gibbon

transmission fits the tunnel perfectly except the shifter is miles back, probably just about under the handbrake. No wiring was disconnected prior to this photo it was all legitimately just hanging its guts out like that since around 2012

there is a well documented mod to move the shifter forward but it's still not quite enough to get it back to the factory hole in the trans tunnel. the mod places the shifter about two inches aft of the mount points showing which would have it coming just through the wall of the tunnel.

I decided I could do better by doing away with the mount points and bringing the shifter as far forward as possible. I wish I had just gone with the original modified point! the mechanism is EXTREMELY sensitive to misaligment and the selector rod will jam up if it is not completely, perfectly straight. right now the whole thing is sitting on a workbench jammed with shims and things-acting-as-shims, waiting for some brave soul to TIG some new mount points onto it. I might get a photo of the finished product, but let's just call it a work in progress

with the aircon pulley mounted just over the steering rack and the larger alternator pully sitting just behind, this is the nearest pinch point - the heater (I think?) outlet at the back of the head just sits off from the firewall seam (pic is taken directly down at the rear of the engine). Once I'm assured that this is a heater line and nothing more I'll blank it off and move the temp probe. My heater is long gone

if I'm going to do it properly then I suppose I need to reserve all judgement until that outer sill is off and I can say for certain that the inner and stiffener are ok (I'm reasonably confident that they will be - this thing has rusted from the outside in, not the other way around). At that point I think I can weld new lower lips to the outer sill and stiffener, and re-flange the floor as you suggest.

I suppose my original plan had the T section welded to the outer sill and floor, and butting up against the stub of the stiffener and the inner sill. The bodge of it would be that the top of the T wouldn't actually be fused to the stiffener. I guess I didn't want to unpick anything but yeah it's a keeper car so maybe I'll bite the bullet once the body is back on the frame. I do draw the line at replacing the whole floor just because of a rotten flange though

What are my chances of getting the outer sill off in a reusable state? It looks like it just has tack welds at the front but I haven't checked out how the rest of it is held on

I'll get some tomorrow. Probably going to start a build thread anyway so the whole internet can watch the disaster unfold 

dredging up a dead thread as I too have stumbled across the suspiciously cheap AMR500. Is anyone running/still running one? how are they holding up? what's the story with the donut racing video, what did they do wrong? the internet won't tell me. 

here's the underside of my gt6. the seams where the sills and floor have large corroded away, as they come from the factory with a nice chrome capping that traps all the rain and lets it fester

Both sides are the same. The thing is, it's ONLY the exposed part of the seam that's gone. The floors are fine otherwise, and I've borescoped the inner sills and they're fine too. and obviously I've hoisted the whole car and aside from the rusted seams folding at the hoist points, the body is still strong.

Because the seams are combination of the floor panels, the inner and outer sill, and an internal stiffener, renewing it would mean replacing all of those parts, even though it's only the exposed lower inch that's rusted 

So would it be totally unreasonable to just grind the remainder of the seam off, fold up a long T section of approximate gauge, and weld it in it's place? Or is that too much of a bodge up? 

hey @cletus just to save me asking the same question in the certs thread, what do you think about this, do aftermarket half shafts require a cert? Mine are "professionally manufactured" (according to the UK seller, who don't supply any kind of engineering declarations with the parts), and dmulally's are locally built

10 hours ago, dmulally said:

They then got spun up on some fancy massive machine to balance them and get a report for LVV and job jobbed. Cost me maybe $300 all up

that's a good point too, I'll ask CDC if their off-the-shelf axles come balanced. The LLVTA lists "axle modifications" as requiring a cert but reading into it, it looks like they might be talking about live rear ends more than anything

google says the cappuccino diff is rock solid up to 64 hp. jokes on us, it's probably based on a spitfire diff

lol im just looking at that too, it actually looks pretty close, comes in an LSD too

two on trademe

19 minutes ago, Nominal said:

They are such teeny cars, can't be much built in the last 30 years that is so small and RWD IRS?

