More Type 9

Been doing a bit more work with the Type 9 conversion

Used a stripped out box for a trial fit, makes getting it in and out easier. Fabricated a new rear mounting plate which then uses a Carterham / Westfield gearbox mount.

Had the new propshaft made...............

The following picture shows the modifications that were made to the chassis, you don't really need to remove quite as much as I have but I was playing around with a couple of different mounts, you can get the rear of the gearbox quite low if you use an original Sierra gearbox mounts, didn't go for this option as I thought it would interfere with the exhaust system.

Once I was happy with the clearance I drilled a number of holes with a spot weld cutter around the modified area and puddle welded just to make sure there was plenty of strength.

Also finished of the gearchange, all seems to work ok on the bench, getting quite good at understanding how these things go together as it took me three attempts at getting the gearchange to work correctly, this is partly my own fault as I have cut quite alot of the original remote housing away, this was all done with the intention of getting this gearbox to fit under a standard gearbox tunnel, sadly that is not going to be possible, I will need to make a minor modification but it shouldn't be noticeable, more to follow on that.......

All that's left to do is fit some new seals and gaskets, they should be here early this week so it should all be fitted by next weekend.

Just the exhaust to refit, need to tighten up the 3 into 1 collector as it was starting to blow a bit, also have a slight leak from the manifold so I might as well do it all at the same time.

This then leads me to another dilemma, seriously considering trying a TR5 camshaft that I had fitted in my original engine, with all the manifolds off its not too much more of a job to pull the head off and change the cam at the same time, only problem I have is that the RBRR is quickly approaching, decisions, decisions.

Looking forward to a productive week as I'm between jobs at the moment so I can get to spend some quality time in the garage........

Diff Gone Bad

After breaking the diff last weekend, finally got round to changing it this morning.

Not very pretty, good job I've got another to drop in.........

Dont think there's too much I can re-use from this lot

Going to start looking at what other diffs could be fitted, currently looking at Sierra, Subaru and Freelander.

I'll probably do the change over the winter as I have a loose plan to convert the rear suspension to coilovers using rotoflex uprights and CV'd drive shafts.

Type 9 Gearbox Update

Finally got the CAD model sorted for the gearbox adapter and had the first one machined, fits ok although we have adjusted a couple of the dimensions after trying it on several boxes.

Had the first rear housing welded up, just need to make a support bush and re-drill the selector shaft, managed to move it forward by 107mm, looks like it should work ok.

Managed to pick up a couple more gearboxes of eBay, got a couple of 2.8 boxes which have a slightly taller first gear.

One thing to watch out for if you are considering fitting a Type 9 is there are a variety of input shaft dimensions, I have four boxes and three different lengths of input shaft. Learnt this today the hard way after fitting everything onto one of the boxes I had lying around, bolted it all to the back of an engine only to find out that my measurements were 20mm out, input shaft was only about 5mm into the flywheel. After alot of head scratching and thiking about other conversions / adapters I had seen, finally realised that the input shaft was 20mm shorter, must get myself a Type 9 gearbox manual.

Next job is to sort out a rear mounting, picked up a Sierra mount but I think it will be too wide to fit between the chassis rails. Been looking at what else is available and came across the one below which Westfield sell, bit pricey at £20 but may be the only option.

Been quoted around £100 for the propshaft from Dave Macs in Coventry, cant really order that untill the gearbox is fitted and I can give them the correct measurements.

I estimate that the gear lever position is going to be 35 mm back from its current position, still hoping it will all fit under the originall tunnel cover.

Plan is to have it all up and running for the RBRR (Round Britain Reliability Run) in October, hopefully sooner...................

Prescott

Had a great day out down at Prescott, managed to put a few more names and faces together.

Couple of clips of Dave Walker's 2500 Vitesse and my car in action

Top Link Trial Fit

Managed to get another set of top links welded this week so I thought I'd trial fit them on my own car, the plans to get them on to Dave's Vitesse never materialised as he had to prep his Lemon for its MOT.

They certainly give the much needed wheel arch clearance required, the first photo shows how much the wheel sticks out past the wheel arch, had to run the front end fairly high to try and avoid my tyres being shredded.


The next photo is with the new top arms fitted.


With the spring and damper removed I was able to jack the wheel up well into the wheel arch.

This may look close but those are 215 tyres that are being stuffed in.....

I was expecting to have to modify the shock towers on the inner edges to clear the new arms. The attached photo shows the flanges bent back, I will probably end up removing about 5mm of material from the front edge to make sure there is enough clearance.

