the mark. Tack the upper brackets to the crossmember. I found it easier to remove the crossmember and finish weld the brackets on my welding table. I then reinstalled the crossmember with the brackets installed, reassembled the shock brackets, checked the shock angle and tacked the crossmember to the frame rails.

No this is not a post about Britney Spears. It seems I have found another Holden for sale in the US that I just have to have. What should pop up on Ebay the other day but a 1973 Holden HQ Ute located in Texas. The Ute has had a Chevy 350 TBI and 4L60e transplant and although the body and interior are a little on the rough side, the price was right and the seller offered to meet me in St Louis, Louis. This was a sign from the car gods that I was destined to own the Ute as both of the Holdens I already own were purchased from Michaels Motorcycles in St Louis.

Deposit is paid and the exchange is to take place the day after Christmas, or Boxing Day.

I was surprised to see how affordable new fabricated 9" housing are these days. There are several companies that manufacture them for around $530 for the bare housing. Add housing ends and a back brace and you're looking at $730, all welded up to your width. Sure you can find a used 9" for much less, but by the time you buy housing ends, a back brace, cut off all the old brackets, have it shortened and re-welded, you're not much better off and may still have bent axle tubes.

So how do you determine the housing width? You start with your wheel to wheel width, in my case 48". Subtract the axle offset and brake drum or disk width multiplied by two, and you have your housing width.

Housing Ends

Several styles of housing ends are available, shown in the diagram. The most popular of these are the older large bearing Ford. Really the only considerations here are size of bearing and choice of brakes. I'll be going with the older large Ford ends which have a 3.150" bearing and loads of brake options.

Axle Offset

Manufacturers offer several styles of housing ends which all have different offsets. The offset is the distance from the flange (where the wheel mounts) to the outer edge of the housing. S&W Racecars has excellent instructions for their universal backhalf kits that includes all the popular housing ends and their offsets on the last page.

Pinion Offset

In some cases you will need to account for offset in the driveline by setting the pinion centerline off center. For instance, factory big block installations in 2nd gen Camaros are offset 1" to the passenger side probably for steering clearance. In my case, I have zero pinion offset as my engine and trans are centered on the chassis centerline.

My Calculations

Depending on who you talk to, the axle offset for the old large ford axles is either 2.25" (S&W), 2.36" (Chassis Engineering) or 2.375" (Moser Engineering). As Moser are the people supplying my axles, I went with their offset number. Note that either number will only account for a maximum of 1/4" difference in width. I also know the thickness of the Wilwood disk brake hats that I'll be using, 1/8". So my formula is:

Overall Width - 2 x (axle offset + brake thickness) = Housing Width

48" - 2 x (2.375" + 0.125") = 43"

Knowing this I completed the order form from Chassis Engineering and faxed it to Rich at Lane Automotive. It should be ready to pick up next week!

Today the rear frame rails got installed. This was another day of meticulous measuring, checking and double checking, culminating with tacking the frame rails in (hopefully) exactly the right place. The first thing you need to determine is outside to outside frame rail width. Chassis Engineering recommends allowing 1" clearance from the inside tire sidewalls, so measure this distance and subtract 2". Mine came to almost 37" so I rounded down and subtracted 2 to arrive at 34" outside to outside width. This is quite a lot wider than the welded kits which come in 24", 26" and 28" widths. Having the widest width possible gives the car greater stability so 34" it is.

As with the crossmember I cut 6x6" 1/8" plate to give the rear of the frame rail something solid to attach to. 9 holes for plug welds were drilled for additional weld area. Measuring 17" from the center of the boot latch gave me an approximate idea of where the plates should go. Seam sealer scrapes of much easier if you heat it with a propane or acetylene torch first, trying to sand it off just clogs up your sandpaper.

The metal on the rear valance is pretty thin so be careful with the welder. I burned through a couple of times before getting the heat right. Concentrate the arc on the thicker metal and dip down to the thinner metal. The weld penetrated through to the back of the valance burning the paint, so this area will have to be repainted but its black and under the bumper so a good soaking with a spray can should do the trick.

Mark the crossmember with the outside dimension, in my case 34". Measure 17" from the chassis centerline and use a square to transfer that measurement to the crossmember. The outside of each rail will line up on this mark.

Trimming the rails to fit took the most time. There is no easy way to measure as they mount higher at the back than the front. So trim a little at a time until you get a snug fit and they don't move without a little dead blow persuasion. The rear of the rail has to mount between 23" and 27" from the floor as measured from the top of the rail. In my case I have them at 24 1/4". Using a plumb bob check the position of the rails at exactly 17" from the centerline to the outside edge. Measure diagonally for squareness. Check that the rails are vertical. Check and check again. When you're dead sure things are square, parallel, vertical, the correct width and centered on the chassis centerline, TACK the rail in place. Tack only, finish welding will take place after everything is installed and double-triple checked.

In keeping with the Miller theme, my MIG welder is also from them. It is a Millermatic DVI which can switch 115 or 230 single phase power. The link is to the DVI2, mine is an older model but same features. Its a nice welder and can weld up to 3/8" plate.

I've had it several years now and it has never given me any trouble. I am going to need a new bottle of gas soon however.

This is probably the most critical part of the job as far as measuring goes. The front of the new crossmember has to be 38" from the axle centerline, and exactly square in the chassis. Unbelievably this took me all day. I had to re-establish the axle centerline because if the new wheels and tires, then I lasered out the centerline of the chassis.

Rather than welding the crossmember directly to the rockers (as shown in the video), I cut some 1/8" plate steel and welded it to the rockers first. This gives a solid and flat mounting point to anchor the crossmember to. The six holes are for plug welds that provide extra weld area. I boxed in the area where the plate crosses to the pinch weld.

After carefully measuring the distance between the two plates I first cut a piece of scrap 1x2 box tubing to check fit, which came up a bit short because I didn't compensate for the sawblade width. The bandsaw is excellent for making clean precision cuts, but even its thin blade has to be considered. To mark the crossmember for cutting, first find the center of the crossmember. Then measure from the center to either end using half the total width. Make it about a 1/16 longer to ensure a snug fit.

After marking the rockers at 38" forward from the axle centerline, the crossmember went in with some minor persuasion from the dead blow, and lined up the front edge with my marks. Use a square and a level and take your time to ensure its in right. I placed it a 9" from the floor, and inch above ride height. The video recommends setting it at ride height (measured from the bottom of the rocker, not the pinch weld) but because of the different construction of the Monaro that would have placed the crossmember to low on the rockers. There is enough adjustment in the ladder bars and coilovers for up to 6" of ride height adjustment so 1" is not going cause any issues. A couple of heavy tacks with the welder and it was time for dinner. Where did the day go?