JohnD
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Posts posted by JohnD
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OK, my paranoid is sedated by your reports of similar events, and no, please, Kevin! Don't let the Internet rip!
John
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Thank you, Kevin, for your completely incomprehensible explanation!
It's one which I totally accept as I trust you and your expertise! But such an explanation would be unacceptable for a physical product: "We are sorry that your [modern] car stopped working for while on the motorway! It's just that the EMU decided to use a different timing for while" Surely any organisation that cared about its members would so not wish to see "You are BANNED" on them as make sure it didn't happen?
And my paranoid asks, has anyone else, ever, been told they are BANNED in this way? I have told my paranoid to go away again.
John
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Yesterday, I logged onto this site, to be greeted by the notice that I was BANNED. For bad language, I think it said, when I'm not a potty mouth.
I'm getting used to this. As you may recall, there was a difference of opinion with other organisers about the way I ran my part of the Triumph Malvern event a couple of years ago. I was banned then, even ecorted from the site, and the Chairman deemed it so serious that I was also banned from the same event a year later. Yes, the one that was cancelled for lack of interest.
I have no idea if I will be permitted to attend next year's InterClub International. Certainly I won't be volunteering to contribute as an organiser. And when I'm told I'm banned from the TSSC message board, apparently on equally specious grounds, I may give up on that as well. No loss, you may say. Well, I would agree.
Even more mysterious, I'm not BANNED today! Hence I may post this cautionary tale.
What the ×=>_= is going on?
John
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Hmmmmmmmmmm! If the OP's camber gauge is one of these:
and was "cheap" then it's a Chinese copy of a Frost product (probably also Chinese) that costs four times more, and one by Gunson that costs ten times more, when a similar design from Machine mart is fourteen times more!
But its simple to make your own, from a sheet of alloy!
Wheel camber, and an easy to make and use camber gauge
What is wheel camber? (For those new to suspension setup, others skip the next two sections)
Camber is the lean-in, or out, of a wheel, in other words the distance that the top of the wheel is nearer to, or further away from the midline of the car. In general, a small amount of lean-in, with the top nearer to the midline, is desirable and this is called ‘negative’, camber. Negative camber is desirable to keep the tread of the tyre as flat as possible on the road while cornering. You can see why this is so with a pencil rubber or eraser.
Simulating negative camber.
Hold a rectangular rubber with your right thumb and forefinger. The rubber is the wheel and tyre and your finger is now towards the midline of the car. Press the rubber down hard against a tabletop, and try to pull it towards you. You are now simulating the outside wheel of a cornering car, and the centrifugal force trying to pull the car out from the centre of the corner.
Look at the under side of the rubber, as you pull, the edge towards you catches, and the side away lifts. This is what a tyre tries to do in a corner, lifting the inside edge of the tread. The more tread on the road, the more grip, so a tyre in this situation will probably skid.
But tilt the rubber away from you, towards the midline of your imaginary car like a tyre in negative camber. Push down and pull towards you as before. The lower edge of the rubber now lies flat against the table surface. More of the tyre’s tread will be on the road and the grip of the tyre will be as good as possible.
Spitfire wheel camber.
All Triumph Herald based cars, including Spitfires, were built with a slightly positive camber, as this minimises tyre wear, but common modifications will change the camber.
Model
Front camber: Degrees
All Spitfires
+ 3.0 +/- 1
GT6 Mk1
+3.5 +/- 1
Mk 2 & 3
+2.75 +/- 1
Herald (laden)
+2.0 +/- 1
All Vitesse
+3.25 +/- 1
Front springs. The double wishbone (A-frame) is the suspension layout that gives the best compromise when all factors are involved. However it does not maintain the same camber all the time, as the wheel moves up and down. Many owners change to stronger, shorter front springs, for lower ride height. The lower ride height brings the front suspension into a different part of the arc of movement. In this part of the arc, the camber will be different, and may change more as the wheel moves up and down.
Adjustable shock absorbers. These allow the lower spring support to be adjusted up and down, altering the ride height and the balance of the car. They will also effect on the arc of movement of the suspension.
Lower wishbone brackets. Triumph not only provided us with the best type of suspension, they also made it adjustable! The lower wishbone brackets have shims between the bracket and the chassis rail. Adding shims will push the lower wishbone bracket out, and the top of the wheel in, into negative camber. You can add more than ½” of shims if you really want to, without running out of thread on the bracket bolt! Always add the same front and back.
Making a camber gauge.
After modifications like this, you should measure what has happened to the camber. This gauge will make it easy to do so. Make it out of a piece of folded metal sheet, drilled as shown to take the wheel studs. The curved edge below the holes leaves clearance for the jack, used to move the wheel up and down. A central hole is also needed, to clear the hubcap(not shown in diagram).
. The dimensions of the gauge are not critical, but should be large enough to take the wheel stud holes. Dimension ‘D’, the height of face ‘A’, should be 350-400 mms, to allow you to measure very small angles.