I was looking at rear diffs for fwd-orientated 4wd cars (mazda CX-7 looked sort of ballparky) as they're generally not very beefy. at first glance I thought axles would be impossible as simply nothing is as narrow in track as the little triumphs, but plenty of cars have offset diffs and "short side" axles, of the thousands out there, one might be close enough.... but, I'm leaning towards just buying the bespoke bits as they guarantee hours of not fucking around

what's involved with chopping and changing CV axles? can different CVs be swapped around on axles easily enough or do you have to cut and weld the axles? 

I refuse to believe the best option is still a fifty year old datsun diff which doesnt really "bolt in" in any way, shape or form. by the sheer weight of statistical inevitability, i assure you all that some korean designer in the last twenty years has unwittingly penned a diff for some unassuming van that fits up better, we just gotta find it

meanwhile in one of the most recent threads I've seen, some guy pops up and is like "I think I've found a solution using a 1974 alfetta hub" NO

20 minutes ago, Nominal said:

Just get an MX5? 

What are you trying to achieve with a 200hp GT6?

I've found that simpler projects are more likely to get done in a reasonable time and I somewhat regret launching an 'all out' project. 

its more than my gt6 is end of life IMHO and really will need an "all out project" to bring it back. the motor and gearbox are buggered, the sills are rotten, I think the front of the chassis is bent as the bonnet gaps are irredeemable.... the body's going to have to come off it anyway to address that, so yes it's going to be a giant can of worms. so I thought I might as well rethink everything. Honestly I think the MX5 part of it will be one of the less time consuming aspects of it. Fortunately I have a big workshop with a hoist, and several employees who also enjoy working on cars who I can bend to my will. will it ever get finished? maybe not. but it's not going to be driven again in it's current state either

for context I have avoided brakes, diffs and suspension almost my entire life because they are so, so shit to work on

and the way those yanks build their cars, looks like they could have started with just about any vehicle as it's all hot rod butchery by the end. seems to be a culture that never stops to think "surely there's an easier way of doing this"

9 hours ago, VitesseEFI said:

 have an MX5 g/box in my GT6 mated to the Triumph six.  It was a bloody mission getting it in there and I won't be doing another.

I feel like I should be more concerned about this than anything... I thought the mx5 setup was considered as close as anything is going to get, as far as fitting in without major butchery?

I would also be interested in your axle drawings, although they will probably have to be in crayon for me to make sense of them. I keep running into this circular argument where I want to use the blackline centre to avoid having to mess with fitting up an r160, but then I want to eliminate the rotoflex, which means custom axles which means I dont need to keep the triumph diff, so I could run a datsun diff, but wouldn't I like an LSD? well in that case just get the blackline centre for the stock diff, oh but the axles.... maybe I get an lsd subaru r160 and build custom axles for that? 

As for this ominous word "machining" - I have a lathe, a welder and a drill press, how much more technical do I need to get?

16 minutes ago, Alfashark said:

Bit of Lego trickery there - The worst part of it is a distinct lack of 340s, Rover 100s and Mk4 Escorts in this part of the world.

Having just finished work for the week and after 20 something hours awake, I haven't looked at any measurements but would an MX5 diff/axle assembly be close to the right dimensions for a GT6?

on the triumph experience site a guy has just shared his project of fitting a complete mx5 rear end which he concludes was way too much work, I can only assume he fitted the entire rear end because just fitting the diff and axles was even more difficult 

7 hours ago, VitesseEFI said:

Ok. Driveshaft UJs are probably the weakest link with the Blackline fitted.  CV shafts are a nice solution. I was selling conversion kits for a while which used MGF/Rover 100 outer CVs and shafts with Volvo 340 CVs at the inner end also replacing the hubs and wheel bearings with Rover 100/MGF parts, but Rover 100s and Volvo 340s are basically extinct now.  There are shafts available in the UK that bolt right up using the standard hubs and bearings but fairly pricey. There original rotoflex arrangement can reasonably reliable but only with DECENT donuts!  It’s very scary when they give way in service. 
 

