Hi FOT
wishes for a speedy recovery for those who have had rax (a BL term) failures.
When I was flat towing my TR, I had a few half shaft failures, and quite a
few
cracked rear hubs. The hubs I always detected by eye before failure, and
even learned
how many races I could run before the cracks looked too large to trust.
Only one half shaft failure was beyond the hub bearing. It was after a
very smart and Strong team mate twisted the rear hub nut to the next
cotter key slot, per MY direct request. The Craftsman 1/2" dirve 6"
extension was twisted beyone elastic recovery in the process. We were
at the Runoffs at the time. A tire wall ment that I did get to race later
that day, although the corner weights turned out to be around 300 lbs off.
Item 1: The TR4A factory comp prep book warns of rax stub failure(IRS).
The BL comp. director, West, later told me that the problem had been
traced
to the factory cars being lowered to the point where they were hitting the
bump stops with enough(repetative) force to cause the rax failures. When
they removed this problem the failures ended. (they did upgrade some parts)
Item 2: I have flogged the heck out of my TR all these years with only
one half shaft failure out side of the bearing. I do not agree with the idea
that
the half shafts were not up to the task. This DOES NOT include the TR2 &
early TR3 Half shafts! (or Spitfire)
Item 3: When the factory started racing the TR7s in the US they had quite
a few DNFs from custom racing half shafts produced in this country by a
known supplier.
Item 4: I still have the pieces that failed, and wonder if we can find/pay
some
one who could look at our collective pieces and tell us how to fix the
problem.
I am no expert in this area. I just wanted to quickly let the FOT know
what I have "learned" over the years. Wish my TR's Half Shafts good luck at
the SIR double national this weekend. HP
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