Sirpent "Z"

[Sirpent]

You have incredible patience.

You started this thread 19th april 2009 , happy anniversary !

Look forward to seeing this animal come to life.

Thanks Chris

 

Yes 7 years ago today, a Sunday to be exact, and so many ups downs and commitments the last few years that I just neglected to progress, now I am pouring every spare moment into it because on NYE I felt like I wasn't going to make it through this year, even if that sounds stupid, and I made myself a promise that I would try to drive it at least once and pull my finger out and do this for me.

Edited April 19, 2016 by Sirpent

[260DET]

Seven years, not sure if you need congratulations or sympathy Do something for me John, spray that engine with WD40 or something, it looks unhappy like it is.

[chris240]

Haha, I wasnt the only one that wanted to grab some wd40 and do the same thing !

[Sirpent]

Seven years, not sure if you need congratulations or sympathy Do something for me John, spray that engine with WD40 or something, it looks unhappy like it is.

 

Haha, I wasnt the only one that wanted to grab some wd40 and do the same thing !

It’s all good guys, It’s going to get dry ice blasted soon enough which should make it nice and shiny ;-)

 

 

So today I finished the gear box mount setting the box at its final height and position, the box is at the correct angle going by the secondary shifter cover plate which I was told is a true plane and is within .1 degree off to the engine and chassis which are both set at 90 degrees.

 

 

However this box came out of an SS commodore and the rear gearbox extension housing is slightly set at an angle to the driver’s position and therefore so are the mounts.

 

 

I was worried at first and then checked the original tiny Holden bracket and it confirmed that the right hand side of the bracket was set slightly lower than the passenger side.

 

 

I then set about fabricating two brackets and these were welded to a base plate which the transmission flexible mount bolted to and then to the alloy cradle.

 

 

It still needs finishing and 2 small reinforcement gussets added but its sitting spot on and the entire engine and trans are now supporting themselves on the chassis.

 

 

It was time for a kind of proof of concept, so I rolled the chassis under the car and then rotated the body on the rotisserie over the entire assembly.

 

 

385mm now separates the body from the chassis, but it now gives me a great indication that all the measurements and calculations I have done are on the mark.

 

 

Getting closer

 

 

Cheers

 

 

John

 

 

Edited April 20, 2016 by Sirpent

[Sirpent]

Small update today.

 

I have now moved to the back of the chassis build to commence the differential alignment and mounting. Previously the 2 LCA bars which also act as the forward diff mounting points were only tacked in place, so today I set them both in their correct and final positions and welded them in place on the 4 bolt hanger plates after building a jig out of scraps to make sure they didn't move in any way.

 

This was followed by positioning the diff once again using scraps as supports so as to work out (A) the differential alignment and angle to the box and (B) what dimensions the new forward mounts would be.

 

The first part was difficult, but luckily Tremec have a downloadable app specifically designed to check the box angle, tails shaft angle and diffeerntial angle all relative to each other then calculates if these are within tolerance for the universal joints, as you can see by the screen shot, I'm in 

 

Last after having positioned and aligned the diff, I started to make 2 forward diff mounts, one of the set is shown in the attached pic, The tube set in between the 2 gussets will carry the poly bushes, the other end will slide over the LCA and be welded in place, from the diff side mount plate 2 brackets will extend out to meet and be bolted to the bush mount.

 

Cheers

 

John

 

 

[PeterAllen]

Is that 0.4 of a degree or 4 degrees?

 

Is that 'x' axis only or compound?

 

Curious.

[Sirpent]

Peter

 

You may want to take a look at this vid on how the app works, but the readings do not actually represent the angles in degrees but rather the differential between the subtraction of the 3 base angles from one another.

 

The final engine angle / trans angle I set when installing the motor was 3.4 degrees from memory which is not 00.6 degrees so the math in the app works thus to come up with the results.

 

Angle 1 = Trans angle - tailshaft angle = 00.6

Angle 2 = Diff angle - tailshaft angle = 00.2

Drive line operating angle = result for Angle 1 - result for Angle 2 or .006-.004 = .002

 

Hope I have confused you LOL 

[PeterAllen]

You certainly have confused me, I can't even  find 'this vid".

[jeff43]

Ya gotta love an app like that, sure makes life easy. Very nice John, really coming along now, keep up the good work.

 

Cheers J2

[Sirpent]

Sorry Peter try this 

 

[Sirpent]

Ya gotta love an app like that, sure makes life easy. Very nice John, really coming along now, keep up the good work.

 

Cheers J2

 

Thanks J2 

 

So more progress today

 

Completed both diff bushing mounts ready for positioning, the outrigger brackets from the diff side plates come next once I have a final position and can produce some CAD (Cardboard Assisted Design) mock ups.

 

The pic shows the LH side mount more or less where it will eventually sit however the ends still need to be curved to better match the bush assy's, and the 2 forward LCA mounts nesting approximately where they will sit.

 

A good day   

Edited April 22, 2016 by Sirpent

[Sirpent]

This weekends effort

 

A big thanks to Peter McDonnell for all his help in lending me his ear and give me his valid opinion when I was stuck between a rock and a hard place on some decisions I had to make ;-)

 

 

[Sirpent]

So the rear diff cradle is now in version 3.

