TireSmoke.org

Rearend out... it's nice having nuts, bolts, and brake lines just come apart... no rust, no heat, no breaking.





-BP

Paul, drag 'em up to Stan's shop - we'll cut the daylights out of them!!!!


Racin'Jacin

I'm going to set it up on stands and take a few more measurements. Then I'll take the pumpkin out so it's easier to handle. At that point I'll holler at you guys. I'm thinking I'll be doing that on Saturday sometime... I really want to tear the 9" down too.

Thanks for the offer, I'll be taking you up on it.

-BP

Tonight I'll be picking up a different 9" for the Caddy. A local oval track guy had a 9" made for his 73 LeMans race car. It has 31 spline HD axles with bigger studs (two sets), 5 x 5 bolt pattern, complete brakes (a little smaller than the Caddy's, but should be ok for a drag strip pass), and a 3.50 gear with a mini-spool. You can see this thing is built up to take some serious abuse. He used it one season and went to a different class.

I'm not too sure about the mini-spool, but it will be good enough to get it all set up and see if I like the gear. I'll still have to cut off the brackets that are on it, but it's the exact width (according to my tape measure) that the existing Caddy rear is.

I'll post pictures when it's home. Another good thing is that it's about 5 minutes from my house.

-BP

Here's a few shots of the rearend. Funny, I didn't notice the writing on the back until I got it home. "How will I know which wallet is yours?" ... "It's the one that says, 'Bad Mother F**ker' ".

Jacin, you're the expert of the group, tell me what you think about what you see in the pics:















-BP

Paul, No expert, but I'll throw my 2 cents in!!

I believe that the artwork is a keeper!

The housing appears to be the Heavy Duty truck version - which should have the 3.25" axle tubes which are also thicker (3/16 wall IIRC)

The "pumpkin" appears to be the standard (medium) duty variety. Being possibly truck it may have the bigger side bearing - measure those and we can be sure. The pinion support is the "better" of the medium duty versions but is not the "daytona" support. In your caddy - if it was me I'd be upgrading to the daytona support. It is supposed to be much stronger than the previous versions.

There are lots of upgrade paths available depending on how crazy you want to get. If I was you I'd probably try out what you got to determine if the ratio is what you want. Then I'd round up some "killer" parts -Factory "N" case - if you want budget - A Strange Case isn't really all that crazy & gives you additional upgrade options as in bigger bearings -for bigger splines & again depending on how crazy you wanna go. I've got a Strange Case in the digger with "bigger" bearings to accommodate the 35 spline axles - I think they use an even larger bearing for the 40 spline axles. I'd definitely add the Daytona support - sooner the better. Lots of guys suggest that the pinion support gains you the best "bang for your buck" strength wise and often is the LAST upgrade when it ought to be the first. We can talk at length if you wanna get bored.


Racin'Jacin

This weekend I cut all the mounts off the new 9". This week I'm going to buy a hand grinder and smooth out some of the leftover welds. There's a bunch of them since the guy that put the rearend together went weld crazy on the top mounts.






-BP

So after being sidetracked for awhile, I finally got all the mounts off the Caddy rearend. Next weekend I'm going to try to start tacking this thing together. I also think an aluminum driveshaft from an F-250 like mine will be pretty close in size (still need to final measure) which will help lighten things up quite a bit.

Here's a couple shots:








-BP

Well, two months later and I'm getting a lot closer. I should have all the welding done by next weekend. Still need to fab up some extensions for the upper mounts, but at least they're in the right locations. Just need a little beefing up.
Fast87 says there's a guy on the west side of Cleveland that will make any alum driveshaft for $400.

Maybe I'll be driving by July...

-BP

It's finally IN the car. I still need to hook up brake lines, shocks, and then get a driveshaft made. The wheel studs are 5/8" so my Weld wheels that are pictured won't work on the car for driving. The lugnuts need a shank that goes down inside the rim, and there's no room for that with the huge studs. I think a set of slightly modified steel rims would work fine.








-BP

Those wheels look sweet on that thing!

I agree. They look great, but they would surely tip off that there's something more lurking underneath the covers.

I also noticed that the artwork has been painted over.

Will the skirts fit with those wheels on? Might make a good picture if nothing else.

-Dave

I love the way the wheels look too. I think if they were 15 x 7 I'd even be able to use the 275-60 tires too. I may try to find smaller wheel studs eventually too, but I'm looking to get it on the road first.

I'll try to put a skirt on it this weekend. I bet it will look great.

I thought the artwork was too much for a Cadillac. If it was on the Trans Am, maybe...

-BP

The V badge is a giveaway too. Not to mention the exhaust sound.