1966 Triumph 2000->2500->4000

[BiTurbo228]

I've managed to get my welder up and running which has helped nudge things forward. It was tripping the breaker as soon as I touched the trigger, which was pointing towards the diodes in the rectifier bridge (according to google, no idea what a rectifier bridge looks like!). A bit more playing around found that it only did it on settings 4, 5 and 6 so perhaps it's a surge of current just as all the electrical gubbins engages as it's quite an old welder!

Apparently you can get 'C-Type' breakers which are a bit more resistant to startup surges. Still, it worked ok enough to tack in a brace across the floor of the Triumph:

...which let me chop out the cross brace:

As it turns out that was in precisely the wrong place (tailshaft wanted to occupy the exact same space) so I welded another one in and chopped the original one out.

I also dropped the front engine bay crossbrace and the steering rack so it's sitting on the lower, main subframe. That let me nudge everything back a little further and into position.

Realistically this is about as far as it'll go. I could chop out an inch more of the bulkhead without any issues, but that weird knobbly bit on the front of the sump will start interfering with the steering rack. Might still do at this point, but it looks like it'll just about fit. It's also sitting on a 9mm piece of ply on top of the subframe, which means the sump pokes down by 3-5mm below the chassis rails which isn't ideal, but I don't plan on lowering it so hopefully should be fine.

Question is...does it fit?

Just about! Woohoo! 

Unfortunately it does actually touch the top of the cam cover, and there's something up with the mounts on my bonnet as it sits 5mm proud on the leading edge.

There's a little more levelling to do which might help a little bit, but I might also need to drop the clearance to the subframe even further to get it to fit. That'll put the sump even lower, but I'm currently deciding if I prefer that to raising the bonnet bulge by 5mm or so...

Oh, and there's this little fella on the fuel rail that'll need rotating round a bit:

But yeah. Promising stuff 

[JohnD]

Ask the manufacturers?    Oxford Welders | Contact Us

[Escadrille Ecosse]

Bridge rectifier, basically a circuit that converts AC (from the step down transformer) to DC for the arc.

Basically the same as the one in the back of the alternator.

MCBs are great, much faster acting and so much safer. But just sometimes the tolerance of the old fusewire was of some use.

That looks a bit of a beast of a welding set.

[BiTurbo228]

2 hours ago, JohnD said:

Ask the manufacturers?    Oxford Welders | Contact Us

I'd read that they were still making things! Apparently it's a company called Tec-Arc (Technical Arc) and they make Portamig, Oxford and Tec-Arc welders. Apparently it's the same chap still putting them together so they might even know what's what!

36 minutes ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

Bridge rectifier, basically a circuit that converts AC (from the step down transformer) to DC for the arc.

Basically the same as the one in the back of the alternator.

MCBs are great, much faster acting and so much safer. But just sometimes the tolerance of the old fusewire was of some use.

That looks a bit of a beast of a welding set.

Ah I see! Luckily as it will still weld on the lower settings it suggests the bridge rectifier is ok (although apparently you can buy whole generic replacement units if the individual diodes aren't replaceable).

Yeah its a hefty old beast! Although the diddy little bottle is probably throwing off the perspective slightly  decided I was fed up with BOC's bottle rental charges costing four times as much as the gas I'm using so went with a local firm, but they need to inspect the bigger bottles every year and I don't tend to get through the gas that fast so a little bottle it is!

I do tend to prefer older welders that have had the time to have their long-term reliability tested than newer ones. Plus, this one was about £250 which is hard to argue with! Makes a good workbench too 

Hum... should probably have bought another C-Type breaker. Currently keeping my eye on a Colchester Student that's been converted to single phase. Bet that would pop the breaker as well!

