Inspect your Racecar. It could save you

We broke a trans cooler last weekend. It was mounted between the subframe connector and the drive shaft. Under the the drivers seat. Fortunately this kept all the fluid between the frame rails. But fluid was even dripping off the deck lid and tail lights. When cleaning the underside I washed the wheels and took a look at the recently installed 5/8 studs. The picture is the spokes of the rear wheel at the hub next to the stud washer. Every spoke on both wheels is similar. Ran this car for close to 800 passes. Converted to 5/8" studs this Winter. Never guessed the old 1/2" studs were stronger than the wheels.
Doug

Good catch.......if it's OK, what make / model of wheel are they ?

doug what are you going to do for wheels this weekend? what back spacing do you need.

Good catch, another thing to verify is the wheel fully engages on the stud, I had to order a new stud kit after doing some mock-up and measuring, the screw in studs varied on the protrusion of the shank away from the axle plate so that a couple of the shanks did not fully extend through the wheel far enough leaving the possibility of the wheel wobble and or eventually egging out the wheel holes. Doug

Wow..... Good catch

The wheels from my Volare slicks fit. Just getting the tires swapped this morning.
Doug

Nice catch Doug.

At some point every winter I'll put my Dart on the lift and go over it from end to end, and most of the time I find something that needs attention.

Glad you caught it! Time for forged or billet wheels.

Going to be some nice garden hose holders in the classifieds soon! Now we get to live vicariously through Doug and go wheel shopping! Nice catch, that could a been ugly.

Whatever you do make sure you check 1/2 inch studs religiously, couple years ago a friend passing by my Super Stock car noticed a missing lug nut, stud was sheared off and another had broke but the lug nut still looked tight just glancing at it. Needless to say 5/8 studs are in place now.

Good catch, Doug. On my 5/8 studs they are fully theeaded and use a sleeve for the wheel to ride on. Those sleeves backed out part way when i pulled my slicks to replace them. I mounted the tires, and put rhe wheels and tires back on not realising the lug nuts on the left rear were torqued tight against those sleeves! The wheel was actually loose on the studs. Luckily no breakage or damage after four passes.

Ii swapped to 5/8" over the winter . My street car wheels rescuded me.
Doug

great catch !
i would have cried if one of those wheels had caused severe damage to my favorite car here !

X2 Curious minds would like to know.

Now lets see how much the weight reduction impacts the ET. I bet less than 0.02 hundreds.

The pair of wheels are 18lbs lighter.
Doug

.Very old American 200S. Late 60s They were used when I got them. Like I said aprox 800 low 9 second passes.
Doug

just asking, is it normal to have that much weight to balance a tire ?

Yes, sometimes it takes a lot of weight.

Brian

I remember asking about the wheels when you 1st built the car , think you were very lucky it did not happen before this

Wheels and studs take an amazing amount of stress over the years. I saw a whole wheel center break out of a rear wheel on a Stock class car in Norwalk during the IHRA days, An original Crager Super Trick suddenly cracked & started leaking air while parked in the staging lanes in Dinwiddie, VA and another newer brand had a reputation for being very light but cracking in shorter periods of time.

Drag cars create a lot of stress while accelerating and braking going down the track. But it would be an interesting scientific test to see how much contributing stress and damage is caused by the turning involved in getting on and off the track and in the pits despite traveling much slower. Can't forget about the 2,000 - 4,000 lb vehicle weights and spool-locked rears!


c








.

That nice of a car needs some “bling”! I love me some polished rims ….. please make your next set shiny …. Good catch because that could have caused a lot of body damage , even a bad crash

I remember seeing a 1966 or 1967 Impala break all five driver side lug studs with the stock nuts on them off doing a dry hop after the burn out behind the line at the old Irwindale 1/4 mile track years ago using stock steel wheels, mess that 1/4 panel up

It sure would make that color pop.

Car would look great with Billet Specialties Dominator wheels on it.

Or some old school Cragars.

Polish Super Tricks, maybe
Not the heavy chrome steel rim SS with the cast pot metal centers

Holeshot Sunflares

maybe torque thrust 5 spokes with the spokes painted body color ?

ET Mags Classic V'S, polished .

I recently saw those for the first time! Awesome wheel!

Time for some magnums!

FWIW Ill be another vote for something shiney with that body color.....FWIW mine has a set of V series that will eventually be going on to replace the Rodlites

Whoaaa... He can have the polished magnums maybe! Can't be having two of us out there rockin the gold magnums!

Chrome (polished aluminum) gets ya home !!

Does NSS require "period correct" wheels ??

Man the Mickey Thompson is hot HOT!...It doesn't look like they make a drag rim any more???

I told him i have a couple pairs to consider. I have some alumistar centers too...

Nope! Just the 10.5' tires to go on em!

Casey FJ

The M/T Pro5's haven't been made for a few years now. The Billet Specialties Dominators look identical to the Pro5 fronts.

I'm still partial to the older Weld Alumastar 2.0 two piece rims. I'd love to have a set to go on my cuda, but man they're stupid expensive.

