Australian Belly Tank

[SPARKY]

If you can put a floor shiffter on the tranny----I have seen a good shifter made out of a long rod and a big door or gate hinge at the back and a side stick on the rod in the cockpit---much like a big COE (lorry?)  truck

[Sumner]

If you can put a floor shiffter on the tranny----I have seen a good shifter made out of a long rod and a big door or gate hinge at the back and a side stick on the rod in the cockpit---much like a big COE (lorry?)  truck

Hey I sent him that one:

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/bvilleother/page%209.html

It was good talking to you today,

Sum

[Dr Goggles]

....I spent some time in the shed yesterday....it was freezing cold and I got jack of it pretty quick.....so I went and had a sleep on the couch...first time I've done that in a while ,it was a luxury that just seemed right ..started on some ideas for the shifter just to make a basic H pattern shift......One thing I hadn't considered til I read Sparky's post was changing the gearbox end of the equation so I could just keep the shift we have .....but that could be a little complicated , and at the same time introduce a few more places where I'd get play that won't help with smooth shifts. Because of that and the amount of space available in the cab I'm leaning more and more toward the two sticks idea.We just don't have much room anywhere , the water tank sits on top of the gearbox , there's the exhaust , the floor , the bell-housing ....well, you know how it is....I'll be back.

[Sumner]

....I spent some time in the shed yesterday....it was freezing cold and I got jack of it pretty quick.....so I went and had a sleep on the couch...first time I've done that in a while ,it was a luxury that just seemed right ..started on some ideas for the shifter just to make a basic H pattern shift......One thing I hadn't considered til I read Sparky's post was changing the gearbox end of the equation so I could just keep the shift we have .....but that could be a little complicated , and at the same time introduce a few more places where I'd get play that won't help with smooth shifts. Because of that and the amount of space available in the cab I'm leaning more and more toward the two sticks idea.We just don't have much room anywhere , the water tank sits on top of the gearbox , there's the exhaust , the floor , the bell-housing ....well, you know how it is....I'll be back.

Enjoy your nap.  Laying in bed is were I get some of my best and worst ideas.  I like the one with the regular shifter on the side with Morse cables.  Not enough room for that?  I think I understood where you were going with the idea you e-mailed me, but I'm not sure if I fully understood it.

c ya,

Sum

[Dr Goggles]

here's a shot of the gearbox end of things....



here's a view looking forward on the shift side it shows how the widest point is the firewall and where the exhaust is....



next is the footwell , looking at the throttle pedal....normally when the car is being driven there's a human in here...in fact that's the kind of view they get...



finally here's me sitting in it as you can see it's kind of squishy, couldn't say for certain but it looks like the Rev is trying to tighten some nuts



so , that gives you an idea of what I've been complaining about.Sum if I had the Rev's drawing skills I would sketch the idea I was telling you about .....but I don't and that would only make it more confusing........

Today is a holiday here ....Melbourne Cup day ....big horse race...well the horses are normal size but ...you know what I mean...

[Sumner]

   

Ok explain what is going on here now.  I assume the two bottom arrows point to the shifting shafts on the side of the transmission.  I can see where the left one is hooked to something and is the right one hooked to the rod with the heim joint or something behind it.  Did you have a picture of the shifter that is by your chest in the car???  I didn't see that. 

Is that rust I see, you haven't even been out on the salt yet!!

c ya,

Sum

[Dr Goggles]

Left one is hooked to the same type of heim jointed shaft as the right one, just facing down instead of up so they don't foul each other..., there is an anchor point next to the clutch slave . There is a small spigot going into the end of each shaft to keep them "on axis" .And yes I know it's not all painted at the moment Sum....that will be taken care of in the teardown that will be happening soon .......jeez , some people pay for that kind of patina

[Dr Goggles]

The weekend just gone we made a few changes to the driving position . We changed the angle of the steering column so that the steering wheel is higher and moved the brake pedal slightly to one side . The steering wheel had been off centre by about a quarter of an inch , several factors had contributed to that and although it seems insignificant it was one of the reasons that sitting  in the seat holding the wheel with the harness on something "didn't feel right " . We cut the seat down , removing material from the sides where it touched the back of our arms ( and made it difficult to operate the fire system) and moved the bottom mounts ever so slightly .Tiny changes , but now when you are in it everything feels "in line"  and roomier....

The rough version of the new gearshift is done . The intention is to put a lock-out on first gear and then have a spring which pulls the 1st/2nd lever against it .This means in order to select 2nd gear you will need to hold it there , once you let it go it will return to neutral avoiding the chance of jamming the box by using the 3rd/4th lever while the car is in gear.... In the pits we can flip up the lock out and the 1st/2nd lever will stay in first for driving in the pits( yes , we are allowed to do that here ) .

We have just been reading a worrying story about oil starving in our motor at sustained high revs , anyone have suggestions for the early 232.?......

Thanks all

[Sumner]

................
We have just been reading a worrying story about oil starving in our motor at sustained high revs , anyone have suggestions for the early 232.?......

Thanks all

Sounds like you have made some good changes and the run at the airfield paid off in big ways towards a better car for the salt.

