Amici:
Those guys have a good idea!
This is the same fix used on MGTCs to strengthen the front axles. As the TC
was manufactured they put the spacers in at the factory, but just left them
flopping around in there. They didn't serve any purpose. The fix is to put
shims between the spacers and the bearings to eliminate the clearance. I just
did a tapered roller bearing conversion on my TC and on the advice of Bob
Grunau, TC racing guru from Toronto, I not only used the spacers, I had a
machine shop shim them to zero clearance on the bearings and torqued the hub
nut to 85#. In my case we used Small-block Chevy valve spring shims. The
problem described with the TR-6 brakes doesn't exist on the TC or any other
car with front drum brakes, but the TC's axles are not as strong as they need
to be and the spacer setup provides a lot of additional strenghth. The
addition of the spacers and elimination of the clearance between the spacers
and bearings serves to effectively increase the diameter (and thus, the
strength) of the stub axle. However, while the original design requires only
that the axle nut be tightened and then backed off a flat to get the cotter
pin in, the spacer and shim fix requires that the nut be torqued to 75-80
ft/lbs. In order for this design to work, the nut has to be really tight, with
zero clearance between the bearings and the spacers. Bob Grunau up in Toronto
is the guru for this and just last month I set my TC up the same way. Since
every axle is slightly different, I used a machine shop to set the spacers for
me. The left and right spacer distances are not the same.
I must confess, I only went to 75# because that's as high as my torque wrench
would go. I did have to back off just a teensy bit to get the cotter pin in.
Tightening the nut further to install the pin would have put me way over 85#
and the machine shop guy was concerned that 50+ year old British steel
wouldn't take it.
These guys have a good fix. It makes sense and is a proven approach. I'm just
going to Griffith hubs and axles on my TVR.
See ya' at VIR.
John Price
College Station, Texas
|