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Vixen Front Uprights

To: tvr@autox.team.net
Subject: Vixen Front Uprights
From: Rikrock@aol.com
Date: Sat, 1 Jul 2000 23:39:18 EDT
Listers,

I spent Friday afternoon visiting The Roadster Factory, and Classic Motors 
(Gene Bird).

Here's what I learned about Vixen uprights and a few other parts......

While the source for the uprights has been previously identified as Herald 
drum brake cars, the uprights on Spitfires up to Commission #15,575 are 
identical to the ones I removed from my Vixen.

Dave at TRF was very helpful.  I took my old upright with me, he brought some 
uprights to the front counter, and we compared.  He didn't have a Herald 
upright, but he had an early Spit, and a GT6 part.  We measured EVERY 
dimension with a vernier caliper.  The early Spit upright checks out perfect. 
 The GT6 upright dimensions match up except for the hole for the stub axle.  
The stub axle on a GT6 is larger diameter, by about 1/16".  Looks like using 
the GT6 upright is possible, but it means going with GT6 bearings/seals.

Spit and GT6 steering arms are considerably shorter than the ones on my 
Vixen.  Dave didn't recognize my arms, and didn't have a Herald arm for us to 
look at, but we looked at a TR4-6 steering arm and it is completely 
different.  It will not bolt up to the Vixen/Herald/Early Spit upright--the 
hole spacing is wrong.

The caliper mounting plate on the Vixen is from a TR4-6, but is modified to 
fit the Vixen/Herald/EarlySpit upright---four new holes are drilled in it to 
make it fit!

So I bought the early Spit upright from TRF and headed to Johnstown, PA to 
see  Gene Bird.  Gene had told me he had a set of uprights in stock, I wanted 
to compare them to what I had just bought.  The uprights Gene has are 
slightly different.  Not in any of the machined dimensions, or hole size for 
stub axles, ball joint, trunnion , etc. but they are just a LITTLE beefier in 
the dimension of the stiffening rib that runs vertically, and a LITTLE wider 
in the area just above the threaded portion of the upright.  Gene would only 
sell the pair, I decided to go with what I had.....I didn't think that the 
extra material in his parts would make much difference.  The way I see it, 
the weak point is at the top of the threads, so the only way to improve the 
part is to make the threaded portion thicker, along with reinforcing the area 
where the threaded portion meets the rest of the upright.  If anyone thinks 
I've missed, or got something wrong, please speak up!
 
I'll keep you all posted on how it goes.  Got to get the car back together 
for Giants Despair Hillclimb next weekend!

Rich Rock
Pottstown, PA

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