Deuce Front Axle

[37 Coupe]

I'd sure like to meet the person who started the misinformation about 1932 Ford passenger car/commercial vehicles and read them the riot act. There was only one front axle used in '32 production. It is neither heavy nor light, it is just a '32 front axle. Presumably how it got started was when someone's front axle had been replaced with either the '33 or '34 version, the latter became the service replacement starting in 1934, and a subsequent owner assumed that it was an original '32 front axle.

The same may be true for the 1937 Ford tube axle frequently called the "60 hp front tube axle". In the Early V8 Club 1937 book page 4-10 it cites."Most front axles 78-3010-A,new for 1937 Fords were an arched H-beam.A tubular axle,78-3010-EXP MFG later renumbered to78-3010-B was used in very limited production,100 cars a dayDearborn only,om 85 horsepower cars. So I never understood if this meant they were not used on 60 hp cars and only limited to 85 hp carsor the statement is a missprint in the book. The 60 hp '37 Fords I have owned or seen including the 26,000 mile one I have now has the normal H-beam front axle.

 

[Tim Ayers]

David, If I am reading this correctly , there is a unique axle in '33 ? Is there a link with all 3 axles side by side for comparison? We are learning here every day...

Agree. I really enjoy the nitty gritty details about this stuff.

 

[rockfla]

Agree. I really enjoy the nitty gritty details about this stuff.

AND
For as good as Francis & DeAngelis' book IS, they are beyond lacking in the "Front Axel" section of their book!!!!

 

[rich b]

than the other '32 axles?

Someone asked about that in past; so I weighed some axles.

Model A weighed 20.03 lbs.

'33-'36 weighed 22.39 lbs.

'32 axle weighed 24.07 lbs.

The '33-'36 was the normal kind not the elusive early (?) '33 axle.
'

 

[Flathead Fever]

I had this '32 axle in this chassis project but then my friend and early dry lake racer took the Dago Dropped '33-'34 Axle out of his '32 roadster. He had raced at El Mirage in the 40s and 50s. I said why didn't you put a dropped '32 axle in it? He said when he got out of the Navy, he went down to the speed shop in 1946. They had a drum of Ed Axle Stewarts dropped axles and you exchanged your axle for a dropped axle. They didn't have any '32 axles in the drum so he took a dropped '33'-34. So, even in 1946 the parts were getting mixed up. Maybe 15 years ago I got that dropped axle from Bernie Couch he bought in 1946 and it's now under this chassis in the photo. It's more important to me that it was "his" axle, and it ran the dry lakes then if it was '32 axle. Now the '32 axle is under my '34 pickup project, the '32 axle was already painted so what the heck. Everything is all screwup around here. I bought the '34 pickup because it was so straight, in storage since the 70s., The guy had sold the front end to put in 4-bar suspension, but he hadn't installed it yet. So that's how this '34 pickup ended up with a '32 front axle.

 

[Flathead Fever]

Delete

 

[Mart]

I have a 33 axle. What would I look for to see if it is the early axle different from the 33-36 axle?

 

[DavidG]

Unlike with the '32 axle, I do not have archival backup for what I have observed in the difference between '33 and '34 front axles, but based on the many '33s and '34s I've had over the years and what I have noticed on seemingly original cars, the '33 front axle has the same center section (spring perch hole to spring perch hole) as a '32 front axle. Both ends outward of the spring perch holes have the revised curvature and smaller cross section of the front axle that followed. The '34 version's center section is reduced in size becoming roughly that of the two end sections.

The '34 version is lighter in weight than the '33 version with its carryover '32 center section. The '33s that I have, had, or observed ranged from early to mid-year to late production.

 

[uncle buck]

Thank you David for that explanation.

 

[Tim Ayers]

Thank you David for that explanation.

Yes, agreed. That sounds like a great looking axle. A tad off topic, but for dropped axles, I like the look of the '32 center with the '33-'36 ends. I'm on the hunt for one at Hershey this year.

 

[DavidG]

I was at my indoor junkyard today and took some measurements. The top-to-bottom thickness of a '32 front axle center section is 2 1/4" The '33 front axle that I have been referring to has the same 2 1/4 thickness of its center section. The top-to-bottom thickness of a a typical '34 plus front axle center section is 2".


I think that we would all agree that an axle with 2 1/4" thick center section weighs more than one with a 2" thick center section, all other things being equal.