Lightweight Axles

[Rich Aceves]

For those of you who know us, you know how much I hate to agree with Bob
but in this case, as much as it pains me to do so, he's right. Man that hurt!!

[Bob Bender]

2x

[acme383]

a little off the subject, but still rotating weight. tubes vs. no tubes? i'm running tubes right now. i didn't ever want to mess with constantly airing up. but with a heavy (3560#) hi torque stick car, i thought it would also stiffen up the sidewall on my M/T 31x10.5W on a 12" rim. any thoughts about this kind of rotating weight?- Dan

[Wade_Owens]

Originally Posted by Ed Wright

Wade, what will live in a foot braked 283" stocker won't necessarily live in a trans braked SS car. When I pulled that spool out it had .004" run out. Jerry Hass was with that Hemi SS car because he built it. Not only Pro Stock cars.
I have talked to others that made only the light spool & ring gear change as I did, and nobody found any gain. I'm usually between 1.29 & 1.34 in 60' with the steel spool, exactly the same with the lightened ring gear and aluminum spool.

Gotcha, ED. I cant say as far as SS, I was only talking Stocker lingo. I know you guys are WAY more violent on the launch. But, I will say this, if I was to put an SS 283 in my car today, I would see how long the stuff would live before replacing it!! I dont feel sorry for them axles or spool one bit!

Wade O

[Chris Hill]

The actual engineering term everyone is talking around is "effective mass". Effective mass is the combination of rotating and non-rotating mass on a vehicle and in the case being discussed here is what effect does it have on accelerating a vehicle.

I think the general rule of thumb is multiply the vehicle mass by 1.1 to get a ROUGH idea of the actual effective mass.

The catch is actual effective mass changes with transmission and rear end gearing. The effective mass in first gear is roughly 1.25 x's weight and 1.15 x's weight in second gear for appoximation purposes.

I'll post more latter about the what are the big hitters for effective mass later.

[Adger Smith]

OK Chris,
You are beginning to touch on an area that I have a comment or example of what happens with weight/mass.
Yes, I have the lite weight 40 spline gun drilled MW axles and the MW lite steel spool (alum dosen't support the gear I run on the flange enough and deflects causing gear breakage)
I have the suspension on my V-6 Camaro set up to ET. it doesn't dead hook. It has controlled tire rotation on the hit. When I run it with the wheelie bars, just hanging.. not tapping the ground, It slows the car down a consistent .006. In the video's you can see the tire rotation on the hit is different. It is the effect of unsprung weight on the suspension. (shocks and springs) I have tried a couple different shock settings to get the hook, with and without the W/bars, the same. It just doesn't happen. Vic at ETRC tells me I could get it to do the same thing (rotate the tire on the hit) if I used the wheelie bars to tap the ground and kick the car/suspension up on the tire. I'm too lazy to try it and it works well the way I have it. No sense gettig lost....I'm of the opinion that excess unsprung weight is the real enemy, esp in my low Torque/HP combination.

[Ed Wright]

Originally Posted by FED 387

Ed wright that 1.29-1.36 60 foot is .06 in ET which in a Comp car translates to about .12 in ET at the 1320----No Comp car is gonna give up a TENTH +++ to run a steel setup versus an aluminum/ liteweight axle set up--- never gonna happen---Comp 387

Might want to read that again. 1.29 was with the steel spool. That is the range my 60's fall on different tracks and weather conditions. Not the difference between the two setups. I saw absolutely no difference at all, or I would have put another one in. I don't know why you think comp cars are the only ones after that last few thou. If that applies to your SS friends, they must be of the bracket race persuasion. Not all of us are. You guys are too when trying to avoid CIC. That's if your fast enough to worry about CIC. Are you?
I test more than most comp cars around here. Ask anybody local. Had the engine out five times in three races. Diferent cams, moved the cams, changed the heads, etc. More new stuff coming.

[Dwight Southerland]

Originally Posted by acme383

a little off the subject, but still rotating weight. tubes vs. no tubes? i'm running tubes right now. i didn't ever want to mess with constantly airing up. but with a heavy (3560#) hi torque stick car, i thought it would also stiffen up the sidewall on my M/T 31x10.5W on a 12" rim. any thoughts about this kind of rotating weight?- Dan

Don't do it.

[Randall Klein]

Well, my first alum spool broke coming out of the water at Dallas Nat's down to 8 cars and maybe it was "my day"...dunno...bought another, MW said to keep an "eye" on it.....3700 llbs trans brake, 265 CI

Anyway, I called DEWCO about a titanium spool, just to see if there was one, how much etc, thinking it would be stronger and lighter.....he went into a long disertation that I mostly could not understand....but he said flex/bind would kill more than lightweight would help

[Ed Wright]

I would listen to Don (Dewco) too. Some guys find it difficult to accept that when your therory doesn't prove out, it's time to adopt a new therory.