should i be worried

Greg Reimer

Well Known Member
It's been 40 plus years since I had a drop out rear end in anything, so I haven't busted one up in at least that long, but when you did, did you notice the rough, coarse granular nature of the cast iron the case and the post unit or carrier was cast from? It looks like a low grade inferior grade of cast iron. 12 bolts were made of cast steel that had a much finer finished appearance,web caps and all.Of course, for serious racing, steel web caps and grade 8 Allen head bolts are the ticket, but as a preventative measure rather than an after failure fix. The way to improve the early rear end would be to cast up a far better center section with way better steel, then you could possibly move the center line of the pinion down and a bit further away from the ring gear in order to use 8.5" gears, and then the gasket surface of the carrier could be made a bit thicker in order to locate the center of the ring gear on the same center line of the axle shafts. It would be a rather big job, but it would essentially fix the problem. I don't feel that it's worth the effort when A body 12 bolt housings are being reproduced by the performance rear end companies again.
 

Greg Reimer

Well Known Member
Seems that back in the day about 30 years ago, there was a real character in the Lubbock,Texas area that had a big junkyard or something, and he lied, cheated,and stole like mad, and after a bit, my members were constantly sending me negative mail and phone calls about him, so I printed an expose' in our newsletter about him. He must not have caught on, and he mailed me a check for a year's dues, business cards, the whole bit, and, let's say, I just don't know what ever happened to any of that stuff. I certainly didn't let him into the club and allow him access to the members and their ads. I got a lot of positive feed back from the rest of the club because I did that. Doesn't matter if its from Alberta, Long Beach or Lubbock, all this crap stinks the same. Just don't buy anything until you see it first.
P.S. I just tried to do a Google search on him, and it turned up his obituary. Oh well, what can I say?
 
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dakota tom

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 2
I bought a cam from him in the early 80s. NOS 409-409 cam. Wasn't it Chevyland or something like that.
 
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DonSSDD

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 2
A lot of people sold a Buddy Holly 58, there are a bunch of them out there, next to an American graffiti 58, or a 62 bel air bubbletop all original 409/409, they are very popular for fakes.
 
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Phil Reed

Well Seasoned Member
Supporting Member 10
Elvis had a 57 74 given to him by HD. Jerry Lee Lewis was the other. About 8 years ago, Jerry Lee called Topeka HD Restoration dept., said he had heard awesome reviews and wanted them to restore his 57......he still had it!!!!!
The crew went to Nashville to pick it up and take it back to Topeka.
They had a whole barn of NOS HD parts.... new tires and the whole rest of the bike. I've seen it under construction several times and finished many times!!!!!!!
Real story!!!!!!!
 
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