I had to repair lower front suspension point cracks on my TR3 frame that were
not evident until I had it media blasted and started grinding on it, read
started grinding on it. The shock tower diagonals looked good too, until
blasting revealed pin holes on the lower end. A center punch went through the
rusty metal with ease. These frames rust from the inside out. Grinding
particles from the cutting of the diagonal gathered around the cracks in the
frame and only then did they became obvious. Had I not seen the pin holes, the
frame would have been painted and reassembled. Instead, I went through an
exhaustive process of strengthening and gusseting many areas of importance. I
even welded extra tubing inside the body outriggers creating more substantial
roll cage mounts. My car has been out of service since 1975, so that's a mere
15 years of use before this type of frame failure occurred and my car has only
lived in California.
Dave H.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joe Alexander" <n197tr4@cs.com>
To: fot@autox.team.net
Sent: Wednesday, January 9, 2013 1:41:10 PM
Subject: [Fot] TR CHASSIS FATIGUE - A CAUTIONARY TALE
FOT:
I got a nice email from Henry Frye this morning. Henry, knowing that we are
reworking our TR4, pointed to inspecting the shock towers and anchor points
for the cross member. He is exactly right.
Although most everyone understands this, it bears drawing attention to it.
This is why we are totally dismantling the TR4. Sean and I detected something
amiss with the front suspension as we discussed winter storage. That led to
moving the chassis to Niehaus Restorations. Keith is a master
welder/fabricator.
We did some gusseting twenty years ago that helped for a long time, but
finally the shock towers were exhibiting large cracks. The anchor points for
the cross member is light gauge sheet metal and they were crushed and torn.
All of this was fixed and reinforced with better materials. The x-member was
showing rust and fatigue so it was redone.
Sean painted the frame in an industrial grey so that we can better see what is
happening with frame.
There has been some on track frame failures with TRs in the past. We noticed
something going on when #197 came off the track the last race in 2012.
Ignoring it would have resulted in a serious failure in 2013. Perhaps a free
ride to medical, as well.
Anyway, unless you are investing in a RATCO frame, this is a good time to do a
close inspection.
Joe Alexander
A. R. E.
645 1st Street
Jesup, Iowa 50648
319.464.4711 (cell)
n197tr4@cs.com
_______________________________________________
fot@autox.team.net
http://www.fot-racing.com
Archive: http://www.team.net/archive
Unsubscribe: http://autox.team.net/mailman/options/fot/dlhogye@comcast.net
_______________________________________________
fot@autox.team.net
http://www.fot-racing.com
Archive: http://www.team.net/archive
Unsubscribe: http://autox.team.net/mailman/options/fot/mharc@autox.team.net
|