technical

Maybe a stronger spring in the master cylinder would help. Pulling the brake pedal back faster won't make the master return sooner since there is nothing physically attached to the master from the booster. But it is an interesting idea.

mitchntx

iTrader: (14)

You are correct. It's just a plunger into the booster. My bad ...

Maybe the next time I rebuild my MC ...

technical

If you decide to try it, definitely post your results. I'd be very interested.

Cal

iTrader: (1)

I think you two guys are talking about two different types of axles. There are the Ford 9-inch type that have the wheel bearing pressed onto the axle, then a plate with four bolts retains the whole axle assembly onto the housing. This is a good system, because even if the axle breaks, the wheel stays in place. The bearing is pressed on the axle so tight, you can't even press it back off without destroying both the bearing and the oil seal. But with C-clips, you break the axle, the wheel and the piece of axle will pull right out of the housing.

The other type of axle is called a "floater" and they are used on 3/4 ton and bigger trucks, as well as race cars. They are the ones where you take the bolts off the hub and you can pull the axle right out with the wheel still on the vehicle. The axle housing supports the bearings rather than the axle itself. This also solves the problem of an axle breaking and the wheel falling off.

A GM 10 bolt is the worst system because the bearing isn't pressed on, you have a small weak axle that can break, and you depend on a clip at the wrong end of the axle to hold it in, so you lose the wheel with the axle. I think that's why a lot of people use the C-clip eliminators on the GM 12 bolts.

mitchntx

iTrader: (14)

A good friend of mine missed a downshift, going from 4th to 1st, hopped the rear end and twisted the crap out of the axles. But they never broke. And it took all my Victor cutting torch could do to cut the end of the axle off to salvage the posi and housing.

Another good friend just layed down a 1.25G on a skid pad and has been OTing and AXing his car for 2 years. Minimal wear on the C Clips.

I've been doing OTing events for 3 years, putting on almost 20K miles, with the same setup as the car above, only with MORE negative camber. No C Clip issues.

I realize these axles break. But I think we've taken them to the limits of our cars and they've held up fine. Is there something stronger? I'm sure there is. But why?

Midnight F-117A

Well the statement above is right for rearend's with drum brakes.

But the F-body with disc brakes in the rear, if the C-clip breaks, there is the brake caliper and bracket holding the axle in and using some braking force from the binding from the free spinning axle (as we refer to the broken axle side), this would be felt from turning moderate to hard with the broken axle side on the outside of the turn which this broken axle side will bind in the brake caliper and will cause a braking force to be felt in that wheel.

There's the rear caliper, caliper bracket to axle tube housing end, brake disc, then the axle flange with studs, then bearings then all the way down to the posi unit which ends with a C-clip.

In both cases, drum or disc, c-clips or c-clips eliminators, if the axle shears off right where the axle connects to the flange where the wheel mounting studs are, it will come out and there is no way stopping it once it does.

Cal

iTrader: (1)

Yeah I agree, with disk brakes the caliper will help retain a broken axle, depending on where it breaks. And perhaps they are using a more ductile alloy now that is less brittle, but if that is the case they are more prone to getting bent.

A friend of mine circle track raced late models for years, and he said every time he saw someone try to race a GM 10 bolt, they eventualy broke the axle. When I asked him how they failed, he said the wheel flange usually popped off the end of the axle. This is the failure mode that is going to have the wheel leaving the vehicle!

My wife has put 150,000 (gentle) miles on her '93 T/A, and it finally started making a screeching noise on right turns only. I found that something had changed in the axle to allow turning forces to push the disk against the caliper bracket (not the pad.) On LT1 cars the caliper is very close to the disk, apparently to save a broken axle. Replacing the C-clips and wheel bearings didn't help the problem, so I finally just clearanced the caliper with a die grinder.

Back in the 1980's when I drove the '67 Firebird, I wore out two 10 bolt axles and broke a third one doing a burn-out on wet pavement with street tires. The pinion gear snapped off the shaft and broke through the cast iron part of housing.

I'm sorry, I just don't feel safe racing with a 10 bolt; that's why I got a 9 inch. Autoxing is no big deal, but for any high speed stuff I want a axle that's up to the job.

95 LS1 Camaro

iTrader: (5)

I recently had to remove the pressed on bearing and retainer plate for my Strange axles with c clip eliminator kit. There is a wedding band that is pressed on to aid in holding on the axle bearing. I had to just about stand on my 12 ton shop press to release the bearing ( this was after the wedding band was removed ). When it let go it was like a bomb going off. Granted I may have not been perfectly lined up with the press but I went to great lengths to true everything up.

And now for some help I need.

I have a 2002 TA brake system with ABS & TCS. Is there anyway I can bleed this system myself? The haynes manual says I need a special scanner. I was wondering if I would be able to get a wiring print and activate whatever solenoids need to be open. Has anyone tried this or heard of it being done? The entire system has been removed and then been sitting waiting to be installed so I need to start from square one.

Midnight F-117A

If the entire system including the ABS module has been removed, then a Tech2 scantool will be needed to bleed the system because that opens up the valves inside the ABS modules.