[BiTurbo228]

So I'd reached a bit of a crossroads with getting the engine to fit under the bonnet bulge. It was about 5mm proud, but couldn't work out what the best course of action was. The issue was the front sump section that houses the oil pump:

Some measuring showed if I pushed the engine back any further it would foul on the steering rack, which is already perilously low. Levelling the engine didn't have as strong an impact as I'd hoped as I hadn't appreciated that although getting it closer to level would drop the nose it would also push it forward, and as the bonnet slopes down to the front I was losing most of the clearance I'd gained. I'd got it as good as I could sitting at about 1.6 degrees.

So the options were:

1. Leave the engine where it is, sump level with the chassis rails, and raise the bonnet bulge 5mm. Not overly keen on this one.
2. Drop the engine down a bit further, at the risk of having the sump poke out below the chassis rails.
3. Some hare-brained scheme that involves flipping the whole subframe and hubs 180 degrees so the rack sits behind the subframe and I can push the engine back.

I think the last option is technically feasible because the subframe mounts at least look symmetrical, the forward wishbone mount is central between them and the spindles are symmetrical. It might not even be terribly difficult to correct for bump steer/ackerman as you'd need shorter steering arms...which the manual rack cars already have.

This was looking like the favourite...up until someone pointed out that if you put a front-steer rack behind the spindles it'll turn the wheels the wrong way!

While I think that's fixable by sourcing a LHD rack and flipping it upside-down, in a rare moment of common sense I thought I'd just try option number 2 and see how bad the sump clearance looked 

Turns out, really not that bad! Dropped it down so the sump is resting on the crossmember (will clearance that later). Initial testing with the bonnet seemed positive, although I couldn't check properly as the little fuel resonance damper was getting in the way. But it's good enough!

The removable heater inlet thingy even looks like it'll fit without major modification, once the resonator buddy is relocated.

The final (hopefully) position has the strut tops line up dead between cylinders 2 and 3 so it might not even have that bad polar moment of inertia!

Engine mounts next I reckon...

[Elephant 1]

That is a brave transplant . Glad to watch someone else going through the trial and error experience . 

[BiTurbo228]

Yeah I was lulled into a false sense of security by how easy the BMW engine fit in the Jag 

I do quite enjoy it though. Good little puzzle to solve. Current conundrum is how to get a filter on the throttle body as it points pretty much at the strut tower. Hoping that a 90 backwards then a 180 down underneath will sort things out. Not ideal routing but I'm hoping it won't offer too much restriction.

[Elephant 1]

On 8/12/2022 at 12:57 PM, BiTurbo228 said:

Yeah I was lulled into a false sense of security by how easy the BMW engine fit in the Jag 

I do quite enjoy it though. Good little puzzle to solve. Current conundrum is how to get a filter on the throttle body as it points pretty much at the strut tower. Hoping that a 90 backwards then a 180 down underneath will sort things out. Not ideal routing but I'm hoping it won't offer too much restriction.

‘ Where there is a will there is a way ‘

But usually it takes several attempts to attain that conclusion ! 

[BiTurbo228]

So, remember when I said the heater inlet thing might fit without major modification?

Yeah. About that 

So far, so straight forward with cutting a strip out either side and letting in some metal with captive nuts attached.

I then started wondering about how to get the air into the area under the passenger's side of the dash where the heater matrix will live, and where to stick some reinforcement to make up for the metal I'd cut out of the bulkhead, and thought I'd redesign the whole area. First off was stripping off the top skin and welding on some mounting tabs.

I had a play around with the space above the valve cover, but couldn't get a downhill path all the way from the far inlet, so blanked that off rather than having two drains, and made the start of a sloped section down to the passenger's side.

From there it was a case of boxing it in, making sure not to create any places water would pool.

I haven't got a photo yet, but it ends in a flanged section nearly flush with the bulkhead panel that'll seal with some foam rubber. I've made sure there's a low section just beforehand which I'll weld some tube into for a drain. That way water shouldn't wind up inside the footwell with the heater matrix (fingers crossed!). Will get some pics of the underside to show what it looks like.