It didn't all go to plan, the top arms are very close to the spring when the suspension is unloaded, the brass adjuster and inner end of the top ball joint can touch the spring so careful positioning of the spring is required. Not good news as I was hoping these would be a direct replacement.

The following picture shows the car at its normal ride height with 1 degree of negative camber with no lower shims fitted - all clear.

The next photo shows the suspension unloaded, the brass adjuster will touch the spring. It is unlikely it will ever get to this condition while driving but I would have liked a bit more clearance.

I have a couple of options apart from living with it as it is, make the track rod end fit similar to Caterham, they have the top tube threaded and one lock nut on the outside, the down side of this is that you need to split the ball joint to alter the camber.

Or the second, would be to try it with 2 1/4" ID springs, after some very rough measurements were taken, I reckon they are about 3/8" smaller in diameter than the springs I currently have fitted, this should give me the extra clearance I need.

The good news is that Dave's Vitesse is already fitted with 2 1/4" ID springs so we can hopefully check them on his car next week.

Type 9 Gearbox

Managed to get myself a reconditioned Type 9 gearbox as a favour for doing some engine management work, its seemed a shame to start hacking around within it so I also got myself one off eBay, bargain £30.

My plan is to try and fit it without modifying the gearbox tunnel. I had been told that you can shorten the remote by 75mm, this still leaves me around 60mm short of the original gear lever position.

My first bell housing adapter is 30mm, once I am happy with the positioning, I will have another made from 25mm, In fact I ordered 10 billets so if your considering fitting a type 9 get in touch, I am currently having it drawn up in CAD so that I can have a batch CNC machined.

I have cut the tail housing as far as I can, with some major surgery I think I can shorten the remote by 105mm.

I have cut the rear casing almost back to the selector shaft seal.

The original remote housing has also be cut down as far as possible, the front section needs to be welded back on and then machined flat, I will also fit a small bush to support the selector shaft. This will then be welded to the tail housing.

The cast selector lever will need to be cut down by 10mm to fit into the smaller housing.

Hopefully this will give me a gear lever position 25 / 30mm backwards from current position, not sure if this will fit under the tunnel, that's a job for another day.

Top Arms

Still not yet got around to trial fitting, hopefully that will be sorted when I fit a set to Big Dave's Vitesse.


Fairly confident these will go on without a problem and hopefully create the required clearance, Dave's car is probably worse than mine for tyre to arch contact.

Managed to win an eBay auction for an adjustable tool post for my lathe, wasn't a straight forward fit but eventually got it sorted. I have modified one of the tool holders to hold the tubes so that I can cut the angles more accurately.

Now using a milling cutter which gives a much better finish, quick rub over with the file is all that is needed.

This set should be getting tigged up this week, need to order up some material to make the adjusters, going to have a go at using brass.

If these turn out ok, I will consider making a number of sets to sell on, I have been contacted by a number of people expressing an interest.

If you are considering ordering a set of these, please bear in mind that they are a critical suspension component, they will be made to the highest standard but I sugest they are inspected on a regular basis.

If you wish to fit these to your vehicle it will be at your own risk.

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Update

Cant beleve its been 3 months since I last updated the blog, even worse not really done any work on the car, taken me a while to get going this year.

To get me into garage mentality, I agreed to help a friend restore a Mini, this has meant putting my car in another garage.

Having said that, it has got me back in the garage so I've been tinkering with other bits and pieces.

Happy New Year

New Year and time to get a to-do list together

In no particular order the following is a list of things I need to look at over the coming months, by hopefully putting them in print it will spur me on to complete some of them. Some of these are more achievable than others............

Fit the remaining interior trim, carpets arrived before Christmas, everything else is ready to be fitted.

Got a 4.11 diff that I'd like to try and compare to the 3.89 currently fitted.

Re-pack exhaust silencer, its starting to get a little noisy, also thinking about making up a centre pipe with a "cherry bomb" type silencer.

Make some new spindles for my throttle bodies and fit sealed roller bearings, also want to move the TPS switch to direct acting on the end of one of the throttle spindles - currently fitted on the end of the under slung linkage.

Complete and fit adjustable top arms.

Design and fabricate lower arms to take lower spherical ball joint.

Fit Caterham vertical links, AP calipers, vented disks etc.

Slight oil leak from the pushrod side of the head gasket, I'll monitor this over the next few weeks now that the engine breathing is sorted - otherwise I'll do this when I work on the throttle butterflies.

I've already cut up and re-welded my 3 into 1 collector as the exit pipe extended about 2" into the collector, might take a look at the primary to secondary collectors and see what's going on inside them. Also thinking about extending the 3 secondary pipes to the meet up at the back of the gearbox.

