Messages

526

Roo Man's Room / Re: Steering rod type question

« on: March 01, 2013, 05:26:47 AM »

On a Don Long car there are four radius rods which determine the arc that the axle swings through as the suspension articulates, The torsion arm is a lot shorter and swings in a tighter arc so the holes where the arm attaches to the axle are slotted so that things don't get into a bind. On a regular two radius rod deal this is not necessary as the torsion arm is in effect the lower radius rod.

Roo

527

Front Engine Dragsters / Re: Tim Arfons just finished his new dragster T-58 Gas Turbine - 1850 Shaft HP

« on: March 01, 2013, 05:19:32 AM »

The story about the new car is incorrect in that I did not build the rolling chassis. That was done by my friends the Dustman brothers. My contribution was the body, seat and wings.

Roo

528

Roo Man's Room / Re: Steering rod type question

« on: February 27, 2013, 04:09:18 PM »

Glenn,
        thanks for covering for me while I was otherwise occupied.

Roo

529

Roo Man's Room / Re: Throttle pedal?

« on: February 25, 2013, 05:26:57 AM »

Randy,
         apart from restorations I usually use a cable deal. That way is is a lot easier to get from the pedal to the throttle arm with just about any induction package. It also makes it easier to change things if the engine combo changes. Don't use the red jacketed Morse cables though as they are not flexible enough. I use the same stuff as the fuel cars, a gray jacketed deal with a spiral wound reinforcement. You can tie knots in them and they still work.

Roo

530

Roo Man's Room / Re: twisted front axle

« on: February 20, 2013, 05:18:02 AM »

Some photos would be helpful so we could see exactly where the twist is located.

Roo

531

Front Engine Dragsters / Re: tach

« on: February 18, 2013, 05:20:12 AM »

Antron Brown has switched machines

How did you swing that? 

I've got a couple of signed parts from pro drivers but never a picture of them sitting in my car . . . nice!

I had to tell him to open his eyes and smile so that we could see him in there. LOL

Roo

532

Roo Man's Room / Re: New build FED

« on: February 17, 2013, 05:28:14 AM »

Hi from Oz,

I am in Tasmania and now just joined the room and looking for some help with either finding a new build FED chassis with tinwork ready to bolt in a blown SBC with either a shorty glide or wouldn't mind direct drive (always loved the sound of a blown rail with dd on full noise) Rooman, being an Aussie do you remember the Moore Brothers who used to campaign their blown SB FED out of Castlereagh and others like it? Thats the goal to find one the same. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks!

I am old enough that I can remember the Moore brothers when they ran a blown red motor FED (Cliff Kiss too).

Roo

533

Roo Man's Room / Re: FED short body build?

« on: February 16, 2013, 08:58:27 AM »

The body deal is not that hard to do. My first stuff was not anything to write home about but that was nearly 50 years ago. I will have a look in my photo files and see if I can find any instructive pix.

Roo

534

Front Engine Dragsters / Re: Anybody here run a Jr. fuel car?

« on: February 15, 2013, 04:13:19 AM »

Wow 1350 lbs.  How would they crank without a battery?  Looks like all Glides or Very high$$$$$trans I think some of the comp cars run the metric trans and I think at one time Rampy had a Chrysler trans might have been when he had the Mopar motor

   Randy!

The have a battery pack on the golf cart/tow vehicle and plug it in to fire the motor. Rampy ran a 904 torqueflite based  trans in his altered behind the small block Chevy.

Roo

535

Roo Man's Room / Re: rear wheel back space

« on: February 14, 2013, 02:17:48 PM »

I am with Randy on this one, I like them close to the body which is how the majority of cars were back in the day. Most of the older wheels are around 3.75" backspace (Halibrand, Torque Thrust etc). I usually set the wheel and tire package up against the car and work out the rear end width from there. My cars are narrower at the lower rails than at the top so I usually put the upper sidewall of the tire about 1/2" out from the body. If the car does get sideways and distort the tire it will move more at the bottom and there is more room there with the narrow lower rails. If the tire does get into the body you end up with those donut shaped scuff marks that were common in the 60's if you saw the car with the rear wheels off.

Roo

536

Roo Man's Room / Re: engine height

« on: February 13, 2013, 10:20:30 AM »

" Smart guys that don't sugar coat"-----Understatement of the year.

Roo

537

Roo Man's Room / Re: engine height

« on: February 13, 2013, 05:57:42 AM »

Frank, Scott and Susan have been friends since I went to their shop in 1999 with Brad Hadman to repair Gary Scelzi's top fuel car after he wrecked it at Topeka. When they came to Indy for the GoodGuys events they quite often worked out of my shop when they needed to. I source quite a few components from them for my builds.

Roo

538

Roo Man's Room / Re: Short or long Glide?

« on: February 13, 2013, 05:53:43 AM »

I have customers with both short and long 'glides and they run varying low gear ratios. Same with final drive ratio--it all depends on tire size, converter, low gear ratio and where the motor makes power. We thought that we had it all figured out with Glenn Lever's car as he had dynoed the motor and knew how much power he had and what the torque curve was but the first time out the package worked well enough that he was bouncing off the limiter on the top end (Of course he runs a Pontiac and they don't rev that high--LOL)

Roo

539

Roo Man's Room / Re: Line up bar

« on: February 12, 2013, 10:07:56 AM »

Larry,
        I have two of them. The one that I loaned to Tyler is made from a piece of DOM tubing with a flange that bolts to the pinion support area of a 9" chunk. The other is a store bought one from Mark Williams and it is made from 4130 tubing with a semi machined cast aluminum pinion support. I also have an 8 3/4 Mopar chunk that has a flange added to the pinion area to match the end of the bars.

Roo

540

Roo Man's Room / Re: radius rods/steering arm dimensions

« on: February 12, 2013, 04:40:56 AM »

I would go with the 4130--use the money that you saved by not having to buy a line up bar--LOL

Roo