Today I found out the hard way that my tailshaft probably had a hairline fracture.
After 7 years of hard use on the track it decided it had enough and wanted to go out in style.
-Mick.
Dude!
BOO! Must have got the last few BMP out of your heart?
If anyone is interested, crack testing can be done at home, DIY. At work we use a product called dyepen.
Comes in pressure packs. Spray on the red dye and leave for X time, wipe it all off and spray on the white chalk like stuff. The dye penetrates everything! The chalk stuff sucks it out of the cracks and shows up a pink-red stains. Very good stuff that will show up microscopic cracks you would never see with the naked eye.
Apparently you need to go sit a few day course to use this stuff in world recognized quality control standards but it's pretty brain dead stuff. Still, it doesn't hurt to pay someone who knows exactly what they're doing.
Now there is one + for a front wheel drive!
And now for second + ..... any suggestions?
Looks like the typical GTV6 front yoke failure? Been eyeing mine off for a while, I don't think its got long to live either...
The body language afterwards is deserving of some captions, I think.... "I don't remember that hole being there before. Is there a hole in my leg? No... Let me check that again - no, still no hole in my leg. Is the tailshaft about to come party inside the car?"
Nope the tailshaft snapped clean in two.
Donut and yoke and even the spline from the tailshaft with some tailshaft hanging off it still attached to the motor.
see photos
The car is fucked, it needs a whole new floor pan and tunnel. It's bent all the way back past the gear lever. Can't select 5th or Reverse.
Fucked!
Shame about the car, good to see you are ok though.
How often should you have the tail shaft crack tested? Yearly? every 2-3 years? clearly not as long as 7 years.
Wow, that's a lot of energy to ruin the whole floor pan! Sorry to hear
Any plans for tail shaft loops next time?
Scary stuff. Not too hard too fix?
Quote from: Choderboy on June 14, 2015, 09:24:50 PM
F*ked!
This makes me sad, you just un-f*ked it too! Commiserations, hope you can find the enthusiasm to get started fixing it soon.
Terrifying video, glad you've still got ankles and feet.
I should have the motor out tonight
Yes, scary stuff! I am most impressed with your cool manner and stuck it into neutral and turned the engine off and coasted into the exit road.
I'm sure you'll get it fixed soon.
Oof - that was even more dramatic than I was expecting.
Really sad about the car, but really good that you're still in once piece. Could easily have been much worse.
I know my spannering skills are pretty rough, but if I can be of any help with the rebuild let me know - like many of us, I owe you a bundle of track days saved with borrowed tools and (more often) time/expertise.
Sorry to see this but glad you weren't harmed in the process.
Out of interest, when you get it all apart. It might be worth checking to see if the crack may have originated from welding heat where a balance weight was welded on. Possibly part of the weight still stuck right beside the break/crack line??
Might be something to think about for future balancing?
Perhaps crack testing after balancing?
Ben
Or maybe excessive grinding marks where a previous weight was removed during balancing?
Ben
Hey Mick, several thoughts:
- really glad you're ok. You could have lost one or both feet.
- didn't Neil fix his GTV after similar damage with the floor and tunnel from the old wreck I had?
- you were very thoughtful having it happen at the pit entry
- Broadford rocks. What a great track. I miss it.
On a lighter note couldn't you just take the floor out of Stevens car when he is not looking,I'm pretty sure he won't notice well not straight away
Good excuse to build a new car? Fresh shell and all. Or go full tube frame chassis.
Quote from: aggie57 on June 15, 2015, 03:11:29 PM
- didn't Neil fix his GTV after similar damage with the floor and tunnel from the old wreck I had?
- you were very thoughtful having it happen at the pit entry
Yep, fixed it and exact same damage.
Me too thoughtful, I rolled along front straight and into pit entry at Winton,...........after showering your Porsche with my bell housing.
Watching the vid with Mick in the garage, both of us jumped and f-bombed at the same time.
Brings back bad memories and now can see what happened to me as well. The thoughts still haunts me.
WOW.
Now to fit some form of a shaft loop too.
Quote from: lightyear on June 15, 2015, 04:25:15 PM
Good excuse to build a new car? Fresh shell and all. Or go full tube frame chassis.
Geez that's a bit extreme mate. That's like saying if you break your toe you should cut your whole leg off.
I have a spare body shell I am going to cut the floor out and replace the floor and tunnel on this car. I am also going to reinforce it with 10mm thick steel on the drivers side. Fuck the weight disadvantage, I don't want to lose my feet.
It will be as good as new.
I did the scrutiny school last year at a factory in the eastern suburbs full of interesting race cars. An ex-Stone brothers v8 supercar (pre-CoTF) was up on the hoist and we all had a good nosey around under it. It was interesting to see the fairly simple tailshaft hoops (made of mild steel from memory) but especially interesting the hefty alloy scatter shield around the clutch and flywheel.
From the CAMS manual (scatter shields (http://docs.cams.com.au/Manual/GeneralRequirements/GQ14-Schedule-M-2015-1.pdf)):
"The shield must be of a thickness of:
• 6mm if mild steel plate;
• 3mm if tungsten impregnated alloy steel plate;
• 6mm if Alcoa aluminium alloy A5083H321"
Thanks Evan!
I'll split the difference and go for 8mm just to make myself feel better. :)
WOW Mick, Neil and Chris Blanden all different failures but similar results.
Quote from: Neil Choi on June 15, 2015, 04:54:10 PM
Quote from: aggie57 on June 15, 2015, 03:11:29 PM
- didn't Neil fix his GTV after similar damage with the floor and tunnel from the old wreck I had?
- you were very thoughtful having it happen at the pit entry
Yep, fixed it and exact same damage.
Me too thoughtful, I rolled along front straight and into pit entry at Winton,...........after showering your Porsche with my bell housing.
Yeah - seeing the wayward bits of your bell housing bouncing along the road towards us is a memory neither Crump or I will forget in a hurry!
Quote from: Choderboy on June 15, 2015, 09:04:52 PM
Quote from: lightyear on June 15, 2015, 04:25:15 PM
Good excuse to build a new car? Fresh shell and all. Or go full tube frame chassis.
Geez that's a bit extreme mate. That's like saying if you break your toe you should cut your whole leg off.
I have a spare body shell I am going to cut the floor out and replace the floor and tunnel on this car. I am also going to reinforce it with 10mm thick steel on the drivers side. Fuck the weight disadvantage, I don't want to lose my feet.
It will be as good as new.
Good to hear. Have you fixed that rear guard yet? ;D
Yes the ironic thing is I just had both front and rear spoilers painted and the rear guard fixed! haha
Progress at least!
New mancave looks good.
You can house a whole team in there! ... any spare space ;D
So glad you weren't hurt!
seeing these photo's and the distortion in the doughnut reminds me you'll want to be sure the flywheel didn't get damaged as well. You sure as hell don't want that to fail later on; the results then would be far worse than this.
I'm way ahead of ya there. ;)