Quarter Master® gives Dirt Late Model racers peace of mind and faster lap times with its magnesium bellhousing kits
First and foremost, racers want to win. But they also have a few needs that also need to be met: They need the components on their race cars to be affordable, durable and easy to work with. After all, few of us have the budget for a staff of mechanics to keep the race car running, so we need all the help we can get.
The Quarter Master® clutchless kit for Dirt Late Model racers includes the magnesium bellhousing, a high-torque reverse rotation starter,
91-tooth lightweight flywheel, drive hub, an oil pump belt and all the mounting hardware required to mount it all to your car.
No trips to the hardware store necessary!
That’s why Quarter Master® designed its bellhousing kits to be a fully engineered solution for racers looking for a bulletproof bellhousing and clutch system. Quarter Master’s clutchless bellhousing kit solves what previously had been a big problem for Dirt Late Model racers, who traditionally use a Bert/Brinn style transmission. These lightweight transmissions feature an internal clutch and use an extremely small flywheel. This makes for low rotating weight which is an advantage on the track, but the smaller diameter flywheel also reduces the leverage the starter has as it tries to spin the crank.
Racers solve this problem by using a high-torque starter, but this in turn puts a lot of force on the bellhousing where the starter is mounted. The intense torque created by these starters on a small flywheel puts a lot of pressure on the bellhousing, and many have been known to crack and even break under the load.
Dirt Late Model racer Chris Hargett says he had struggled with the problem of cracked and broken bellhousings for years. In fact, he had to stop around the middle of every race season, pull the bellhousing and spend time welding up the cracks that had developed just to get to the end of the year. And even that didn’t guarantee no bellhousing failures. “I’ve had a bellhousing completely break and fall off the car during a race,” he says. “I hated it because I couldn’t finish the race, but it was even worse for the guy behind me.”
But Hargett says those headaches ended when he switched to Quarter Master® bellhousings three seasons ago. The Quarter Master® bellhousing, he says, is better engineered to withstand the stresses of racing, especially on a dirt track. And Hargett has irrefutable proof to back it up: Since he’s switched to Quarter Master® he hasn’t suffered a single bellhousing failure and hasn’t even found a crack that required a repair. “I used to buy a new bellhousing every season,” he explains, “but since I switched I not only haven’t had to weld on the thing, but I’m running the same components I put on the car back then.”
The costs savings of not having to replace the bellhousing, starter and other components every season, according to Hargett, have been tremendous. And that also means no on-track failures. Hargett says it is a win/win situation when he finds a way to get better performance for less money and Quarter Master® is the only bellhousing he will put on any of his cars.
Follow along as we install Quarter Master’s Clutchless Bellhousing Kit on Hargett’s newest Dirt Late Model chassis. Altogether, the entire installation required only a couple of hours and required no more than common hand tools. Kits are available for most engine configurations.
 Although all Dirt Late Model chassis manufacturers include their own
touches to make their product a bit different from the rest, almost all
use a mid-plate for mounting the engine. Quarter Master® offers
bellhousings with different bolt patterns to fit most blocks, so they will
also work with all the mid-plates for those blocks. The brand of chassis
you race doesn’t affect the installation. |
 Small Bert/Brinn style transmissions don’t usually require a chassis
cross member. It’s a nice touch, but it can also cause aggravation
because any time you pull the engine, the transmission and
bellhousing are left hanging. You can make an easy modification
that secures the bellhousing and transmission by attaching them to
the engine mid-plate. This way, if the engine is removed the
bellhousing is still securely mounted. You can do this by first
bolting the bellhousing to the mid-plate through the standard holes
that bolt straight through to the engine block. Then drill three holes
though the bellhousing and mid-plate using a #7 bit. |
 Now use a ¼-20 tap to cut threads in the holes you just drilled. |
 The bolts go from the engine side of the mid-plate through to the
bellhousing. To keep the fasteners from interfering with the fit
between the block and the mid-plate, Hargett uses ¼-20 flat-head
socket cap bolts and countersinks the edges of the holes in the
mid-plate using a large drill bit. |
 Remove the engine plate and attach the starter adaptor. The adaptor
uses both button-head Allen bolts and 3/8-inch standard bolts. Use
blue Loctite on all the bolts and torque them to 25-30 ft-lbs. |
 From this photo you can see how the starter adaptor mounts to the
bellhousing using bolts that go through in both directions. This
increases the strength of the unit to maximize overall durability. |
 This is the oil-pump mount. It is anodized aluminum but a steel rod is
used as a stiffener to minimize flex, which can cause the oil pump to
throw its drive belt. The Quarter Master® design allows for mounting it
either on the top of the bellhousing or the side. |
 Quarter Master® recommends red Loctite on the bolts and torquing
them to between 25 and 30 ft-lbs. This is a good place to grab
somebody to assist you. Have them put a wrench on the support
rod to keep it from spinning as you tighten down the fastener that
locks it in place. |
 With all the accessories out of the way, you can now mount the
mid-plate to the bellhousing using the holes you’ve already drilled
and tapped. |
 Quarter Master’s high-torque starter is designed to work with a
12-volt electrical system, but it can also work with 16-volt systems as
well. If you are using a remote solenoid, you will want to install the
included jumper to simplify the wiring. Use a 1/8-inch drill bit to open
up the hole in the spade terminal for the jumper screw. |
 The darker copper-colored piece you see here is the jumper. |
 Now the starter is ready to be bolted to the adaptor plate. |
 The bellhousing/mid-plate assembly is finally ready to be fitted up to
the chassis. Obviously, the engine cannot be in the car at this point. |
 Next, you can install the flywheel and the drive hub on the end of
the crank. If you look closely, you will notice that there is no cam in
this block. This is just Hargett’s mock-up engine. |
 Bolt up the transmission to the bellhousing before dropping the engine
in the car. With the transmission in place, make sure that there is
between 0.100 and 0.040 of an inch of clearance between the starter
and the ring gear while the starter is disengaged. If not, Quarter
Master® has shim kits available to fix this easily and quickly. While
you are at it, you should also make sure you have approximately
0.025 of an inch of backlash on the starter. |
 The final step before installing your race engine is to loop the oil
pump drive belt over the transmission input shaft. Now you know
why the transmission must be bolted up before the engine. |
 Now you can install your race engine like normal. |
 As you can see in this photo, the bolts securing the engine to the
mid-plate go though the bellhousing too. |
The last step is to bolt up your oil pump. Make sure that the drive pulley and the oil pump pulley are in line with each other, and then
install the oil pump drive belt. Your clutchless bellhousing is now fully installed and you are ready to go.
For more information, contact Quarter Master® at 510 Telser Rd.; Lake Zurich, IL 60047; (847) 540-8999;
www.quartermasterusa.com.
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