Important!!! Stub axle failure!!!!!!!!
Discussion
Just pointing this out to all non Tuscan Challenge Car drivers.
You should have this done ASAP! Not hard to do but as I'm sure you are aware, it could be fatal.
From Monster
The Tuscan Challenge Cars have had to have their front stub axles either xray'd or replaced ever since a big accident at Castle Combe in the early 1990s.
As I understand it the axle sheared after a colision, the wheel came of and killed a spectator.
The same fault happened to my Griff at Cadwell a couple of weeks ago, but fortunately for me, I was in warm-up mode prior to my first hot session, so I was travelling MUCH slower than normal. It was still scarey, as there was a huge BANG as it went and the car speared off toward the tyre wall at a vast rate of knots with no steering or braking.
Fortunately again the car went over a rise in the grass, steering and brakes returned and I came to a gracefull halt alongside the tyres. The disc held the wheel on!
These hubs were replaced with the 5 stud conversion in 2004? and so I don't know how old they were, new I suspect as I got them from Neil Anderson as part of kit No 3 of the factory spider wheel conversion ie before the part-ex's came into effect but it is a worry as there's so many tuned cars doing quick laps now.
I'd advise all non-Tussie drivers to have the hubs replaced/xray'd by a local specialist. JR can do this for you or any Dealer who works on racecars will do this for you (TVR or not) and provide a certificate of conformity.
TVRcarparts have now replaced everything at the front, but dropping the front corner cost me...
Splitter
Caliper
Pads
Discs
Hub
It'll now be a part of our winter refurb, even though the car is retiring from racing after 09, as it is on the Tuscans!
Andy 89
You should have this done ASAP! Not hard to do but as I'm sure you are aware, it could be fatal.
From Monster
The Tuscan Challenge Cars have had to have their front stub axles either xray'd or replaced ever since a big accident at Castle Combe in the early 1990s.
As I understand it the axle sheared after a colision, the wheel came of and killed a spectator.
The same fault happened to my Griff at Cadwell a couple of weeks ago, but fortunately for me, I was in warm-up mode prior to my first hot session, so I was travelling MUCH slower than normal. It was still scarey, as there was a huge BANG as it went and the car speared off toward the tyre wall at a vast rate of knots with no steering or braking.
Fortunately again the car went over a rise in the grass, steering and brakes returned and I came to a gracefull halt alongside the tyres. The disc held the wheel on!
These hubs were replaced with the 5 stud conversion in 2004? and so I don't know how old they were, new I suspect as I got them from Neil Anderson as part of kit No 3 of the factory spider wheel conversion ie before the part-ex's came into effect but it is a worry as there's so many tuned cars doing quick laps now.
I'd advise all non-Tussie drivers to have the hubs replaced/xray'd by a local specialist. JR can do this for you or any Dealer who works on racecars will do this for you (TVR or not) and provide a certificate of conformity.
TVRcarparts have now replaced everything at the front, but dropping the front corner cost me...
Splitter
Caliper
Pads
Discs
Hub
It'll now be a part of our winter refurb, even though the car is retiring from racing after 09, as it is on the Tuscans!
Andy 89
Good heads-up Andy.
I'm in the process of replacing the standard rear hubs on the M, something that is known to go walk about..., with new redesigned Quaife items. The parts bin was a little limited 35 years ago and those parts that are now available refurbished are all getting on for 40 years old.
I think after your warning, the front stub axles will be NDTd.
I'm in the process of replacing the standard rear hubs on the M, something that is known to go walk about..., with new redesigned Quaife items. The parts bin was a little limited 35 years ago and those parts that are now available refurbished are all getting on for 40 years old.
I think after your warning, the front stub axles will be NDTd.
Edited by TVR_owner on Tuesday 12th May 05:06
On a similar vein, the Taz runners need to check the rear hub nuts. We used to check ours with a great big torque wrench everytime the car came off the track. Before that we had them pinned and paint marked,and checked every month or so but still almost lost one. The real problem is the N/S one as they are not handed threads so will work loose. If the nut comes off the wheel comes off as there is no brake disk to hold it in place....
a mate of mine in his frogeye was very lucky one bank holiday weekend at Castle coombe. Lost a hub complete with halfshaft coming over avon rise ( damaged on earlier contact)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlWDgEB6ecM
look how close the wheel complete with 3 ft spear comes to the top of the debris ence
a mate of mine in his frogeye was very lucky one bank holiday weekend at Castle coombe. Lost a hub complete with halfshaft coming over avon rise ( damaged on earlier contact)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlWDgEB6ecM
look how close the wheel complete with 3 ft spear comes to the top of the debris ence
Scarey Graham,
God knows what would have happened if mine had gone at the Ring...somewhere quiet at the back!