Doug...so glad you caught this early and didn't have a mishap that messed up that beautiful car!

Years ago, I broke the center out of a five spoke wheel, wrecked my car, and darn near killed me. Use a wheel designed for racing. These period correct events, that specifically say, you can't use a modern race wheel irritate me.

Yeah, but those cars are slow!

I'm torn on what to do. Will it be something close rear only? Or 4 new wheels? Not sure. Certainly the wheel selected will be a currently produced wheel. For the time being the Welds will work. The 2nd question is will a 12" wheel fit? I'd really like to know what the actual section width of a M/T 10.5Wx31 measures on a 12" rim.
Doug

I noticed a few years ago that my Weld draglites ( 15x10 ) were starting to have an oval shape by the lug holes and thats with 5/8 studs that I regularly checked for torque they were however pretty old. I broke 1/2 inch studs years ago and they were only a few years old.. it wasn't pretty and did a lot of damage to my 1/4 panel I switched to 5/8 studs right afterwards. I now have Holeshot wheels on the rear and Weld Aluma Stars that I bought from a friend on the front , they weren't cheap but I bought the two for the price of one new. I really like the look. The Holeshot rear wheels are pretty close in looks to the Alumastars and again they aren't cheap but were custom made for my offset , width and stud size. I bought a pair of Raceline wheels for the front before buying the Weld Alumastars as soon as the arrived I sent them back as the wheels and the boxes they came in both said " Made in China " and they looked cheap.

I switch between polished Super Tricks, polished Welds depending on the event. I run E/T mags on the street. Glad you caught it before something bad happened.

bogart makes new appearing Super ticks

https://bogartracingwheels.com/fly-series/

ET3 makes custom old style wheels.
i had them make a set for my "endless project" in a 15x15, with a 4" backspace. it took them roughly three weeks.
very nice wheels indeed, but pricey at $1100.00.
i am happy with them, however, as to me they are worth every penny, and are made here ! [only drawback was they were made about five years ago, so who knows what the price would be today.]

Holeshot R3s were a little less than a grand a pair for 15x10 4 1/2 inch back spacing , drilled for 5/8 studs... big selection and easy to deal with.

My 29.5x11.5 W measures 15 1/4 carcass width on 12in wide Draglites like yours, they fit in my wheel wells with the tubs moved in 3in. on my 67 Bbody it’s snug but clears everything. Doug
I should add these are Hoosier’s.

Bogarts new ( old ) wheels

I like the Magnum 2.0's which is what I put on my car.

I run 29.5x10.5W's on a 12" wheel when not running drag radials . If I remember correctly there are slightly narrower than my drag radials when mounted. Drag radials are on now and measure just over 14-1/2" at the sidewalls. The 10.5W's are 14" with tubes.

Those also look awesome! A friend has them on one of his grand nationals.

Probaby even better that I caught it. We ran Ubly Dragway this weekend. It shook the tires so hard on the 1st hit Saturday I thought it broke. We addressed that by tightening the rear shock rebound 6 clicks. Went from 14psi to 12psi in the slicks. The result was in the attached picture. Throughout our event we were able to make test runs anytime. So we continued with front shock adjustments. Also put smaller pump cams and squirters in the carbs. The results were excellent. Car caried the front further every time. My theory was it held the pump shot for a longer period of time. With less initial fuel at the hit. I struggled at the tree. This tree is slower than average for sure. The last pass I bumped in deeper. I'm sure it would've been another 5.64 run. This was the first weekend for a pair of merge collectors that were laying around as well. The car carried the front in the picture should to just before the 60 ft clocks. Then settled down smooth. Going to try and test at Milan before Dragway 42 in two weeks. I'm a little puzzled at passes #2,6,9. I lifted on pass #3. That's a calculated ET. Made its quickest 1/8 pass ever 5.648
Doug

im confused now.....is this a heads up car or a bracket car ???

Outstanding As Usual .....must be the highly polished rims gliding through the air easier

It either runs dial-in or NMCA N/SS index. Most of the dial-in stuff is against S/S and Stockers in either GLSSA or Buckeye Stock Super Stock. Normally we run 1/4 mile. This track is pretty short for quick cars. Thats why this weekend was 1/8. I'm foot braking with no starting line chip, no air shift per N/SS rules against trans brake S/S And NHRA stockers. Pretty competitive. Some real good NHRA guys. This track has a VERY SLOW tree. I should've been bumping in on all the runs. Then I misjudged the stripe and gave up the stripe 1st rd Sunday by .004. In N/SS it will run A/FX (9.00 ) or AA/FX (9.25) index depending on weather and how good the track is.
Doug

Thank you for the explanation, but you not getting it (I know what you race in )....Im just saying this car is Bad A$$ thats all. Its getting faster and faster, and you always seem to do it so sanitary !! Car is immaculate and i have seen it in person. Not many cars look better in person than pictures, but this is one of those cars.
Great Job

My wife thinks I'm dense at times. And she's correct. Thanks for the comments. We just keep making baby steps. This year most everything tried has worked. And as we both know that is seldom the case. Looking forward to seeing the Dart when it's finished.
Doug