Topper’s Tuesday

I have been working on a Winters QC problem with a friend of mine in Detroit.  He has a brand new Winters V8 model with less than a hundred miles of use and it is very, very noisy.  He installed the helical cut gears and everything seemed to go perfectly until he went down the road.  The more he drove the louder the noise became. He returned home and called me for some advice.  My first impression was that the helical cut rear gears are walking toward the rear of the case and making contact.  Winters sells a shim kit to keep the gears from walking but he did not install any shims in his unit.  I asked the folks on the HAMB to respond and received a lot of useful information. Larry wanted to drive the car to Louisville tomorrow but didn’t want to ruin the expensive case and I don’t blame him.

He contacted Winters and they told him the shim kit may help the problem but the noise is normal even with helical cut gears.  I have owned several quickchanges and they were all very noisy even with helical cut gears.  The good news is Winters is working on some new gears to reduce the noise.  The price we pay for the “Look” is sometimes worth it when you are young but at my age I can’t stand the heavy noise of the quickchange in a coupe or sedan.  I hope the shim kit does the job as Lucy has an old noisy in her backside.

Stay Tooned!

Lynn

This is your basic Winters V8 quickchange for use with 40 Ford axle tubes.  The differential is a posi and very tight.

Here is where the noise comes from.  The spur or helical cut gears fit over the shafts and provide the proper ratio for your driving event.  Winters sells a shim kit to keep the gears from walking into the rear cover.  The Hot Rod Works recommends a .005 – .015 clearance from the rear cover.  This will prolong the life of the rear cover and bearings.

Here is the rear cover with the bearings installed.  If the gears walk they will soon tear up the bearings and cover.

One style is to use the early Ford housings bolted to the new center section from Winters.   A Classic design.

If you can’t stand the noise then this is what you need.  The no-change QC center section works and looks great. Winters makes a complete unit ready to bolt in your chassis.

This is a NOS Halibrand V8 unit with the straight cut gears.  Noisy but correct for the look and sound of yesteryear.

This is my style for a true hot rod.  Bob O has a Culver City unit going in his Model A coupe.

Winters has a complete unit with tapered housings ready to bolt in you chassis.  This saves a lot of work but is not cheap.

Larry has this style Winters with the aluminum bells.  I like these units also.

Today’s Classic Quickchange….Dreaming!

John likes his cars and the roadster with the QC peeking out spells early hot rod to me.  The Cobra is for the Ferrrai’s on PCH.