Mike,
Yup! The TR3 cranks are supposed to break there. The crank is probably
broken between the rear main and #4 journal. Triumph purpously put this
defect in to help preserve Triumphs for future restoration projects.
All kidding aside, the same thing happened to me, but only after driving 1000
miles on a totally restored car that took me 4 years to finish. Now is your
chance to do a few improvements.
After my crank broke I decided to lighten the flywheel (quicker wind-up),
rebush the bell housing to take any play out of the shaft for the clutch fork
(slightly better pedal feel), drill and thru bolt the clutch fork to the
shaft (less chance of coming loose after all this work), balance the flywheel
and crank (my shift lever hardly vibrates at all and the engine is noticeably
smoother), and modify the crank to accept the more modern rear main lip seal
as supplied by Moss Motors, (no leaks so far!).
Make sure that you magnaflux your replacement crank for cracks before
spending any money on it, or you might be repeating this scenario all over
again.
Good luck!
Gary Bouffard
59 TR3A TS58399
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