motor looks good with the motor mounts and "ears" . Bell housing halves, both look compromised, upper, really bad crack all the way around. flywheel and clutch are hitting.
Im now worried about the torque tube or maybe the short shaft. something doesnt seem right down there. Is it possible or done, to start the motor with the clutch off the car and just the flywheel?

Ive been told to put away the sawsal, cutting torch and plazma cutters for a bit.

mk

 

Pretty amazing that the radiator is ok. It could be that with the bending/ twisting of the floor pans and the tunnel of kilter that the bearings in the torque tube are shot. Just a guess.

 

Yeah, that was the most amazing part. radiator seems to be just fine. everything tore backwards around it and the wheel and side of the front clip, took all the force as well as the side frame rails.

im really wondering about the torque tube. anyway to check when it comes out?

 

From doing clutch jobs I know that looking into the torque tube from the front you can see the front bearing. It should be I think about 9" from the front. WSM should have the specs.
Not to create more work but since the torque tube will be out it would be a good time to do the bearings. Especialy for a race car.

 

Yes

If I were you I would start going corner to corner, writing down everything that need to be replaced for the new chassis. That way anyone who wants to help with parts donations can start getting together the pieces.

 

The bell housing upper has to be the weak link in the chain between the engine block and transmission, so a violent impact that tried to rotate or move the block relative to the trans would I guess crack the bellhousing before the TT bent. Once the bell housing is deformed/cracked there is then the possibility of bending the central shaft or the intermediate shaft. My guess is that if the misalignment of the block to the TT is not too severe the central shaft will be OK as they are quite elastic. You may want to examine the clamp and intermediate shaft and pilot bearing very carefully though.

 

All that bent metal, torque tube etc, is pushing against the crank
which is pushing against the thrust bering. Every time the motor
is started to see if it is ok, it is only creating more damage to the TB

 

its also quite possible that the sudden stop forced the trans forward and then thats what broke the bell housing since the radiator looks good and most of the damage is to the extremities of the car,
You will find out more once the car is placed on a lift, I would say the the engine mounts are stronger than the trans mounts

 

I would expect the front flange where the bell housing mounts to the torqu tube to be bent. I have seen this several times and have come to believe it happens pretty much any time the car is hit hard enough to move the motor. Sometimes it is hard to see. I did a unibody swap on my '82 and did not discover this problem until after I had broken the centers out of two sets of clutch disks. Then I dug, discovered the bent flange and went out and bought another tube, just to discover that it's flange was bent too. So I ground and filed it square and never had any further trouble.

 

I just got off the phone with Mark Anderson and, again, I am amazed of the support that you all and he has been offering up here. I appreciate all of it, more than you all know. I certainly will be down there for the event with the holbert chassis, without futher molestation than has been done already. Im putting down the sawzall and stepping away from the plazma cutter.

 

So when is the party? I would like to come up! I also have a manual bell housing.

 

top piece?? The bottom, might be ok, but its only a cover anyway and is the OB version to work with the OB starter mount method a long with clearance for the different clutch diameters.

I think we are doing something the friday before the event. maybe even thursday.

Looking forward to seeing everyone!

mk

 

Fast is good, but it seems like there's a whole bunch of steps being skipped.

Seems like you'd want to strip a chassis of all the undercoatingg, etc., install a cage, and then a roof, before transfering all the stuff.

Putting in the drivetrain seems like the last step.

 

There's one in every crowd. Somebody wants to be logical and consider somewhat critical priorities over rash action that accomplishes alot. (just kidding Greg)

Paul barrera '91 $$$$4

 

There are several ways to build a race car. Sure, I would love to take the chassis to a bunch of low paid laborers and strip off the undercoating to save those 10lbs. (when I did about 10% of the bottom of the car in the body shop WITH the right tools, the 1 ft tall pile of the stuff on the bottom was only a little over a pound!).

Anyway, it goes back to a clear set of goals. Nothing I have EVER built has ever surprised or let me down. I want another 1:37 Laguna car, any more, I cant aford to build and its much more than just the undercoating to be removed. It would be tough to build something slower if I tried. Mark and Joe run 1:31-2s now, and have 150 more HP. They also are running real slicks and have much wider stances, but Joeseph's is not to far off my car, but with the HP and the wider stance using slicks. Due to this sport not being my profession and very limited funds and resourses, Im going to do what I did before, which is put the drivetrain in a stock chassis and bolt on a street sport suspension. I will then gut it, cage it and paint it. after that Ill put on some my go fast tweeks and bolt ons, and thats about it. I dont think there is anything wrong with that, but certainly ,if I had the time and funds to do it, I would do what Mark did with his chassis, put bars going everwhere, dry sump the motor, hiem joint all the suspension points, start ordering slicks, instead of using free DOTs and then run with PCA boys!

Bottomline, the way Im doing it is a little old school, but thats why many on the list are helping, just to make sure I dont cut too many corners!

If those skipped steps are really bothering you, I'll pour beers for you at Sharktoberfest, while you man the air chizel and we remove some undercoating.