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Part III
Our car now has axles in it. It's
now really starting to take shape.
Our project car is moving along quite
nicely as we quickly approach the date for its first outing—the indoor
event at the “Mini Magic Mile” in DuQuoin, Illinois. This segment
focuses on the axles in our FOZ Race Car upright mini sprint. The
axles are another area where quality is a focus. When the car was
designed it was determined that in the interest of safety, reliability
and ease of use, the FOZ Race car would make use of a full midget
front axle and components as well as a 2” inch splined rear axle. The
decision proved to be a wise one, as the added weight was negligible
and the strength and reliability was greatly enhanced. The FOZ axle
packages include parts from FOZ Race Products and other leading
manufacturers. Although the packages were assembled for use on the
FOZ Race Car, Speed Partz competitors campaigning everything from
Baileys and ERCs to Doemelts and homebuilts have upgraded to these
packages.
The Front Axle Assembly
The decision to utilize a full midget front axle under the front of
the FOZ Race car was not a hard one. Feeback from a few customers
that had destroyed cars due to the failure of front axles, coupled
with a desire to increase the availability of parts for the car
influenced the decision. The platform of the FOZ mini sprint front
axle is the axle beam which is constructed of chromoly and is xx” in
diameter. In addition to axle beams for the FOZ, Speed Partz has also
constructed axle beams for other manufacturers for customers desiring
to upgrade.
We make use of high quality midget
style spindles - they're much more durable and add very little weight.
The next piece of hardware that gets
bolted to the front axle are the
spindles. Again, FOZ Products uses a
high quality midget style spindle constructed of aluminum with a
straight steel snout. These spindles are also available in aluminum
with a titanium snout. One of the our favorite things about this
set-up is the larger diameter king pin. Moving to a .812 king pin
greatly enhances durability. The smaller diameter king pins that were
used in one of the earlier mini sprints that we owned, seemed to have
the spindles full of slop by the fourth or fifth outing. In our first
FOZ car, we ran the same king pins for two seasons with no signs of
slop or wear. Additionally, if you’ve grown tired of dealing with the
sir clips that are utilized on most mini sprint spindle/king pin
set-ups, you are going to love these. The king pin has a threaded
insert that holds it in place—much easier to deal with than the
traditional sir clip set-up.
We've employed Black Widow direct mount
hubs with angular contact bearings and a front brake.
The FOZ front axle makes use of a
direct
mount hub. We have been using these on all of the cars that we
build. They are much more convenient and allow you to save money on
wheels. We have the ability to offer several choices when it comes to
the type of direct mount hubs you choose. Customers can select from
Weld, Winters, DMI or Real Wheels. The Real Wheels’ direct mount hub
only works with Real Wheels. The rest of the direct mount hubs will
work with Weld, Keizer and Sanders wheels. For this car we have
selected Black Widow Hubs. They are the lightest weight on the
market. We have also choosen the top of the line hubs with angular
contact bearings. We have found that these spin much more freely than
the roller bearing type. In a simple wheel spin test, it seems as if
the angular contact bearing direct mount hub spins almost twice as
long as the regular roller bearing set-up.
The final piece of hardware that gets hung
on our front axle is a front brake. Since our first show will be a
small, tight indoor track, we figure that a front brake was in order.
The front rotor and caliper easily mount to the spindle with the
addition of a FOZ front brake mounting bracket. The chassis comes
with the necessary tabs to run a front brake. We use Wilwood calipers
in the front and back of our cars. The front of our car gets a
Wilwood Dynalite Single caliper.
A quick change sprocket hub is a
convenience item that we have added to this car.
The rear axle is another area where
quality is not compromised on the FOZ Race Car. We utilize a
2 inch splined Winters rear axle. Although we’ve found that some people like
to utilize an 1-3/4 inch splined rear axle, we believe for strength,
durability and convenience—you can’t beat a 2 inch rear axle. The FOZ
car can be delivered with an 1-3/4 inch rear axle if that is what the
customer desires. 2 inch rear axle often represent a significant long
term cost savings since they don’t bend nearly as easily as an 1-3/4
inch. In our circumstance, the added weight is negligible, and we
will need to add weight to the car to make minimum weight anyhow. If
you’re coming from a mini sprint that still makes use of a keyed rear
axle, you are going to love the splined axle. If you’ve spent anytime
with a hammer attempting to beat your hubs or birdcages on our
off—or—struggling to get the right spacing, your problems are solved.
With a splined rear axle all of the components easily slide on and off
the axle. Spacing is determined or changed by simply adding or
switching out different length aluminum spacers.
The standard FOZ rear axle assembly makes
use of a quick change rear sprocket hub. Again this is done in the
interest of increasing convenience. If you’ve ever spent too much
time at the track attempting a rear sprocket change or simply avoided
the whole subject because of time constraints, you will also fall in
love with the quick change rear sprocket hub. The quick change
sprocket hub makes use of a large reverse thread nut that screws on
placing force on a pressure plate that holds the sprockets on its
mounting pins. We’ve been using this set-up for nearly three years
now and have never had a failure—and most of all love the convenience
that it adds.
Our birdcages are a one piece billet
design.
The
birdcages used on the FOZ are another
area that we take pride in. These birdcages are a one piece billet
design providing the cleanest, lightest weight, most durable
configuration. If you examine many of the other birdcages on the
market, you will see that they use a multi-piece design that are held
together with bolts. This might be a negligible increase in weight,
but also increases the chances for failure. Our birdcages are also a
single bearing set-up on the left rear and a double bearing set-up on
the right rear. While some contend that a double bearing is overkill
for a mini sprint, we believe it is justified. The larger, rougher
tracks that the cars now compete on, coupled with the added strain of
increased horsepower make a double birdcage worthwhile. We also
believe that the car rolls much freer this way.
To round things out, the rear axle gets a
splined rear rotor and Wilwood caliper. The car is attached using
torsion arms and a drag links. This set-up is most often known as a z
link or watts link. Although some manufacturers have gone to a
wishbone type rear end because it makes the chain somewhat easier to
adjus, we don’t believe it is worth sacrifice the handling
characteristics produced by the z-link. The axle is held in place
from side-to-side with a jacobs ladder.
All of the items
used to build the FOZ Race Car are available through Speed Partz for
more information visit
www.speedpartz.com
or call 513.874.2034.
| Part
I | Part II |
For more information on several of the products listed above, be sure
to read our more in-depth technical articles:
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