{"id":5050,"date":"2014-04-17T16:13:12","date_gmt":"2014-04-17T23:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=5050"},"modified":"2016-12-05T11:49:52","modified_gmt":"2016-12-05T19:49:52","slug":"star-wars-axle-housings-part-ii-fabricated-ford-housings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/star-wars-axle-housings-part-ii-fabricated-ford-housings\/","title":{"rendered":"Star Wars Axle Housings Part II: Fabricated Ford Housings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Star<\/a>In the first part of this series<\/a>, we began our look at custom-built Ford housings. If you recall, we pointed out some of the pitfalls of the OEM Ford, along with the steps necessary to correct them.\u00a0 If you\u2019re keeping track, you\u2019ll find that fixing the Ford isn\u2019t exactly inexpensive.\u00a0 The costs for fortifying a stock housing can start to add up.\u00a0 Before long, you might be close to the cost of a completely fabricated housing.\u00a0 And with that \u201cStar Wars\u201d axle housing, you\u2019ll gain strength and actually shed weight (losing unsprung weight in a race car is nothing to sneeze at either).\u00a0 This time around, we\u2019ll look at the basics of a custom fabricated rear axle housing. You might be surprised at the thought and the technology that goes into one of these pieces.<\/p>\n

How Are Fabricated Housings Built?<\/b><\/p>\n

How is a typical fabricated housing constructed?\u00a0 Using the TRZ housing shown in the accompany photos as an example, each housing is constructed on a purpose-built, machine ground surface plate.\u00a0 This keeps the housing dimensionally true during fabrication (under construction, the housing is indexed to the fixture which orients the case to the bearing centers).\u00a0 The axle tubes (which are 3.250-inch diameter, .250-inch wall 4130 chrome moly steel) run inboard and attach to an inner bulkhead inside the housing center.\u00a0 The face plate and backing plate are laser cut from 4130 chrome moly steel plate, and are designed to support the folded chrome moly sheet metal case and brace assembly.\u00a0 For this application (Fox Mustang), a set of three-position upper trailing arm brackets are welded to the case and also tie into the axle bulkhead.\u00a0 Outboard, TRZ adds a set of six-position lower trailing arm mounts.\u00a0 The backside of the trailing arm mounts double as shock mounts (we\u2019ll get into this later).\u00a0 TRZ points out that their fabricated housing is available in a variety of configurations for Mustangs, GM A Bodies and GM G Bodies.\u00a0 They can also be equipped with a large number of options (more later). All gasket surfaces are machined and the housing is aligned after all welding is complete — again using the index fixture to ensure that the housing is true.\u00a0 Finally, the housing bearing ends are installed using a special, dimensionally accurate fixture.<\/p>\n

As you can see in the photos, the welds are all accomplished by way of the proven heli-arc process.\u00a0\u00a0 The axle tubes are firmly planted in the center section and are not only welded around the circumference of the tube — they are also welded horizontally to the center section.\u00a0 In the end, no short cuts are taken.\u00a0 Included in the housing package is a set of unique internal gussets.\u00a0 As shown in the photos, the gussets are triangulated and prevent the center section from moving fore and aft.\u00a0 As mentioned previously, the hypoid action of every ring and pinion (Ford or otherwise) will always try to force the ring gear out the back of the housing or carrier.\u00a0 The more power available and the better the traction, the more aggressive the fore-aft action.\u00a0 With the gussets in place, this fore-aft movement isn’t possible.\u00a0 The result is more power to the ground and significantly improved ring gear life.<\/p>\n

Another factor influencing gear life is the shape of the housing internals.\u00a0 By carefully laying out the design, TRZ has been able to limit the amount of oil drain back away from the ring and pinion.\u00a0 Why is this needed?\u00a0 Simple.\u00a0 At race speeds (say 9,000 RPM), there simply isn’t any rear axle lube on the ring gear in a stock rear axle assembly.\u00a0 The design of the fabricated housing is conducive to maintaining lubricant on the ring and pinion assembly.<\/p>\n

Watch for the next segment. We\u2019ll dig deeper into fabricated housings and housing options.<\/p>\n

\"Fore<\/a>
Fore and aft movement of the case is common in 9-inch Ford housings. Some chassis builders fortify the Ford by adding a series of supports radially between the back cover and the faceplate. In the TRZ fabricated housing, these heavy gussets accomplish the same goal. Further to this, the internal shape of the housing is also conducive to maintaining lubricant on the ring and pinion.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Speaking<\/a>
Speaking of the faceplate, here\u2019s a look at how the axle tube is \u201clocked\u201d into the front section of the housing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Another<\/a>
Another problem with 9-inch Fords is the downward bending forces. When strengthening a Stock Ford housing, a tube mounted below the housing (between the respective 4-link brackets) is often incorporated, especially in a high horsepower application. This technique is also used in the TRZ fabricated housing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Here\u2019s<\/a>
Here\u2019s a look at the tubular back brace TRZ offers as an option on their housings.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"As<\/a>
As you can see in these photos, it effectively ties the axle tube (on each side) to the center of the case. This prevents fore and aft migration in the axle tubes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Previous: Part I<\/a><\/p>\n

Next: Part III, Part IV<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part II of this series looks at the basics of a custom fabricated rear axle housing. You might be surprised at the thought and the technology that goes into one of these pieces.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":5063,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5011,11,9],"tags":[2,704,4800,705,703,461,706,321],"class_list":["post-5050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chassis-suspension","category-how-tos","category-tech-tips","tag-drag-racing","tag-ford-housings","tag-how-tos","tag-rear-axles","tag-star-wars-housings","tag-tech-tips-2","tag-trz-motorsports","tag-wayne-scraba"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/StarWarsAxleHousingFeature.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-1js","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5050"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5089,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5050\/revisions\/5089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}