On Mon, 27 Apr 1998, R. John Lye wrote:
John,
Sorry to hear of your woes...
> There weren't even any loud bangs to signify when it let go. I guess
> there's now one fewer of those axles that the SCCA thinks are so
> "readily available".
I guess the real question is: has anyone tried to fit a diff from another
source into a "Big TR" diff housing? The rules say that the housing must
remain as provided, but it is okay to change the "guts".
As for there being no loud bangs, I've been in cars that have broken big
parts - there are the loud ones: ring/pinion failure under load gives a
nice "PING" sound, followed by some pretty nasty crunching sounds as the
liberated pieces search for that illusive nook or cranny to hide in; to
the quiet ones - try shearing the smaller keyway from the inner axle stub
on an early TR6! Suddenly the car won't move at all. Some CV joints on
later cars exhibit this quiet failure mode - I recall a buddy with an
early Audi Fox with failed CV joints... the car wouldn't move when he let
the clutch out - I popped the hood to take a look - both inner axles were
spinning! The guy left the car idling in first gear! And there were three
or four guys standing _in front of the car_ shooting the breeze! That was
an accident waiting to happen, for sure.
As for the "readily available axles", frankly, I believe the comp board,
whatever thier "real intentions", would rather see a lot of these older
cars dissappear. If they did, then at least they can go to the big car
manufacturers for more sponsorship money... Imagine the Ford BOD meeting -
well at the Runoffs(TM) we were beat by a car that was made by a company
that hasn't existed for 20 years...
;-)
> cheers,
And commiserations (sp?)...
> R. John Lye
>
> '59 TR-3A; '62 TR-4; '70 GT-6+
> Palmyra, VA USA
rml
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