V8 trike build.

[redlig]

There is/was much talk of a huge heatwave heading our way, starting in a few weeks supposedly. Not heard much the last few days though.

Wasn't the who;e of July supposed to be blistering hot and a danger to health ? I must have missed it while sheltering from the rain. More News over kill!

 

[addjunkie]

There is/was much talk of a huge heatwave heading our way, starting in a few weeks supposedly. Not heard much the last few days though.

Hope so have a soggy wet hay field.

 

[Morrisman]

I discovered why one hub bearing was loose, the half shafts had been put in the wrong hubs, so the shimming was out. Swapped them over and all is well.
Circlips arrived so all UJs are temporarily buttoned up for now.
Discs are spaced out, callipers fitted, may put it on the frame tomorrow. If I can lift it off the workbench…

 

[Morrisman]

Traditional British vehicle engineering: fitting the calipers requires bolts to be put in from behind, which can barely be reached with fat fingers while the diff is sat on the bench. (I dread to think how the discs or pads could ever be changed with the axle in a car)
.....And then the bolts need turning with a spanner, with only a fraction of a turn available, even with a bi-hex ring spanner ..... probably sounds familiar to Brit bike aficionados.

Axle finally in, battery 'box' behind it.





Billy Bulldog looks on, wondering at what stage he will be forced to live outside....

 

[jsf55]

There the worst calliper's I've ever worked on, Kugel had the right idea when he fabed brackets too put them out the back !

 

[8ob]

.....And then the bolts need turning with a spanner, with only a fraction of a turn available, even with a bi-hex ring spanner ..... probably sounds familiar to Brit bike aficionados.

Aren’t these bolts accessed through the two large holes in the rear discs? I remember them being a fiddle but once you have been around them a few times they aren’t a problem, it was all the wire locking on the older ones that was the fiddly bit.

Bob

 

[Morrisman]

Aren’t these bolts accessed through the two large holes in the rear discs? I remember them being a fiddle but once you have been around them a few times they aren’t a problem, it was all the wire locking on the older ones that was the fiddly bit.

Bob

No, they are on the inside face of the calipers, facing outwards, with about 1/8" clearance to the diff casing when you first start screwing them in. These bolts are drilled for wire locking. I think it's an XJ6 axle, from what I remember researching it a while back.

 

[jsf55]

Yeah it's the xj6/12 model, the holes in the discs where for the earlier, s type and mk10 era cars, and they call it progress

 

[Morrisman]

Bit of chocolate paint on the pick-up bed, and some edging on the false tank. Rad mounts have been finished inside the bed, and rubber strip glued to the rad to stop it chaffing.

Amazing how 20+ hours work equates to just two pics......

I also got the four shocks mounted, finally, which entailed more pins being made, and more spacers, and holes opened up, and threads recut......

 

[Exuptoy]

Just read this front to back. That’s some work matey, and all out your own head…. Well done.

 

[Morrisman]

Managed to motivate meself into the shed again, stripped and rebuilt the ridiculous design Jag handbrake calipers, new pads, or cleaned and greased up, went in the 'assembly garage' to fit them.....

.....and they foul the frame, where the Jag diff top mount is.

Major chopping is required to make them fit, right where I really don't want metal cutting out, so it looks like it's going to be a prop shaft disc handbrake instead.

 

[jsf55]

Probably a better idea, they are notoriously **** at mot time !

 

[Morrisman]

Probably a better idea, they are notoriously **** at mot time !

They are ridiculous design, seriously rubbish, which fits in with the cack handed way the main calipers are mounted. It's like Jaguar finally managed to polish a turd, to get such a good reputation for their suspensions.

 

[minimutly]

They are ridiculous design, seriously rubbish, which fits in with the cack handed way the main calipers are mounted. It's like Jaguar finally managed to polish a turd, to get such a good reputation for their suspensions.

Well they went to Ford for the x type and Lincoln for the s type. I don’t know about the type, but the S type and xf derivative was pretty good after tweeking.

 

[Wedg1e]

That Jag inboard disc setup is used on the TVR wedges as well, with the attendant handbrake issues (and caliper bolt inaccessibility) - as an aside, the calipers were also used on the DeLorean, mounted outboard where access is a bit better. On the TVR it's aided by the chassis being a tube frame; I can recall my dad tearing his hair out trying to work on an old XJ6 with just the hand-holes in the pressed tin subframe.