I was talking to JR about this and I think its getting to the time where we need to look at the cars more closely. We (in all classes) are getting properly fast now and some of the cars are 20+ years old...mines a 1994...so it stands to reason that things are getting tired.
I've just had my chassis done again, after i'ts 2006 rebuild, and some of the Tasmins/wedges are also pretty leggy.
With speeds coming on we all need to look at this seriously or there's a big accident coming IMHO. Maybe a chat with the scrutineers in Historics? They'll know what goes. Even the Historic racers of early TVRs? They'll also have a good idea.
A
God knows what would have happened if mine had gone at the Ring...somewhere quiet at the back!
I was talking to JR about this and I think its getting to the time where we need to look at the cars more closely. We (in all classes) are getting properly fast now and some of the cars are 20+ years old...mines a 1994...so it stands to reason that things are getting tired.
I've just had my chassis done again, after i'ts 2006 rebuild, and some of the Tasmins/wedges are also pretty leggy.
With speeds coming on we all need to look at this seriously or there's a big accident coming IMHO. Maybe a chat with the scrutineers in Historics? They'll know what goes. Even the Historic racers of early TVRs? They'll also have a good idea.
A
Doing a few Jobs on the Taz I realized it's almost 10 years since we converted the car to a racer !!! and I remember the amount of work to restore then convert what was then a 15 year old car.. thats a bit scary my Chim is almost 13 years old !!! I must have had that for 10 years as well...
So I suppose the best advise is to take your winter refurb seriously... check everything thoroughly and anything that is slightly suspect replace it.... as Andy says much cheaper to replace a stub axle and some bearings than the entire car...
I have a a couple of spare sets for the tuscan and swap them round. so one set on the car, one set rebuilt and one set waiting for rebuild... I was lucky enough to find 2 new unused uprights last year !!!
So I suppose the best advise is to take your winter refurb seriously... check everything thoroughly and anything that is slightly suspect replace it.... as Andy says much cheaper to replace a stub axle and some bearings than the entire car...
I have a a couple of spare sets for the tuscan and swap them round. so one set on the car, one set rebuilt and one set waiting for rebuild... I was lucky enough to find 2 new unused uprights last year !!!
Guillotine said:
Scarey Graham,
God knows what would have happened if mine had gone at the Ring...somewhere quiet at the back!
I was talking to JR about this and I think its getting to the time where we need to look at the cars more closely. We (in all classes) are getting properly fast now and some of the cars are 20+ years old...mines a 1994...so it stands to reason that things are getting tired.
I've just had my chassis done again, after i'ts 2006 rebuild, and some of the Tasmins/wedges are also pretty leggy.
With speeds coming on we all need to look at this seriously or there's a big accident coming IMHO. Maybe a chat with the scrutineers in Historics? They'll know what goes. Even the Historic racers of early TVRs? They'll also have a good idea.
A
Andy,God knows what would have happened if mine had gone at the Ring...somewhere quiet at the back!
I was talking to JR about this and I think its getting to the time where we need to look at the cars more closely. We (in all classes) are getting properly fast now and some of the cars are 20+ years old...mines a 1994...so it stands to reason that things are getting tired.
I've just had my chassis done again, after i'ts 2006 rebuild, and some of the Tasmins/wedges are also pretty leggy.
With speeds coming on we all need to look at this seriously or there's a big accident coming IMHO. Maybe a chat with the scrutineers in Historics? They'll know what goes. Even the Historic racers of early TVRs? They'll also have a good idea.
A
My 35 year old car was exensively refurbed in 2008 and items like this are dated for change-out. Problem is knowing the quality of the replacement when its old stuff refurbed (no new available). The info for my rear hubs came from HSCC and Belcar where there were been several failures of the part last year. Most recent that I am aware of is at Zolder when a 400bhp M lost a rear wheel in the chicane. No damage other than the hub and some light body work - more good luck than anything!!
