It's our second year running winged 360s and we recently purchased our second chassis. We run F5 chassis which are kind of difficult to find information on. The F5's have brackets to run long (34 1/2' radius rods on the rear and mount near the motor plate. Can anyone tell me what the advantage would be to running these radius rods?? Also, the seller of the second car told us we needed a 28 3/4' driveshaft, but I am having trouble finding somone who sells that size. Do I need to get in touch with Winters or DMI or remeasure just to be sure?? Thanks in advance.
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This is just my take on things...
The longer radius rods will soften up how hard the rear tires hit, like on a dry slick track. They can help when you go from off the gas, say, through a turn, to when you get back on the gas, on corner exit. Sometimes it will lessen the chance of spinning the tires when getting back on the gas. Might make it easier to drive when slick. If you have the spuds already on the car, it's worth the 25 bucks for a set of radius rods to try it out. Make sure the car is square!!! Some non wing guys like it, some don't, but I say it's worth a try on a 360 with a wing, especially if you have a hard RR tire rule. Probably wouldn't try it on a long track, where you're on the gas all the time, even through traffic.
As to the drive shaft length, this is what I do...with the motor in the car, and a yoke bolted to the crank flange, I install the rear end, hook it up with rad rods and arms, the whole bit. Get it in place and square, without the torque tube, then I measure from inside the yoke to inside whatever coupler your rear end is using. I forget how much play there should be front to back when it's all assembled. I think this is listed on all the chassis mfg. web sites. Don't take the length you mention as gospel. They may want that length with a particular yoke or rear end coupler. You can buy the shaft a little too long, cut it with a hacksaw if you're careful, deburr the splines and you're good to go. If you go too long, and it binds through the range of motion, you'll destroy the crank thrust bearing, will ruin a good mood, and make the car hard to turn.
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