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Gallery, Projects and General => Project Logs => Topic started by: Bernd on July 19, 2011, 08:48:32 PM

Title: Traction Bars
Post by: Bernd on July 19, 2011, 08:48:32 PM
Or at least I think that's what they're called. Freind of mine has a drag car and needs these bars tapped to 3/4"-16 left & right hand. Note in the picture that I've got them marked with a felt marker as to which witch is which. Well at least you can see the ones marked with an "R" :scratch:

(http://www.kingstonemodeleng.com/Madmodder/traction1.jpg)

Now the ones marked for right hand thread fit in the lathe, barely. If I would of had to drill out the hole I won't have been able to do it. Hole through the lathe isn't big enough. "Oh Honey I need a bigger lathe" NOT. Couldn't tap it anyway. The tap he gave me won't of cut through butter. So I needed to order a new tap, 30 some dollars, ouch. :bang:

(http://www.kingstonemodeleng.com/Madmodder/traction2.jpg)

Now here's the other bar with those plates welded on the side. Not a good fit either. I couldn't even get the tap in.  :hammer:  These needed to be drilled out to 11/16". Guess what, I had to order a drill for..........oh never mind.  :palm: It was expensive.

(http://www.kingstonemodeleng.com/Madmodder/traction3.jpg)

Oh what to do.  :med:  I did promise I'd do them. Ah the Buffalo Drill press to the rescue. :ddb:  :ddb:

(http://www.kingstonemodeleng.com/Madmodder/traction4.jpg)

The drill press has a very large hole through the center. I mounted my new 4 jaw and centered it.  :ddb:  :ddb:  :ddb:  :ddb:

Now all I need to do is wait for the little brown truck to show up tomorrow afternoon as their schedule has promised.  :loco:

More pics and stories when I get the tooling.  :thumbup:

Oh BTW this is one of the other job's that' holding up the Shay project.  ::)

Bernd
Title: Re: Traction Bars
Post by: dsquire on July 19, 2011, 10:23:27 PM
Bernd

We must not hold any Hot Roders up. Right!  :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Cheers  :beer:

Don

Title: Re: Traction Bars
Post by: Kjelle on July 20, 2011, 02:29:52 AM
Bernd, when I read Hot Rod each and every month, they where called "4-link rear suspension", and where considered the most advanced way to tame a rear axle... And we Europeans used it on the Ford Escort Gp4 rally car too...

Good luck with the project, I hope it doesn't take too much time out from the Shay!

Kjelle
Title: Re: Traction Bars
Post by: Dave G on July 20, 2011, 09:43:30 AM
Hi Bernd, I have made four link bars in the same manner as this. You can order tubing with an ID of 11/16" which is the tap drill size for 3/4-16 thread and this makes the job quite simple. I Imagine you already know this but I was warned by a very good chassis builder that making bars this way is only good for about 600 HP. Anything over this will need a larger dia bar. Just trying to relay some useful info to keep everyone safe, Dave
Title: Re: Traction Bars
Post by: Bernd on July 20, 2011, 02:15:02 PM
Ok, That little brown truck showed up this moring at 9:44AM, or at least that's what the tracking info said. Checked outside and sure enough it had showed up and dropped off the prize.

(http://www.kingstonemodeleng.com/Madmodder/traction5.jpg)

First thing I saw wrong was the drill. No way that was going to fit into a 1/2" drill chuck. Time for a little Madmodd.  :dremel:
Stick the drill in the lathe. Make sure it runs true and have at it.  :drool:

(http://www.kingstonemodeleng.com/Madmodder/traction6.jpg)

Ok, it's a good fit.  :clap:

(http://www.kingstonemodeleng.com/Madmodder/traction7.jpg)

On to the drill press and some manual labor.  :ddb: First drill out a small amount of stock. The pipe dosen't seem to be exactly 11/16" ID.

(http://www.kingstonemodeleng.com/Madmodder/traction8.jpg)

First I did the left hand threads......

(http://www.kingstonemodeleng.com/Madmodder/traction9.jpg)


then I did the right hand to unwind myself.  :doh:  :loco: (it's hot here in NY, so you'll have to parden the goofieness).  ::)

(http://www.kingstonemodeleng.com/Madmodder/traction10.jpg)

And ta da, all done.

(http://www.kingstonemodeleng.com/Madmodder/traction11.jpg)

@ Don - He's a good freind of mine so I drop what I'm doing to help him out.

@ Kjelle - I knew there was another name for those things. Just couldn't remember. Thanks. There's going to be some time taken out as I see some jig's and fixtures that will need to be made in the process of builfin this Shay. I'm just hoping for a nice steady pace.

@ Dave - Thanks for the advice. It looks to me he had shortened the bars. I pretty sure he knows what he's doing since he's a tech inspector at Empire Dragway here in NY.


On to the second project. It's the same as 75PLUS's Thread (http://madmodder.net/index.php?topic=5682.0) I'll post a thread on that as I go.

Bernd