Thursday, June 29, 2006

Wot no trunnions?


I have been following an interesting thread on the CT Forum regarding the age old problems of the dreaded Triumph vertical link and trunnion assembly. Nearly everyone has seen, or heard of a Spitfire, Herald, etc breaking a vertical link, we get to see the results of such more than most here at the Canley workshops. Fortunately in most instances the fatigue breaks happen in low speed manoeuvers such as parking. I have never heard of one letting go whilst driving in a straight line on a motorway for instance?
Well it's not a very closely guarded secret that we had been working on a complete replacement. Several customers/freinds had pondered over the box of CNC machined rose joint carriers sat prominantly on one of my workshop benches for the last several months. The bulk of the work on the kit was done last year in conjuction with the OE (original equipment) suspension supplier to Caterham, who also happens to be a good friend of mine. So why have we not begun to market it I hear you ask? Easy, cost! The major part of the conversion, the Caterham vertical link, is still relatively expensive at nearly £70 a pop, the same price as the 'normal' Triumph link because they come from the same source, our friend who also happens to be OE supplier to Unipart for the Triumph links. Together we had been working towards a better price on the link (all links, Triumph included), so did not want to jump in with the conversion kit until this was settled. Everything else is done and on the shelf, the carriers were machined back in February for instance.
The kit dosn't end there however, we have worked on multiple up-grades, and add ons to the kit to include beefier stub axles, larger sealed bearings, new alloy hubs for those bearings/stub axles, and an economical bolt on brake up-grade, all specified and ready to go.
As I say all of this was done last year, this year we have gone back to the rear end to try and nail that CV conversion, and the bolt on disc brake conversion, and, and..........

4 comments:

  1. Hi Dave, getting rid of the front trunnions sounds like a bloody good idea, one let go on my brother's spit mk4 on a roundabout a few years ago, made hell of a mess, to the car,(and his underpants!)
    Put me on the waiting list, for a kit(along with the 5 speed type 9)

    Hope you're well
    regards
    dave in spain

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  2. Hi Dave,

    add me to the list of people wanting to hand over some cash, my mk III rebuild could do with some uprated and shinny parts.

    Al

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  3. hi Dave,

    add me to the list of people wanting to hand over some cash. my mkIII rebuild could use some nice new shinny parts at the front.

    Al

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  4. Hi Dave,
    i am interested in thee too.
    My Spit Mk 2 (1966) is getting a little tired in that department and it would be good to uprate, not just replace with standard (I shall keep all the old bits though; sentimenatal value as I've had the car since 1970).
    Richard in Worcester

    ReplyDelete