I'd like to get my car down to Emerald's rolling road for a mapping session sometime, probably after I've played around with the exhaust.

Like to get hold of some 195/40 R16 tyres to try in place of the 215/40's that are currently fitted, interested to see how it will effect the gearing and it will give me slightly more clearance - with the car fully loaded for the 10CR (No lowering block) I had very slight rubbing to the rear inner edge of the back wheel arch, also fouled on the front but hopefully the top arms will sort this.

Possibly change the gearbox to a 5 speed, probably Type 9, need to look at a few installations in other GT6's as I want to retain the original gearlever position. Also been looking at other options, Mercedes have a 6 Speed box that looks fairly compact, not seen one in the flesh yet so it might not be any good - would probably need to fabricate a new engine backplate if I went down this route - only ideas at the moment.

Look at doing something with the rear suspension, there are a couple of like minded people toying around with ideas at the moment so I might hang fire on this one, davesideways has some thoughts and more locally Andy Smith is building a V8 Vitesse and is keen to upgrade the diff and rear suspension. My ideas at the present are along the lines of some of the tried and tested stuff, Rotoflex uprights, MGF hubs and Metro driveshafts, I'd like to do away with the swing spring and go for coilovers mounted in the original shock positions. For starters I am thinking about bolting a box section to the top of the diff to give me top arm pick up points. Long term these could be fabricated on the chassis which would then give me the freedom to change to a stronger diff if required (Ford, Subaru, BMW all have LSD units available fairly cheap on ebay).

The gearbox and diff mods will all be dependant on how the current items perform, I would like to keep as much of the "original" drivetrain as possible, but there is enough evidence around to suggest that they wont last forever.

That's about it for the moment

If you are sitting there wondering why I am bothering to do the above modifications, I totally understand, I felt the same way when I started reading other peoples modifications, don't really have any defence, I like doing it and it becomes a challenge looking for the next improvement.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Engine Breather

Managed to get out in the car over the Christmas break, I was keen to see how my PCV valve worked - I was looking to see how much crankcase depression I was getting in various engine conditions - my measurement method was a digital manometer hooked up to my dipstick tube. Didn't get very far before I realised my first simple in-line valve was giving me too much depression, it wasn't able to control the pressure. The downside of this is that in extreme overrun I could potentially suck the oil into the intakes.

Time for Plan B, I had picked up a diaphragm type PCV valve, only problem was finding somewhere to fit it, no room on top of the intake manifolds.

After some pondering, decided to use my redundant distributor mounting, This needed a bit of machining to make it suitable, I also added a fixing point to hold the valve in place.

Not sure where I originally picked up this valve.

The valve pushes into the modified distributor housing and is held in with a small cap head bolt.

Fits quite neatly on the side of the block

Plumbed into the intakes via some 1/2" tubing pressed into the end of the manifolds.

Checked everything was fitted ok and started the engine, my pressure gauge was showing a 15 mbar depression at idle. Took it out for a drive, subjecting it to various operating conditions, the valve seemed to pretty much maintain a constant 15 mbar depression +/- 10 mbar. The original engine breather is now the fresh air into the engine crankcase and is fitted with a small restrictor to create the depression. With no restrictor it would be like having an air leak post throttle in the intake system.

Didn't get much else done, really need to trial fit my front upper wishbones - once I know they fit of I can get on and make another set with the thicker wall tubing and then ream the internal bores to the correct size.

Trunnionless Link and Friends

Well, recently sold an injection kit so this has allowed me to spend a bit more on my car, collected the parts this week. Caterham style vertical links that will fit into spherical bearings in yet to be fabricated lower arms.


Alloy hubs with larger stub axle and improved bearings.

New 10" vented discs

And a very nice pair of AP Racing calipers, couldn't believe how light these calipers are, a friend has promised to get me a set of decent pads, they should arrive over Christmas.

No immediate plans to fit them yet, need to get the top and bottom arms fabricated first, also got another couple of engine related bits to finish off over Christmas so I've got to keep it mobile.

Top Arm Update

First pair of top arms have been welded, not bad, they have twisted very slightly and sprung in about 20 thou. The tube for the top ball joint has also distorted slightly making the adjusters a tight fit. I expected to have to make a couple of tweaks to perfect the design, this first set will be used to check for clearance issues with the front upright and to make sure I can get enough camber adjustment with no lower shims fitted.

To address some of the issues, the next arms will be made using the jig removed from its back plate so that a number of tack welds can be put in place on both sides to prevent distortion (springing). I'm also going to use slightly thicker tubing and then ream to the correct size.

