> -----Original Message-----
> From: Greg Rowe [mailto:growe58@hotmail.com]
>
> Happened to me. The vertical link sheered at the point
> where the trunnion threads begin. Not a whole lot of
> metal there. The guy at the tech line at The Roadster
> Factory told me that it was not common, but not unknown.
> What's scarey is that I had just slowed from 70+mph to
> about 25mph for a red traffic light. I shudder to think
> what would have happened if it failed at 70...
Sheared vertical links are certainly not uncommon, though they usually go
hand-in-hand with poor maintenance, not necessarily recently, but at an
earlier point in the car's life. Failure to lubricate the trunnion properly
allows rust to start at the top of the threaded portion. Typically, this is
where traditional grease is used (modern compounds may be OK - that's a
different argument) rather than the recommended EP90. The grease dries and
will not be displaced when fresh oil or grease is pumped in, so the top
section remains dry, allowing the rust to get a hold. This weakens the metal
sufficiently for a breakage to occur - I am not talking about deep
penetration here, just sufficient surface damage to form stress points from
which a crack can emanate. This is unlikely to happen with a race car which
gets stripped down and rebuilt regularly - any suspect vertical links would
be discarded long before they were at a critical stage.
Vertical links normally break at low speed - I can't explain why
this is the case. One exception was a friend's Herald 13/60 about 13-14
years ago, which sheared a link in the outside lane of the M4 in West Wales,
travelling at over 70mph. He left a nicely dug channel across the motorway
to the hard shoulder. I have been obsessive about trunnion oiling ever since
and have never lost a link myself.
Cheers,
Bill.
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