Spool?

steel1212 said:
sitdown, what part of the spool is hard on the street? Is it the parking? The 4 way stops? Just driving it?

Parking lots, carshows, drivethrus, traffic merging, any low speed turning situation. Youll find yourself doing more 3 point turns as well. A taller softer tire like an ET street will make it easier, but ppl who crusie much have complained about them eating up drag radials faster. I just dont see the hassel for your combo. I too have friends with spools on 'street driven' cars, but are bigger power cars. How often do you drive the car? How often do you go to the track?
 
1320stang said:
That's where we used to take a Lincoln arc welder and weld the spider gears up, viola!! a po' boy spool!!

:rlaugh: :rlaugh: :rlaugh:

Yes that is one way to do it. but its gonna be a pain in the arse to remove the stuff if something happens(rarely). I agree with 302 and just get the dam 31 spline spider gears. Geez, everything on ebay is cheap these days. just gotta wait till something good comes up :rolleyes:
 
steel1212 said:
302 never, thought of that. Would everything else stay the same? I've never rebuilt a center and was going to have a local shop do it for me. Is everything there in the pic that I would need?
ooops, thats another way, if you get the rear rebuilt, put 31 spline spiders and then get 31 spline hardened axles, but get everything done at once.

I didnt so im stuck with money in a 8" with Currie 28 spline components because it did it a differnt times.:nonono:
 
steel1212 said:
302 never, thought of that. Would everything else stay the same? I've never rebuilt a center and was going to have a local shop do it for me. Is everything there in the pic that I would need?

yep, everything else would stay the same, at least to my knowledge. You can still buy all that stuff (shafts, block, spiders) new if you're worried about used parts, but for $8 the ebay stuff is worth the risk.
 
This is what my diff looked like last summer. Bought a mini spool for $27.00CAN and was back on the street again after a total of about 2 hrs work (not including solvent tanking everthing). I chop a U'ey almost everday on my street when I get home and the inside wheel chirps a bit, but nothing I can't live with for awhile.

spider2.webp
 

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Weren't you thinking last week that a locker would be too rough and unstreetable?

Terms like "streetable" always lead to mistakes I think. I know guys who think a roots blower and 5.00+ gears on cars that pull less than 6 inches of vacuum are perfectly streetable. As well as others who think a detroit locker is too much for a street car. :shrug:

In my opinion a spool is too much for a street-driven car, having one wheel loose traction in every turn you take is not a good idea on the roads.
 
If I said a locker was unstreetable edbert you definatly changed my mind....but I don't think I said that. I've got ideas going so many ways right now I don't know what to do! I'm thinking I'm just going to pull my axles out for now and make sure they aren't the tapered kind, put new bearings/seals on them and live with it. I don't think I'll break anything with my current setup but when I get new heads and cam I might start to worry...I do drive it an hour to and a hour back from the track :-)

So how hard is it to put bearing and seals on axles? Also if I pull them is there anything to look for to show weakness?
 
I had the lincoln spool on a car. The previous owner did it. The car was fine in straight lines. Any turns and the outside tire would drag. Te whole car would studder and shake. Eventually, the perch welds on the passenger side housing tube broke. The passenger side tube would roll on top of the perch, and when I drove, it lurched forward on the leaf spring causing the car to drive sideways.
 
as for swapping to 31 spline spiders, I have heard from several sources that the axle holes on the carrier will need to be bored/drilled to accomodate the larger diameter axles. But the 31 spline spiders apparantley are a direct swap, but you will have to slightly modify trhe carrier to get the axles to fit in.
 
I think I'm just going to pull the axles I have and look them over to see if they are tappered or not. If they are not I'm probably going to just put new bearings and seals on them. I've been scanning ebay for deals and I'm going to try to get parts as I see them pop up, detroit locker, N case, 3.70 gears, 31 splined axles if I see them. I need to get ready for march though and what started all of this was I developed a buzzing the higher rpms and I'm pretty sure I have a bad bearing on the axles.
 
Ya know, I just reread your intial post...you said money is tight right now. If that is the case then there's better things to spend what money you do have on than 31s axles when your current powertrain has little chance of breaking your 28s.

...just a thought...
 
Edbert said:
Ya know, I just reread your intial post...you said money is tight right now. If that is the case then there's better things to spend what money you do have on than 31s axles when your current powertrain has little chance of breaking your 28s.

...just a thought...

Yeah, that probably what I'll end up doing. I was just worried about the sudden hit of torque from the nitrous. I'm planning on getting some cal tracs and I think I'll just re-bearing my axles and see what happens.
 
I skipped most of the posts (what can i say i got bored), and i say go withe the spool or mini spool. I had one in my daily driven car for almost 2 years. I was glad to have it. Sure you dont want to turn shart corners around cops because it will churp the inside tire a little bit (sometimes), and yes you will hear your axles chatter a little bit, but other than that you wont realy notice the difference.