Front End Modifications

I've decide a while ago that I was going to convert the front uprights to Canley Classics / Caterham front uprights, primarily for the stronger stub axle as well as doing away with the lower trunnion. I had a stub shaft fail on the motorway a couple of years ago, initially thought it was a wheel bearing until I stripped it all down and found the shaft had broken at the start of the threads.

Anyway, that started me thinking about the front end, as I use quite a large wheel and tyre, I cant lower the front end too much as I end up with contact between the tyre and arch, while looking at various kit car set ups I have decided to fabricate my own adjustable top arms and do away with the shims on the lower arms. Hopefully this will pull the top of the wheel in a little more and give me some more tyre / arch clearance. If I need more I will fabricate lower arms that are slightly shorter and adjust the tops to compensate.

I have borrowed a home made tube notcher to get the right angle and profile

This made light work of cutting the tubes

As a couple of friends have shown interest I decide to knock up a jig to aid with the fabrication.

Just need to find a good local tig welder

Knocked up a couple of adjusters that will allow me to adjust the camber without having to remove the top ball joint.

I will hopefully get these welded together in the next week and then I can make sure they fit ok. I have used 25mm x 2mm wall thickness for the bush holders, 20mm x 2mm for the rest, all seamless tubing.

Got some drawings ready for the bottom arm, just need to see what effect the top one has before I make anymore jigs. The lower arm will be made to hold a spherical bearing.

Oil Leaks

Following the 10CR I developed several oil leaks, front seal, head gasket (push rod side) and rocker cover, all fairly standard but the strange thing was my engine had always been fairly leak free.

In a flash of inspiration sat on the front wheel staring at the engine drinking a cuppa, It suddenly dawned on me that I had modified my air intake system and that maybe it was having more of an effect than I had realised.

I connected a pressure gauge up to the dipstick tube and started the engine. Sure enough a small vacuum as expected as my breather system is plumed into my intake plenum upstream of the throttle bodies.

Took it out for a drive around town, still the same, slight depression on the engine. Found a nice quite road and increased the speed, at around 50 mph light throttle my gauge started to show a positive pressure in the crankcase, not good.

I pulled over and connected the pressure gauge directly to the intake plenum upstream of the throttle bodies in place of the engine breather and went for another drive, what I found was quite interesting, when travelling over 50 mph on light to half throttle I was registering a positive pressure in the intake system, good for performance bad for my breather system. Bearing in mind that on the 10CR (while on the autobahn), we could easily sit at 110+ mph on very light throttle, who knows how much pressure my crankcase was seeing, no wonder it developed oil leaks.

To sort the cause of the leaks I have decide to connect my breather system to the engine side of the throttle bodies and used a PCV valve to make sure it doesn't suck my oil out. I have cleaned up the engine bay and now await suitable weather to take it out for a run.

Mazda MX5 Seats

This post is in response to a recent topic on the Club Triumph Forum, It does not give all the details but highlights the main modifications.

One of the problems I had when fitting MX5 seats into my car was getting them to sit low enough and as far rearward as possible to give me enough room. At 6'1" I need as much legroom as possible.

One of the problem area's is the rear floor pan where it flares out at the rear of the tunnel. If you mount the seats on top of this you end up with very little headroom.



To get around this problem, I fully stripped the seats so that I was left with just the seat pan and then by trial fitting, removed enough material from the pan to clear the tunnel area, make sure you leave the seat hinge area untouched. Make sure you take into account the height of the runners (if you intend fitting them). I then welded in some 20mm angle iron to give the seat pan some strength in the hinge area. I have highlighted the modified area in the following picture.




I used some aftermarket seat runners as the seats I bought didn't have any, the inner runner needs to be modified to match the seat pan. On my setup I used the original MX5 seat mounting points on the outer runner and the front fixing on the inner runner, I welded in a nut for the rear fixing on the inner runner.

To mount the seat in the car, I made up 4 lugs that allowed me to use the original mounting points in the floor, you could probably gain another 15 mm headroom if you were to mount directly to the floor, you obviously then have no adjustment.

I used Securon seat belts with short steel stalks and bolted these directly to the seat in place of the MX5 seat belt stalk. There are slight differences between the driver and passenger seat but you basically make the same modifications.

The seats are very easy to strip apart, you remove the complete backrest as one assembly leaving it fully trimmed, then remove the cover and foam from the base, its all held in place with small wire clips that can be opened up, I'm sure you can buy these new along with the correct fitting tools but I just re-used the originals.

Car toons...........

A friend of mine did a "quick sketch" of my car, I think it looks quite good.