On the oil thing we had that problem the first year with a stock small block Chevy block.  We pumped the oil to the top end faster than it was returning and ran out of oil pressure on our two high speed runs just going to the end of the 3 mile..  I know that isn't what you have, but what we did might help you.  Hooley had installed screens for drain back that were restricting the flow there.  Also the other drain back holes in the block had casting residue around them so slowed drain back.  The new block has been cleaned up at the drain back from the upper end locations and we run a bigger pan now and also an oil accumulator.  So far with this combination we haven't had oiling problems.  If the course was longer maybe we would, but now there is enough oil available and the return has been speeded up that we can run the whole 5 miles and still have pressure.

Hope this might help a little,

Sum

[Dr Goggles]

Well , I had an inkling that lower than atmospheric pressure in the crankcase would help , and I spent some time talking to someone who's had success with these motors before , he was very helpful and that was his suggestion ,and ,true to my suspicions ,he had a solution that was more grocery store than jewellery store....that's what we like...

So ,off I went to a wrecking yard...where I scavenged a reed valve and some stainless tubing from an air-pump/injection anti pollution set-up from a 323/Laser ...these are not what you would call hotly sought after items ......a quick look at a system built for a Clevo and a coldie courtesy of the owner and all I had to do was tell some stories......listen to some told by another weird pest/home creator type like myself and I was on my way......Everytime I go to Bill's yard I wish i'd taken my camera because I always see little bits and pieces , knuckles , pivots . STUFF that I can use to make what I've already built better... most of the stuff I'm talking about is scrap , rubbish that lies in the open ....sometimes , sometimes when I manage to get his imagination to fire ( it needs a bit of aerostart usually but it does work)..he 'll go on a hyperactive scramble around , under and over in an effort to show me the different examples of how something is done.....but on the really rare occasion I get to see inside the "inner sanctum" a freight container with his booty from swap meets....Methanol injection manifolds from the fifties , Ford GT stuff , blowers , Flathead performance gear(?)...usually a visit to this container is preceded by a warning accompanied by a waving index finger held above his shoulder as you are following him ..." this isn't for sale".......

Now this fella I mentioned who'd had experience with the V6's we're using also had some great advice about our harness and arm restraints.....all very useful and garnered from experience ...nothing to do with proving his importance just good helpful considered expert advice , it won't go unheeded.

Thanks Jack.

[SPARKY]

ooooh!!!!!  Dr. Googles---I like that---"more grocery store than Jewelry store"!!!!!----please hand draw a schematic of the system you are cooking up---I assume a scavage system?

[Dr Goggles]

.will get to that soon...along with our ever so slightly unusual solution ( some would say clunky ,over-complicated and possibly prehistoric) solution for the gearshift.................have been caught up this week working on the raod-going part of the fleet...

[SPARKY]

Ahhh!!!  Dr. Goggels---adressing the ever present desire to drive to the grocery store instead of walking---especially by the Missus!!!!!!!!!!

[Dr Goggles]

Yesterday was tank day , it's only 3 months 'til speedweek so it was time to make a list.....first up we have the good Reverend Professor taking questions as to the priorities



on the list is "seal firewall"....a bad dose of fumes at the airstrip T&T day highlighted the need to get a nice tight seal( every sea-lion's looking for one o' them) where the body meets the firewall....this wasn't going to an easy thing to remedy the way things were . The lower body is a tub that includes the front and floor skin all the away to the rear axle . Due to the difficulty of measuring the gap we needed to fill , the ever present hassle of having to remove the tub when we wanted to get to the lower part of the engine bay and the fact that we were going to kill each other if we had to argue one more time about the way that the tie rods go through holes in the body when The Dr thinks they should be vertical slots we cut it in half. Huh?....Yes, we went the whole hog and lopped the tub in half at the firewall......now it's easy to get it off when we need to get at the bottom of the bay...the front part really never needs to come off...this will make several lingering jobs a whole lot easier.....here , the Reverend tapes the line ....in the past a certain someone has cut the wrong side of a tape line , we had "words" over that one I'm tellin' ya!!



and again.....



then after the 'wigs had done their bit the grunt steps in and executes the precision part of the job.....



then these nice little bits were fabbed up to finally shut the gap.........


we'll probably end up "gooping" every little remaining  gap before shutting it up because the front part of the tub won't need to be removed during speedweek....

next up we have a video of the prototype gear shift. There is a manual lockout , it has two positions , in one you can select 2nd with the RH lever and then 3rd/4th with the LH lever , flip the lock-out over and you can select 1st and 2nd while 3rd and 4th are locked in Neutral.We don't need to 1st to start  2nd is fine....I intend to spring load the RH lever so to keep it 2nd it will need to be held , when you let it go it will return to neutral...in the second mode it will be able to stay in first for taxiing and allow you too keep both mits on the wheel at low speed because the high castor makes for some very heavy steering....The lock-out will not need to be touched on the track , only when you need to use first gear.....it needs a tidy up and to be built a little more solidly I will also build a panel to cover the lot ,but it works and has achieved the aim of getting more room and being easier to operate.... ....

[Sumner]

Nice job!!  Has he ever hit you with that pointer???  Kind of looks like something one of my grade school teachers decided to use on me a couple times.  Also where is the full face shield we had talked about??

It looks like the run on the airstrip is really paying off and should assure a lot higher chance of success on the lake bed.

c ya,

Sum