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News About Thomas

butch27

Active Member
One of our early members "Thomas" sold his bucket after only 2 years and will not be in the sport any longer. His Wife and family think it is too dangerous PLUS the fact he keeps breaking rear clevises on the radius rods. Something is way out of whack on the Spirit chassis. Also our old friend "RICK" is very sick and not driving his bucket this year. Good luck to both.
 
Something is way out of whack on the Spirit chassis. .

This statement is missing something. It needs to be clarified, I think.

I have a Spirit chassis. It's one of the early versions and I've had it on the road since 2000. I have had NO issues with it. There are quite a few Spirit chassis' on the road and this is the first I've heard of an issue.
 
I agree with GT63 that the broken clevises on the rear end would seem to be an indication of misalignment or a REALLY HEAVY RIGHT FOOT. Not any defect in Spirit's manufacturing or design. That, and the fact that his family feels that the SPORT (?) is too dangerous (?) might be an indication of other personal problems. I would like to hear it from the man himself.
To Rick, even though we have argued before, and we both can be a little hard headed and opinionated, I wish him nothing but the best and a speedy and complete recovery.

John
 
One of our early members "Thomas" sold his bucket after only 2 years and will not be in the sport any longer. His Wife and family think it is too dangerous PLUS the fact he keeps breaking rear clevises on the radius rods. Something is way out of whack on the Spirit chassis. Also our old friend "RICK" is very sick and not driving his bucket this year. Good luck to both.
Sorry to hear about Thomas getting out of the sport. He was one of the very few that I could find that was running the same combination of engine and transmission that I have in mine and we did "chat" a couple of times on issues with this setup.
 
An indication of personal problems? Man that's harsh.

I've been hanging around T buckets for ten years now and can think of half a dozen fatalities and many, many serious wrecks. When it gets down to it, these things are not that safe. I made the choice to not build a bucket until my son got a bit older. I don't think that means I have "personal problems."

Edit to add: Regarding the Spirit chassis design... Last time I talked to Bob, he said there were hundreds of them on the road now. I've never heard of the problems mentioned. I do think that if someone wants to put a lot of power and traction to one of these cars, they should use captured clevis radius rods. The car was not designed for high power, high traction applications.
 
Photoman, "personal problems" can have a wide range of meanings. From basically being nothing, to the reason the rear clevises kept breaking. I would like to hear from Thomas himself, not a statement from his family. Implying that there was something wrong with the Sprit frame that he purchased, without giving a reason, is a cold shot to BC. Also this statement came from the Wife & family or from Butch27, not Thomas, I have seen Spirit's work and have always been impressed by Bob's willingness to stand behind his product and make things right if need be. Spirit has not been given that chance. That the clevises "kept breaking" would indicate the clevises broke more than once and that it was perceived as a problem that might have been brought on by overly aggressive use of the vehicle. That could be interpreted as a "personal problem". I know that this is a forum that allows free speech and thought on any subject that is posted and I exercise it. I don't do it to be mean or harsh.

John

P.S. You are correct, the car that is in another post is a Speedway design.
 
I had a Spirit-supplied S-10 rear axle, hairpins and clevises in my T for three seasons before switching to a Jag rearend. I'm running a 6-71 blown 355 small-block Chevy making at least 500 hp that I romp on pretty regularly, and I never had a single issue with my Spirit set-up.

I would be curious to know who welded the radius rod brackets to Thomas's rear axle. I know Spirit does theirs in a jig to maintain proper alignment.
 
I have a Spirit chassis for a 27T. There is nothing on the chassis that would cause a clevis attached to the rear axle to break. A clevis failure can either be a sheared pin or a fractured clevis. If it's a sheared pin then one needs to look at the forces applied and the pin material. Now I know that some people, in an attempt to save a few bucks, will buy things from the local hardware store. Most of those items are not intended for automotive [high force] application. If ya got a clevis that's designed for a dog chain hookup, it probably won't last long on a car. If the axle bracket is not located properly and causes side loads on the clevis, then it's likely that the clevis will fail. Clevises are not designed for side loads..push/pull only. If the radius rod needs to be bowed sideways to fit, then you are just asking for trouble. Spacers can be used if it bows in toward the frame. If it bows outward then the only right thing to do is relocate the axle brackets. These high powered, lightweight cars are not toys. In fact, they probably ought to be built more like a race car than a production car. Use only use approved fasteners, clevises, heims joints and the like. Some here even build to aircraft design standards just to be extra safe and careful.
 
I have a Spirit car and even though I'm not running high HP, I do have GOBS of Torque and I flog Kletus like a redheaded stepchild (no offense intended to redheaded stepchildren, it's just a colloquialism), and have put LOTS of highway miles on it. It's time to change out the Rod ends, the clevises, etc after five years of ownership though... some would say I've waited three yaers too long to swap all of them.

The major question I have about the broken clevises... are they polished stainless?

I've heard a lot of negativity about using stainless here lately.
 
Thanks for all the comments. Broken clevis at any speed is a very serious issue. Josh pointed me to this post but he is not here for me to ask if we welded the brackets on the rear end or not. I am thinking we probably did. my first thought would be that they are out of line but we do jig weld all of them so I'm not sure that was the issue. Josh said Thomas did break the clevis and we sent him some spacers to put between the frame and the rod ends along with the new clevis I don't think we would have done that if there was no reason to. I will have to find out more of the story Monday. To the best of my knowledge Thomas did not have any issue with the clevis again but I can understand how once would be more than enough.
I would suggest that everyone do a quick inspection of your bucket and check the suspension parts and if there are any issues let us know both here and with a call to Spirit. Also in general if you see safety issues with a fellow Buckethead's car (in a nice way) point them out with positive suggestions.
 
