My 3000M, upgraded brakes?

[valve]

Hi

I haven't posted on this forum before but I have seen that there is a lot of subjects discussed that I am interested in. I have a 3000M that I have owned since 1985 and I have done a lot of modifications on this car, the latest is to install triple webers and modify the cooling.

I have also installed an upgraded AR bar in front, modified the rack mounting to eliminate bumpsteer and a lot of other things.

For more details see my homepage at> www2.gol.com/users/tube/tvrindex.html

Next step for me I think is to improve the brake system, ideally I would like to have 4 pot calipers with ventilated disks in front. I have seen advertisements for 4 pot calipers but I also want to change the disks if possible. Are there any disks and calipers from any standard car that would fit?, (this would probably be the cheapest way to do it).

BR Hans

[shovel71]

Hans, was very interested in the mods you have made, many are things I am looking at for my 1977 2500M. I use the car for autoslalom and fast road use....looking at Koni's, and poly bushings and was wondering about springs....obviously you have found heavier ones..where?
I have been comtemplating the shortening of my ARB and moving it to forward attachement...sounds like it improved it somewhat? How did you cure the bumpsteer?
Shawn

[valve]

I bought my springs from Demon Tweeks, www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/
They have springs from Faulkners in England in different diameters, 2.25id springs between 100lbs/in to 450 lbs/in.
They also have have 2.25 id springs from Suplex between 80 lbs/in and 500 lbs/in.

I bought springs for my 3000M from this source, good quality quick delivery and reasonble prices, 18.42 £ for a 170 lbs/in
spring, (that is about 28 USD). I have my car in Sweden but overseas delivery was not a problem either.

According to my own measurements and calculations the springs on the 3000M is 170 lbs/in front and 130 lbs/in rear, I upgraded to 225 lbs/in front and 170 lbs/in rear.

Shortening the AR bar and moving the mounting points is a noticeable improvement but I think it is even better with a thicker 1" bar.

To eliminate bumpsteer, (which is terrible on the M) the steering rack needs to be lowered. On my car I had to remove about 25mm off the chassis below the rack, I also modified the rack mounting bracket which
lowered the rack maybe 10mm more, I don use rubber bushings at all so the rack is hard mounted against the mounting plate.

Even if it would seem to be so it is not for sure that the rack has to be lowered so much as to make the steering arms parallell
with ground, the suspension geometry is also dependant on the length of the A-arms. In my case I had to put 8, 1mm alu plates
under the rack to finally adjust the bump steer, so in my case the steering arms still points down a bit but not so much as
before!

The funny part of all this is that the reason why M cars have so much bump steer is a typical TVR thing. It seems, (to what I heard) that the M chassis was designed with steering arms, (the arms that sit out at the wheel, not the rack arms) from one type of Triumph,
(probably TR4) and when the production started they use steering arms from a TR6 instead and didn't realised that these
steering arms are different, the TR6 drop more so the rack arms will point down, with the TR4 arms the geometry is different
so the rack arms are parallell to ground.

From what I understand the 3000S cars are a bit different with different rack mounting height from start and therefore they
dont have so much of a bump steer problem.

BR Hans

[shovel71]

Thanks again for the info...I have been looking at the 1 inch ARB that Adrian Venn has and would love to bring over a bunch of stuff that he has recommended but the convion to Cdn dollars, and the shipping kills you!Was wondering if anyone had had any luck with the red Koni's as they are quite a bit cheaper than the Avo's and Ledas, or Spax that are often recommended
TKs again, will check out the springs mentioned
Shawn

[alf]

Hi again valve( eller Tjenna!)

I have also been looking for a good brake uppgrade,therefor scanning for info about tr6 related pages. Ifound a guy who used front 4 pot callipers from a 1979-1983 Toyota pickup, witch apparently bolted straight on the vertical upprights, he also used bigger bore rear brake sylinders.

If I only had that Girling calliper chart........

The only disadvantage I can think of must be the master brake sylinder, how many ccm does it produce pr. stroke and how much more would this setup require.

And then there is the front/rear distribution. In budget rally I know that the ditribution valve ( the valve that changes the rear brakes pressure depending on the load you are carrying)from the mercedes 230 TE
estate up to 1985.

Moss motors ( and probably others )sells sloted and drilled discs for a reasonable price.

Please let me know if you come up with any good solutions..

God Sommer (have a nice summer!)

Alf

[richard sails]

The M series was designed to have steering arms that were horizontal when the car was level, if you look at the chassis you can see what effort was put into raising the mounting position of the rack. This would have ensured minimum bump steer. The car was also designed to use the 15 inch 'finned' wheels and (big) tyres as used on the vixen. If you fit these wheels with high profile tyres and adjust the suspension ride heights you will find that these arms will be horizontal.

BUT in true TVR fashion the soon after production started the 15 inch wheels were substituted for the 14 inch T slots (or woolfrace if you paid the extra) with a lower profile tyre. These wheels require longer shockers to provide adequate ground clearance which puts the geometry out.


You can set up the car to keep the arms horizontal with 14inch wheels but you will find that you have a ground clearance of about three inches! I know I did it but soon got fed up of replacing the exhaust after ripping it off three times in Scotland in one weekend!




>> Edited by richard sails on Thursday 26th September 01:02

>> Edited by richard sails on Thursday 26th September 01:03

[jellison]

If it is on TR4-6 brakes - i'd just put on new disc's and run Hawk Blue Pads (acrbon metallic) - can't remember if M's have disc in back - if - TR talk to Cambridge Motorsport. Unless you are changing the master cylinders and all calipers and have over 200 genuine flywheel BHP (doubtful unless lots of internal work), then the above should work well. Agree that worn out std setup is a bit crap, with a tuned engine.
My TR4 has 190 flywheel bhp same front brakes, mind you will most likely weigh less at <840kg.
But the above work on fathers TR6 (190 real bhp) and 1050kg. Should think the 3000 weightis in the middle somewhere.
Jon

[richard sails]

The M's all use the standard TR6 setup front and rear (TR6 drums at rear), with good fast road pads, on circuits I am ok for about 6 laps before fade starts.

Rimmers have a kit to convert the TR6 brakes to vented disks but its expensive.

Wilwood also have a kit to replace the calipers and the disks, that is even more expensive....

[3154tm]

richard,
do you have any details regarding that wilwood kit?
frank