The M shares many supsension parts with TRs so I'm quite lucky that there is uprading ongoing, but it is a worry.
Yeah Refurbed parts can be a worry. There was a period with the tasmins were we had a lot of brake caliper failures with refurbished calipers... I went through about 3 sets and had an interesting run through old hall with no brakes, and a ruined race at croft where the pistons were such a crap fit in the bores they were sticking.. That was the main driver to allowing any spec brakes. I was straight round to AP...
TVR_owner said:
Guillotine said:
Scarey Graham,
God knows what would have happened if mine had gone at the Ring...somewhere quiet at the back!
I was talking to JR about this and I think its getting to the time where we need to look at the cars more closely. We (in all classes) are getting properly fast now and some of the cars are 20+ years old...mines a 1994...so it stands to reason that things are getting tired.
I've just had my chassis done again, after i'ts 2006 rebuild, and some of the Tasmins/wedges are also pretty leggy.
With speeds coming on we all need to look at this seriously or there's a big accident coming IMHO. Maybe a chat with the scrutineers in Historics? They'll know what goes. Even the Historic racers of early TVRs? They'll also have a good idea.
A
Andy,God knows what would have happened if mine had gone at the Ring...somewhere quiet at the back!
I was talking to JR about this and I think its getting to the time where we need to look at the cars more closely. We (in all classes) are getting properly fast now and some of the cars are 20+ years old...mines a 1994...so it stands to reason that things are getting tired.
I've just had my chassis done again, after i'ts 2006 rebuild, and some of the Tasmins/wedges are also pretty leggy.
With speeds coming on we all need to look at this seriously or there's a big accident coming IMHO. Maybe a chat with the scrutineers in Historics? They'll know what goes. Even the Historic racers of early TVRs? They'll also have a good idea.
A
My 35 year old car was exensively refurbed in 2008 and items like this are dated for change-out. Problem is knowing the quality of the replacement when its old stuff refurbed (no new available). The info for my rear hubs came from HSCC and Belcar where there were been several failures of the part last year. Most recent that I am aware of is at Zolder when a 400bhp M lost a rear wheel in the chicane. No damage other than the hub and some light body work - more good luck than anything!!
The M shares many supsension parts with TRs so I'm quite lucky that there is uprading ongoing, but it is a worry.
Tuscan front and rear hubs are originally from a Granada.
M Hubs from a TR6
Vixen hubs, made of soft chocolate etc etc.
John has a very good series with very open and free regs which in theory mean that we can engineer out the weaknesses. This is much harder to do in historic racing where some draconian rules exist which don't make the cars slower but do make them potentially much more dangerous
The wake up call though should be for ourselves. we are all at times guilty of using componants which we rekon will do for just one more race. It is particularly prominant in todays financial climate where racing budgets for us as club racers are stretched that much more thinly.
The safety critical suspension componants on all our cars should be stripped and tested certainly annually and definitely after an excursion.
There is certainly a case for us as a series getting together to share costs of some of the upgrade items rather than going it alone.
enough wedges are running now to make a batch of steel uprights viable for example.
John and I pool our resources on the pre 1980's stuff where development is underway on various mods
This is probably the time of year do plan for end of season expenditure, and best discussed in the pit garages after a days racing
N
heightswitch said:
Tuscan front and rear hubs are originally from a Granada.
Challenge car front hubs are bespoke items, of a fairly crap design with a stress point in there, hence the failures.. With some work im sure that could be designed out...I had some alloy castings done for something else recently and was surprised how cheap it was..
Graham said:
heightswitch said:
Tuscan front and rear hubs are originally from a Granada.
Challenge car front hubs are bespoke items, of a fairly crap design with a stress point in there, hence the failures.. With some work im sure that could be designed out...I had some alloy castings done for something else recently and was surprised how cheap it was..
These are some heat treated LM25 Vixen type uprights I have invested in, purely because i was sick of ringing people whilst looking for uprated spares to be told, ah well i need to speak to so and so to see if he is making another batch etc.....
I am still looking into the best way of elimenating the TR6 Hub without spending a fortune.
N.
Edited by heightswitch on Tuesday 12th May 22:02
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