Boy did I open up a can of worms. NOTHING big on the PERSONAL Problems!! The Rear end he got had a bent right rear axle. You can't bend the darn axle without bending the axle housing!Spirit is sending him spacers to space the radius rod out at the front mount for the rear radius rods. Yes they have a fine product. Guys let this one die. Just wanted to inform everyone that one of our founding members is quitting. Butch27
 
Just from my own personal experience over many too many years, I recommend using the large 4 bar type bushings at each mounting point on rear radius rods... This allows for movement when the chassis leans left or right and when pulled from side to side when using a Panhard type locating bar... This side pulling when using a "too short" of Panhard bar is very hard on all suspension parts... Just my 2 cents worth :) Drive safe...
 
Ahhh, the trials and tribulations of posting something to the Internet. When we speak to one another in person, there are times when an unfortunate choice of words can go entirely unnoticed, because of tone, inflection and facial expression. And all of those are lost when the words are written down.

My first thought, upon seeing this thread, was to lock it down. It has all the properties required to become an explosive topic. And we don't need arguments here, this is where we come to get away from that kind of nonsense, yes?

But I am not going to lock it. What I am going to do is point out the fact that this is a matter between B.C. and Thomas. Which means they are the only people with all the facts and anything said by anyone else is conjecture and speculation. So I am going to leave this one open so B.C. and Thomas can add factual information to the topic, should that become necessary. I've "known" both individuals for more than a wee bit and consider both of them to be honorable and trustworthy men, neither of whom would care to be the cause of a free-for-all. From where I sit, I see one of two things happening - A) B.C. is going to help Thomas sort out the underlying issue and Thomas will keep his car, or B) B.C. will learn more about the problem and will upgrade things to eliminate this from being a recurring issue.

Sheesh, am I getting politically-correct in my advancing years, or what?!? :) For those that are used to the non-PC Mike :winkn:, the thread stays open. If your username isn't Thomas or B.C., just move along after reading this one since you don't have a dog in this particular hunt. We're dealing with facts in this one, not opinions, so gang wary.

Wow, that was still pretty gentle. I really am getting older... :shrug: I'll go slam my hand in a car door and see if that winds me up.
 
Well said you ol' softy!!! LOL

Ron
 
Ahhh, the trials and tribulations of posting something to the Internet. When we speak to one another in person, there are times when an unfortunate choice of words can go entirely unnoticed, because of tone, inflection and facial expression. And all of those are lost when the words are written down.

My first thought, upon seeing this thread, was to lock it down. It has all the properties required to become an explosive topic. And we don't need arguments here, this is where we come to get away from that kind of nonsense, yes?

But I am not going to lock it. What I am going to do is point out the fact that this is a matter between B.C. and Thomas. Which means they are the only people with all the facts and anything said by anyone else is conjecture and speculation. So I am going to leave this one open so B.C. and Thomas can add factual information to the topic, should that become necessary. I've "known" both individuals for more than a wee bit and consider both of them to be honorable and trustworthy men, neither of whom would care to be the cause of a free-for-all. From where I sit, I see one of two things happening - A) B.C. is going to help Thomas sort out the underlying issue and Thomas will keep his car, or B) B.C. will learn more about the problem and will upgrade things to eliminate this from being a recurring issue.

Sheesh, am I getting politically-correct in my advancing years, or what?!? :) For those that are used to the non-PC Mike :winkn:, the thread stays open. If your username isn't Thomas or B.C., just move along after reading this one since you don't have a dog in this particular hunt. We're dealing with facts in this one, not opinions, so gang wary.

Wow, that was still pretty gentle. I really am getting older... :shrug: I'll go slam my hand in a car door and see if that winds me up.

Thats the truth. I was in charge of a sales team of all females for a number of years and the one thing that taught me was to talk to them about anything important FACE TO FACE. E mails can be taken so many ways. I also learnt that there is a language difference between the USA and the UK, at my cost on several occasions. (Ted will know this from our conversations about the floor and the ground)
G
 
I talked to Thomas on 8/7 I didn't know it but he was a machinist as a trade so we had a very good conversation about the issue and could not come up with a good reason for the problem. He drove his bucket last week and will keep a close eye and the clevis's to make sure there is no fractures. There was 1/2" space between the rod end and the frame that caused a side pressure which was corrected with a spacer. Although that is not good it should not in my opinion cause the problem. I think it is fair to say that our inconclusive conclusion was that is was a clevis issue. This is my best guess and as Spirit I will look at other sources for this part. Some times especially when it comes to the grading of steel, things are not what they are represented to be. In conclusion I would just suggest you regularly inspect your suspension for loose bolts, fractured parts, ect. This hobby should be a life time of enjoyment not just because of the cars but because of the great people you get to meet.

If Butch27 is talking about another Thomas I don't know who that would be.
 
I had a Spirit-supplied S-10 rear axle, hairpins and clevises in my T for three seasons before switching to a Jag rearend. I'm running a 6-71 blown 355 small-block Chevy making at least 500 hp that I romp on pretty regularly, and I never had a single issue with my Spirit set-up.

I would be curious to know who welded the radius rod brackets to Thomas's rear axle. I know Spirit does theirs in a jig to maintain proper alignment.

Off topic, Lee... Didn't recognize your car! Looks great! (was primer gray last time I think).... LOL
 

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