Brian - just my personal opinion, but I like having an access panel in the
bottom of my Midget. I didn't come up with the idea. When I bought the
car, there was already a hole there. It was roughly done, so I trimmed it
up to be a rectangle with rounded corners and made a cover plate for it.
I've only used it twice to install the driveshaft, but I use it every 2500
miles to lubricate the front u-joint. When I lubricate the u-joints, it's
convenient to be able to do them both from under the car. I think the
little 1" diameter hole in the side of the tunnel for greasing the front
u-joint is useless because it is down between the seat pan and the tunnel.
Not only that, but using any part of the upper tunnel for access, I would
have to pull up the carpet. Your statements about the load paths are
correct; hoever, as far as weakening the structure, my 4 x 5 hole has been
there since 1987 without any problems. The cover plate helps carry the
load.
Steve Byers
Havelock, NC USA
'73 Midget GAN5UD126009G "OO NINE"
"It is better to remain silent, and be thought a fool,
than to speak, and remove all doubt." -- Mark Twain
----------
> From: Brian Evans <brian@uunet.ca>
> To: Chuck Ciaffone <chuckc@ibm.net>
> Cc: spridgets@Autox.Team.Net
> Subject: Re: Cut The Tunnel?
> Date: Wednesday, December 24, 1997 10:18 AM
>
> The area of greatest stress in the tunnel is the upper curved section,
and
> the bottom flat section. If you remove metal in those areas, the
structure
> will be weakened far more than if you remove metal in the vertical sides
of
> the tunnel. The vertical sections of the tunnel resist twist, and the
most
> important part of the car vis-a-vis twist is the sill sections. The
curved
> upper part of the tunnel, in combination with the flat bottom, resist
> bending ("banana-ing" of the car).
>
> Since you only install the driveshaft to the tranny infrequently, why not
> learn how to do it easily by using little tricks like wrapping the
u-joint
> with masking tape, rather than cutting the car? On my race car, I
install
> the tranny and driveshaft as a unit, then install the engine after
they're
> in place.
>
> Brian
>
>
> At 09:57 AM 12/24/97 -0500, you wrote:
> >Need some advice:
> >
> >Haiving installed the Datsun 5-speed kit, which is
> >truly a great upgrade, I would like to improve access
> >to the back end of the transmission and the front U joint.
> >
> >Rather than trying to make an access panel in the bottom
> >plate of the tunnel, under the transmission, which looks
> >like it might weaken the structure, why could I not cut
> >the top of the tunnel (what we kids in the 50's called
> >"the hump"). I could get some galvanized sheet metal to
> >form a piece that would wrap around the hump and attach
> >to the sides with sheet-metal screws. Then I could just
> >remove the screws to access the tunnel.
> >
> >Question: How much strength is supplied by the belly plate,
> >and how much is supplied by the "hump?"
> >
> >chuck
> >
> >
> >--
> >=====================================================
> >
> >chuck ciaffone chuckc@ibm.net
> >
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