I have been discussing another TR axle option with Mark Williams
Enterprises. Mark Williams is a fabricator of custom axle shafts and
housings doing much work for the roundy-round and drag race crowds. I
had sent them a TR4 axle assembly and they say that they can make a
flanged axle as a replacement to eliminate the key/taper and separate
hub. The difficult part will be to fit the right bearing to it and
have a bearing retainer machined to fit. They are estimating that the
first set would be about $950 and subsequent ones about $800 depending
on the bearing retainer fabrication. While this would be more
expensive than the Southwick option there are a couple of advantages.
For those of us not near Chicago, the price would be about the same
when taking into account shipping costs for an axle. The other
advantage is that this would be a direct bolt on. It could be used in
our race cars as well as street cars, and they could be swapped from
one axle assembly to another. I have a couple axles set up with my
4-link brackets (and soon to be coil-over brackets) and different gear
ratios to make axle gear ratio changes easier. The Southwick option
would require me to modify more than one housing to retain this
advantage.
Is there any interest amongst the listers in this option? As with any
machine shop work the more the merrier to keep the costs down. Please
let me know what you think. I am not trying to compete with the
Southwick option but rather am trying to find something that would
make the swap easier. I have no financial interest in Mark Williams
Enterprises. Joe (B)
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