I'm Screwed!

Heard a loud popping on the way to town.

A good reason to NOT go with rear tube shocks, or at least this variety..


Is this repairable? Without removing the body?



Both sides, yet....

About 3 weeks ago I let my nephew drive the car for a bit. On 3 succesive launches he had the car bucking like something you'd see on the PBR circuit and I too heard the BANG you desribe.Took it up on the lift and saw the exact same situation and three splits in the crossmember as well.
Best solution I've seen so far is Ratco crossmember-much more solid than original. Supposedly you can replace with the body on but I've been advised that there are other fixes worth making at the same time that probably warrant taking the body off-haven't quite decided yet myself.Was a bit shocking how little weld was on that piece at the frame from the factory-must have been a Friday car( or a Monday....or maybe Wednesday......)
Would be interested if you learn anything different in your research.
Elysium

I just went through this last month. Mine only broke at the bottom. I welded, then plated the areas. I would suggest doing the same to the passenger side as mine cracked there also.

Not pretty, and not a fun thing to have happen, but I'm pretty sure that can be reinforced and welded up Bill.

Not minimizing it, just trying to provide a path forward.

Just got off the phone with Tony at Ratco. The whole crossmember is replaceable with the body on the frame. Thank goodness. The part is being manufactured next week and will be shipped. Whew! Only $350. I have a slick welder that will make house calls and he is ready and willing.

And he said I can go back to using the tube shock conversion. What he will send is a lot beefier than stock.

Good deal on the follow up with Tony-he has been helpful when I have contacted him in the past and I have his linkage and am well pleased with it. My concern is that in the wracking to tear up the back supports the front may be compromised as well( plus I have read that usually the front right goes first) Saw applications where folks weld 1/8" plate on top of the front crossmember to brace the front pins. Made me think it might be worth shedding the body to do so. Also gives a prime opportunity to address pitfalls with the trailing arms as you hear of many problems in that area as well. As to the patches-we tried to effect a temp solution by welding plates over the tear and spot weld the crossmember to the frame and it re-tore the same day. 30++ years of metal fatigue didn't give you a whole lot to work with. Of course as they say, YMMV

I'm just glad that no other damage was done.

To you or the car....

Bill
Good news coming!

I don't think it matters who's tube kit your using,If the shock is your suspension stop,it will tear up the frame.Make sure the rubber bump stops are doing what they are supposed to do.I had to raise my T/A stop at least a 1/4 inch. Also had to modify stop inside rear fender.To check this remove the coil spring and lift the T/A thru it's complete travel arc making sure the shock itself is not the stop.

TR6BILL said:

And he said I can go back to using the tube shock conversion. What he will send is a lot beefier than stock.

Click to expand...

Everything on Tony's frame is a lot beefier then stock. I've been there from the birth of this whole frame manufacturing that he's doing, and he was well aware of all of the weak points in the stock frame having seen many of them over the years and how they've failed. Also, as you found out, he's usually there on Saturdays, as that's when the Triumph club guys go there to work on their cars. I'm there most Saturdays to help out. He has a fully equipped shop with a lift and is very accomadating in the use of his equipment...just make sure you clean and put everything back where it goes, as he's a stickler for organization. It shows in the products he offers. Every detail must be right.

I'm sure you will be very happy with the repair piece that Tony sends you.

Bill -Did you ask if you can revamp to their Coil-over set up?

I spent the afternoon removing the old frame cross member. Not fun. I dropped the trailing arms and slid out the springs. Easy. (left the trailing arms suspended from the front brackets.) I used my plasma torch to cut away at the cross member where it was welded to the frame, leaving enough to grind back later with a disk. The diff had to be lowered about an inch to clear the long bolts from the cross member. Still not enough room so I plasma torched one off. (don't pick up a piece of metal while it is still hot, ask me why....) Finally finessed it out one side and lifted the diff back up and have it suspended with a bottle jack. I know I will have to drain my fuel tank and remove the steel line that passes right beside the cross member. I will wait for the new piece, fit it, clean all my steel, and call the welder to come to the house. Thank goodness he has a welding truck and makes house calls. He is a slick welder. I strongly suspect that I will have to remove the differential, Tony says no. Guess I will go online and read his instructions over the weekend. The bracket for the tube shocks (BPNW) was in fine shape. Just the cross member was light gauge steel and all that torquing did it in. I will look at the bump stops as well. Not sure how that would affect the cross member. I'm tired. That is a lot for an old man to do. Still nursing a burned thumb.

What about the coil over?

DNK said:

What about the coil over?

Click to expand...

Way more than I want to spend.

Burned thumb ? You must have insurance for that, huh, Doc ?
Well at least you've discovered the weak link in your set-up.

From feedback I got from Tony we're about halfway there anyway with rear tube shock conversion-wouldn't be all that far ahead with the coil over for the money.Only thing I would like to figure out is how to introduce rear sway bar with this set up. In the coil over I belive he uses the old tube mount point for the sway bar.I think you have to weld new mount point to the frame for the sway bar in our configuration.

Bill I have the BPNW tube shock kit as well and the problem with this kit(and all others i've seen) is that the distance between the top of the shock mount(bracket) and the T/A mount point is inadequet for the amount of travel the T/A does,thus making the tube shock the suspension stop. The original setup has two stops. One on the lever shock arm and the other inside the rear fender.The frame where the shock bracket mounts to was never designed to be a suspension stop.
My brother has a 74 TR6 and back in 1992 made his own brackets at a metal works shop. When I compared my kit to his "homemade" brackets, mine are almost an inch different in height. The reason for the shorter bracket is so one can run a 205x70 tire.My bro. cannot run a 205 as it will rub the top of the mount.
I had to shim the bump stop on the T/A up about a 1/2 inch.and ran a plate across the upper stop inside the rear fender.The other stopper which was under the lever shock arm is redundant once you go to a tube shock.
I have about 12000 miles on them so far with no problems.

a pic of how I shimmed stop on T/A.

Opa said:

I don't think it matters who's tube kit your using,If the shock is your suspension stop,it will tear up the frame.Make sure the rubber bump stops are doing what they are supposed to do.I had to raise my T/A stop at least a 1/4 inch. Also had to modify stop inside rear fender.To check this remove the coil spring and lift the T/A thru it's complete travel arc making sure the shock itself is not the stop.

Click to expand...

Actually, if one uses the tube shock conversion, the lower bump stop is not used as such at all and the shock is indeed the bump stop. Assuming the lower bump stop really only comes into action when either the car is on jacks and the TA is fully let out or the car is airborne and the suspension does the same. Not sure if this happens that often. Tony maintains (and his website shows) that the frame is heavily reinforced in this area and his new cross member is made of a much heavier gauge steel. I will go back to the tube shock conversion and hope for the best. The installation of the new cross member entails cutting off the lower bump stop (to be rewelded later if stock lever shocks are used). I will just leave it off because I will use tube shocks. I am using Spax rear shocks, by the way.