Tornado TS40 Build Belfast Northern Ireland

[Keith Stafford]

Hi Guys

Just taken on completing a part-built TS40, with Ford 302 and Renault UN1 013. Here are some pix to show you the starting point. Would be interested to have some tool recommendations, good pop riveter, torque wrench, rivnuts, what else should I get,.. etcetera....

BTW I have several socket sets, 170A welder, plenty of spanners, drills, jigsaw, bench drill, bench grinder, 150mm angle grinder.

Thanks

Keith

 

[Jimmy P]

You should have it done by Easter! Go get em'

 

[Andy Green]

Hi Keith,
That looks a really good starting point to build something really special
Keep us posted on your progress

Regards,
Andy

 

[Keith Stafford]

Thanks Guys,... Easter,... notice no year specified, phew off the hook.

Keith

 

[Keith Stafford]

Re: Tornado TS40 Build Belfast, Northern Ireland

OK, day one of 'serious' work,.... first things first. Got her started, so i can tick that box. The car was delivered to me with the front and rear clams fitted and the spider and dash set in place, but not screwed in. I thought the best course of action was to back-track, remove the roof and inspect under the dash.

I think my first job is to finish off the panels around the tank filler and the edge of the dash, to 'seal' the inside of the car from fuel pipes for IVA. I then need to finish off the wiring and decide what I'm going to do re dash covering, do I go leather?

I need then to correctly position the roof spider and bolt it on, which means dropping the tanks, there must be a better design out there,...actually Andy Green has already suggested one, thanks.

Should I fully panel the front section, I know some do, some don't. If I do panel it, which should ultimately give a better seal to the cabin, however where does all that air go, out the top, so I need to improve the nostril size (depth)?

Am I right in saying, panelling gives a better air/water seal for the cabin, but possibly reduces radiator air flow?


Keith

 

[Andy Green]

Hi Keith,
People panel the front area as looks more period and keeps all the road muck out of the front area. It does mean that all the air exiting the radiator has to be from the exit duct, but it is easily (relatively!) modified to be deeper to make it more efficient
Regards,
Andy

 

[Keith Stafford]

Day Two, decided to do 2 things today, (a) drop the tanks and check the alignment of the roof, which the previous owner had drilled and fitted, (b) drop the driveshafts out of the box to find the extent of the leak(s) :sad:.

Tanks:-

The tanks came out easily enough, the nearside was plumbed in, but had no fuel, was light and came out easily. The offside was plumbed in and had a couple of inches of fuel, so was a little awkward, was it just me being to lazy to drain them. Anyway, noticed that the top bolts for the straps used riv-nuts into the chassis, the bottom bolts did not and were bolted through the chassis into the cabin, is this normal, why not have riv-nuts on the bottom too, is there a corrosion issue or IVA?




Roof alignment:-

According to the build manual the roof section should be 14" (inches) from the rear of the sill, the dimensions are not perfect, the near side is about 1/4 inch out and the offside is 3/4 inch out, problem is, the roof, spacer and panel/chassis are all drilled, relatively easy to correc the 3/4 mistake, but more awkward to do the 1/4 inch, any advice welcome, I attach a pix of the misalignment on the nearside.



I'll cover the gearbox issue in a separate post, tea time! Bye for now, Keith.

 

[Keith Stafford]

You may be aware that I had a few drops of gearbox oil dripping from the couplings to the gearbox and the CV boot. I dropped both couplings to the gearbox and on the offside there was some g/box oil inside the CV joint, boot and coupling, when i took off the adapter there was a bit of a flood, prob about 250ml, half a pint came out, so if there is a seal on the output shaft of the gearbox, then it needs replaced. Same for the nearside, both leaking fluid to the CV joint.

The first two pix show the oil in the adapter, 3 & 4 show the flow when the adapter was removed.

I believe eBay has these seals for ~£15. I may also see if I can get the adapters modified to accept a disc (with an interference fit) to seal the pathway?

