My 1973 TVR 2500M : Renew and Restomod

Not blowing smoke up your...., but, DANG, you do some fine work.   Nice to see the body rekindling a relationship with the chassis.  Carry on!

In reply to Dirtydog (Forum Supporter) :

Thanks!

Though you can keep your smoke to yourself for now - I realized I made a mistake on this part.  There's no channel between the inlet port and the pressure sender.  I'll need to do a little re-machining to add that in.  Will be an easy addition on then next one - just a quick tool-path on that initial underside set-up.

Funny enough, I did have the oil channel on the first red printed part, but it didn't make the transition to the o ring version.

Oil Channel added:

In hindsight, I probably should have power-tapped the big holes.  That would have made them perfectly straight.  But power-tapping on my machine is a bit of a project and it always freaks me out.  So this will have to do for now.

That looks fantastic!

Getting a bit more done today.  First up: pressure testing!

Put together a test hose, and bolted my oil relocation plate to a scrap chunk of aluminum.

Back side:

And the pressure looks to be holding just fine:

I sprayed the joint with some soapy water and I'm not getting any bubbles.  I'll check on it again in a few hours, but so far it looks good.

Heat ir with a torch to make sure expansion and contraction isn't a concern? Or am i overthinking it?

Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) said:

Heat ir with a torch to make sure expansion and contraction isn't a concern? Or am i overthinking it?

Maybe a heat gun would be a good idea.  Probably looking at a 180 deg F oil temp?

Pressure test looked pretty good.  It lost about 10 psi over 24 hours.  I may fill it with oil and see if it'll drip.

Got the sway bar mounted today:

Somehow I can't get this stupid pic to be right side up, so enjoy the patented Upside-Down-Cam.

When pics do that to me I usually have to edit and save as a new file. 

Got a bit more done over the weekend.  Pulled out the sand-blasting cabinet again to get going on the steering rack.  I know this TR6 steering rack is not the correct part for this car, and I'll need to figure out a way to lengthen it if I don't want to be in bump-steer hell.  But for now, I'm going to try and get it put together and usable.

All shiny and painted:

I did a few tweaks to my HF blasting cabinet.  Like a bunch of their crap, it's not bad once you fix everything on it.

I redid the drain on the bottom so that it faces downward.  The original side-exit doesn't really flow at all.

Better:

I bought a siphon gun from Eastwood a while ago, and it works far better.  Only problem was the pick-up floating up and out of the abrasive.  I added a p-clamp and made this a permanent install.  Works better now.

Pretty sure I've got my exhaust brackets sorted out.  Parts coming in tomorrow for that, though I think I'll machine one of the brackets today.  The 3d printed prototype looked pretty good.

Some steps forward.

Got the rear exhaust hangers reasonably well figured out. This is all just roughed in with some 2" aluminum tubing, but the idea looks pretty good:

I've got supplies to add another hanger more towards the trans mount, but I have not the will to work on it right now.

I played around a bit with the sway bar links.  These line up so poorly that it makes me wonder if the PO subbed in a different sway bar from another car:

Right now it looks like I'm going to have to turn a massive spacer for the top link that'll allow it to line up in the right orientation.  I really don't like the huge cantilever.

This was the place where the PO did put a stack of about 500 washers to make up the gap.

Any suggestions?

Just to see how it looks, I turned some chamfered spacers for those sway bar links.

I think it looks pretty good overall:

The chamfers allow the rod ends to articulate fully, and also serve as a safety washer.

I'll probably order some appropriate length AN bolts, since these will take a fair bit of load.  On the bright side, a failure isn't really catastrophic here.

nice progress!

TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) said:

The chamfers allow the rod ends to articulate fully, and also serve as a safety washer.

Looks good. For anyone without a lathe, conical spacers are readily available for this purpose as well.  

damarble said:

TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) said:

The chamfers allow the rod ends to articulate fully, and also serve as a safety washer.

Looks good. For anyone without a lathe, conical spacers are readily available for this purpose as well.  

Speedway motors has been my friend for this type of stuff on the F500. I know McMaster carries it as well with probably more variety.

Apexcarver said:

damarble said:

TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) said:

The chamfers allow the rod ends to articulate fully, and also serve as a safety washer.

Looks good. For anyone without a lathe, conical spacers are readily available for this purpose as well.  

Speedway motors has been my friend for this type of stuff on the F500. I know McMaster carries it as well with probably more variety.

Yeah, I order a lot of stuff from McMaster for work, so that's often my go-to.  The rod ends are both from McMaster.

Pegasus has similar safety washers as well.

Got a quote from a local driveshaft shop for a custom steel shaft - $465 with all new components.  This is with all replaceable and greaseable u-joints.

Does this sound reasonable?  Maybe a little more than I'd hoped but not crazy.

I have an irrational fear that I measured wrong and he's going to build me something that doesn't fit.  Should I ask if I can borrow the parts to test fit?  Like before he goes and welds them up?

Are there a bunch of driveshaft variations where I could be close but not right?  Or are these pretty standard?

In reply to TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) :

That seems high to me but I junkyard stuff.  I know it's hard to find a shorter shaft.  What u joints will he use?  

In reply to TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) :

With the chassis mounted final drive you will have no issue since the overall travel of the splined section is minimal, like 1/8" at most.

Do you have a trans yoke already? Also,  price is steep. Usually under 300 here

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :

No trans yoke.  That's part of the price.

Without the yoke in hand, i can definitely agree to the fear of mismeasurement. Id agree with youe idea of taking to youke and pinion flange home, and double checking the length before cutting tube. 

As far as price without having yoke, im not sure. No idea what brand new ones go for.

Got some more info from the local guy:

The slip yoke end will have a 7260 inside clip u-joint.  The bearings on the diff flange will be 1310 Spicer.  Evidently there's no version where both sides can be the same.

He says they balance to 3k rpm.  That seems low???

In reply to TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) :

I think that's the standard as normal people unlike us don't drive around at redline all the time. 

3k driveshaft rpm. Which is some multiplication if tire diameter abd rear axle ratio,  independent of engine rpm. 

I have no idea if 3k is normal, high, or low though.