Progress to date: Robert's Roadster

[Skittler]

Re: Progress to date

Fantastic News, Robert. very well done on your achievements. Somehow I don't think you'll be 'resting up' though!

[lizbillings]

Re: Progress to date

Great news. Hope to see you and car somewhere this year.

[tony.branson76]

Re: Progress to date

Congratulations, hope to see you on some Fellside events soon.

Tony

[terryreed1664]

Re: Progress to date

Hi Robert, I've been watching your posts from the very start, well done, and congratulation on getting through the MOT.

Terry

[Robert in Cumbria]

Re: Progress to date

Thanks all, it's been a great relief. One thing I had to guess at was the headlamp aim. According to the alignment gauge they were spot on! The brakes have 80% efficiency, largely due to the light weight. The only very slight concern was the n/s steering rack end bush. There is very slight play in that bush but not enough to warrant a fail. I now have two spare racks so one of them may be better or I could re-bush it for next year.

Like I say, the next big step will be registration. Then look out for the little green demon! It is tiny compared with many other cars.

[b_caswell]

Re: Progress to date

Under the rack tube where the near side mounting is there should be a small nylon plug that sits in a hole in the tube and loads up the rack when the rubber mount is in position. You could also try pulling the boot off and whacking some grease around the inner rack while you have full left lock on.

The bush in the rack tube doesnt come up as a replaceable item but its so similar the the mini one that was I wonder if you could find a suitable replacement( I wonder where the refurbishers get them from?). I had a tool that enabled you to dismantle the inner joint on a mini and the withdraw the bush with the rack in situe, but sadly I broke it.


The other bodge we did was to drive a screw drive in between the bush and the rack tube just enough to bend the bush to take out the play.

[stevejgreen]

Re: Progress to date

How similar are the internals of a Triumph and Marina Rack?
I know one sits infront of the axle line and one behind, so are effectively opposite handed.
With the commonality of Triumph and Marina parts bin engineering I would not be too surprised.

The replacement of the Marina steering bush was covered on fastmarina, someone either tracked down or had some bushes made.
There may be some still around for those who want to have a go.


I seem to rememeber some discussion on here or perhaps FB. I dare say a search will find the posts.

[stevejgreen]

Re: Progress to date

Here is an article.

http://www.cjw-consulting.co.uk/steering_rack/steering_rack.htm

[Robert in Cumbria]

Re: Progress to date

Thanks guys, that's great stuff. Having a couple of spare Triumph racks and a very grotty Marina one I should be able to sort something. I can easily turn up a bush in bronze or Delrin, so once I figure how to dis-assemble the rack it should be easy enough to fix, although perhaps the rack bar itself may need a tiny bit of grinding down to get it round if there is some ovality wear or scoring on the bar.

[Robert in Cumbria]

Re: Progress to date

Some pix of the test:

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[Robert in Cumbria]

Re: Progress to date

Under the rack tube where the near side mounting is there should be a small nylon plug that sits in a hole in the tube and loads up the rack when the rubber mount is in position. You could also try pulling the boot off and whacking some grease around the inner rack while you have full left lock on.

The bush in the rack tube doesnt come up as a replaceable item but its so similar the the mini one that was I wonder if you could find a suitable replacement( I wonder where the refurbishers get them from?). I had a tool that enabled you to dismantle the inner joint on a mini and the withdraw the bush with the rack in situe, but sadly I broke it.


The other bodge we did was to drive a screw drive in between the bush and the rack tube just enough to bend the bush to take out the play.

My spare rack seems to be good although the ball joints may need shimming slightly because they are a bit short of resistance in my view, it also needs cleaning properly.

I have found the nylon plug Ben described, it's at the top near the flange. I did not notice a nylon plug in the rack which is fitted to the Marlin, on the other hand if there had been a hole there I would have noticed that, I am sure.

I found the bush which is very much thinner than the Marina one, probably about 60 thou at a guess. It appears to be a steel backed bronze bush. I will try to obtain a mini rack and compare the bushes. My engine man may have something suitable because it could be similar to little end bushes in large diesel engines. I am a bit reluctant to make a bronze bush because with such thin wall thickness it could crack and break up which might not be a good idea in that location. I don't know how Nylon or Delrin copes with thin wall, I suspect it it's tight enough too stay in the tube it will be damaged during installation, hence the steel backed bush.

There has to be a similar steel backed bush for some application, that size shaft must be as common as muck. Perhaps a wagon spring shackle bush or a gearbox bush could be found which will fit the bill.

The rack shaft is about 0.811" or 20.59mm Diameter, 1.5 thou under 13/16". That has to be be a common shaft size, there must be thousands of steel backed bronze bushes around at that size. I can't measure the OD of the bush yet, I will have to pull the rack down and extract the bush to get an accurate measurement.

In one of the photo's there is a dark patch where the nylon peg has been rubbing in the mid steer (straight ahead) position.

By the way, if you read a word which is 'wrong' probably correctly spelt but out of context, please excuse me, my computer uses pre-emptive text a bit like mobile phone texting. I am trying this out and occasionally it puts the wrong words in. I do proof read the posts but occasionally odd words do slip through the net.


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[b_caswell]

Re: Progress to date

You may have not noticed the nylon plug as originally there would be black insulating tape wrapped round the tube to hold it in.

If you reshim the ball joints you need to be careful as the cup and ball will be worn more in the straight ahead position. If you take too much play out here then the ball may jam up with more movement.

[Robert in Cumbria]

Re: Progress to date

You may have not noticed the nylon plug as originally there would be black insulating tape wrapped round the tube to hold it in.

I may have photo of cleanup, will check when I have a spare moment. It's not a burning issue but will need addressing eventually, I think awareness is the name of the game here.

If you reshim the ball joints you need to be careful as the cup and ball will be worn more in the straight ahead position. If you take too much play out here then the ball may jam up with more movement.

I remember that problem from the Mini top and bottom ball joints. Impossible to shim the wear away. At least the arms and spherical bearings are available spares, at a price.



Ben, while we are discussing, do you have a front/rear split for the kerbside weight of a Herald or Spitfire? It would be interesting to know what the normal load would be on the front suspension. My Marlin is 310Kg front and rear, 620Kg total kerbside weight.

[b_caswell]

Re: Progress to date

Hi Robert, Cant find any split weights but the Herald is 1876lbs and the Vitesse is 2044lbs. all that extra weight is the six in the front.

the early spitfire weighed in at 1568lbs

[Robert in Cumbria]

Re: Progress to date

Hi Robert, Cant find any split weights but the Herald is 1876lbs and the Vitesse is 2044lbs. all that extra weight is the six in the front.

the early spitfire weighed in at 1568lbs

Thanks Ben, I have been searching myself and drawn a blank. The metric weights seem to range from 720Kg up to about 850Kg for the estate, and possibly more for the Vitesse. I will have to find a local Triumph and weigh it! They are pretty thin on the ground here, I don't even think my friend who gave me the 1200 Herald has a roadworthy one. Wish I had some load cells. I have been thinking of making some using old brake calliper halves with a pressure gauge screwed into the bleed hole. Could be interesting calibrating them but they would be near enough for what I want.