I've been thinking about cymtrik's mods with the fully welded tranny tunnel.

Ant this going to make putting the driveshaft in an absolute nightmare?

Anybody used cymtriks' mods and got to this stage?
Tricks of the trade / tips for a learner?

Thanks,
Greg H

even if u dont fully weld the sides, IIRC, the tunnel will have RHS beams in the top and sides anyway - top is needed to mount hand brake.

I welded everything on my tunnel - cos my car is a weird derivative with doors and I recon the tunnel is more important as a backbone.

The propshaft was loaded through the rear when the diff was out.

On a live axle locost, I imagine you could just jack car up, disconnect shockers, swing axle down, and feed the prop over the top of it, from the rear.

My car has a sierra/granada diff, so I had to take it out. Just an hours work.

atb

steve

My tunnel is fully welded on the bottom and sides. I just about managed to get the propshaft in from the top, with the diff flange shaving a few thous of paint off the tunnel tubes on the way in.

I don't reckon I'd be able to get it in from the back (Ooer missus!) so the only option would be an 'engine and gearbox out' job.

David

why would any one want to take just the prop out after it has been fitted anyway ?

In my case, it was due to me forgetting to put the propshaft in before fitting the engine and gearbox.

Hey, I'm new at this car-building game, OK?


cheers,

David

david you missed the point

i said after the prop had been fitted,

i didn't include not fitting it in the first place

Tim

quote:

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Originally posted by timf
david you missed the point

i said after the prop had been fitted,

i didn't include not fitting it in the first place

Tim

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quote:

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Originally posted by David Jenkins
Mind you, I wouldn't want to tighten up the bolts on the diff flange without a removable top on the tunnel (getting back to the original theme, rapidly!).

DJ

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I dread to think how hard it would be to get the propshaft out with a fully enclosed welded tunnel if you have IRS, I think you need to make the worlds longest socket extention and spend an excruciating few hours "fishing for bolts". And torquing them back up would be a whole nother ball game.

Kingr

I was just going to weld the bottom and sides and leave the top open. Cymtiks, do you have any idea what difference to strength not welding the top cover on would make, assuming that there were cross spars welded across the tunnel top using 20mm ERW and then the top cover screwed down using self tappers or rivnuts every 6 inches or so?

I really don't like the idea of not having access for all the wiring and pipework and propshaft etc...

Cheers,
Craig.

I'm not sure of the structural implications, but you could leave the bottom of the tunnel open, it would make it a bit tricky to fiddle with brake/fuel pipes at a later date, but not impossible.

Kingr

the bottom has welded RHS beams across it tho......


atb

steve

Hi,
Yes I don't fancy opening up the floor since I like the idea of a perfectly flat underside. I'll be interested to see what Cymtriks has to say about the structural importance of the top of the tunnel.
Cheers,
Craig.

Thanks for the thoughts guys.

But it's prompted another thought:

The guys who have fully welded, are you still running the wiring, brake and fuel pipes inside the tunnel?

A nightmare for access, but I can't see much else where to put it.

One reason why you might want to access the shaft after installation is if you trash the universal at either end. I've done the back end on a cf bedford (accidentally popped the powerglide into reverse at 40 mph... quite an exciting stop. Takes something serious to stall the old 350 chev).
But it didn't require removal, just access to the front of the diff and you could do that with an access plate I guess.

Cheers,
Greg H

quote:

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Originally posted by kiwirex
But it's prompted another thought:

The guys who have fully welded, are you still running the wiring, brake and fuel pipes inside the tunnel?

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Hi kiwirex, i welded steel plate on my tranny tunnel but you need to as has been said make the top detachable for access to brake mech and wiring, plus i made a small hinged access plate near the clutch peddle area for getting at the speedo drive, gearbox oil filler, and reverseing light switch, you will be sorry if you don,t. as for the prop place it in the tunnel and bolt it up to the diff flange, which is easy to get at from under the car,when feeding the motor and gearbox in just have somebody guide the splined shaft into the output of the gearbox simultaniously. cheers davef.

Hi everyone!

It is going to be harder to assemble with my mods but the book tunnel could be used (i.e. use my front mods only) and you'll still get a 50% improvement over the book.

I'd thought that the drive shaft could be fixed to the diff flange and then fed up the tunnel from the back. The front spline would then be put into the gearbox by reaching under the chassis, immediately infront of tube B2. This certainly looks possible in the picture on page 73. Otherwise an extra large hole the gearlever could act as an inspection hole.

This is going to be very tricky as when you leave the front to fix the axle in place it will fall out! This might be a two man job. I would suggest securing the shaft to the gearbox with tie, string or wire through the scotch yoke and around the gearlever or to somewhere else suitable.

Remember to remove the tie as you don't want it there when you start the engine!

Regards
Chris

If you hunt around your local wrecker's, there should be some handy inspection covers with nicely joggled edges. I know some vans have access panels in the rear doors for access to the rear wiper, and MGBs have one on their tunnel, etc. etc. etc.
As for running the wiring through; why not weld in a conduit, say a length of 16mm or 19mm ERW tube, just longer than the tunnel. The venerable Beetle has a few such tubes in its tunnel, for wiring and control cables. It would keep everything safely away from the rotating prop shaft.

Cheers guys,

and thanks for the thoughts.

:-)