[TR] Flat towing a TR3

[ptegler at verizon.net]

plain and simple regardless of who did what in days of old... decide for yourself what makes sense.....spinning the driveshaft without the gears spinning is rotating the shaft inside the gears at a speed equal to the road wheel rotation speed divided by you rear end ratios IE: the turns per mile on your speedo face, revolutions every minute at 60 mph.

So example....after 500 miles ~ 8 hrs @ 60mph w/ 3.90 rear roughly 1000revs per mile = 1/2 million revolutions of the shaft with no lube! Your mainshaft sits above the oil level in your tranny. The laygear (cluster gear) sits partially submerged. The oil slung all over the place by the laygear is what drips down and lubes the bushes/shaft via spiral grooves in the bushes (not all...some are only drilled weep holes)
I'd be had pressed to believe you are not prematurely wearing away the bushes and edges of the gears.  When driven by the engine, the input shaft is always spinning the cluster gear, car moving or not. So oil is being sloshed everywhere.

20-30 miles at under 45-50mph across town..maybe ...but highway no way!. But I also reference an instance I know of where a Jeep had jostled into gear while being towed.... and was only found so at the trip destination. You could only shift between reverse and neutral....and the vehicle could not be moved under it's own power (not a 4WD either so same drive scenario ) The engine suffered as well.

pategle

-----Original Message-----
From: DAVE HOGYE <dlhogye at comcast.net>
To: Art McEwen <amcewen2 at cogeco.ca>; triumphs <triumphs at autox.team.net>
Sent: Fri, Mar 29, 2019 5:36 am
Subject: Re: [TR] Flat towing a TR3


Hardy Prentice flat towed his TR3 all over the country for years behind his Jaguar XKE.  Hardy won the SCCA E-production championship in, if I remember correctly 1991 after 25 years or so trying.  He is one of our most important Triumph heros.  Hardy still lives in S.F. and still has his TR3 and the E-type.

I believe he disconnected the drive shaft.  If I find more info on that, I'll share it.

Dave H.

On March 28, 2019 at 12:43 PM Art McEwen <amcewen2 at cogeco.ca> wrote: 
 
I read somewhere where this wasn't possible without disconnecting the driveshaft due to, I think, a bearing in the gearbox or O/D that doesn't get lubricated without the gearbox in gear.   But I've also read reports of Kas Kasner and his contemporaries routinely flat towing to the race track.    Which is true?  Both?  Neither?  Or is Kas forgetting he used to disconnect the driveshaft at the end of the weekend?
I've seen several MGBs (different gearbox design?) and MX5s being flat towed behind RVs, I know the MX5 manual says it's a no-no.
Just wondering.
Art '60 TR3A.** triumphs at autox.team.net ** 
 
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