Needs a bit of linishing and general tidying up, but that's the first proper bit of fabrication done on the big Triumph. Engine mounts next!

Edited October 29, 2022 by BiTurbo228

[Escadrille Ecosse]

If I may quote Richard the Small, 'good golly miss molly'.

Progress. Nicely done progress at that.

[Nick Jones]

Some good looking fab work there…..

You do like a challenge apparently 

I’m aware of the pot/kettle issue (before I set Roger off again!), but you sir are in a different league! 

[BiTurbo228]

Haha I'm not sure either of you two are in much of a position on that front  

The first of the engine mounts followed shortly after this. First job was to sort the mounts on the body. I'd initially bought bits for the same little poly sleeve mounts I'd used for the X1/9 (50.8x2 steel tube which fits snugly over Cortina spring eye bushes SPF0935K), but I figured a bit more vibration damping might be nice so plumped for the ubiquitous Defender mounts.

I'd read somewhere that it's a good idea to make the plane of the top of your engine mounts point at the crank centreline so they get loaded directly in compression/tension rather than pulled sideways so I eyeballed that beforehand.

Unfortunately, I discovered that £8 engine mounts are about the quality you'd expect. The way I'd mounted them is with a captive nut inside the box section and you just screw the mount into the body. I remember thinking as I was fitting them 'this isn't terribly smart as they'll be a royal pain if they get stuck in there'.

At this point, the driver's side engine mount got bound up on some paint in the threads and the bolt started spinning inside the mount  turns out with the cheap mounts the 'stud' is just a bolt cast into the rubber, not welded to the plates as I'd assumed. Had some good headscratching trying to work out how to get it out before settling on a windscreen removal kit like so:

Fantastically effective!

With that I could access the bolt head to wind it out with a ratchet, and invest in some more expensive LR mounts on the off chance they're put together properly. Went with some from Glencoyne Engineering via the bay as they seem to be recommended.

A lot of mucking about with angle iron and I came up with this for the passenger side:

Not sure I'm 100% keen on the fore-aft strength of the design, might add a little fillet between the rear bolt and the bit that reaches out to the mount, but other than that I think it's ok!

[Nick Jones]

Elegant... but maybe a little light given that it's a fair chunk of engine.

Cheap mounts......  I have a pair like that in the garage

[Escadrille Ecosse]

Nice bit of work there. Very nice. 

Must remember that windscreen removal tool trick. 

With Nick on the beefing up a wee bit though. That thing is a beast.

 

[BiTurbo228]

Yes I expect you're right. Will stick some extra gussets both vertically and horizontally. Shouldn't be too tricky on this side as there's no steering column to negotiate.

Should have known on the cheap mounts front really. Modern bonded rubber is pants even when you spend a bit of money on it, so the cheapskate ones will probably be worthless.

Yeah those windscreen wires really are very good. They work by friction and heat rather than cutting through the rubber. Take a bit of effort to use, but much better than the 90-degree knife with a pull handle jobbies.

Oh, and just because you mentioned the engine being a beast, I found this pic of someone wedging one in an E36 that helps illustrate the scale of the things!

They look just at home in an XJ40 bay, but when you put them in something else they suddenly look enormous!

[Nick Jones]

Looks like a bloody Merlin in the E36 

[2.5piman]

Hello BiTurb0228.

looking at the mount picture on the vice, I would suggest at least the lower fillet should follow the top of thevice line, i.e. get rid of the vee shape you have currently and at least 5mm in section. From as low down as you can on the plate that attaches to the block and as close to the mount as possible.

Also grinding welds down makes them neater but also weaker.

[BiTurbo228]

Yep it's all the more impressive that it actually fits in a T2000! For a given definition of 'fits' at least 

I'm with you on the strengthening plan. Beefier lower gusset for vertical stiffness, and add a horizontal gusset going back towards the rear of the engine to support things when I brake hard.

