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Rusty Triumphs in Scotland - Dolomite in "most reliable" shocker - 08/02/24


captain_70s

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On 8/4/2022 at 10:55 PM, captain_70s said:

GingerNuttz is gonna try and fab up some solid bronze alloy thrust washers to the exact size required on a CNC, because no challenge is great enough.

I guess after fabricating half the car’s body shell from scratch the next logical step is to move onto building your own engine components 😉
Seriously though if it can be done it should give you an engine that you have confidence in as you know you’ve sorted all the issues, whereas another replacement engine may have a whole new set of  issues waiting to be found.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Silver Sharpie grille restoration.

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To celebrate my neighbour reversed into the car while parking. I was digging stuff out of the boot at the time, she dashed off inside without saying owt. No damage, the joys of keeping a car on a public street...

I also got the Volvo's tracking sorted. Finally. 

Next jobs are the Acclaim's rad and timing belt.

@GingerNuttz has been modifying/upgrading his CNC to start thrust washer production and is pretty much there. Hopefully it'll be back running again and I can have another 300 miles of being a rolling roadblock. 👌

 

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  • captain_70s changed the title to Rusty Triumphs in Scotland - He RESTORED A CAR with a PEN?!?! - 20/08/22
16 minutes ago, SiC said:

Are you expecting him to kill it that frequently and often? 🤣

I have no clue if it'll work 😂

I'm cutting them from 6082 aluminium so it should be hard enough but if it isn't there's alumium bronze or just plain bronze we can move to, just trying to save him having to get an engine or new crank.

 

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Our working theory is that anything that is tougher than bronze but softer than steel should fill the role of thrust washer without any negative effect, provided it doesn't have some stupid low melting point.

I'm guessing the failure of the shimmed thrust washer was due to it being forced into constant contact with the crank due to warping shims. At least that's the only way I can think of that it'd have worn so much in 300 miles. With thrust washers made of a solid wear material of tougher stuff they should, in theory, have a very long lifespan compared to a sliver of bronze on a steel shim. With the bonus that there won't be a point where by the bronze is all gone and you have steel on steel, at least not until the thrust washer is entirely destroyed or it falls out.

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I'm not sure on aluminium for bearings, yes it's hard/strong enough but aluminium has quite a high coefficient of friction compared to steel/bronze/etc. I guess this is provided with oil so when running nae bother as it's on a film of oil but start up and shut down could see higher wear?

I'm assuming it's not that difficult to change if it goes wrong but I'd vote for solid bronze for the first try if you're going to that effort.

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In theory it should float in a film of oil and not really contact anything with any degree of force until the clutch is depressed and puts a significant horizontal load on the crankshaft. For this reason I've been quite careful to not hold the clutch sat at lights etc.

You can replace the thrusts with the engine in the car. Empty the oil, drop the sump, end cap off, prod the old washers out, post the new ones in, reassemble. So even if the aluminium does wear overly quickly they could be changed in an hour or so, the main priority is making sure the crank doesn't get chewed up.

I'll be monitoring the situation with periodic tests with a dial test gauge against the crank pulley.

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1 hour ago, Dave_Q said:

I'm not sure on aluminium for bearings, yes it's hard/strong enough but aluminium has quite a high coefficient of friction compared to steel/bronze/etc. I guess this is provided with oil so when running nae bother as it's on a film of oil but start up and shut down could see higher wear?

I'm assuming it's not that difficult to change if it goes wrong but I'd vote for solid bronze for the first try if you're going to that effort.

I was also wondering this and also aluminium has a much lower melting point doesn't it? I don't think the engine would get hot enough for them to actually melt but they might get a bit soft. I mean if they were sufficient why wouldn't they use it originally,  it would be cheaper than the originals. 

But as you say they are quick and easy to change on the Dolomite, unlike on my 1300TC which would be an engine out job,  and being softer than the crank shouldn't damage it so I guess it's worth a try. 

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  • captain_70s changed the title to Rusty Triumphs in Scotland - DOING A COLLECT - 13/09/22

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