[Fot] Southwick Conversion

[DAVE HOGYE]

Yes, Joe.  I have brought this up to the group before.
Southwick does not true or align the tubes to the housing before welding on the flanges.  They set the Ford flanges on a long straight/solid rod, that is attached at the carrier bearing saddles and sticks out of the axle tubes and then weld the flanges on the tubes.  These alignment tools are available, for a few hundred bucks.  So, the tube ends will likely be off center to the flanges as mine very obviously were if the tubes are not trued.  I called Southwick about this.  This might not be a big deal to most, but why not true the tubes in the housing before welding on the flanges.  The i.d. of the flange is larger than the o.d. of the tube and the large gap gets filled with a big fat weld, instead of using a spacer sleeve.  On a TR3 the big fat weld fouls the U-bolts so the weld has to be ground down a lot for the U-bolts to fit correctly.  It would be great if the Ford flanges could be made to the correct i.d. for different size tubes.  
 
Dave H.

> On 09/29/2025 7:35 AM PDT Chris Marx via Fot <fot at autox.team.net> wrote:
>  
>  
> 
> Dear Friends,
> 
>  
> 
> thank you for your help.
> 
>  
> 
> I’m asking for a fellow racer. He was competing in the 6h race at Spa, broke the axle and rolled the car.
> 
> I’m not sure if it will be repaired but just in race I advised them to fit the Southwick conversion.
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks anyway….(my car has already the Southwick axle installed).
> 
>  
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Chris
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> From: Bob Kramer <rkramer56 at gmail.com>
> Sent: Monday, September 29, 2025 4:19 PM
> To: Philip Gott <vfracing at aol.com>
> Cc: tr4racing at googlemail.com; fot at autox.team.net
> Subject: Re: [Fot] Southwick Conversion
> 
>  
> 
> I bet we could come up with a spare TR4 housing and plates to save Chris some of the shipping costs.
> 
>  
> 
> On Mon, Sep 29, 2025 at 8:29 AM Philip Gott via Fot <fot at autox.team.net mailto:fot at autox.team.net> wrote:
> 
> > 
> > We had them do a conversion about 5 years ago.  Need to send them an axle housing and the backing plates.
> > Phil
> > 
> > Sent from my iPhone
> > 
> > > On Sep 29, 2025, at 8:37 AM, Chris Marx via Fot <fot at autox.team.net mailto:fot at autox.team.net> wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi Guys,
> > >
> > > is the Southwick system still available?
> > > Where to obtain?
> > >
> > > Cheers
> > > Chris
> > >
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