I'm not too worried about the ground welds. I've chamfered all of the mating edges so there's solid weld penetration, and welded on both sides of all of the joins. That and my new welder is quite smooth compared to the old SIP! Definitely enjoying welding with it.

[BiTurbo228]

Added a little more beef to the NS engine mount, and made another for the OS.

All painted and fitted in place

Just a gearbox mount now and I can whip the subframe out and do something about both it and the steering rack wanting to occupy the same space...

[BiTurbo228]

Right! Next piece of the puzzle is the gearbox mount.

XJ40s have a bit of an odd gearbox mount, with a cup bolted to the rear of the gearbox that locates onto a spring rather than a rubber bush:

Turns out the cup is bolted onto a fastener that looks like this, screwed into the back of the gearbox:

I'd thought about making a bracket that bolts to the smaller threaded section, but in the interest of not adding weight I thought 'why not just screw a land rover mount directly into the big bolt thing'. So the threaded section got cut off and the big bolt was drilled and tapped to M10x1.5.

There's a bit of a drawback to this design if the threads get rusty as it'll be a royal pain to get the mount off, which goes against my usual 'ease of working on at all costs' design philosophy, but that has to be weighed against the 'make it as light as you can get away with' design philosophy. Worst case scenario I can wind the big bolt out of the gearbox and part them off the car I suppose.

Next I made a little bracket to bolt to the mount, and a new bit of box section for it to bolt to out of some 100x50x2 box with some captive nuts.

I then did some horrible upside-down welding with not enough space to get it into the car.

I find getting the wire speed right is critical for welding upwards. Needs to be faster than welding vertically (which itself needs to be faster than welding horizontally). Otherwise you end up building a huge blob on the end of the wire that never gets to stick to the material. I find you still build blobs of weld that drop into the shroud, but you can minimise that. Either that or I still need to tweak the wire speed!

Edited November 18, 2022 by BiTurbo228

[Escadrille Ecosse]

Neat solution there. Nicely done.

Could you extend the mount across the tunnel to replace the crossmember?

[BiTurbo228]

Thanks  I did consider making a full width brace, and probably will once I've finished mucking about in this area. My thinking is that I want something bracing the gap that stays in place when you take the gearbox out. I'm partway through making a cross-brace that sits 15cm or so behind the back of the gearbox, linked to the extended chassis rails I've just put in. It should double up as a bit of a propshaft loop which is nice to have.

Probably a bit unnecessary when compared to the bolt-on brace as it'll only see forces that really need bracing when in motion, but most of the surfaces I have to jack on are pretty uneven and I dislike doors that are stiff to close when a car's jacked! 

[BiTurbo228]

Next up was the box section on the other side. Decided to pop it above the floorpan as I want to try and sneak the exhaust underneath the driver's seat as there's a nice hollow underfloor for a silencer. Went with an 80x40 box instead of the 100x50 on the other side to steal a little more clearance as well.

Then the floor was chopped out a little further, saving the handbrake mounting for later.

CAD template for the cross-brace:

Man welding thicker steel is nice. Too long doing thin bodywork one tack at a time. Feels nice to actually run a bead

And popped into position (although ran out of welding wire so couldn't finish the job):

Not knowing how far you need to pull the gearbox back to disengage it from the clutch I've guessed and given enough space to pull the gearbox back by 15cm clear in the tunnel. Hopefully that's enough that I can do a clutch change in the car as I don't want to have to take the engine out unless I really need to!

[Escadrille Ecosse]

On 11/25/2022 at 1:43 PM, BiTurbo228 said:

CAD template for the cross-brace:

Cardboard aided design . The best!

On 11/25/2022 at 1:43 PM, BiTurbo228 said:

Hopefully that's enough that I can do a clutch change in the car as I don't want to have to take the engine out unless I really need to!

Fair enough with that monster

[BiTurbo228]

I've been pushing my CAD skills to the limit recently!

This is going to be a real patchwork quilt, but hopefully will look alright once I've run some stiffening beads in it (always makes something look a little more professional!)