 

Today I started the final mount which will allow the diff to pivot based on the diff crown position relative to the axle outputs where the Ford diff previously relied on a mount located totally off position on the alloy diff cap.

 

I have a few options on how to complete the rear mount now from dual bush set ups which would mean sectioning the pipe in the pic 50mm inward of both brackets on either side, to a singular set up mid point, at this stage I am still tossing up which path to go down although the latter is becoming the prefered option the more I ponder about it.

 

Stay tuned, the old rectangular RHS mustache bar is now on the scrap heap and a totally new set up is on its way, there is a hint as to what it will be in the pics, lets see who can pick up on it.

 

Cheers

 

John

[mspecr]

Mate read all 59 pages, just have to say that is some serious R&D work going on there, Keep up that awesome work ! 

Cringed at that tooth, def know that feeling :$

[Sirpent]

Mate read all 59 pages, just have to say that is some serious R&D work going on there, Keep up that awesome work ! 

Cringed at that tooth, def know that feeling :$

 

"Give that man a cigar"

 

I apologise you had to read through so much waffle to be able to get to the stuff that matters Buddy.

 

But thanks anyhow for the thumbs up 

[Sirpent]

Much contemplation and calculations this weekend

 

 

I ran into a few small hiccup’s when I went to do the test fit, the mounts where 15mm to far forward, and as I suspected but hoped wouldn’t be the case, the old moustache bar cross member mount and the diff hat are not seeing eye to eye which means that it will require notching to fit this gargantuan LSD diff "My Bad" 

 

 

 

So as always, when you hit a brick wall like this, you start to re-evaluate the set up and I came up with the following arguments that I threw at myself.

 

 

 

#1 The poly mounts will probably mean limited absorption, and a harsher ride!

 

 

#2 The forward mounts are very large

 

 

#3 Simpler off the shelf rubber mounts would probably solve issues #1 and #2

 

 

 

Therefore......................................

 

 

I’m now looking at using these instead which should not only function better but also unclutter the cradle and free up more space, I'm just waiting for the supplier to get back to me with a price.

 

 

 

Today was taken up with creating a reinforcement void structure that will slip into the section I remove from the cross member that held the old "Z" moustache bar.

 

 

I created the void reinforcement from 2.5mm material, some 9 pieces make up the structure, the entire perimeter has a 12mm lip around it which I will drill holes into and then plug weld to the factory metal before having the outer edges seam welded in place.

 

 

While giving the diff the required clearances, it should also reinstate the structural integrity of the member. The uprights of the new set up are now also tubular and will be anchored at 6 bolt points to 10mm plates and additional gusseting. 

 

 

Cheers

 

 

John

 

[Sirpent]

OK from daily updates back to weekly ones.

 

This week I started a new role so gone are the days of being able to get up each day for 3 weeks and knock down the to do list.

 

I bit the bullet and ordered 2 of the mounts I mentioned in my previous post and it was the Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrse of the century !

 

These are actually used on Land Rover Free Lander's as a single forward differential mount, I was planning to use 2 up front but after a bit of an eye ball fit up and placement today, there will now be 2 up front and 2 at the rear which will solve all my problems.

 

The rubber bushes in these mounts can be pressed out and replaced, and the aluminium mounts are robust considering a single one is used on a diff up front, don't think I will have any issues with failures using 4 of them.

 

Being Mothers Day this weekend, no work on the Zed this weekend, but I'm ordering 2 more of these mounts today so next weekend it full steam ahead.

 

Cheers

 

John 

 

 

[CBR Jeff]

Continued nice work John. Till next weekend then.

Jeff

[Sirpent]

OK,

 

So new job, and a bit less time to work on the Zed, but stick with me, updates are coming, in the meanwhile, one of the benefits of working where I do is that I see a lot, and I mean a LOT of classic cars every day.

 

And today was no different, well kinda not different because this rolled up............ so lets see who can guess what it is.

 

There were only 150 built

Its an all aluminium hand made job and the car in the pics is in its raw state

These cars restored are fetching upwards of AUS $300K at the moment

AND

Its the fore runner to one of the most sort after 2 door coupes built in the 60's

 

If you look close enough, you will pick up on the styling cues that crossed over to its "BAST*RD CHILD" and thats a big hint.

 

Cheers

 

John

Edited May 17, 2016 by Sirpent

[ilbert]

Ac Aceca?

[Sirpent]

Ac Aceca?

 

Give the man a cigar !

[Sirpent]

Yup

 

I'm nuts, its confirmed, ripped into the old mounts today (Which happened to be Version 2) after securing the diff in its true position and fabricated the 1st of 4 new (Version 3) mounts which took me 6 hours.

 

As I said, nuts, hopefully the next 3 don't take me 18 hours.

 

Cheers

 

John 

[garvice]

Just out of interest John. What are you using to cut your brackets. A lot look to be cnc cut

[Sirpent]

Just out of interest John. What are you using to cut your brackets. A lot look to be cnc cut

 

LMAO, believe it or not.................

 

1mm Hand grinder fibre discs followed by grinder disc followed by flapper disc after marking out the shape over masking tape.

 

I take the plate, drill out the holes as required, then mask up the shape and draw the final shape on the piece.

 

I need a bench grinder sanding disc which I am looking into at the moment because Im still not happy with the finish on the final items

[garvice]

Well the ones with circular shapes look good mate. Very close fit I've the pipe too.