The diff rear casing has a boss already in the casting which can be drilled and tapped for a drain plug.

if you don't mind giving up trade secrets, was there much involved in putting your kits together? There's a couple of MGFs for bits on trademe and Volvo CVs are still available.. 

10 hours ago, VitesseEFI said:

Late to the party….. small chassis Triumph diffs are a bit shit.  Some are worse than others. For the purposes of this I’ll assume we’re talking about the later 3.89 /3.63/3.27 with round input flange. Theses suffer from
- Being too small for the 6 cyl cars
- Not enough oil capacity / no drain plug / leaks. So the oil gets cooked, is never changed and eventually turns to jelly or escapes and by the time the diff starts howling for help it’s too late.
- outright breakages are mostly either the cross-pin breaking or the carrier casting failing where the pins go through. The Quaife/Blackline copy solves this.
-It’s still a small diff though and you definitely can rip teeth off the CWP though being properly built and being full of decent oil helps.

Absolutely this. Go drag-racing /drive like a baboon on meth and it will die. Maybe not on the first pass, but soon. Though as also mentioned, you might well break something else first - driveshaft, UJ, diff output shaft, gearbox.

200bhp/150 lbft is pushing your luck pretty far even with the Quaife. Though a friend of mine does race a 2.5 Vitesse with a Quaife diff and CV shafts. That has 180 bhp and 180lbft and gets driven with aggression. He’s not yet broken the diff, though to be fair other components (notably gearboxes) have been acting as the fuse. He’s recently gone to a T9 so we’ll see!  200bhp is getting close to the limit for an R160 too I’d think.

I’ve not (yet) broken a diff outright. I’ve worn a few out though. Vitesse is only around 140 bhp /140lbft though.  I’m now running a Quaife copy as at last rebuild time all of my collection of standard carriers had problems. It seems fine - heaps traction without any odd clanking and snatching like the plate diffs.

I’ve also got a 3.54:1 viscous lsd R160 in stock along with a conversion kit from a guy in Melbourne. I’m procrastinating as I’ve been having trouble finding the right Subaru driveshafts (now solved) and want to beef up the spring hanger a bit as the Vitesse is fatter than a Spit/GT6.

@gibbon, is yours a rotoflex car, what engine/gearbox are you planning and how will you use the car?

 

thanks for the reply, I'm pretty confident that the Blackline would end up miles cheaper than building adapters and getting half shafts etc machined for the R160, as you say the other half of the equation is getting in there and replacing the oil, i guess welding a drain plug boss in at the same time etc

My car is a rotoflex (probably needs new donuts come to think of it). Plan is a supercharged mx5 engine and box. (although the bridgeported 12a and starion box languishing in the garage got a long hard look too) I doubt it'd be anywhere near 200hp but I'm playing it safe. Likewise I'm a placid driver, but I don't really want to leave an obvious weak link in the system, especially if it's fifty years old. If the LSD unit replaces the traditional first points of failure then that's what I was hoping to hear

40 minutes ago, ahebron said:

Plenty of free info on the net regarding the Datsun/Subaru diff conversion but it doesnt address the axles.

yeah I did notice most of the threads petered out around the time axles were discussed. thanks for weighing in, I saw your post on the brit car pics thread and figured you were an old hand at triumphs and the like 

6 minutes ago, locost_bryan said:

Standard 8 before that iirc. 

More than 100bhp I'd be looking at the TR/2500 diff. Would be surprised if there wasn't an off the shelf kit for the upgrade over the years.

like with all things gt6, I think there's significant clearance problems that prevent fitting just about anything else. even the driver is an interference fit

my understanding is that the diff was originally designed to go behind a 35hp Herald engine and the poms are the actual worst offenders for "if it ain't broke don't fix it" or rather "make sure it breaks, to help out the lads down at the Union"