It seems to me, with the theme of this build, you need a welded diff. LOL
It seems to me, with the theme of this build, you need a welded diff. LOL
In reply to Crackers:
I've been thinking about it but frankly it doesn't make enough steam down low to really blaze the tires, and the car is SUPER mild to drive around town, so it probably won't get welded anytime soon. Although leaving 11's is always cooler than a single little stripe.
If you do opt to weld up the diff, PLEASE post lots of photos and an explanation of how you did it. I have a narrowed Ford open rear end for my MGA project and would dearly like to weld it up.
There are also "lead lockers" where molten lead is poured into the housing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqDw1rsFNhU
This has a fair amount of hillbilly charm for me and kinda smacks of the dirty underside of grass roots engineering.
I've heard arguments and counter arguments regarding welding the differential. Seems to work best on a track car or a very light weight street car, although there is testimony from folks who've driven them on the street in moderately heavy cars as well. Stay out of tight parking spaces and all that.
In reply to TeamEvil:
There you go again commenting on a build thread
LOL
I just wanted to say this build is freaking spectacular. This thing oozes character!
"There you go again commenting on a build thread"
I just can't RESIST on this build, it's SO damned COOL ! ! ! ! Everything that I want and love in a car but don't know how to do for myself.
It just ROCKS ! ! ! !
Welded diffs tend to cause understeer on turn-in for track cars that then switches to oversteer once you can get it pointed somewhere near the apex and start to put power down. Fun to drive, if not annoying at times when you can't seem to get it turned in without slowing excessively on corner entry, so your gains on corner exit can sometimes be negated by the corner entry speeds.
The welded diffs also tend to transfer a lot of load to the axle shafts, often causing premature failure.
Its better then nothing, especially if one is fighting for traction exiting a corner and can work around the initial turn-in issues. Honestly though, factory limited slips are still fairly inexpensive and available for most American solid axles.
To weld one up, most simply pull the pumpkin and degrease it thoroughly and dial up the welder to quite high, tack the areas where the gear teeth mesh on both sides of the differential and then finish with a good bead on both sides. Its not a bad idea to replace seals and bearings while you've got it apart, but that's up to you.
Pre heating will go a long way in making the welds last as well. Once you get it good and hot, weld away, and keep going while its getting hotter from the welding. Its a seriously big chunk of metal your trying to stick together and when its cold the welds will break in short order....
Im with Stefan, get a LSD is one is available.
In reply to jrh2009:
Thanks! The car definitely has character.
I found this on the inside of one of the doorpanels, it's hard to see but it says "8/26/96 we put this car door together Dad and Sarah" At one point a father & daughter must have been working on the thing together which is pretty cool.
In reply to TeamEvil:
Thanks! I appreciate the compliments! I'll keep you in mind if I ever decide to sell ;)
I've had street cars with welded diffs before. They're completely stupid, and glorious, especially in 4500# vehicles sporting a cammed 350 and 4:56's. 
Oh, to be 19 again. LOL
I might have a welded spare diff for my wagon, being easy to swap and all. 
Did Gunchsta lose his mind with the ground issue and burn the car for insurance purposes??
Did the modest fame of GRM Readers ride of the week go to his head and the car is on a transporter heading to Jay Leno's collection for an exorbitant sum of money?!?
Tune in next time when we find out the answers to these and other mysteries!
Just kidding- It's right here in the driveway no longer grounded, but more well grounded.
It even got vacuumed because it was behaving well on it's trip to pick this 1963 Ford Fairlane up with my Dad.
And here's the "fix". New positive terminal without the cheezy side post to top post adapter, and a new ground direct to body.
Seems to be the cure, and I'm basing that on the positive terminal no longer being warm to the touch. I will add more grounds in the engine bay, but none of the ground straps I bought, or the wiring I had sitting at home had large enough holes to bolt where I wanted them to go. Go figure.
Thanks for tuning in!
[rude comment overload]
Is your entire part of the universe(surrounding area) littered with these mind boggling mid sixties' pretties ?
In reply to Crackers:
??? Do elaborate.
