Ruined my ebay flipkit today while racing.

[team39763]

A couple years ago I bought an ebay axle flip bracket.  At the time it seemed like a sweet deal and seemed to work great with no problems.  Today I was racing at a airstrip near the border and ended up smashing one bracket into the shape of a "W".   The other one appears to have ripped the leafspring mounting pad right off the axle tube.  I'm guessing this caused my pinion to angle up severely then I lost my driveshaft. 

   I was two races away from being the track champion when it happened.  I was racing against a 80's mustang with a 351(I don't know if he sprayed but he had a kit).  Since my truck can't do a burnout, I just pulled up to the line with wet tires...as expected, the mustang beat me off the line.  About second gear I had caught him and was passing him then boom...engine hits the rev limiter and no more gears.   I was heartbroken, but while being towed back to the pit area the crowd cheered for me and gave me a round of applause...it was really cool.  Tons of people came up to me to tell me how good the truck ran and that they liked it...it was a real underdog.  All through town, people kept giving us thumbs up and telling us "good job" while stopped at the traffic lights.  It made me feel pretty good...good enough to not be sad about ruining my truck.  Looks like the trans may be broken in half, the leafspring mounts are garbage, diff housing will need to be checked for sure, driveshaft needs to be checked for straightness, I haven't checked the motor yet(was on the 7200rpm rev limiter hard).
   Sorry for the long story, I just don't have many friends or family to share that with.  By the way, I ran 12 flat(that's with bad gas, crap tuned carb, and spinning nasty).  I got a lot of work to do to get that 10sec slip.

[beastie_3]

Sorry to hear about your truck. Glad no one was injured, truck can be repaired, perhaps this time with race quality parts.

[team39763]

Yeah, I think I found a place that makes race quality spring perches...big hefty ones.  I just need to make sure to find somebody who can weld them in correctly.  I'm hoping I can save some of the trans parts...it's only 3 weeks old.

[Irish_Alley]

I got my perches from a axle shop come to find out mopar made them I think it was only 20 bucks. If you where around me in MD or de I could help out with the welding.

[velojym]

For want of a nail, the war was lost...


Bummer about the truck, man. Nice thing about these, though. They're real good at the comeback.

[bake74]

     Again, sorry to hear about the truck, but get it back together with the right parts and go show that mustang who's boss. 

[VileZambonie]

If you are running a flip kit on a leaf spring set up make sure you are using good quality U-bolts evenly torqued. Have you looked into Cal-tracs or a 4 link set up? Got pix of the damage?

[three8six]

Yea I dont think the quality of a flip kit would really vary too much steel is steel. No moving parts really. Sounds like your truck has some serious power though.

[JohnnyCanuck]

not all steel is made the same, I guarantee lot's of people on this site can attest to that, me included.  Any pics of the damage?

[Irish_Alley]

Like vile stated it probably started at the u bolts. If they stretches or bracket off any you will have a break

[team39763]

I'll get pics tomorrow.

Vile, I have caltracs on there already.  Thankfully they weren't damaged.

I don't think I have that much power...it's probably just something I did wrong.  For some reason I can't manage to do a stationary burnout.  My truck makes all this noise, but the tires don't spin...so I'm guessing all that power is binding up in the suspension somewhere since the tires ain't turnin'.  That's probably where the damage started.

The U-bolts were new from Oreilly's(don't know the brand though) and I tightened them up evenly.  They seem to be undamaged.  My trans is surely screwed.  I got under there to take a look and the case is cracked around where the pan rail meets the tail housing.  I wanted to puke...I just had it built 3 weeks ago.

[VileZambonie]

Sounds like you have major issues...Can't do a burnout, cracked case, ripped out your rear end... definitely use a different builder for your trans and check your pinion angle when you get the rear end reinstalled. The good thing is, parts are plentiful and pretty cheap. So what let go if the U-bolts are still good and everything was torqued evenly?

[team39763]

From what I can tell one spring perch let go and let the pinion rise up.  The flipkit bracket on the other side flattened into the shape of a "W" allowing even more movement.
  I'm not sure what to say about the burnouts.  I think it's a brake problem.  When I press the brakes lightly it won't hold the truck back.  If I press the brakes good and hard, it won't let the back tires spin. I also have a linelock setup on my rear brakes and it still won't work.  I'm confident in the trans and builder...it's me that's doing something wrong.

EDIT: I just figured out why my linelock wouldn't work.  It'll be fixed in the morning.  I'm gonna go buy the spring perches and do it right(like I should have the first time).  I just need to find a good welder down here who won't warp my housing or blow holes in it.

[roadrage41]

Airbagit/chassis tech/ whatever name they're going by this week saddles are notorious for collapsing. That's most of the eBay kits.

[team39763]

I was warned on this site way back then, but I couldn't make myself spend the extra money for a good quality kit.  I may have also screwed up the install of a few things too...I'm still learning the "do's and don'ts" of wrenching.

Pic of the collapsed saddle

Pic of the broken perch.


Can ya'll tell me what happened here?  How did the cover bolts get knocked out of the housing?  Those things were in there stupid tight.  The wheels still roll freely and the pinion turns easily.  I'm hoping the housing isn't messed up.