Typical "what the heck" moment.....

[22dodge]

Pulled the rear end out of the roadster last weekend in preparation for the quick change installation.

When I pulled the backing plates today, I found that the cast on spring hanger on the axle housing had been cut 2/3's of the way through on both sides, and then crappy welding attempt that was still very lacking.
This wasn't visible with the backing plates on.
The last picture shows what was visible.

I have no idea why someone would do this, and then install this in a vehicle.
I am only glad that I decided to install the quick change now, and not drive the roadster for a while before installing the quick change.
I don't want to think of the possible results......

 

[bigd4xman]

That could've been BAD You musta had somebody watchin over you tellin ya in your head not to drive the car and put a quick change in it. Whoever did that coulda been the cause of your demise and not to mention whoever else it woulda wiped out whn it let go. Stuff like this is why I build 90% of my vehicles, I just don't trust other peoples work normally.

 

[tiny1]

Ouch!! that could have been bad glad you found it

 

[cycledog]

Wow! to quote Chico Marx. "Atsa no good boss". Glad you found it before anything bad happened.

 

[Tripper]

Wow!

22,
Man... that is hard to believe. I can't *even* imagine whayy someone would do that & then drive it or sell it to someone else! Glad u caught that!!!

BoB

 

[donsrods]

That's pretty amazing. Looks like someone was attempting to cut them off at one time, possibly to weld onto another rear axle, but quit half way through the job.

You better look at the rest of the stuff too to see what other surprises are lurking.

Don

 

[joehalford01]

YIKES DUDE, glad you caught it now and not later

 

[gassersgarage]

You never know! One night, my friend and I were driving out to Simi Valley to find a street race. We were in my buddys' 68' Corvette roadster. It was a 454 with AFR heads, roller cam, dominator carb, home built nitrous, 4 spd and 4:88 gears. No roll bar or seatbelts.

About a mile before our off ramp, my friend "hits it" to clean out the engine and test the NOS. We were doing about 135 when he hits the brakes. The car swerved, so my friend got off the brakes. We passed our off ramp and kept going. Every time he hit the brakes, the car would swerve. 2 ramp later, the car slowed down enough for us to get off the freeway.

Getting off the freeway, the vette used 4 lanes to make a left turn. We pulled into a gas station (1:00 am) and stopped. Got out of the car while my friend tried to figure out what was wrong. While standing in front of the car, I notice that both front wheels seemed to be turned in different directions. Looked underneath and the passenger side tie rod had come off. The castle nut was missing.

How does a castle nut with a cotter pin come off...confused:

No roll bar and 135......someone up there likes me!

 

[22dodge]

You better look at the rest of the stuff too to see what other surprises are lurking.

Don

Things like this are the reasons the roadster went from running rat back to bare frame and a rebuild.
There have been about a dozen items that I have found along this line, some downright stupid:
Cuts made to the rear radius rod castings to change the angle, but never welded up the cuts.
Forward end of rear wishbone used as rear radius mount to frame, butt welded with all rust intact ( one had broken 2/3's loose).
Boxing plates at the rear kick, but only two 1/4" welds tacking them in place.
Tierod ends haveing 3/8 inch or less of thread contact.... and so on...

I have been all over this car redoing things with safety and dependability in mind, just honestly wasn't expecting to find this problem at this point.
On the plus side, rearend has 3.78 gears, so a #3 set of spur gears in the quick change will give me either 3.50 or 4.11, which I think is a good mix. '22