Mark a line down the middle of face ’A’, and a scale along the lower edge, either side of the midline. See the diagram. File a tiny ‘V’ in the edge at the top of the vertical line.
The scale needs to be calculated from dimension ‘D’, as follows:
Degrees 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
To find the distance of each scale mark from the midline multiply Dimension ‘D’ by: 0.009 0.018 0.026 0.035 0.044 0.053 0.061 0.07
(these numbers are the trigonometric function ‘Tangent’ of the angle in degrees)
For example:
If D=370mm; then distance of each mark from midline, in mms, will be:
3 6.5 10 13 16 19.5 22.5 26
I have rounded the distances to the nearest 0.5mm, as I can’t see smaller than this!
I recommend using millimetres – inch fractions in decimals are much more difficult.
How to use the camber gauge.
Position the car on a level surface; Secure the car with chocks at the rear wheels.
Put someone in the driver’s seat, or a suitable weight.
Measure the height above the ground of the outer end of the lower wishbone.
Measure the height of the chassis rail at a suitable point.
Place a jack under the wishbone, and raise the wheel off the ground.
Place an axle stand under the chassis rail, with the car at the same height as before.
Remove the wheel.
Put the gauge onto the hub, over the wheel studs.
Adjust the hub so that face ‘A’ is vertical.
Using the jack, adjust the wishbone to the same height as before.
Hang a plumb bob over the edge of face ‘A’, from the ‘V’ at the top of the line.
Tape on the back of face ’A’ will hold the line in place.
Read the camber angle at the lower edge.
This figure is the camber angle at rest. If you remove the spring and shocker, you can work the suspension from full droop to bump, reading the change in camber angle all the way. The ideal is for the camber to stay the same throughout the arc of movement, but this will not happen! Adjust the shock absorber spring seats, and the wishbone bracket shims to get the minimum change.
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When I was at work, I had a PC on my desk. Not that I used it much, but one day it wouldn't do what I wanted, so I rang IT.
They said, "Turn it off at the wall, then back on again."
I told them that was page one, line one of the computer call centre script for ordinary buyers who had forgotten to plug the computer in.
They said, no, no, it does work! And it did!!
John
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The heat you experience comes from the engine via the radiator.
I took sometime to explain this concept, but clearly, I failed.
Noise? I'll give you that - it's about 90dB in the race car at full chat, but the GT6 or Vitesse model is irrelevant.
John
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Once again , may I point out that expensive insulation on the gear box cover is unnecessary?
First, heat transfer occurs in three ways, and only three ways: Radiation, like an electric fire, Conduction, like burning your fingers on a hot saucepan and Convection, like that paint stripper gun!
The gearbox does NOT get hot enough for radiation to be a problem, and the exhaust pipe is well underneath and in the airflow. There is NO radiative heat transfer from either into the passenger compartment. They doesn't touch the cover - or shouldn't! - so conduction isn't possible. Covering your gearbox cover with insulation is futile.
What DOES transfer heat into the passenger compartment is convection. The Internal Combustion Engine is a disgracefully inefficient beast, that converts less than 40% of the energy supplied as fuel into motive force. (The very latest designs can achieve 50%) The rest is lost, as noise and HEAT, which must be disposed of, which is why we have the "radiator", which is really a convective loss heat transfer device. It puts out at least 50% of the energy burnt as fuel as a very large volume of hot air. The Triumph bulkhead between the engine, surrounded by all that hot air, and the passenger compartment has a great many holes in it! They are for cables and wires that may or may not still be here, and were sealed with rubber grommets, but those have often perished and will let that hot air through. .
Why am I so sure of this? Because I built the Silverback, the only Triumph ever to have the radiator in the back, mounted behind the hatchback door. All that hot air was left behind, here was NONE under the bonnet, and Silverback was a cld car to drive, even in warm weather!
Don't waste your money on gearbox cover insulation! A dark garage and torch will find the gaps in the bulkhead - seal them with gaffer tape/grommets and as above, seal the cover to the floor, and you well remain cool!
JOhn
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There are ways ... and ways!
That's FOUR hydraulic jacks!
See dismantling a RussianT34 tank engine.: youtube.com/watch?v=icMzlpzfraQ
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2 hours ago, dougbgt6 said:
Rice-Davies I think. I thought you'd know that?
When I had to summon the Luton Guru to my stuck head bolts we struggled with the impact driver. But finally got them off with the impact driver jaws and the pair off us swinging on a 3 foot breaker bar. Interestingly not one of the studs or the block had any rust. We concluded they had been installed by a gorilla.
Doug
Ooops, yes, but then it was a pretty murky episode on the family history - best forgotten!
I cracked a block (!!!) by in stalling the studs and torquing them in - my wrench had lost calibration and was underreading by about 50%. Only then I learned that they are best installed finger tight! If yours were that tight, then you were lucky to keep the block from the scrap.
John
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1 hour ago, johny said:
This is what their website says and it sounds pretty useful to me...