In reply to 759NRNG:
No actually 60's cars in Minnesota are generally overpriced and rusty, my Dad and I just seem to get lucky. Or peruse craigslist incessantly. Probably the latter.
I find lubrication solves the small hole problem. With ample lube and the appropriate sweet talk, you can mount them anywhere you want.
[I really am a child]
In reply to Gunchsta:
Any chance you could share the pic of the signed and dated door panel with the person you got the car from? If it was in her family back then, it could be a cool memento for someone. :-)
Then again, "Sarah" could have been "Dad"s side piece and you might stir up a hornet's nest of failed therapy. :-(
In reply to Crackers:
Hah! There are some really good (bad) ground jokes/innuendos in this thread.
In reply to AngryCorvair:
I certainly could, although I was under the impression the girl I got it from (not named Sarah) bought it from some dealer and didn't have much personal association with the car. Also if Sarah was Dad's side action and he signed it "Dad" I'm not sure I want to know what was going on there.
This has taken a dark turn.
Awesome project!
I chased similar electrical problems and also added grounds and changed out a bunch of stuff, including the positive battery cable and starter relay, but was still having strange electrical issues.
I would disconnect the electrical connections at the bulkhead and spray half a can of electrical contact cleaner in both ends. I have a '68 and if they're anything like mine they will be badly corroded. Mine ran black as I was cleaning them out. Once I cleaned them out, all electrical gremlins were exorcised.
Also, consider bypassing the ammeter in the dash:
http://www.madelectrical.com/electricaltech/amp-gauges.shtml
In reply to funknut:
Thanks for the heads up- so far everything seems to be hunky dory. Good point about the bulkhead connections though, seems like a fairly often overlooked problem spot.
Crackers...tsk tsk tsk .....you've been a very bad boy at gunchsta's expense .....time out for yu
Will be watching this, because Dart buddy.
My 65 GT is not nearly as nice, though it will get V8 power instead of a turbo slant, but don't think the thought didn't cross my mind.
Gunchsta wrote: In reply to Crackers: ??? Do elaborate. In reply to 759NRNG: No actually 60's cars in Minnesota are generally overpriced and rusty, my Dad and I just seem to get lucky. Or peruse craigslist incessantly. Probably the latter.
That dodge van in the background is awesome, there are exactly 0 of those still around out here.
Sub par update time!
So I'm fickle. Like very fickle. The car was up for sale, some people came and looked at it, I tried to trade it for a 53 Mercury... long story short it's still in my possession and I still intend to play with it and learn from it. Since we last talked I added another ground from the bellhousing to the body, and put a roof rack on it (which I also removed already. Fickle, remember?). Last night after not trading it for the 53 Mercury I decided to try something I had wanted to do for a while, which was "convert" my carb to a 2 barrel. If you remember I've been running this 225 cubic inch engine on a 770 cfm Holley carburetor- way more than it could possibly need. So last night I removed the vacuum diaphragm and all the linkages for the secondaries (I also removed the electric choke that wasn't hooked up) effectively making my carb a 2 barrel. Don't worry, I was sure to securely zip-tie the secondaries closed so they don't flutter open and cause a lean condition. No pictures of this catastrophe but trust me it exists.
Went for a little drive in my PJ's after these 'mods' (this was all at like 9:15 last night as I was getting ready for bed) and the butt dyno tells me a solid 7-12 horsepower increase going to the smaller carb. It also seems to come into boost quicker as well. The idle circuit seems to want a hair more fuel now so I'll fiddle with the mixture screws tonight, but otherwise it seems to like it. I was gifted a couple Ford/Holley 2 barrels and I think I may make a new intake for one of those in the near future- they're 500 cfm and would probably be perfect.
Here's a picture from a 'cruise in' this weekend parked next to the Nova wagon I put together previous to the Shart. Don't mind the piercing stare by the man in blue, he's just afraid the camera phone is going to steal his soul. Or that someone is going to put him on the internets.
That's all for now- I'll be spending the weekend with the Shart surrounded by 11,000 pre-1964 cars on the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. Come say hi!
What is the official name for this event? Will there be any photobucket sites for this?
This car needs methanol injection.
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