Back axle strengthening

This is one in the category that I wouldn't have done to my car, were it not for the fact that a friend managed to break the back axle of his rally car at the end of this stage during the Deutschland Rally. And because he doesn't want to source and adapt a 4HA Jaguar based axle yet, we had a closer look at what had happened.

The problem was caused by a failure of the two puddle welds holding the right hand axle tube into the differential casing. Clearly the amount of torque available from a modified V8 together with the rough stages had been just that bit too much. So we needed a modification.

Searching through some old CCC articles on building a TR7V8 rally car, learned how to solve what is apparently the only weakness of the 5-speed back axle, i.e.: the fitting of the tubes into the differential casing. These tubes are normally pressed into the casings and welds are built up on the tubes through holes already in the casing. These welds are not intended to bond to the casing, but act as spigots or retaining pins. Unfortunately there are only two of these 'puddle' welds per side, and in this case the two on the right hand-side failed.

According to the people at CCC all that appears to be necessary to solve the problem is to increase the number of puddle welds to four per side. But we decide that we would go one stage further for the rally car, so we had a good look at the stiffening plate from a friend's Mk2 Escort back axle. And after some careful measuring on a spare axle and underneath the car, and a strength analyses we came up with this stiffening plate ...

At the time of writing the drawing file is away to a company to give us a quotation to get the plate laser-cut and the brackets machined. And after all the work I put in to get this far I don't see a point in not using one myself. So we will have a small batch made, depending on the price ...

The RBRR 2012 from the co-driver's seat

It has taken much longer than I planned, but at last I finished the photographs I shot as co-driver with team 44 during Club Triumph's RBRR, which took place last month. This was completely caused by the fact that shortly after the event (which coincided with my holiday) I received my new computer, only to find out it wasn't quite the spec I ordered. This issue was sorted without much problems, but it meant I could only start with installing all the software transferring data etc. well after my holiday. Which meant it had to be done in the evening hours. But since last weekend (almost) everything is working as it should, so I could start with the photos in earnest. Below you'll find a selection of the pictures taken during the run. One way or another there are a fair few wedges in there!

Meeting up with Gurtie, the car that Dave,

Steve and I would be sharing for the next 48+ hours:

At the Plough

Here it was business as usual, with a parking area overflowing with Triumph's,

lots of last minute spannering going on, and, being England, rain of course:

Just after 18:00h we were flagged of, to join the Friday evening rush hour traffic of Enfield and the A10. Heading into the night towards Blythe, Carter Bar (don't mention Lambrini in Scotlandshire for the next decade or two) and towards Edinburgh Airport. Best moment of this part of the route must have been the HGV that almost literally came flying at full blast, over one of the many blind brows in the A68 (which north of the border seems to be called the 'roller coaster' for obvious reasons)

Edinburgh Airport:

After Edinburgh Airport we headed into the first night and further North towards the next stop

Skiach Services:

And ever deeper into the night and further North towards John O'Groats for breakfast:

On the A9 through the centre of Helmsdale

On the A9 just North of Berriedale

On the A99 near Blackness

Tesco services on the A99 in Wick

Chasing one of the TR7’s on the A99 just south of John O’Groats

Lunch stop in John O’Groats

After a hearty breakfast it was time to start the long haul down South towards Land's End. But first we had to cross Scotland from North-East to South-West:

On the A836 just outside John O’Groats

On the A836 with views over Dunnet Bay

Dornoch Firth

Conon hotel in Conon Bridge

Getting back to England and into the twilight zone of Tebay Services.

One way or another we were constantly being chased by or chasing wedges;

After Tebay we headed into the evening and the next stop;

Gledrid Services;

And on into the long night and deepest darkest Wales for the Sugar Loaf control;

Whitehouse Services;

And finally dawn (and breakfast) @ Land's End;

With breakfast finished it was time for the final stages back to Enfield. So we left Lands End and headed North for the picturesque control stop at Bude Castle:

After Bude I was so busy with the navigating that I didn't take much more pictures. So to finish this selection a few photos of some of the people who made it all possible, a tribute to all the volunteers who marshalled at the various control stops:

Marshalling at the Plough in Enfield

Signing in table at the Plough in Enfield

The Plough in Enfield

Handing out cookies @ Gledrid Services

Sugar Loaf

Whitehouse Services;

Land’s End

Bude Castle

For a more complete write-up of "our" RBRR please feel free to have a look at Steve's weblog. And a few more pictures can be found in the photo album on the Club Triumph website.

As for the car of the event, in my humble opinion that must be Mike Weaver's fantastic Stag powered 4x4 Mk2 Estate prototype. Here Mike is busy with his routine-control-stop-check at Bude Castle:

And will the Herald below become “Car-of-the-event” for the RBRR 2014? Spoiler alert; no! 2 Years on it still looked more or less the same. But it was still alive!

Oh … and did someone mention Lambrini!? Or probably one of Paul Darbyshire’s best pranks during a CT event. As a result of which McJim was left with a boot full of the stuff on the Scotlandshire border 😊

Edited on the 6th of October 2023: As the 28th running of one of the oldest events in the Triumph enthusiasts calendar, the Club Triumph Round Britain Reliability Run starts today, I decided to freshen up the pictures I took during this event in 2012. Also added some extra pictures and edited the text where necessary.