Daily Archives: March 1, 2015

1987 Van Diemen Preparation for 2015

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Well the Eldens are on a path to make ready for the 2015 season.  The Formula Continental (FC) 87 Van Diemen (VD) takes its turn.

At the end of last year the starter bushing had been damaged and it was very difficult to engage the starter.  The hydraulic coaxial throwout slave was leaking and the throwout bearing was rough;  IMG_0433throwout bobbin/spacer was wore and sloppy; the Tilton clutch disk was cracked requiring replacement.  Also the Hewland MK9 has always been very difficult to shift since I IMG_0434got it.  So I sent the Hewland MK9 to Front Range Motorsports in Denver, Colorado to have J.D.McDermott and his staff rebuilt it.  J.D. inspected it found the ring and pinion okay for a 30 year old car.   Did find some major wear on the brass shift forks and the shift rod detent’s were “strange”.  Pretty sure fixing that will be a massive improvement in this cars shifting.  Now we await that to return.

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Van Diemen Bell-Housing

Things I can work on:  The starter bushing fell out of the Magnesium (Mg) case, a brass bush.  This appears to be a bad repair from earlier in this cars life.  I would bet that the Mg case was bored originally for the shaft of the starter and since the Mg is soft versus the steel it wore out.  So I believe someone put this brass pushing in but with some very poor pipe threads to hold it.  So by looking at it I decided to see if the new Mill/Drill I added to shop could fit the bell-housing.  On this VD, the bell-housing is also the oil sump and suspension mounts, so it is a rather large assembly.  Went to the lathe and created a mandrel to center the hole for the starter versus the face of the bell-housing.  Put in mill and bored the hole to allow a “oilite” bushing 5/8″ OD bushing to be pressed into the Mg case.

On the lathe made a new throwout bobbin/spacer sleeve that was wore out.  The original was a steel sleeve and I replaced it with a Bronze one.

Talking with J.D. about spares for this FC he suggested Universal Racing Services in the UK:

http://www.universalracing.co.uk/

Contacted them and they maybe able to help on some parts when the time comes.

 

Update Elden MK 10 Race Season

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Well lets update the progress and or plans for the Elden MK10.

Engine was removed and sent to Farley Engines for rebuilding. The existing engine was what I call a “mule” motor.  It was a rebuild of the “as-found” with no special effort spent to make horsepower but to allow the shakedown of the chassis.  Now its time to have that special motor.  New SCAT crank and Tilton clutch assembly are the two big ticket items.

While the engine is at Farley’s catching up on some maintenance chores.  1) Check all rear hub assemblies.  MK 10C stub axle issue

The Elden uses Hillman Imp stub axles which is a known weakness and I plan to replace eventually with a modern axles from Taylor Engineering.  But for now bearings look good.  HamFab Inc has completed some new locking washer/nuts for the stub axles.  They, lock washers/nuts, were missing on the MK 10 Elden. Regular locking hex nuts and hardened washers were present when I got it and didn’t understand the importance of the locking requirement.  Of the 3 Eldens in the shop, one had correct parts.  Without the locking washer which is slid over the “D” shape of the stub axle, the large nut the left rear nut will loosen with every application of the brakes.  Next a soft rear pedal and time to stop.  Tried other mechanism’s to stop that before I went on a search to understand the problem.  Now I know some will say the Lotus Elan used the same stub and this problem was addressed by many others, but I am bullheaded to ignore that fact. 🙂

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Rear Hub Center Revolution Wheel

2) One of the concerns I have had with the wheel studs is that they are put in fully shear.  This car had original short wheel studs front and rear, 3/8″-24.  Many people had put 7/16″ dia wheel studs as the MK 8 has.  I wanted to keep the 3/8″-24 as the 3 sets of Revolution wheels that came with the car are set up for the 3/8″ studs.  So I went on a treasure hunt and found longer studs in the UK for the front, Triumph Spitfire and installed.  The rears run a 1″ Al spacer with conversion from the Hillman bolt circle to the Spitfire bolt circle.  The a long grade 8 bolt is used for the wheel stud.  So when you put the wheels on the wheel nuts are the main centering device to the hub assembly leaving the wheel studs in shear.  So the plan was to have made some hub centers for the various wheels I will use:

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Existing Wheel Spacer

First is the Revolution wheel. The rear Al spacer has an ID of 2.75″ and the center of the Revolution wheel is 2.5″ ID.  So I made on my shop lathe:

Now with this installed the wheel nuts mount very easy and this should provide significant support for the wheel studs.  Wheel centers for the Revolution front and for the steel wheels front and rear are next.

 

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Rear Hub Center Installed  

So we now wait for the engine and the first April race in Albuquerque, NM.