To quote Ms Rice-Taylor, "They would say that, wouldn't they?"
Definition of "to seize" in engineering: to cohere to a relatively moving part through excessive pressure, temperature, or friction But I don't want to say that your suggestion has less merit than mine, just that we should define our terms.
And if you want to quote another manufacturer on the uses of their product, see ROCOL's site: What is Anti-Seize? | ROCOL
3. Where should Anti-Seize be Applied?
• Plain, unthreaded sections of the bolt or stud if they will be inside the assemblySo all we need is at least three people about to rebuild an engine, and someone to dismantle them in 40 years time!
John
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Well ....
Copperslip helps prevent seizing, when high friction causes galling, actual fusion and damage to surfaces in contact. That's not what is happening here. Hut I think I did use "seizing" above, so I was in error!
More likely is that corrosion fills the narrow space between stud and head. I would hope that a PTFE sleeve could either prevent that, or prevent the corrosion jamming the gap between them when you try to slide them apart.
But I'm no metallurgist! And the research program to check if it does work mightvtake 40+ years! But I hope it might be useful. Experimental Group B - Copperslip!
John
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I think it's corrosion in the gap between stud and head. Rust occupies more volume than iron, so they sieze. But moving the 'joint' compresses the rust even more, making the seizure worse. Hence a sleeve to keep them apart?
John
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Roger,
I think your report, and that Pete "needed a sledge to slog the stud out of the head" after he had cut it, should make it clear to everyone!
When a head is stuck, it is the studs that are seized in the head, never that the head is somehow glued to the block!
Thank you both!
Makes me wonder if a sleeve of something - Teflon tube? - around the stud, in the head, might be helpful for another time. 12mm PTFE heat shrink tube is very cheap! PTFE/FEP Heat Shrink Tubing 1.7:1 1.3:1 Ratio Heatshrink Sleeving Φ 0.5-40mm | eBay
John
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My apologies, Morgana! Google keeps substituting 'brass' for 'bronze', and in my enthusiasm I didn't read it properly!
Good luck!
John
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You don't have room .....
What? You carry a complete tool kit in the boot? Like some on the RBRR?
Better that a hundred weight of cement to lower your suspension!
There is a supplier of bronze 5/16" Unf nuts but they want £40 PLUS(!!!) £56 P&P (!!!!!!!) for 25 of them (!!!!!!!!!!) https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/172704858218
But fear not! Spalding Fasteners are your friends! See https://www.spaldingfasteners.co.uk/unf-thread-brass-manifold-nuts-5-16-3-8-7-16/
You see? I told you! There is always a way!
John
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Gosh! THAT is taking originality to infinity and beyond!
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But then cut UNC into the Head? Or was this for the down pipe, in which case why are we discussing it, go Metric, 8M!
John
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Look for Bronze nuts 5/16" imperial : Silicon Bronze Nuts (UNC thread) (arthurbeale.co.uk) 50p each.
John
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Vert nice! Let's hope it doesn't stay that clean!
John
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Yes, I see that Dougal's earlier post promoting his company and a brand of tyre he sells has been dropped down the Memory Hole. This makes my post on my cycnicism , and the previous one challenging him, and Doug's between them, redundant, so might as well wipe them too. Moderators, this is very sloppy editing. If this had been at the Ministry of Truth and the work of Winston Smith, it would have got them at least a visit to Room 101 for re-education.
Dougal,
Someone with your knowledge and expertise on tyres will be welcome here, but if you persist in promoting your company and the products you sell, then that welcome will soon wear out. Unlike, no doubt, your tyres!
John
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17 hours ago, Stratton Jimmer said:
Suspecting that there is something not quite right with my nearside rear suspension, I wanted to check the length of the adjustable radius arm. Haynes suggests that it is 16.71" and the Vitesse is 14.71" while the Triumph Workshop Manual shows it the other way round albeit that the diagram and its key are incorrect. What should it be? Here are two photos of the relevant diagrams from each book.
Geometry tells us that a diagonal must be longer than the adjacent side, so the GT6 ones with the angled bush housings should be the longer, as shown in the WSM.
Anyway, the WSM HAS to be Holy Writ, while Haynes only copies it, sometimes wrongly.
JOhn
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Of course! How could I be so cynical?
John
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Dougal,
You have posted just twice here, both times praising a particular manufacturer's tyres to the skies, apparently from some detailed knowledge of the industry.
Please tell us your connection to tyre manufacture or supply, so that we may know your expertise?
John
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Gosh, Colin! "Rum, bum and concertina"?
Or, do you plan to go morris dancing?
John
and was "cheap" then it's a Chinese copy of a Frost product (probably also Chinese) that costs four times more, and one by Gunson that costs ten times more, when a similar design from Machine mart is fourteen times more!
What the >/÷<[ is going on?
in Forum Help and Suggestions
Posted
Don't knock the Internet. Just as with any other technology, from motorcars to guns, from medical research to eugenics, it's humans who who bugger things up.