A few years ago I did a complete rear-end strip/ rebuild on the TVR, in the course of which I was determined to solve the crappy handbrake once and for all. I bought new pull-off springs (the forked bits that are supposed to spread the caliper arms), cleaned up everything and rebuilt the calipers per an old Jag manual.
I also welded up an extension to the handbrake lever as one recurring theme was that 'something' was stretching or wearing and the lever (allegedly taken from a forklift) would run out of ratchet travel before the pads were doing anything meaningful. The extension inproved matters, but then it soon became obvious that the self-adjusters were too efficient; every time you applied the handbrake it would ratchet round one tooth and clamp the pads to the disc, never releasing properly - I had smoke coming from under the car.
In the end I took out the ratchets, set the pads to a running clearance using the slotted-head adjuster and they were the best they'd ever been... for about a week, after which time something had stretched or sprung and the handbrake was tearing the headcloth again
So now when the MOT is due I get underneath and give the adjusters a turn, or wind the handbrake cable up a few threads and it's fine again... for about a week, after which etc etc.
It always amuses me that what we call a handbrake, the Americans know as an Emergency brake... but the concept of trying to stop a runaway 2-tonne Jag with that setup is just scary.

 

[Wedg1e]

They are ridiculous design, seriously rubbish, which fits in with the cack handed way the main calipers are mounted. It's like Jaguar finally managed to polish a turd, to get such a good reputation for their suspensions.

The Lotus Esprit used the Citroen C35 transaxle with inboard discs and had exactly the same level of engineering incompetence: the caliper brackets were bolted to the gearbox in such a way that you could only get an open-ended spanner on them, and the bolts would corrode into the brackets so changing the discs could take bloody hours.

 

[Morrisman]

That Jag inboard disc setup is used on the TVR wedges as well, with the attendant handbrake issues (and caliper bolt inaccessibility) - as an aside, the calipers were also used on the DeLorean, mounted outboard where access is a bit better. On the TVR it's aided by the chassis being a tube frame; I can recall my dad tearing his hair out trying to work on an old XJ6 with just the hand-holes in the pressed tin subframe.

A few years ago I did a complete rear-end strip/ rebuild on the TVR, in the course of which I was determined to solve the crappy handbrake once and for all. I bought new pull-off springs (the forked bits that are supposed to spread the caliper arms), cleaned up everything and rebuilt the calipers per an old Jag manual.
I also welded up an extension to the handbrake lever as one recurring theme was that 'something' was stretching or wearing and the lever (allegedly taken from a forklift) would run out of ratchet travel before the pads were doing anything meaningful. The extension inproved matters, but then it soon became obvious that the self-adjusters were too efficient; every time you applied the handbrake it would ratchet round one tooth and clamp the pads to the disc, never releasing properly - I had smoke coming from under the car.
In the end I took out the ratchets, set the pads to a running clearance using the slotted-head adjuster and they were the best they'd ever been... for about a week, after which time something had stretched or sprung and the handbrake was tearing the headcloth again
So now when the MOT is due I get underneath and give the adjusters a turn, or wind the handbrake cable up a few threads and it's fine again... for about a week, after which etc etc.
It always amuses me that what we call a handbrake, the Americans know as an Emergency brake... but the concept of trying to stop a runaway 2-tonne Jag with that setup is just scary.

Exactly why I want to be rid of them. Just stripping and cleaning them demonstrates what an inept, over complicated rubbish design they are. It's almost like someone in the halls of power had half an idea, then forced the design team to run with it, no matter how complex it became.

 

[redlig]

Exactly why I want to be rid of them. Just stripping and cleaning them demonstrates what an inept, over complicated rubbish design they are. It's almost like someone in the halls of power had half an idea, then forced the design team to run with it, no matter how complex it became.

I bet that is closer to the truth than you think.

 

[Morrisman]

So, I thought I'd stick with the stock calipers and cut the frame to suit, rather than spend more time and money to create propshaft handbrake.

I temporarily dropped them in place, on the newly removed diff, but I'm clueless how a cable is supposed to connect the two together and pull them together. For a start it will foul the diff housing in the middle, and the outer cable will foul one caliper.

I'm sure this was discussed earlier in the fiasco project, but I can't seem to find it now.

 

[jsf55]

This is how i did mine, but you would have too centre mount the handbrake lever and I don't think that's possible for you ?