Has anyone any advice or experience on this? Are there inner seals (on the output shafts) and do they fail often?

Want to get this fixed, so I can move on to assembly, rather than disassembly.


Regards


Keith

 

[Paul W]

To solve the leakage out of the centre of the adaptor, I cut an alluminium disc of thin sheet to fit inside, it has to sit a few millimetres off the differential splines. I wasn't keen on having them welded in so used chemical metal to hold them in place. This purely creates a barrier between the cv joint and the gearbox insides.
I found fluid leaked out of the split pins also, so I used a long nyloc and socket cap screw (Bolt) instead of the splitpins - I think its a 6mm one with a long shank that fits pretty well - on the inside of each end I put a rubber 'o' ring to seal in the fluid. To date this solved the gearbox fluid leakage on my car - 4 years so far.

 

[Andy Sheldon]

Keith

Please see page 38 section 8 of your build manual.

Thanks

Andy

 

[Keith Stafford]

Hi Andy

Yes, the manual advises to "Use sealer on the transaxle output shaft splines....", although does not specify a type of sealer. Not being in the industry I am not familiar with which sealers are resistant to the gearbox oil! The adapters did have sealer internally when I opened them, clearly this had failed, whether there was any on the splined shafts, I do not know.

I would suggest that it would be better if the adapters were sealed during manufacture, perhaps with a disc pressed into place. One of the problems with sealants, is that if there is any oil contamination on the adapter or in the split pin hole (which by its nature is difficult to remove oil), then the sealants may not take and either not work at all or for short periods.

There does seem to be others out there that have either had a leak and/or taken other measures to head the issue off at the pass, which could suggest a design issue?

Regards

Keith

 

[Andy Sheldon]

Keith

I have personally fitted hundreds of these adaptors over the last 29 years. Probably more than anybody alive and I have never had one leak.

Make sure the splines are clean and use polyurethane sealant on the splines and then also seal around the inside of the adaptor.

Thanks

Andy

 

[Keith Stafford]

Hi Andy

I do not at all doubt your competence,.... the problem is I have never fitted one, I've just take two apart, so like other novice car builders, we are part of the issue, sometimes (most times) design needs to take account of the user.

Can you recommend a polyure sealant?

Many years ago I did have an X1/9, which had a habit of dropping the prop shafts,.... so am very familiar with working with CV joints and some of the issues around oil contamination, I could never get the thread-lock to work on the bolts,.... the joints probably needed stripped and cleaned then reassembled.


Regards


Keith

 

[Keith Stafford]

Guys

Was looking at the floor panels and there are none to the rear of the petrol tanks, was thinking of panelling the bottom of this area (just to the rear of the tanks) to keep muck out etc, I welcome your opinions?


Regards

Keith

 

[Brett James-McCall]

I've done it on my GTD that I am building

 

[Andy Sheldon]

Keith

We do not panel those areas as you are just adding dead weight to the car and making water traps.

I have seen some chassis rust to nothing in these areas due to trapped water.

Thanks

Andy

 

[Keith Stafford]

Thanks Andy

Any advice on the polyurethane make, type,....?


Keith

 

[Andy Green]

Hi Keith,
This sealant will be fine, just make sure there is no oil on the surfaces when used. Paul Walton’s suggestion of adding an alloy disc is a nice solution to this problem.

http://www.cbsonline.co.uk/product/Black_RTV_Silicone_Gasket_RTVGASKBK

I’ve panelled in the area under discussion, as it tidies up the air flow underneath and keeps the road muck out of my LP pump which is in this area. My panels are removable (for access) and note the water drains I’ve added.
Regards,
Andy

 

[Andy Sheldon]

Keith

We use the same sealant that we supply for the paneling.

Thanks

Andy

 

[Keith Stafford]

Thanks guys.

AndyS, don't worry, AndyG was able to give me a definitive answer re. the sealant.




Keith